Iago is an evil character.
Discuss.
Iago is one of the most notorious
and mysterious villains of all time. He employs every nasty trick to reach the
top. Iago spends all of his time plotting against Othello and Desdemona,
eventually convincing Othello that his wife has been cheating, despite the fact
that Desdemona has been completely faithful. Iago's capacity for cruelty seems
limitless, and no motivation he gives for his actions seems enough to explain
the incredible destruction he wreaks on the lives of the people he knows best. 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.
He does it with a sense of craftsmanship,
appreciating the elegance or cleverness of a particular step in his scheme as
much as its final result: incredible suffering for the people he has chosen. We
tend to think of evil people as being brutal and insensitive, or at least
disconnected from the people they hurt. Iago, however, is able to hurt Othello
so much because he understands him so well.
He even grows closer to Othello
as his plot progresses. Iago manipulates him so expertly that at times it seems
he is actually inside Othello's head. He is a masterful plotter.
Most other Shakespearean
characters do bad things in order to achieve a particular goal. Oftentimes the
culprit is ambitious as in Macbeth, or revenge, as in Hamlet. The thing
about Iago is this—we never really know for certain why it is
that Iago wants to destroy Othello. Throughout the play, Iago provides multiple
and incompatible motives for hating Othello. At one point, Iago says he's angry
because Othello passed him over for a promotion.
Later, he claims to suspect that
Othello is having an affair with his (Iago's) wife (Emilia).
“I am your own forever.” This indicates the close
intimacy between Othello and Iago.
Iago is often our focus in this
play. We follow his storyline more than Othello's, and we spend more time with
him than Othello. We watch him in a variety of relationships—his manipulation
of Roderigo, his treatment of his wife, his pseudo-friendship with Othello. If
it weren't for the fact that Iago undergoes basically zero changes, you could
even argue that he's the main character.
Iago plots to manipulate Othello into demoting Cassio,
and thereafter to bring about the downfall of Othello himself. He has an ally, Roderigo, who assists him
in his plans in the mistaken belief that after Othello is gone, Iago will help Roderigo earn the
affection of Othello's wife, Desdemona.
He
claims a reputation for honesty and plain speaking, yet he invents elaborate
lies in order to exploit and manipulate other people. He treats others as fools
and has no time for tender emotion, yet he is a married man and presumably once
loved his wife. He cares for no one, yet he devotes his whole life to revenge. He
believes in cheating and lying for gain.
Iago has a reputation for honesty, for
reliability and direct speaking. Othello and others in the play constantly
refer to him as "honest Iago." He has risen through the ranks
in the army by merit and achievement, and Othello, whose military judgment is
excellent, has taken him as ancient (captain) because of his qualities. In
Iago, Shakespeare shows us a character who acts against his reputation.
Possibly Iago was always a villain and confidence trickster who set up a false
reputation for honesty, but how can one set up a reputation for honesty except
by being consistently honest over a long period of time? Alternatively he might
be a man who used to be honest in the past, but has decided to abandon this
virtue.
Shakespeare
has built the character of Iago from an idea already existing in the theatrical
culture of his time: the Devil in religious morality plays, which developed
into the villain in Elizabethan drama and tragedy. Iago says "I am not
what I am" which can be interpreted as "I am not what I seem.
Iago in this play has the qualities of the Devil. He is a liar, he makes
promises he has no intention of keeping, he tells fancy stories in order to
trap people and lead them to their destruction, and he sees other's greatest
vulnerabilities and uses these to destroy them. Iago does all this not for any
good reason, but for love of evil.
Iago is
surrounded with bitter irony: he is not as he seems, his good is bad for
others, people repeatedly rely on him, and he betrays them. He likes to have
others unwittingly working to serve his purposes. But for all this, as his plot
against Othello starts moving and gathering momentum, he loses control of it
and must take real risks to prevent it from crashing. Iago is a man with an
obsession for control and power over others who has let this obsession take
over his whole life. Necessity forces his hand, and, in order to destroy
Othello, he must also destroy Roderigo, Emilia, Desdemona, and ultimately
himself. The one man who survived Iago's attempt to kill him, Cassio, is the
only major character left standing at the end of the play.
The play centers on the irony that Othello believes Iago is
his friend, and Iago is informing him about Desdemona’s suspected affair out of
friendship. Iago is actually plotting against Othello the entire time as seen
when he says, “I hate the Moor…. Let
us be conjunctive in our revenge against him.””
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