'Othello is more responsible for his tragic fall than Iago is'

The play is significant at showing Othello's personal downfall and how this ends in his and his wifes death. Iago's mainpulation of Othello can be argued to be a contributory factor in Othello's downfall, but it is also important to consider how Othello and Desdemona's relationship and Othello's own vulnerability also play a role.

• from the beginning of the play we are exposed to Othello and Desdemona's relationship, which is disliked by her father, and Iago and Roderigo
• 'fast married' - short time together before they were married, not long enough??
• Desdemona only fell in love with Othello's stories of war and bravery; 'Othello's visage in his mind, and his honours'
• Othello seems to have an inability to trust his wife as Iago never explicity tells Othello that Desdemona is cheating with Cassio, he jumps to conclusions 
• time/structure - 'fast married'
• lack of trust between Desdemona and Othello 
• Othello is more responsible for his own tragic fall than Iago is because he is able to be easily persuaded and to jump to the wrong conclusions

• Othello's own vulnerability of puttiing his trust into everyone and believing everything that they tell him, leads to his tragid downfall
• 'honest Iago' - Iago able to easily get Othello to believe his every word 
• Othello depicted to be a powerful and strong leader of the army, however here he is presented as weak at the hands of Iago's manipulation 
• Iago jealous for not being made lieutenant 
• Othello not aware fo how he has upset Iago

• Iago does play an important role in Othello's tragic downfall, he is able to use Othello's weaknesses to his own advantage 
• 'poison his delight' - how Iago plans to get revenge on Othello for giving the positon of lieutenant to Cassio instead of him 
• dramatic language - 'poison', images of death, foreshadowing
• Iago becomes paranoid - 'it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets'
• Othello becomes mad from the stories of decit that Iago has filled his head with

To conclude, both Othello and Iago play a role in the downfall of Othello. Without Othello's own personal weaknesses, Iago would never have been able to fill Othello's head with his lies. Iago underestimated the extent of which his lies would get to Othello and was not prepared for how he would react.