Although in
the beginning Iago and his plotting are the only subjects furthering the plot, he is simply setting up a
trap, like a springboard, that is completely dependent on Othello’s flaws for being set off. Iago sets the
trap in the beginning, but in the middle section Othello’s passion works to set him up in that firing
Cassio was essential to the plot. The third section where Othello is the only cause is simply Othello’s
downfall after the spring is sprung, which could almost be pinpointed to Othello hearing about
handkerchief, the beginning of the end. Since the cause for Othello’s downfall is ultimately his
passion, Othello fits the Aristotelian Greek tragedy: Othello’s hamartia is his passion, and as he falls
and has his anagnorisis, the audience has their sense of catharsis watching Othello fall.
Passing and Great Gatsby
Passing and The Great Gatsby have many similarities and many differences. One example is
the location of the climactic scene. In Gatsby, Nick and his group of acquaintances, Gatsby, Daisy,
Tom, and Jordan go to the city and rent a hotel room to cool off in. In Passing, the climactic scene is at
a party at one of their friends houses, which is an apartment. It is cold outside. The scenes are similar
in that they both occur in a apartment type room with a group of friends, but it is hot in Gatsby and cold
in Passing, and in Passing it is a permanent residence. Theme is another example: both Passing and
Gatsby have themes of appearance versus reality or false appearances, themes of color and dark and
light, and they both have themes of class and people’s place in society. Each does have some themes of
its own, for example, there is an east-west theme in Gatsby and a theme of sight and blindness, and
there is a theme of race in Passing. The characters and how they relate is another example of these
novels being similar in some ways and different in some ways. Both the Gatsby/Clare characters die,
but in Gatsby another character does it, and in Passing Irene, the equivalent to Nick because we see
inside her thoughts, kills the Gatsby/Clare character. Gatsby and Clare are different in that Gatsby
plans everything and Clare never thinks ahead, but the inconsiderate, ridiculous and unthinking actions
he demands from Daisy are very like Clare. Both Nick and Irene are possibly homosexual, but overall
Nick is a flatter character with almost no personality that is not the same as Irene, who thinks about and
has opinions about everything. The knowable purposes are pretty similar: in Gatsby the theme is like
you cannot always get what you want, sometimes you should just stay like you are, in social class and
other objects you might desire or something bad might happen to you, while Passing’s theme is like if
you are going to try to lie and change class, you should be careful or something bad might happen to
you.
