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Recommended: The character of iago
In every great play, there must be a villain to assist in forming the base of the plot. Without a villain, no story or play will be successful or interesting. Shakespeare is well known for his use of different types of villains in his plays. “What constitutes a villain? -- You could probably write a whole thesis on that one. I'm going to adopt a rather loose working definition - villains are people who do bad stuff.” (Dooley) Dooley’s description of villains is a very accurate summary of the description of villains. They are, essentially, people who do things that are seen as morally wrong by readers. Many of the villains in Shakespeare’s plays come across as almost sociopathic. In Shakespeare’s plays Othello, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet, the villains are Iago, Oberon, and Claudius, respectively. Iago, from Othello, is a very interesting villain to analyze. A good way to describe Iago would be to call him an amoral villain. Iago completely lacks any form of a conscience. In today’s world, Iago would be considered a complete psychopath. “Through his words and actions, which are carefully thought out, Iago is able to manipulate others for his personal benefit.” (Huntsmen) Not only is he an envious deceiver and a thief, Iago is a cold-blooded killer. When his wife, Emilia, reveals his plot, Iago murders her. He straight-up kills his wife, the woman he supposedly loves, all because he saw her as an obstacle. Does Iago feel bad about killing Emilia? Nope, he doesn’t feel an ounce of remorse because he’s a guy and most of them don’t care about women. Iago is quoted in Act One, Scene One as saying “Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty”. Iago should know that, if Heaven is his judge, he is going nowhere b... ... middle of paper ... ...villain. He is motivated by his greed and uses fake sympathy to gain popularity. He killed his brother to gain the throne, however; he feels terrible about it in the end. Shakespeare’s use of villains is interesting and helps to add suspense and strengthens the plot line of his plays. Works Cited Andra, Ashlika. "Character Analysis on Claudius." StudyMode. N.p., Aug. 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. Anglish, Cassandra. "Character Analysis-Oberon." AntiEssay. N.p., 14 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. Dooley, Gary. "Bard to the Bone." Ezine Articles. SparkNET, 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. . Huntsmen, Kaliskate. "Iago Character Analysis." StudyMode. N.p., Mar. 2006. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. Yellowman, Alyscia. "Character Analysis Hamlet." EssayPedia. N.p., 11 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
...is no remorse in his answer. In fact, he asserts and defends his behavior. He even has the nerve to kill his wife. Iago clearly enjoys inflicting pain onto others. This is proven repeatedly, as he continues to hurt, manipulate, and use others. This is also proven when Iago says, “As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad” (IV.I.117). Iago is sadistic. He does not think twice about his actions, nor does he care about the repercussions and consequences that occur as a result. This also is a symptom of a psychopathic personality, which Iago certainly displays.
Shakespeare's villains seem to fall into one of two categories: those who are villainous of heart (inherently and genuinely evil or Machiavellian) and those who are circumstantially turned antagonists. Richard III's carefully plotted plans to usurp the throne contrast heavily against Aaron's (of Titus Andronicus) rambling which contrasts with Aaron's lack of action. The motivations of these two characters are different however. Richard seizes the opportunity to take over the throne by Machiavellian means when presented with the opportunity. Aaron represents the evil presumed of a "godless moor," his character being a symbol as much as his skin colour particularly to an audience familiar with the conquests.
A perfect sociopath before the word was likely even conceived, Iago is more hurricane than human: though lives are falling apart all around him, he charges on, pitiless and gleefully driven. He is full of excuses for his scheming, yet the remedies he seeks (and his means of bringing them about) are highly disproportionate to the exaggerated or imagined offences. In the opening, Roderigo recalls “Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate,” (Shakespeare 1291) informing the reader that Iago’s abhorrence for Othello is nothing new. Hi...
In Othello, Iago is Shakespeare’s most malicious character and serves as a vehicle to these two themes. Iago despises Othello; he has a strong will to destroy Othello’s life, yet the motive behind his plan goes unexplained. Iago is a great manipulator of the tongue and lies to everyone in order to advance his plan; however, every character in the play considers Iago an honest character, and Othello even associates Iago with light and eyesight. Othello continuously asks Iago to explain or make something clearer. Until the very end, Iago appears to be honest and helpful to the other characters, but underneath this seemingly harmless façade, Iago is a demon with the strongest will; he will stop at nothing until he ruins Othello’s life. Iago uses a positive appearance to enact his
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is seen as brave, heroic and a victim too, but when the three witches tell him that he will be crowned king of Scotland, he gets more and more evil and twisted by letting the power he has go to his head. He is more of a villain than he is a victim. Macbeth is a villain in the play because he is a murderer, liar and he is insane.
Iago, always, seems to be proud of his good reputation and self value. In the article “Iago the Psychopath” written by Fred West, depicts and analyses Iago’s behaviour and personality. “Like the psychopath described by Cleckley, Iago is impulsive, but he sees nothing wrong with his behaviour, no matter how erratic or antisocial; therefore, he doesn't bother to find or invent excuses unless prodded. The very first lines of Othello contain just such prodding on the part of Roderigo, Iago’s gull…” (West.30) West argues that Iago sees no wrong doings to his actions. Iago can be seen to be using his best friend Roderigo for his wealth, and he, successfully, convinces him that sending gifts to Desdemona will win her heart. However, Iago stole all the gifts that were supposed to be delivered to Desdemona, and makes Roderigo believe that killing Cassio will eliminate all obstacles between Roderigo and Desdemona’s love. When Roderigo realises Iago’s plan, Iago stabs him and kills him. This is one of many examples that Iago easily uses people for his own good and finishes them off if they are no use. West also cites “As a psychopath, he has no real insight into his own true nature, hence it would never occur to him to inquire if he were evil or malignant. Also, he projects his own views and shallowness of affect upon other, so he has no reason for making an unfavourable evolution of himself against anyone else.
Shakespeare’s plays, among other classic works of literature, tend to be forged with the tension of human emotion. The archetypical parallel of love and hatred polarizes characters and emphasizes the stark details of the plot. More specifically, the compelling force of revenge is behind most of the motives of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. The play opens with the return of Hamlet’s father, a surprising encounter, which ended in his son learning that his father’s death was the result of foul play. By emphasizing this scene as the beginning of the story to be told, Shakespeare clearly implies that the plot itself will be based around the theme of revenge. Through three different instances of behavior fueled entirely by vengeance, Shakespeare creates an image in the reader’s mind, which foreshadows the future of the story and provides insight into the plot line. Even so, despite the theme of revenge being the overarching concern of the plot, the parallels drawn between characters truly strengthen the thematic depth of the piece overall, making the play easily one of Shakespeare’s most infamous and historically valuable works.
Whether you hate your King, your Christian rival or a neighboring foe, if you're in a Shakespeare play then you will be punished. In the first act of each play Shakespeare shows a conflict between two groups of people, one is vengeful the other virtuous. After the conflict is introduced, the malignant characters have important parts of their lives taken away and in the end the ultimate penalties of each are inflicted. All of the antagonists are left desolate in the end of the plays by either lost fortunes or their lives. Shakespeare takes good care to give the protagonists of the plays much reward for being on the right side of the spectrum. As the characters hate increases throughout the play they begin to loose what is precious to them, first in small amounts, but in the end, they are stripped of all they love and value.
Iago’s passion for Power leads him to become a cruel, evil man. In Othello Iago plays everybody, especially Othello to the point that he kills his wife and himself. Iago did not only have passion for destruction he also had passion for power. He was jealous of Othello and Cassio.
Iago is one of the most complex characters in William Shakespeare’s Othello. To most of the characters, he is “Honest Iago” (Shakespeare, 5.2.73). however, the audience knows that Iago is the furthest thing from honest. Iago is a devil bent on destroying the lives of everyone around him. At the beginning of the play, the audience learns that Iago is determined to ruin Othello’s marriage to Desdemona. He has appointed a new lieutenant, Michael Cassio. This angers Iago because he feels that he has much more military experience and should be the lieutenant. Iago has also heard rumours that both Othello and Cassio have slept with his wife Emilia. He concocts a malicious plan to ruin the lives of all who have wronged him, and consequently establishing
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.
Shakespeare draws an amazing psychological portrait of a man who became a villain by means of ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. “Macbeth” is a play composed of the disintegration of a noble man’s world. The play begins by offering the audience Macbeth, a war hero, with a high regard from Duncan, the king of Scotland. By the end of the play Macbeth transforms into a universally despised man without a place in the social community. Shakespeare draws an amazing face of a man made to be a villain by ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil.
So crafted is Iago, to which he may take from so many a part of their lives and twist them into a knot, until he is the only person left untangled. He is present from the beginning of the play to the end. The question we ask is why does he hate everyone so much? What can make a man hate someone so much as to slaughter his comrades and trick them into such madness? The answer falls first in his failure at receiving a promotion to lieutenant. Beyond this, we can find a deeper thought into Iago's mind of a possible suspicion that Emilia, his wife, was having an affair with Othello. Lastly, we all can see that Iago, though serious, enjoys the anger he exhibits. Iago is a troubled man with one mission, to destroy everyone, and he uses his immense hate from the wrongs against him to establish this.
From these eleven soliloquies the audience is pulled back and forth concerning their opinions of Iago’s character. He plays on the audiences pity, however also shows them his darker side. In the end, the audience is left with no doubt that Iago is nothing but evil and manipulative. I suppose one could say Iago was the true definition of a sociopath and cared for no one but himself. Not once did he show remorse or care for any other character in the play. The entire time he thought of schemes to get other characters to commit murder and be murdered in order to acquire his goal of gaining Othello’s title. His use of darkness and light, and deeper motives combine with his exterior ones exposed in his soliloquies, truly made him a hard character to analyze and predict, but allowed the audience to certainly place him as the detestable antagonist at the end.
First of all, one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays of all time, Hamlet, has a combination of two villains. Hamlet is the main character of the play, and most controversial character ever made by Shakespeare. He is controversial because he is the protagonist and antagonist at the same time. He makes the viewers and readers love him on his journey for revenge. But at the same time, as Hamlet crosses paths with his dark side, he turns into the hated Hamlet that ruins his life and ends the play. Everybody has a villain inside them, it’s not about getting rid of it, and it’s about hiding it for no body to see. The other villain inside the story is Hamlets uncle, Claudius. He kills the rightful kind of Denmark, Hamlets dad and then to top it off, takes Hamlets mom as his lover. Which is just wrong on so many levels. “Claudius is viewed as the evil murderer in Hamlet. However, counting the number of people killed, Hamlet wins by far. Claudius only kills one...