Of all of Shakespeare 's villainous characters, Iago is one of the most unforgettable ones. The deception he constantly shows throughout the play, confirms the complexities of Iago’s character that he is not simply a man seeking vengeance. Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom argues that Iago is an artist of evil. In the same way that some people enjoy writing songs or filming movies, Iago enjoys ruining people 's lives(Bloom). Iago conducts his evil acts with a sense of artistry in the sense he appreciates the cleverness of every particular step he takes in his scheme for vengeance. While the perceived reason for deceiving Othello is that he has been passed over for promotion to lieutenant, Iago’s motivations are never clearly expressed and …show more content…
The basic motivation of Iago is hate. Wounded pride, a feeling of personal injustice, and jealous suspicion merge into his passion of hate for Othello. From the beginning of the play, this motive is predicated as the basic action which follows. Rodergio says to Iago: “Thou told’st me thou didst hold him in thy hate” ( ) Iago answers: “Despise me, if I do not.”() "Till I am even 'd with him, wife for wife, Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor At least into a jealousy so strong That judgment [reason] cannot cure" ( ). In the same …show more content…
He is also convinced that Desdemona is secretly in love with Cassio, and thus the wicked manipulations are prompted by genuine sexual jealousy. Shakespeare removes this motive, mentions Othello 's promotion of Cassio over Iago, and leaves only a few passing references to possible sexual jealousy. Iago alludes twice to his suspicions that both Othello and Cassio may have slept with his wife: "I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leaped into my seat" (2.1.295-6); and only parenthetically, "(For I fear Cassio with my nightcap too)" (2.1.307). When Iago first refers to the rumor about Othello and his wife, however, he adds oddly, "I know not if it be true, / But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, / Will do, as if for surety" (1.3.379-381). In an article titled "Psychoanalysis after September 11" (2002), Jonathan Lear refers to Iago as a representation of such motiveless maliciousness. Iago embodies, Lear argued, a hatred that cannot be rationalized, an evil not based on reasons. Lear drew a distinction between jealousy and envy; while the jealous Othello attacks because he believes he has lost the good object or been betrayed by it, the envy that Iago represents "attacks the good because it is good." In these two different events, Iago expresses his suspicion of Othello’s honesty when previously he loathes Othello because of his honesty. Iago seems to come to the conclusion that is impossible for Othello to cheat him because
In Shakespeare's play Othello, Iago Is shown to be the villain. With the cunning use of his brilliance and manipulation, he is able to orchestrate an entire plot to take his revenge on Othello the center of all his ill tempered aggression. By lying to characters like Roderigo and many others, including his wife, in order to
Iago’s Subconscious Motive Iago, the antagonist of Shakespeare’s work, Othello, is often considered purely evil or sociopathic. At first glance, Iago appears to be a static, two-dimensional villain, but he is much more. Shakespeare, renowned for his awareness of the human condition, leaves many important aspects of Iago’s life up to interpretation. In published works and critical interpretations, Iago is commonly associated with a myriad of mental illnesses and personality disorders. Because it seems that Iago’s life revolves around Othello and Desdemona, it is understandable how people may suggest that Iago is in love with Othello, or that he is a psychopath with no true motives.
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
Iago is widely known as one of Shakespeare’s most famous villains and this is because of the way in which Shakespeare has presented him. Iago is presented to be a man of pure evil who eliminates any form of happiness of hope within the play. The quotation: “Virtue? A fig! 'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners” shows Iago diminishing the virtue of Othello and pointing out that everyone is willful and has virtue until their true intent comes to light. Iago’s attitudes towards women are also very poignant within the play and are one of the aspects of his archetype that are remembered the most. Furthermore, a majority of villains have a reason or an intention to want to cause havoc or to turn to the side of evil. For example, in Hamlet, he is motivated by revenge and achieving what was once lost. In Romeo and Juliet, honour is a prominent theme, alongside the need to keep an age old rivalry that has descended from other generations. However, Iago has no real intentions apart from despising Othello for not offering him the promotion and then later suspects that Othello could be having an affair with his wife, Emilia. Therefore, the fact that he has no hard intention for wanting to ruin the life of Othello and others, is a reason as to why he may be despised by
The old cliché "One bad apple ruins the bunch" is what enters one's mind when discussing the villainous, deceitful, protagonist Iago in Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello." It is amazing how one person alone can completely destroy, or deteriorate a group of good natured, trusting, loyal peoples' lives in a matter of days- three to be exact. What is the motive behind Iago's heinous, selfish acts, one may ask? A rather obvious theme in the Shakespeare's tragedy, "Othello", is that of the many facets of jealousy, which instigate the evil-doings of protagonist, Iago. Jealousy can be best defined, in the thinking of Renaissance, as a derivative or compounded passion. It is a species of envy, which is in turn a species of hatred. Hatred finds its opposite in love and is opposed to love. Envy is opposed to mercy. Yet while jealousy is opposed to love, it often rises from love. Like envy, it has something of the grief or fear that comes from seeing another in possession of what which we would possess solely for ourselves. Though jealousy is compounded, it still partakes in the nature of hatred, and hatred brings in its wake anger and revenge (Nardo 122). This could not be more accurate in the horrid actions Iago resorts to in his insatiable desire to get what he feels is rightfully his, regardless of who he hurts along the way. Iago serves as a prime example that keeping your enemies closest does not always work to your advantage. Let us now examine the heights of deceit to which Iago rises in his selfish, tactless rage to acquire what he wants. The best demonstration of Iago's jealous ways are shown through his twisted motives and his strategically planned out course of action in which he...
As early as the first scene of the play Iago shows us strong motives for his actions. In this first scene we see Othello, a general of Venice, has made Cassio his new lieutant. Iago feels he truly deserves his promotion as he says "I know my price, I am worth more no worse a place."(l.i.12) Iago over here is confused why Othello has made such a stupid decision. Iago is a man with a tremendous ego who knows, sometimes overestimates, his worth. Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman, understands Iago when Iago said that he is "affined to love the Moor."(l.i.41-42) What Iago really means is "I follow him to serve my term upon him."(l.i.45) Iago wants to use Othello for his personal goals. We also must put ourselves into Iago's shoes. He is a man whose self-esteem and professional carrier have just been torn apart. Iago makes his actions of revenge toward Othello almost immediately by informing Brabantio, a Venetian senator and father of Desdemona, that "an old black ram (Othello) is tupping (his) white ewe (Desdemona)."(l.i.97)
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
Iago's reasons for his hatred of Othello begin with the fact that in choosing a lieutenant, Othello passed over Iago in favor of Cassio, but Iago may have hated Othello even before that. Roderigo opens the play by exclaiming to Iago, “Tush! never tell me? I take it much unkindly that thou, Iago, who hast had my purse as if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this” (1.1.1-3). The "this" is the elopement of Othello and Desdemona.
Shakespeare develops the character Iago into an instigator and evil man. Iago attempts and succeeds to convince Othello that his wife has had an affair with his friend Cassio. We see Iago beginning his plans at the very start of the play. “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at, I am not what I am.”(Oth 1:1:64-65) He immediately tries to start trouble with Brabantio and Othello over the marriage to Desdemona. Iago want to get in Othello’s way because he was passed over for general and Cassio was chosen instead. We see from the start how he plots against Othello and he involves several characters in his plans. “And what’s he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free. I give and honest, probal to thinking, and indeed the course to win the Moor again? For tis easy Th’ inclining Desdemona to subdue in any honest suit; she’s framed as fruitful…”(2:3:295-300).
He says: "I love the gentle Desdemona", and this suffices to explain his feelings. It is obvious that Othello is a much 'deeper', more sensitive man than Iago. Another contrast is that Iago's motivation is himself and his self-interest. Iago desires success and gain for himself and no other. It appears that his major grudge against Othello is that he promoted "a fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife" (that is, Cassio) above himself.
“But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor, And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets, He has done my office. I know not if 't be true, But I, for mere suspicion in that kind” (Act 1, Scene 3). With regards to this quote, Iago has turned villain not only to every other major character in the play, but to himself as well. Iago’s character was a true genius that appealed to each main characters own idols that convinced them that his bidding was just a good idea by honest Iago. However, this honest Iago is the duality of nature shown by Iago and created by his own skeptic ideals. The villain becomes his own villain leading to his own demise. This Shakespearean play reflects the views of those living during the renaissance with the concept of living daily life as a skeptic. Instead, of the characters in this play being skeptics of religion they became skeptics of each other thus falling to Iago’s machinations. This leads to the question of Iago’s motivation at the end of the play which he refuses to reveal. Iago had an unhealthy obsession with Othello and whether there was a secret love in one way or another underneath all the hate he held for him only Shakespeare knows, but he is still an evil genius of the
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.
Though Iago may not have a purpose of participating in many of his acts of evil, he presents it as a self-obsessed, driven supremacy. He plots to destroy Othello and to gain dominance by observing each weakness from Othello, and takes advantage of it. He uses his aid of human nature to help with his evil schemes and plots throughout the play. Because he identified Othello’s weaknesses and was able to use verbal persuasion to not only gain Othello’s trust, but to also use that as a benefit to what he wanted to accomplish. It is of great importance for an evil mastermind to not only know the nature of evil but to achieve the nature of good.... ...
middle of paper ... ... At first, Iago cites his rage about being passed over for the promotion to lieutenancy as his reasoning for hating Othello. Then, his rage is suddenly the result of suspecting Emilia and Othello of having had an affair, not because of the promotion that he did not receive. Roderigo calls Iago out on his change in motivation.
Iago, the evil villain of Shakespeare's Othello, is more than just a villain. In many ways he is the most intelligent and appealing character in the play. Iago shows superiority over the rest of the characters in the play. He has the ability to manipulate the characters in the play, therefore controlling the play with every sequence of events. His intelligence shines through his ability to deceive, his ability to strategize, and his ability to twist the truth. Iago is appealing to the characters of the pay because he gives them what they want. Iago is appealing to the reader as well. His character is totally unconflicted about being evil, making him known to some authors as the villain of all villains. Iago is, in many ways, the most intelligent and appealing character in the play.