In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, one of the most important characters of the play is Othello’s lieutenant, Michael Cassio. The protagonist, Cassio, is important to the plot because of the role he plays in Iago’s devious plan towards the other characters in the book.
Cassio plays a critical role in the play because his personality and manners are what causes Iago’s plan to go perfectly as planned. The first instance is in Act II Scene III, when Cassio was upset about ruining his reputation after his fight with Roderigo while he was drunk. Cassio’s weakness is when he is drunk; as lago is aware of that and takes lago to have a drink of wine. Cassio gives in and says “I’ll do’t, but it dislikes me”. (104, line 47) That soon leads Cassio to trouble, as he gets in a physical fight with Roderigo and Montano. Othello decides to take action, and strips Cassio rom his rank.
Cassio is distressed over this and says “Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial”. (120, lines 262-264) Another instance that shows Cassio’s personality and manners are what led him to his downfall is in Act III Scene III, when Cassio is having a conversation with Othello’s wife, Desdemona, about her speaking with Othello to get Cassio his job back. After Desdemona assured Cassio that she will not stop bothering Othello about the subject, Cassio saw Othello not too far away from them. Ashamed by the fight and what he had done, Cassio decides to run away from Desdemona when Othello approached. Now Othello, he is being poisoned by lies and assumptions from lago, about Cassio and Desdemona. Iago is trying to make Othello believe that his wife had an affair with Cassio.
Cassio running away from Desdemona when Othello approached was not a good idea, because now lago’s accusations were more believable to Othello. Also Iago implied there was something going on between them when he said, “Hah? I like not that” (140 line 34) after Cassio had run away. A last instance to where Cassio’s actions made Iago’s plan better is when he spoke to lago about his girlfriend Bianca,
and lago made it seem like he was talking about Desdemona. One line that got Othello furious at Cassio was when lago asked Cassio if he plans on marrying Bianca; Othello believes they are talking about Desdemona. Cassio laughs and replies, “I marry her! What? A customer! Prithee bear some charity to my wit, do not think it so unwholesome” (202, lines 119-121). Cassio says he will never marry Bianca because she is only a prostitute, and Othello is outraged for what he thinks Cassio is insulting Desdemona.
Cassio is not aware of what he is doing at all. I believe he doesn’t know what his remarks and actions are doing to ruin him. Using the first instance, Cassio didn’t know that he was going to get into a physical fight with Roderigo and Montano after he had a drink. He was invited to drink by lago, and he rarely drinks because he gets drunk so easily. In the second instance, Cassio didn’t mean any harm when he ran away from the sight of Othello in Act III Scene III. He didn’t want to confront Othello because he was so ashamed from his mistakes. In the last instance, Cassio surely wasn’t talking to lago about Desdemona, because he was talking to him about Bianca. Iago just poisoned Othello’s mind and led him to think that everything Cassio said and did had something to do with Desdemona.
Cassio is one of the most important characters of the plot in this play. Without Cassio, Iago’s plan wouldn’t have been successful the way it was. He was able to get revenge on Othello all by using his favorite lieutenant, Michael Cassio.
