Iago's Role In Evil

Othello, a tragic play written by William Shakespeare, depicts complicated relationships and imperfection of humanity by inaugurating various characters with unique personality. Specifically, Iago, driven by his avarice and jealousy towards others, plays a manipulative role who exploits the weakness and frailty in the characters around him as he justifies himself of those actions. In fact, Iago’s inability to control his greed, envy and jealousy towards others had implemented him to being a devious individual; his contriving nature had been the substructure to the tragic events that progress throughout the calamitous story. Moreover, Iago specifically shows of how obsessive covetousness had lead himself into irrational behaviors.

Villains are characters who are devoted to committing evil acts and thus set the plot in motion. They add excitement to works of literature, as they challenge the concept of higher morality, to achieve a certain goal. For the most part, a villain has a motive for their heinous deeds, but a villain whose only motive is the sadistic pleasure they receive from watching their victims suffer, is the most interesting. In Othello, Shakespeare introduces the audience to one of the most malevolent and diabolical of all Shakespearean villains. What makes Iago such an intriguing character, is the intricateness of his personality as well as the inability of viewers to sympathize with him or understand the inner workings of his mind. Ironically, he puts on the face of a confidante, hence the name, “honest Iago”, while playing the role of the devil. He is able to fabricate certain situations that serve his monstrous plot and takes on the role of the puppet master, while abusing his incredible insight into human nature and the personalities of those around him in order to manipulate, exploit and control them. Interestingly, the source of his sinister demeanor seems to originate from a bottomless pit of hate, malice and resentment towards all that is good, innocent and noble, deep within him. Therefore, in William Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is simply a monstrous, vice-like character due to the

    Shakespeare’s Othello, with its prolonged exposure to the evil mind of Iago, is difficult for some in the audience. Let’s consider the play’s evil aspect.

Another element that makes Iago so sinister is his ability to pass himself over whatever he wishes. He can easily ignore what he does not want to remember and getting others to accept whatever illusions he wishes to perpetuate. Some even like to call him the devil’s reincarnation due to his unrelenting desire to see others brought to pain and ruin. He has the uncanny ability to show himself as innocent and honest with whomever he chooses to silently wait until the time is right to bring about their fall. Due to the fact that he is both persuasive and very intellectual, it becomes a deadly combination and is shown throughout the play, particularly in the scene where Iago and Cassio are talking about Bianca but Othello thinks that they are talking

In the tragic play, Othello, the playwright, William Shakespeare, makes the readers believe in Iago’s deceiving motives, when in reality he is motivated out of his crazy nature. Shakespeare skillfully creates a villain who provides multiple motives for his malicious plan, but realistically Iago’s motivation is purely out of his sociopathic nature and little remorse for the pain he causes others.

Many have said that Iago is an artist of Evil. He made it crystal clear that he holds no love or loyalty all through the play for title character Othello. Reason behind being, Othello unfairly passed him over for a promotion and went ahead making Cassio his lieutenant even though he, unlike Iago has not much experience in this field. Iago who was once a devoted soldier under Othello’s demand had full confidence in himself for being the rightful person to take upon the promoted lieutenant position as he be believed he deserved it after all he was the better soldier as well as his relationship with othello would have gotten him the there. Assuming many wrongs, Iago was infuriated when denied the role and it let to bringing out the worse of him.

During Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s nineteenth century lectures on Shakespeare’s play Othello, Coleridge described Iago’s final soliloquy as the “motive hunting of motiveless malignancy.” Throughout the speech, Iago gives various reasons to rationalize his actions. He states that Othello slept with his wife, Othello gave Cassio the lieutenant position that Iago was next in line for, and Cassio and his wife had an affair. Each perceived injustice holds the potential to justify Iago’s actions but the flippancy in which each are stated and the fact that Iago is unable to pinpoint a singular cause for his desire for vengeance supports Coleridge’s claim that Iago is simply hunting for a motive to justify his malignancy. Coleridge asserts that despite the various reasons given, Iago is completely motiveless. He causes chaos for the sake of causing chaos. Iago’s lack of a reason for his destructive tendencies and the fact that he effects every main character in the play, elevates him from a mere villain to a symbol of the unavoidable chaos that accompanies life. Shakespeare employs Iago as a symbol of anarchy as he wreaks havoc on every innocent character in order to demonstrate the only way to triumph over the inescapable uncertainty of life is through adopting a calm and logical mindset.

In every tragedy there is a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force, such as fate, circumstances, or society, and reaches a mournful or ruinous conclusion. In Shakespeare’s novel Othello, Iago contributes to the circumstances that will soon lead to the mournful and ruinous conclusion. Iago’s soliloquies reveals his true evil and gains him pity from the audience. As the story progresses the audience gets to see the effectiveness of Iago’s soliloquies and the contribution they have on the audience and the plot of the story.

Iago uses words to make other people think what he wants him to think. For example, he wants to plant jealousy into Othello for promoting Cassio instead of himself. He warns Othello to beware of the “green-eyed monster”, when in fact it is him that plans and carries out what is needed to make Othello

In William Shakespeare’s play Othello, Iago is seen by many as an honest and trustworthy person, though in reality he is a man of deceit and malevolence. This duplicitous nature of Iago’s is arguably one of Shakespeare’s most intriguing antagonists. From the outset, the audience is immediately drawn in by his sinister, yet unclear motives by revealing to them – “I am not what I am”. Iago is truly an evil character: he is extremely immoral and wicked, associating himself with the devil. He shows no remorse as he inflicts misery on those around him, but rather showing pleasure in their misfortunes. How Iago is able to manipulate those around him is largely attributed by his ability to act convincingly in different roles, adapt to different

Shakespeare presents evil in the extract, by the usage of sibilance. This is evident when Iago says: 'tis most easy'. The letter 's' in these three consecutive words reflects the three cycles of the moon, as the 's's are marked at the end, middle and beginning of the words: which indicates that Iago's malcontent intentions are a continuous cycle that cannot be broken. Furthermore, the repetition of the letter 's' also recreates the sinister sound of a hiss, perhaps that of a serpent, which enhances Iago's devilish facade.

In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, the audience encounters characters that are manifestations of evil and dark desires of the subconscious. This theme is portrayed through the characters of Iago and Othello. From the start, Iago’s malicious intents are clear. Because of his feelings of incompetence, particularly to Othello, he succumbs to very human emotions like jealousy. However, his proceeding actions seem to lack awareness and thought for others. Iago manipulates Othello until he too becomes mad and overpowered by envy. Both characters are immersed into their sinister roles because of accessible motives, but they experience fluxes of instability that ultimately dehumanize their characters. At each of these transitions, the motif of bestial and monstrous themes are present to mark the characters’ demise.

Villains are characters who are devoted to committing evil acts and thus set the plot in motion. They add excitement to works of literature, as they challenge the concept of higher morality, to achieve a certain goal. For the most part, a villain has a motive for their heinous deeds, but a villain whose only motive is the sadistic pleasure they receive from watching their victims suffer, is the most interesting. In Othello, Shakespeare introduces the audience to one of the most malevolent and diabolical of all Shakespearean villains. What makes Iago such an intriguing character, is the intricateness of his personality as well as the inability of viewers to sympathize with him or understand the inner workings of his mind. Ironically, he puts on the face of a confidante, hence the name, “honest Iago”, while playing the role of the devil. He is able to fabricate certain situations that serve his monstrous plot and takes on the role of the puppet master, while abusing his incredible insight into human nature and the personalities of those around him in order to manipulate, exploit and control them. Interestingly, the source of his sinister demeanor seems to originate from a bottomless pit of hate, malice and resentment towards all that is good, innocent and noble, deep within him. Therefore, in William Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is simply a monstrous, vice-like character due to the

Shakespeare created the character of Iago in a complex way that made critics differ when interpreting the role he played in the Othello drama. A.C. Bradley consider that the tragedy is “the undoing of the noble Moor by the devilish cunning of Iago,” (1963[1952], p. 137). It was external evil, the malice of the devil, that turned a happy story of romantic lovers who were capable to live happily ever after, so to speak – into a tragedy’ while literary critic F. R. Leavis attacks the Bradley view, asserting that the fact is that in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Othello Othello is the chief personage – the chief personage in such a sense that the tragedy may fairly be said to be Othello’s character in action. Iago is subordinate and merely ancillary.” (p. 138).

The critic GaryDay shows,in The British Critical Tradition: A Re-Evaluation,the mixture of the characteristics of Iago stating that “the features of Iago’s character are closely related, they are the extreme belief in the will- to power, thirst for danger and the desire to be the author of the plot”.( Day, 1993).Moreover, Shakespeareemploys a great allegory in act 3 scene 3 when Iago tells Othello” o, beware, lord of jealousy; it’s the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”. This quote shows that Iago is the villain who leads Othello to kill Desdemona and destroy his life. No one can deny that Iago and his non reasonable desires are the main reasons behind the tragedy of Othello.