Iago Manipulator

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The Master Manipulator It should come as no surprise that the motives of a man like Iago, who openly claims "I am not what I am," are no clearer to the audience than to the characters in the play(1.1.65). Iago's intentions are clearly not to help, but to hurt the other characters, often maliciously. Always willing to go to whatever lengths necessary in order to achieve his goals, Iago is a character motivated by something more intense and deep inside of him than what immediately meets the eye. Iago's intentions to deceive Othello serve as a means for him to act against others who have more than he does and cope with his own self-hatred and lack of a more complete life. From the beginning of Iago's plot of deception, it is clear that he is a master manipulator. Iago is able to see past the masks that normally impede the other characters from seeing the insecurities and feelings that they keep hidden from each other. Iago uses this to his advantage as his knowledge of Othello's flaws allow him to bring out the worst in him. Othello's marriage with Desdemona is supposedly based on a …show more content…

Iago's envy towards Othello and Cassio eventually cause them to become jealous, as they want to protect the things they already have. By tricking Othello into thinking his relationship with his wife may be in jeopardy, Iago brings out two very destructive emotions in Othello: jealousy and envy. Othello was jealous in the sense that he didn't want to lose his wife, and envious in the sense that he believed Cassio may have had a stronger relationship with his wife than he did. This all stemmed from Othello's insecurity that he was too physically undesirable for Desdemona to be satisfied with him for very long. While this insecurity already existed, it took Iago's plot to bring this out in Othello. By bringing out the worst characteristics in others, Iago is the catalyst of almost everything that occurs in the

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