A Comparison of Iago and Lucifer

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Wicked, dishonorable, corrupt, villainous, malicious, and vicious all have one thing in common: they define evil. A person or a group of people that display these qualities are often to be defined as evil beings or creatures. Two people that have many of these characteristics developed within them are Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello and Lucifer from the Bible. Both Iago and Lucifer are developed with many “evil” qualities woven intricately into their character development. The representation of each “evil” characteristic gives them something they have in common allowing the description and portrayal of both Iago and Lucifer in literature show the audience they share common “evil” characteristics and that they lead to chaos and downfall.

In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is the antagonist and villain who causes all the trouble and disorder. Othello is the protagonist, and is the main person Iago’s destruction and revenge is aimed towards. Othello is naïve and gives everybody his trust even though he may not know them or they haven’t earned his trust yet. He often refers to Iago has “Honest” Iago, which is a direct showing of irony because Iago is not honest at all (Shakespeare, I, iii. 289). Iago is so angry that Othello didn’t give him the promotion that was given to Cassio that he plans to seek revenge against Othello. He seeks his revenge against Othello by manipulating and lying to all of the people around him including his closest friend Roderigo, Cassio, Othello’s wife Desdemona and even his own wife Emilia. In the end, Iago’s lies and manipulation led to the deaths of Roderigo, Emilia, Othello and Desdemona. This isn’t the first time many of these individual characteristics have shown up in one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Many ...

... middle of paper ...

...he end, the truth will always find the light and the good will always out do the bad.

Works Cited

Buck, David. “The Characteristics of Satan.” Study of God. 7 May 2010.

Studygodorg.blogspot.com. 14 March 2014.

Downing, Elizabeth. “Top 10 Greatest Shakespeare Villians.” TopTenz. 7 Sept. 2008.

Fitzpatrick, Becca. Finale. New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2009. Print.

Kate, Lauren. Passion: A Fallen Novel. New York: Delacorte, 2012. Print.

Kate, Lauren. Rapture: A Fallen Novel. New York: Delacorte, 2012. Print.

New Revised Standard Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1989. Print.

Russell, Eddie. “Angels and the Hierarchy of the Heaven Lies.” Flameministers.org. N.p., n.d.

Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Ed. Alvin Kernan. New

York: New American Library, 1998. Print.

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