According to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a major philosophical figure of the Roman Imperial Period, “All cruelty springs from weakness.” It traces back to an incident where the tyrant is made to feel weak by another. Reversing the roles, the tyrant imposes these identical feelings of frailty upon others, forming a cyclical process. In the play Othello, William Shakespeare depicts Seneca’s philosophy regarding the correlation between cruelty and weakness. Throughout the play, Roderigo continuously displays many flaws that hinder his morality when abused by Iago. From the start, Roderigo’s desire for Desdemona is clear; this is unquestionably his greatest and most abused weakness. Along with Roderigo’s lust, his cowardly behaviour drastically impairs
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It is Roderigo’s weak attributes that consistently evoke his own victimization throughout the play. Roderigo is a helpless pawn of Iago’s scheme; his weaknesses are exploited and manipulated, causing him to perform malevolent actions. Roderigo’s most destructive weakness, and consequently Iago’s most effective tool in controlling him, is his lust for Desdemona. As a disappointed suitor, Roderigo is one of the “curlèd darlings” that Desdemona rejects (I.ii.67). The compelling love Roderigo feels for Desdemona often leaves him vulnerable and exposed. A representation of this is when Roderigo desperately cries to Iago, “What should I do? I confess it is my shame / to be so fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it” (I.iii.312-13). Roderigo expresses that the extent of his love for Desdemona is so far-reaching, he no longer possesses control over it. The extremity of this emotion causes Roderigo to resort to equally drastic measures to win the fair lady’s hand. This becomes Roderigo's central instability that Iago capitalizes on and wields to his advantage. With Iago’s cunning play on words, he effortlessly deceives Roderigo into an ill-advised decision: “I say, put money in thy purse… She must change for youth; when she is / sated with his body, she will find
It is Roderigo’s weak attributes that consistently evoke his own victimization throughout the play. Roderigo is a helpless pawn of Iago’s scheme; his weaknesses are exploited and manipulated, causing him to perform malevolent actions. Roderigo’s most destructive weakness, and consequently Iago’s most effective tool in controlling him, is his lust for Desdemona. As a disappointed suitor, Roderigo is one of the “curlèd darlings” that Desdemona rejects (I.ii.67). The compelling love Roderigo feels for Desdemona often leaves him vulnerable and exposed. A representation of this is when Roderigo desperately cries to Iago, “What should I do? I confess it is my shame / to be so fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it” (I.iii.312-13). Roderigo expresses that the extent of his love for Desdemona is so far-reaching, he no longer possesses control over it. The extremity of this emotion causes Roderigo to resort to equally drastic measures to win the fair lady’s hand. This becomes Roderigo's central instability that Iago capitalizes on and wields to his advantage. With Iago’s cunning play on words, he effortlessly deceives Roderigo into an ill-advised decision: “I say, put money in thy purse… She must change for youth; when she is / sated with his body, she will find