Nov 5th 2013
Othello – Cat Grass Assignment
Throughout the play there has always been the idea of a seed being planted within Othello mind. As the play progresses this one little harmful seed seems to have grown into a tree, with different sections, and each section symbolizes parts of the plan. This one small seed has grown into the elaborate and beautiful scheme to ruin Othello's life. Within such a short period of time this small seed has grown and flourished into something amazing. The play starts off with Othello being nothing but a confident and dignified general of the Venetian army, but this honor, integrity, and confidence gets chipped at little by little as the play moves on. Early on in the play we are introduced to Iago, also known as the Ensign, he is a bitter, nasty, diabolical person, who hates everything that he is, and will stop at nothing to become the general of the Venetian Army. He feels that no one but himself is deserving of this prestigious and honorable title. He realises to get to Othello, he must take his lieutenant out; Cassio. As the play moves on we start to notice that Iago starts to plant these small seeds everywhere, and every day watering these seeds so they can grow. We notice this when he plants his first seed in Cassio’s mind, when he convinces him that he must drink because it a time for celebration and partying, and no party is fun without drinking. This one small seed planted early on, grew to get Cassio fired. Speaking in a metaphorical sense, Iago is the farmer of this play planting seeds, and watering them, and nourishing every single one, not letting any of his seeds die. He does this so meticulously, carefully and periodically because the one seed he plants into Othello, must grow into a tree with many different branches, and every branch represents someone in the play. He starts off by planting this idea into Othello; telling him that his wife (Desdemona) is cheating on him with his lieutenant (Cassio). Once this seed has been planted Iago waters it every day making sure it will grow to become healthy enough for everything to be efficient in his plan. Little by little surely enough the seed grows, and Othello begins to lose his confidence. Oddly enough the seed barley took anytime to grow into a tree. After planting the idea, he then waters it, to make it grow. When he tells Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him, Othello isn’t too quick to jump on the wagon and believe Iago. He asks for evidence, and ‘occuluar’ proof. Iago provides occuluar proof, leading Othello to go mad. This is parallel to the catgrass, and how it grew.
The cat grass grew very quickly, the first day it was only a pile of seeds in a pot, but quickly enough it transformed too a great clump of cat grass. Watering the seeds and taking care of them every day, not letting a single seed go unnoticed. As the days go by the grass grew each day to extensive care. The same applies to Othello’s situation. This one harmful little seed once planted grew little and little each day with Iago’s extensive care, and making sure it’s getting the right information, and not letting anything around it harm it. Every day Iago would make sure that the idea he seeded deep in Othello’s head would get nourished with the right information, and faster than you can blink, Othello has been corrupted, and destroyed by Iago. The seed grew fast within Othello and it broke him. Both ideas parallel each other, both seeds grew quickly with enough water and care, and both these seeds took very little to no time to fully develop. In this case, it grew incredibly quickly in Othello’s mind, and it soon lead Othello into his own death.