Jealousy in Much Ado About Nothing, Othello and The Winter's TaleThe common thread of jealousy ties together the main plots of Much Ado About Nothing, Othello and The Winter's Tale. In each of these plays, the main conflict centers on some form of jealousy. Although jealousy is the mutual and most important cause of turmoil in these comedies, its effects on the characters and, ultimately, the plots, are different in each case. This difference has a lot to do with how the concept of jealousy is woven into each play, and what it is intended to accomplish. In Othello, the jealousy factor is deliberately introduced by Iago, with the specific intent of destroying those who he feels have wronged him. Since it is used intentionally with malicious intent, it has catastrophic results. Iago himself is jealous of Cassio; he feels that he should have been appointed to Cassio's position by Othello, and because he was not he hates both Othello and Cassio. Iago channels the jealousy that Othello and Cassio made him feel, and uses it against them in a hateful plan. Iago begins the trial by planting the seeds of jealousy in Othello's mind, telling him that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him. He then proceeds to cultivate the growing jealousy by feeding it with more lies and twisting innocent events into situations that would serve his needs (his telling Othello that Cassio and Desdemona had met in secret and convincing him that Desdemona was vying for Cassio's reinstatement as lieutenant because she loved him, for example). When the seeds flowered and Iago managed to drive Othello mad with jealousy, Iago reaped his harvest and convinced Othello to kill Desdemona. Othello's killing of Desdemona would free Iago from Desde's effects... halfway through the card, and when the mistake of jealousy was revealed the problem would be solved and everyone could be happy. In each of these in the plays, jealousy is used as a means to produce conflict and create problems in the characters' lives. Jealousy in each play, although introduced differently, always involves a man being jealous that his wife (or girlfriend, in Hero's case) is being unfaithful to another man. Whether he misinterprets something he sees or believes defamatory lies, a man's jealousy grows until he is forced to do something to punish his unfaithful woman. At the end of each play, the man realizes his mistake, but sometimes the damage cannot be repaired. Jealousy is the main crisis in every type of play - tragedy, comedy-trage and comedy - but its results lie strictly in how it is introduced and how serious it is intended..