Iago's Hatred for Othello in William Shakespeare's Play

Iago's Hatred for Othello in William Shakespeare's Play

"Though I do hate him as I do hell pains."

In Shakespeare's play "Othello", Shakespeare introduces one of the

most complex villains ever seen in the world of literature. Iago's

pure hatred for Othello convinced his own mine to tamper with

Othello's life, manipulating him into causing the ultimate tragedy.

Iago is portrayed to have many motives into why he does what he does

to Othello. He is shown to be racist towards Othello, due to his black

skin, Iago is also shown to be jealous of Othello because he has a

better life style than himself. Because of this, Iago seeks to have

revenge against Othello, and is obsessed with hurting him. Iago is

also shown to be power crazed, and because of this he wants to remove

any threat to himself and his job. This makes himself seem as though

he has lost his grip on reality, and maybe a little mad. This could

also be the reason why he is portrayed as a Machiavellian villain. All

of these motives are in one human being - Iago; this suggests that

iago could have been written into Othello as the Devil, as he enjoys

bringing pain and suffering to other's lives.

The Orson Welles "Othello" film shows Iago's character as power

hungry, as he controls everyone else in the film. Whereas the Olivier

version of Othello, interprets Iago as the Devil. This suggests that

Iago's character is pure evil and that he has no intention of being

good to others around him.

Iago was originally written into Shakespeare's play "Othello" as a

form of entertainment for the audience. The Merchant classes and the

ordinary people were often the only spectators of t...

... middle of paper ...

...d by Iago's

"ordinary wisdom of the male world", this shows that Marilyn thought

little of Iago's character and that all the men in the world are like

him. The comment made by Marilyn is not right because many men in the

world do not kill for the fun of it.

Other people have different opinions about why Iago did what he did,

none really know why Iago did it, as at the end of the play iago says-

"Demand me nothing; what you know, you know. From this time forth I

never will speak word."

Iago says this and shows that he has total control still as he is the

only person who knows the truth of why he did it. Shakespeare wrote

Iago to say this to hide the truth, and to let people make up their

own minds. But the pure evil of Iago shows and the fact that he still

has total control portrays his character as the Devil.