othello - iago's motives

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Iago’s Motives in Othello Othello is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and widely recognised plays. A well respected soldier and newly married man, Othello appears to be in an enviable position. Yet when supposed friend Iago puts his hidden agenda into action he plants a seed of doubt in Othello’s mind over his wife’s fidelity until he is ultimately consumed by his jealousy and suspicion. The intense love between Othello and Desdemona descends until innocence is corrupted and trust is eroded as the relationship is sent into a downward spiral. The character of Iago can be viewed as the true villain of the play because despite Othello being the one to smother his wife to death, he reached that point of toxic jealousy due to Iago’s plan to delude the once admirable soldier. Iago has several motives driving him such as missing out on the promotion from Othello, jealousy over Desdemona and Othello’s love, offence taken to being under a man like Othello and also poses the question that maybe he had no motives to begin with and he is merely a character made of pure evil. It is these motives that are pushing his character to weave such malevolent schemes with the intention of corrupting many of the plays characters until by the last act when we witness them all ultimately meet their downfall. Iago’s true side is revealed to the audience as we watch him poison the relationship of Othello and Desdemona, cascading into a tangled web of jealousy, suspicion and self doubt. The most obvious motive of Iago’s is made clear to us at in the very first act of the play. Cassio was given a promotion over Iago by Othello. Not only does this give insight into his character’s true motives and scheming ways planning to get back at Othello by exposing his clandestine relationship with Desdemona, but it also shows his insecurities. He feels that Othello went for the educated Cassio over himself when he has more experience, as Cassio has “never set a squadron in the field.” This highlights to the audience the insecurity that Iago’s character holds over his academic abilities having been shunned because of them. We also gain a sense of Iago’s xenophobia when he criticises “One Michael Cassio, a Florentine” as he himself is a loyal Venetian. We can see that Iago is parochial as he makes criticism over Cassio being from Florence, which at the time this play was written during the era of Elizabethan England, Florence although a part of Italy was an independent state. Because of missing out on the promotion Iago is angry with Othello and resents Cassio causing some of

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Othello - Iago's Motives

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Page 1: Othello - Iago's Motives

Iago’s Motives in Othello

Othello is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and widely recognised plays. A well respected soldier and newly married man, Othello appears to be in an enviable position. Yet when supposed friend Iago puts his hidden agenda into action he plants a seed of doubt in Othello’s mind over his wife’s fidelity until he is ultimately consumed by his jealousy and suspicion. The intense love between Othello and Desdemona descends until innocence is corrupted and trust is eroded as the relationship is sent into a downward spiral. The character of Iago can be viewed as the true villain of the play because despite Othello being the one to smother his wife to death, he reached that point of toxic jealousy due to Iago’s plan to delude the once admirable soldier. Iago has several motives driving him such as missing out on the promotion from Othello, jealousy over Desdemona and Othello’s love, offence taken to being under a man like Othello and also poses the question that maybe he had no motives to begin with and he is merely a character made of pure evil. It is these motives that are pushing his character to weave such malevolent schemes with the intention of corrupting many of the plays characters until by the last act when we witness them all ultimately meet their downfall. Iago’s true side is revealed to the audience as we watch him poison the relationship of Othello and Desdemona, cascading into a tangled web of jealousy, suspicion and self doubt.

The most obvious motive of Iago’s is made clear to us at in the very first act of the play. Cassio was given a promotion over Iago by Othello. Not only does this give insight into his character’s true motives and scheming ways planning to get back at Othello by exposing his clandestine relationship with Desdemona, but it also shows his insecurities. He feels that Othello went for the educated Cassio over himself when he has more experience, as Cassio has “never set a squadron in the field.” This highlights to the audience the insecurity that Iago’s character holds over his academic abilities having been shunned because of them. We also gain a sense of Iago’s xenophobia when he criticises “One Michael Cassio, a Florentine” as he himself is a loyal Venetian. We can see that Iago is parochial as he makes criticism over Cassio being from Florence, which at the time this play was written during the era of Elizabethan England, Florence although a part of Italy was an independent state. Because of missing out on the promotion Iago is angry with Othello and resents Cassio causing some of his own jealousy to brew to the surface, which ends up being the weapon he uses to destroy Othello and get his revenge. Yet it is revealed to the audience that Iago has suspected Othello of having “done [his] office. [He] know not if it be true”. Because of this previously underlying suspicion that Iago has surrounding Othello’s character committing adultery with his wife Emilia, it may be that now after not receiving the promotion he actually has a valid reason to base his revenge off he can act on his yearning to destroy Othello.

We also see another aspect of jealousy through Iago’s character, being his envy of Desdemona and Othello’s love. He is insulted that a man like Othello from Northern Africa could have the ability to woo a beautiful girl like Desdemona who is pure and innocent despite there being a large age gap between the two. We also receive criticism from Iago about their relationship suggesting that they should not be together because of such a large age gap and “it cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor…she must change for youth”. Iago possibly has a secret passion for Othello’s new bride and this is reinforced to us later on in the play when we see just how sour his relationship with wife Emilia can be. There is quite often a power struggle between the two and she feels that Ud’s pity, who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch” enforcing to the audience that the only way for a woman to hold power over her husband is to cheat on him as it makes him look like a fool. However this newly exposed motive of Iago’s could also

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add some explanation to divulging Othello and Desdemona’s elopement in act one of the play and it wasn’t just for his jealousy over the promotion but jealousy over the though of “an old black ram is tupping [a] white ewe” revealing to the audience the hidden zeal Iago holds for sought-after Desdemona.

Iago also has an element of racism to his character in the play Othello. He feels offended at the fact that he, a loyal and well respected Venetian, must be under the rule and orders of a northern African leader. During the period of Elizabethan England the only role that black men would have in society would be as slaves. Iago uses racist terms throughout the play referring to Othello as “thick lips” and even “the moor of Venice” which is used numerous times by many characters is a common term from the middle ages used to refer to the black people who came over to Europe from Morocco. Shakespeare has used the word moor as synonym for the word African throughout Othello. Iago feels that it is almost shameful to be under a character like Othello’s and is has even more jealousy seep into him when seeing that a black man like Othello could woo a young beauty like Desdemona. This offence Iago has taken to Othello grows even more after he doesn’t pick him to be his lieutenant and it eventually leads his grudge to drive him to become so deceitful and toxic that he drives Othello into the ground until he is a man left with noting just like Iago thinks he should have been in the first place. It can however be argued that these motives of Iago’s are just what the audience have read into and that the only true answer to his intoxicating pollution of Othello in the play is due to him being blatantly made of evil. As critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge states Iago’s character contains “motiveless malignancy” and this can be reinforced when Iago talks about “be conjunctive against him. If thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure me a sport” and also him benefiting from him corrupting Othello. It is as if Iago finds that driving Othello into the ground to be like a twisted mind game especially because he plays on Othello’s thoughts and suspicions using his jealousy and anger. It makes the audience consider that if the tables had turned and Iago received the promotion over Cassio and had no suspicions or jealous feelings, would he somehow create another motive in his mind for going after Othello in his machiavellian like way. Iago can be described as being the gardener of the play. He plants the seed and lets it bloom then poisons it, bringing everything surrounding down along with it. To be able to drive a man to smother his own wife and then kill himself without any regret or guilt along the way makes it hard for the audience to settle on another reason other than Iago’s character being a concoction of evil created by Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare’s Othello creates a character out of Iago that can spark much debate on his true motives behind Othello’s downfall. While there are a number of reasons that could have driven him to commit such an act there is always that feeling the audiences gains that a crime to the extent of Iago’s can have no excuse or motivation behind it apart from being created out of a purely evil mind and thoughts. It can be argued that the delight Iago takes from his mind games makes him comparable to Satan and how he so easily creates Othello’s honour, loyalty, worship, and fidelity into commodities to be gambled with while stirring his thoughts around in jealous suspicions. While many may see corrupted and green-eyed Othello as being the villain of the play, smothering his sweet and caring wife, the brain behind it all was Iago. Shakespeare’s other plays such as Macbeth contains a protagonist that drives themselves into the ground due to been overwhelmed by their fatal flaw. However in Othello it is Iago how enforces Othello’s fatal flaw onto him until he is consumed by it to the point of no return. As William Robertson Turnbull says of Iago’s character in Othello being “an unbeliever in, and denier of, all things spiritual, who only acknowledges god, like Satan, to defy him.”

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