Villians

Evil, in my opinion, is doing something that goes against the values we have been taught and destroying something or someone in the process.  For example in some countries, people may cut off someone’s finger(s) if they are caught stealing.  To Americans, that is seen as evil and wrong because we do not practice that belief.  Evil can also be taking advantage of people to gain what one desires.  Iago is considered evil in Othello, and in The Little Mermaid, Ursula is the evil, antagonist.  Ursula is the sea witch who “helps” poor, unfortunate mermaids to ultimately achieve her goals.  Her ultimate goal is to take over Atlantica and become Queen; however, King Triton is in her way.  She comes up with a plan to become Queen through Triton’s youngest daughter, Ariel, who has fallen in love with a human, Prince Eric. She uses this information to bargain with Ariel.  Ursula tells Ariel she can turn her human for three days and within three days she must get Prince Eric to kiss her.  If she can, she will remain human permanently, but if she cannot she will become a mermaid again and be bound to Ursula forever.  All Ariel has to do in order to do this is give Ursula her voice.   Ursula then tricks Prince Eric into falling in love with her, using Ariel’s voice.  As Ursula obtains Ariel as her slave, she begins to bargain with Triton.  If he were to give her power to become Queen, she would let Ariel free.  Triton agrees and Ursula becomes Queen of Atlantis.

            Ultimately, Iago and Ursula are much alike.  They both use people to get what they desire and also seek revenge.  Iago wanted revenge when Othello did not promote him and Ursula wanted to seek revenge on Triton for banishing her from the kingdom.  These characters are “evil” because they messed with people’s emotions in order to get what they desired.  Ursula used Ariel’s love for Prince Eric and Triton’s love for his daughter to her advantage to gain what she wanted while Iago questioned Desdemona’s loyalty to Othello by planting seeds in Othello’s mind that she was cheating with his lieutenant, Cassio. 

            I believe blame should be put on both Iago and Othello, but most of it on Iago.  Iago was the one who deceived many people in order to get his revenge on Othello’s decision; however, Othello allowed Iago to make him believe Desdemona was having an affair.   However, Othello was an outsider and did not “fit in” easily due to his skin color and religious background so it is understandable that Othello would easily be influenced that someone was betraying him.  Most of the the blame should be put on Iago due to him planting seeds for everyone to fall into his trap.