Pitiful Characters In Othello Essay

The Pitiful Characters of Othello

In Othello, no "good" love exists between any of the characters. Shakespeare creates a cast of romantic and platonic couples whose affection is weak and unsustainable. Iago, not Othello, is master of this play; he establishes all the action. There is an underlying weakness and depravity in all the characters, or Iago would never have been able to ruin so many lives. But Iago is unswayed by the external; his black heart is his only guide.

When Iago tells Roderigo to awaken Brabantio and set the wheels of distrust in motion, he is loud and boisterous, even vulgar. He says, "Rouse him...Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell as when by night and negligence, the fire is spied..." (1.1 75, 82-84). Iago is interested only in the act of alarm. We imagine him lurking around the canals, sticking his bony finger into every soul to testing their limits and act accordingly. He has no conscience. For Iago, there is nothing bigger than he to temper his need to destroy.

He has no need for honesty or affiliation; he uses his wife to further his plot, betrays Roderigo, cares nothing for Cassio, and loathes Othello. He is a foil for characters who may know right from wrong but are not passionately committed to acting for good or evil. Shakespeare mirrors this noxious model in other characters' relationships. Desdemona rebels against her father; the Duke takes Othello's side; Roderigo is so lovesick that he will stoop to any level to win Desdemona. Even in the primary romantic relationship, Othello's and Desdemona's, the love is flimsy and easily