Othello by William Shakespeare The play "Othello" was written by the playwright William Shakespeare, one of the best and best-known writers of that period and up to the present day. He wrote it in 1604 to be performed for the new king: King James I and for this reason he included themes such as Turkish history, witchcraft and black magic that he knew King James I liked. The work takes its name from one of the characters main ones who have a fatal flaw. The character in question is Othello, the Moor of Venice, a believing and honored member of the Venetian community and general of the Venetian army. Even though the play is named after Othello, Shakespeare introduces a real villain whose name is Iago. At the time Spain was the enemy of England and the fact that Iago was a Spanish name made the audience sure that Iago was evil. Iago could arguably be the main character, making the play a tragedy in which the characters must contend with circumstances in which most encounter death and desperation, in this case the torture of the Moor and ultimately his death and that of other innocent characters. Shakespeare seems to suggest in this play that white Iago is a very negative character and Othello, the black general, is the hero. This would come at a time when much of England would be questioning these views. Shakespeare may have been trying to make a social commentary and express a negative attitude towards racism. The story is based on a short story by the Italian writer GiraldiCinthio. It begins in Venice, a "beautiful" and civilized city, and continues with the chaotic war in Cyprus. This change has a lot of meaning and relevance in the play because it symbolizes… half of the card… hello I will not stay and continues to ask him, showing how well Iago has worked out Othello with evil lies. This scene and the temptation scene bring the play to its climax full of dramatic tension that Shakespeare has skillfully created. Many of Iago's motivations were based on suspicion and his truly evil and cunning ways forced Othello's weakness to come to him: jealousy. Othello transformed throughout the play from a polite general to a viciously spoken murderer, all because Iago thought Othello might have slept with his wife and Othello promoted not him but Cassio. In this play Iago was ready to ruin and end people's lives just because of his jealousy. His motives were small and his actions huge and horrible. So what most people would wonder and what Othello asked on the brink of death was, "Why have you thus entangled my soul and body?"?"