The Wars We Fight

The purpose for bombarding the audience with the images and metaphors that are war is to establish a sense of meaning and tone that are key to the actions of the characters. For instance, in the first scene Iago goes into great detail about his accomplishments in war, and his service under Othello. Which in turn serves as the pivotal understanding of all of Iago's future actions because at this point, Iago had just been passed over by Othello for his second in command. Whereupon his fighters spirit is reawakened from the insult that lay beneath being passed over for second in command. All of these facts form together to show the reader, the reason why Iago's mind is so sharp and how he can be so ruthless in his pursuit of Othello's downfall. Whereas in Othello's case, he is only justified through his great accomplishments in war. The audience has nothing else to base the character of Othello off of except for his accomplishments in war, thus making it all the harder to qualify his greatness as a human being. We are left without the knowledge of whether Othello is truly at fault for the future actions of Iago, or if Othello is truly a great man and Iago the demon. With these descriptions of war, a tone is created throughout the play of earnest and of the approaching doom of several characters.