Since Othello was seven, he has been a soldier. He doesn’t know much else. Fortunately for Othello, he finds a woman who is in love with him for who he is. “She’d come again, and with a greedy ear/ Devour up my discourse.”(1.3.173.174)(1) Othello’s tragic flaw is trusting the wrong person. Shakespeare writes about how one can be either soldier or lover but not both. Othello decides to trust Iago instead of his wife Desdemona. If Othello would have known Iago’s plot, he would have not murdered his wife and commit suicide.
At the beginning of the play Othello is a regular soldier. But because of Iago’s reasons to harm Othello, Othello changes to a paranoid man who believes that his wife is cheating on him without any evidence. Although Iago hates Othello, they have very similar personalities. Both are soldiers, both are married, neither of them can control their jealousy, but Othello is what he appears to be and Iago is not what he appears to be.
(1) Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. New York: Washington Square, 1993. Print.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=othello+shakespeare&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=4gDQjCGEv0atTM:&imgrefurl=http://www.moviemaker.com/articles/item/shakespeare_on_film_othello_20080730/&docid=TJbvniu1_cx0cM&imgurl=http://www.moviemaker.com/images/uploads/othello.jpg&w=235&h=234&ei=D_gJT-7NLeXK0AHklfn0DA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=381&sig=115585084128022308130&page=1&tbnh=174&tbnw=173&start=0&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=107&ty=50&biw=1600&bih=753