Obsession toward the position, material, and power of another essentially is like a wildfire that burns eternally, only causing destruction. This obsession causes you to commit other great sins to satisfy your greed. Eventually, these sins will cause a multitude of destruction, be it mass murder, or cutting ties with people. 

This is especially true in the character of Iago, who is obsessed in manipulating and betraying his supposed friends because. For instance, Iago, a jealous man, makes Othello suffer throughout the whole story because a man named Casio was picked over him for the lieutenant ship. Iago does this because his envy causes him to feel rage and become obsessed in making others suffer, this then causes all the troubles in the story of Othello. Throughout the story of Othello Iago implants into Othello’s mind the Idea that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio; he does this to get rid of the two men that made him angry. Iago’s character demonstrates exactly how greed causes destruction, this is shown well that all the problems present in the story of Othello were caused by Iago’s envy. His envy causes mistrust between the cast which then escalates into fights, which inevitably causes death, ultimately his greed destroys the synergy between the characters.

In addition, this is also seen in reality in Roman society there was a concept known as “honor” where men in a desire to ensure that the children their wives bore were their own. This obsession with the truth leads men into controlling their wives, especially their sexuality. This “honor” would lead men into,”murder[ing] their wives because they suspected infidelity and to kill their daughters because they eloped. Men in ancient times were infatuated with this honor, this lust for “‘honor” caused the men at the time to commit heinous acts violence towards women, such as the act of murder. Most of the time these murders were unjust, the murder was caused by obsession with the truth clouding their judgment. This was seen in English history during the the reign of the tudor dynasty where the current king, Henry VIII, charged his wife with, “including adultery, witchcraft, incest and conspiracy against the king” all there charges were extremely suspect. The fact that people would just murder their wives over the obsession of the truth demonstrates the fact that obsession with anything causes destruction, in this case the destruction is death. 

Furthermore there was an event in Florentine history: a man named Dante Alghieri, Florentine noble, was exiled from the Republic of Florence due to fractional conflicts. Others in power wanted Dante gone due to his excessive power. Due to this lust, the higher ups doomed themselves. For instance, Dante writes about what would happen in the next world when those corrupted officials die, He writes about a Florentine Florentine official named, Alessio Interminelli da Luca who, is sent to hell for, “flatteries” he sold, these flatteries being lies that he sold for power. In doing these acts fueled by a greed for power he has condemned himself to the eighth circle of hell. This person Dante writes about perfectly demonstrates how obsession can cause destruction, but this destruction is different from the others. The spiritual carnage in doing acts fueled by envy leads Alessio Interminelli da Lucca. into entering the eighth level of hell forever, condemned to swim in a river of excrement and forced to lament over is evil deeds he did when alive.

In the end, what can be gained from these examples, shown above illustrates the obsession’s deadly potential for carnage and destruction. It can cause the death of others, it can cause relationships to fracture, and ultimately spiritual conflicts. If obsession with anything takes hold of you, then you become its slave: doing everything you can to satisfy it no matter the deed, anything to satisfy your obsession.