“When you know what a man wants you know who he is, and how to move him,” wrote George R.R. Martin in his novel, A Storm of Swords. Martin puts into words the depths of which manipulation can reach by knowing what a person most desires. The theme of manipulation and betrayal is prominent in literature today, just as it was during Shakespeare’s era. The play Othello, by William Shakespeare, is a tragedy based on the corrosive power of jealousy spanning all aspects of life. The antagonist, Iago, feeling unjustly deprived of role of lieutenant, targets the weaknesses of those close to him to further his own agenda. For the most part, Oliver Parker’s 1995 film adaptation of Othello remains true to the original work in terms of characters; dialogue and the majority of key plot points. At the same time, the portrayal of characters, such as Iago, has been altered to enhance the cinematic experience. Parker’s interpretation of the play not only appeals to a larger audience but it conveys a new depth of Iago’s emotions and portrays a heightened sense of conflict caused by Iago’s manipulations
Iago's frequent and direct soliloquies where he is staring directly into the camera exaggerate his Machiavellian intentions to destroy Othello by giving deeper meaning to his actions. By not sharing his true feelings with absolutely anyone in the film, he is able to be the soul manipulator, painting Iago as even more manipulative than the play. In the text, Roderigo says “Thou toldst me thou didst hold him in they hate” to which Iago replies “Despise me if I do not.” (I.1.7-9) However, this dialogue is left out of Parker’s adaptation. Instead, Iago simply says, “I hate the Moor,” when he is alone, referring to Othello. By only admitting this in priva...
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...ision for Iago to accept his impending fate nurtures the idea that he has no emotions or feeling such as pain, adding to his dehumanization.
When reading Shakespeare’s Othello, the reader must interpret scenes and interactions on his or her own, allowing underlying meanings to easily be missed. With the use of cinematic tools, music, and visual aids, ranging from the ominous chess pieces to even sinister glances toward the camera, Parker adds a depth to Shakespeare’s work. Parker’s film adaptation allows the viewer to see Iago’s malignant intentions and level of manipulation from very early on, allowing Iago to appear as even more conniving as well as dehumanized by his unwillingness to express any true emotion. This unwillingness to let his emotions get the better of him ultimately allows the audience to sympathize with the internal struggle one may experience.
“I am not what I am,” proclaims one of Shakespeare’s darkest and most enigmatic villains, Iago, in the tragedy Othello. Iago’s journey for revenge enables him to become capable of immoral acts, and whilst his malevolence excites us, we are no more intrigued by his attributes than we are of the play’s tragic hero, Othellos’. Rather, both characters’ confrontation with jealousy and their subsequent moral demise as a result of failing to control such an emotion provides the true excitement for audiences. Iago’s spiteful manipulation of Othello makes him a multifaceted character — whose corrupt attributes make the audience examine their own morality. However, the same can be said of Othello; his failure to withstand Iago’s ‘pouring of pestilence’
Act iii, scene iii, lines 108-131 of William Shakespeare’s “Othello” unquestionably shows Iago’s trickery and deceptiveness which is masked through his reputation for honesty, reliability and direct speaking. This section not only shows Iago’s slow but powerful act of deception, but also shows the jealousy and insecurities slowly depriving Othello’s inner peace and balance.
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
	The first scene of Act I illustrates Iago's use of manipulation. Iago knows that Roderigo is upset about losing Desdemona to Othello. Iago himself is angry at Othello for being passed over for promotion to lieutenant for Michael Cassio. Realizing that by playing on Roderigo's jealousy he can gain an ally to work against Othello. Iago does this in a subtle manner. He explains to Roderigo that he was passed up for promotion by Othello. While doing this he makes Othello look inferior by reinforcing the fact that he is a Moor. By pointing out that Othello is a Moor Iago causes Roderigo to become even more jealous, because of the fact that he lost Desdemona to someone who he feels is of a lesser race. It even seems that Iago is toying with Roderigo when he reveals that he is a fraud when he says, "I am not what I am." (I.i.62) By using these tactics, Iago has almost gained total control of Roderigo.
This paper contains 237 words of teacher’s comments. What one perceives is influenced by one’s environment. The setting and commentary surrounding events changes our perception of them. Any innocent gesture can be perceived in the wrong way with enough persuading from someone else. Even if someone has total faith in another person's innocence, they can be persuaded to doubt them through the twisting of events. Once just a small amount of doubt has been planted, it influences the way everything else is seen. This occurs throughout the play, Othello. In this play, Iago influences Othello's perception of events through speeches and lies, making him doubt Desdemona's fidelity. Iago uses his talent of manipulating events to exact his revenge on Othello. Iago's twisting of events in Othello's mind leads to the downfall of Othello as planned, but because he fails to twist Emilia's perception as well, he facilitates his own eventual downfall.
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)
In the play, Othello, by Shakespeare, there is a ferocious war going on. However, it is not the bloody war against the Turks that the audience anticipated. It is a more dangerous war than that: a psychological war that uses a person’s emotional state of mind and biggest fears against them. At the hands of all this is Iago, who stands by and watches his genius at work. Iago’s passion of war is what drove him to commit his acts of treachery, not his jealousy of Cassio nor his loathing of Othello. When he could not set sail to Cyprus with the other soldiers and participate in the war, he found a way to start a new war, one that he could be the general of. Through manipulation, he is able to start a psychological war that ends in bloodshed. His manipulation is the driving force of the play.
Language and imagination are among the most dangerous weapons Iago has at his disposal in Othello. Jealous and angered by Othello’s - his commanding officer - passing over him for a promotion, Iago develops a fierce, antagonistic perspective the aforementioned character; this sentiment quickly corrupts his volition, and he subsequently concocts a plot bent on destroying Othello. He renders this revenge scheme credible by concealing his true feelings behind a facade of loyalty and trustworthiness, and fabricating a fictitious story concerning the infidelity of Desdemona, Othello’s wife. Until the play concludes, Iago utilizes purposeful rhetoric to drive his agenda, and also a mastery of deception to mislead the minds of his targets.
Watkinson, A. "Othello: The Ironic Interdependence of Othello and Iago." Novels for Students. 5 November 2004. http://www.enotes.com/othello/743/print
In William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Othello, the power of jealousy rips relationships apart and destroys the peace amongst a once pleasant society. The principle character for the aggravation of the other characters is Iago. Iago is angry at Othello for not appointing him as his lieutenant and refuses to let it go. For selfish reasons, Iago plots an evil schemes of revenge towards Othello by making him, and everyone necessary to bring Othello down.
Of Shakespeare’s five greatest tragedies, Othello is by far the most passionate and gripping. It is a tale of love, deception, evil, honesty, and virtue. Othello himself is set apart from other Shakespearean tragic heroes by the absolute feeling of affection the audience feels for him even unto the very end of the play. Any discerning reader painfully recognizes the virtue and goodness of Othello throughout the entire play, in contrast to the general degeneration of character so typical of a tragic hero. It is this complete pity that makes the death of Othello so tragic as the audience lends their full hopeful support until the inevitable and unavoidable fall. The evil side of Othello’s tragic flaw came from without, in the form of Iago. The internal flaw exists only in his heartrendingly unshakable goodness and honor.
The director uses camera angles, voice-over and choice of tone and language to highlight Iago's malicious actions. Iago's direct and menacing soliloquies with the audience via the camera convey his Machiavellian intentions to destroy Othello with much more force. The director deliberately zooms in on Iagos face as he beings his soliloquies and informs the audience of his true plans. In one of the first scenes of the film, when Iago and Roderigo are watching Desdemona and Othello's wedding, Iago says "I follow him t...
As Iago tries to make sense of Roderigo’s yearning to kill himself, Iago describes how “our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners” (1.3.307). Despite his fanatic quest for revenge, Iago takes the time to reasonably convince Roderigo to stay alive, in order to carry out his personal mission. Additionally, the metaphor can also serve as the basis for Iago’s reasoning as he assumes the role of the “gardener” tending to the problem he sees with Cassio winning the lieutenant position. By manipulating others, he simply trims up and cleans the weeds, or betrays all his friends, in order to make the “garden” the way he wants it. Throughout the play, Shakespeare builds up the suspense of Iago’s betrayal, and in the final act, Iago depicts this as having “rubbed this young quat almost to the sense” (5.1.15). The “quat,” or pimple, describes how Iago saw Roderigo like a piece to his puzzle. While this betrayal is hard to fathom when considering humanity, the use of metaphors helps simplify Iago’s true feelings into a simple comparison. With the comparison, it becomes evident how carefully Iago planned his betrayal and how Iago really does not consider humanity when he makes his decisions. While there would be hesitation to leading a person on while planning to break them down, the
Iago has been excellent at saying the what is needed to get to people, he misleads them to get a reaction he wants out of them. He is clever with his words to avoid confrontation that can easily happen. “Othello 's confusion is the human experience of language. In other words, language itself, not the outside world, determines meaning” (Christofides 2). Iago uses his words against Othello to get him to do Iago’s doings. Iago has an eloquence with
Iago can be viewed as the narrator of this play. He is left alone on stage several times trough out the play to more or less speak to the audience. One such instance is the last part of the first act where Iago devisee’s his plan of attack on every character in the play. At this point the only reason we have seen for his anger is that he has not been appointed Othello’s lieutenant, despite his recommendations. “But for my sport and profit, I hate the moor…”(1.3.365). It is obvious that Iago is the villain in the play. But this line is very important. Iago hates Othello it seems because of his unapointed position. This line asks us, the audience, a good question: does Iago hate Othello enough to go trough all the trouble creating enemies of the entire cast? There could have been much simpler ways to get at Othello without dragging everyone else into the picture. Also after Rodrigo lost his luetiency it would have been simple for Iago to fill the newly vacant position. I believe, as the line says, Iago hates Othello only for amusement. “But for my sport and profit…” (1.3.365) Iago engages in the act of hating not because he has a disregard for Othello. Iago engages in the act of hating only to hate, whether it be Othello or his own mother. Iago hates for his own “sport and profit.” thus understand this concept of Iago puts a whole new spin on the evil which consumes him.