The other characters in the play see Iago as very noble and trusting. Mostly Othello, he says, ‘Iago is most honest’ and describes him as ‘good Iago’. This is before they realise how scheming he is. Iago is portrayed also as a true friend, ‘for I know thou ’rt full of love and honesty...’
Throughout the play we hear many of Iago’s motives. One is his professional jealousy towards Cassio and Othello:
‘One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, a fellow, almost damn’d in a fair wife, that never set a squadron in the field, not the division of a battle knows more than a spinster unless the bookish theoric’
Iago is aware that he is less noble than Cassio and Othello, ‘If Cassio do remain, he hath a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly; and besides, the Moor may unfold me to him? There stand I in much peril. No, he must die…’ I believe that Iago’s main motive is revenge because Cassio and Othello are much better men than him, so that he feels insecure and does kill them out of spite and jealousy. He feels obliged to reduce all manners, relationships and feelings to their base elements. He refers to the ‘divinity of hell’. Iago is like an evil spirit in the play. His weakness is hatred which is as consuming Othello’s love.
The audience responds in different ways. At the beginning of the play, when Iago is talking to Roderigo, we think that Othello is the bad one. However as the play continues we see Iago’s hatred towards him through his soliloquies. The audience does fear Iago to a certain extent as he seems so faithful on the outside but is in fact very two-faced. Any one of the people the audience knows could be like this. However, I believe the audience also admires Iago, as the way he manages to get everyone to participate in getting revenge on Othello is very ingenious.
Act 3 Scene 3 is a very crucial scene of Othello. It is when Iago manipulates Othello in a very sly and cunning way. Iago focuses on Othello’s insecurities and uses them to bring about suspicion and jealousy from Othello. Leading up to Act 3 Scene 3, Iago has managed to lower Cassio’s rank, told him to try and win Othello’s forgiveness through Desdemona and has explained in one of his infamous soliloquies that he will make
‘it seem that Desdemona and Cassio are sexually involved.
?And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all?’
This quote has the imagery of the net finally falling and capturing everyone in his scheming. The audience will already know what Iago is about to do and will be interested to see how he is going to pull it off without any suspicion turning towards him. Iago does this by using very scheming techniques. Iago talks in a way which makes Othello ask the questions to exclude him from any suspicion and to continue to make him appear as his friend. An example of Iago and Othello’s conversations is:
Iago- ha, I like not that?
Othello- What does thou say?
Iago- Nothing my lord, or if? I know not what?
Othello- Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
So we can see in the above conversation that Iago is forcing Othello into the active role of questioner, although dramatic but irony ,as if he is already harbouring Othello’s suspicions towards Desdemona. Shakespeare uses ‘iambic pentameter’ but the lines are intervallic and brief to build up tension and create a sense of agitation. Iago’s tone would be very innocent and vague, but still talking in a way that makes Othello really sit up and listen. His body language would be comforting towards Othello, but still giving the impression to the audience that what he is doing is deceit by occasionally giving them sly looks and winks. Iago also hesitates and hints to Othello, such as saying, ‘ No, sure I cannot think it that he would steal away so guilty-like, seeing you coming’. After the broken lines that build up tension, Othello suddenly has an outburst;
‘Thou dost mean something.
I heard thee say even now thou lik’st not that,
When Cassio left my life. What didst not like?
And when I told thee he was of my counsel
In my whole course of wooing, thou cried’st, Indeed?
And didst contract and purse thy brow together,
As if thou then had’st shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit?’
Othello would leap up and say this loudly and angrily, while Iago would remain calm and innocent. By this time, Othello has already been thrown off balance, and by repeating Iago’s words, it is like he is turning into a form of Iago. Othello ends his outburst with ‘if thou dost love me, show me thy thought? Iago then goes on to say, My lord, you know I love you.’ He is trying to make Othello believe that Iago is not trying to hurt him. Ironically, Othello replies with,
‘‘I think thou dost;
And for I know thou’rt full of love and honesty’’
This shows how much trust Othello has in Iago, and that he values his opinion. Also very ironic, is when Iago says,
I do beseech you,
Though I perchance am vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
To spy into abuses, and of my jealousy
Shape faults that are not…
In these lines, Iago is showing his true colours.Iago is artful, and has studied human nature deeply. He knows that of all the torments which afflict the mind of man (and far beyond bodily torture), the pains of jealousy are the most intolerable, and have the sorest sting. If he could succeed in making Othello jealous of Cassio, he thinks it would be an 'exquisite’ revenge, and may end in the death of Cassio or Othello, or both; he does not care. After Iago has built up tension in Othello, he then uses the words, jealousy and cuckolded to bring out a reaction from Othello to prove that he is breaking under all of his insecurities. Iago then says, ‘it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on? Othello responds by saying weakly, ‘O misery’ He tries to dismiss the thought that he could be jealous, and asks Iago for proof. Iago then tells him to study his wife with Cassio and reminds Othello that, ‘she did deceive her father, marrying you’ Iago twists good into evil, implying that she could deceive Othello also. Iago ends this speech by confessing his love for Othello and asking him to forgive him for loving him too much. Othello says, ‘I am bound to thee forever’ as if Iago has replaced Othello’s relationship with Desdemona with an evil union. During these parts, Iago would be giving Othello great amounts of or maybe even too much - sympathy and seem very affectionate towards him. Othello would be speaking in a very depressed and exasperated way, using a lot of effort to speak.
Iago tries very hard, and succeeds in finding Othello’s weaknesses.
Iago plays on his deepest fears by saying that he is too ‘old, and black for her to love him’ two of Othello’s biggest anxieties, as in the 1600s, blacks were treated unfairly and for a black man to be so high in rank was very rare. Iago enjoys finding and exploiting the psychological weaknesses of others. Iago just tries to appear that he is just trying to serve the part of an ordinary servant who just wants to please his lord. He does this to make him seem more low and incapable of making up these accusations. As Iago would be saying this, Othello would be standing over Iago, with Iago possibly sitting to make it look like Othello is very noble and Iago is inadequate, but meaning to appear like this for Othello’s sake to make him appear more believable.
Desdemona appears as Othello says,
If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself;
I’ll not believe it’
Othello then explains to Desdemona that he doesn’t feel very well and Desdemona tries to affectionately stroke him with her handkerchief but Othello says, ‘your napkin is too little’ and she drops it. Emilia then picks it up once Desdemona and Othello have gone out and gives it to Iago. She then goes away and Iago reveals in another soliloquy that he will use it as fake evidence of Cassio and Desdemona’s relationship. When Othello returns, Iago tells him that he stayed with Cassio recently and he was shouting out ‘sweet Desdemona and cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor? in his sleep’. Before this, Othello has already begun to break down. He says farewell to all the honourable things in his eyes. He says goodbye to his job and Desdemona. He was in great control earlier in the play with the fight with Cassio and Roderigo, but now he has lost his dignity and is falling apart. His speech has changed into more violent language and he uses contradiction and alliteration, ‘Death and damnation! O!’ He begins to speak as Iago would, as if he is turning into him. Othello’s infatuation with Desdemona and love has been replaced with a feeling of revenge. Iago refers to sexual terms with crudity by saying things like, ‘behold her topp’d’ This makes Othello even more frustrated with matters. But Iago cunningly makes hypocritical exclamations about his honesty, saying,
O world!
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit, and from hence
I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence’
Iago continues to kneel down as if in the act of a wedding proposal, signifying the bond between Othello and himself. He has replaced Desdemona and become the closest person to Othello. Othello calls the honourable Desdemona a ‘fair devil and a lewd minx’ Iago’s final line is, I am your own forever’ This is implying that Othello’s newly founded evil spirit has married another. This is an evil parody of Othello’s natural bond with Desdemona.
Iago’s role in the play is to manipulate everyone in, especially those better than him. He is a bully and extremely two-faced person. After losing all of his control at the end of the play, he says,
From this time forth, I never will speak word?
In the play, Iago has relied on language to manipulate, but now it has deserted him. Iago has become less boisterous and astute as his plotting is revealed by he wife, whom he treats so badly. Othello, by this time has smothered his wife and this discovery is as a thunder stroke to Othello, who now plainly sees that he was no better than a murderer, and that his wife had been ever faithful to him; the extreme anguish of which discovery making life insupportable, causes him to throw himself upon his sword and die on top of his wife, Desdemona.
Iago has managed to initiate the deaths of Desdemona, who he claimed to love, Roderigo, who was his friend, even though he did use him, and Othello, his lieutenant, for no apparent reason at all for he gives us so many reasons none can really be believed. He would appear to be a man with so many psychological problems in terms of a lack of belief in himself that any person who, perhaps, might cause him to take a true look at himself has to die. He is truly an unhappy person who can find no sterling qualities in his own character and so resents anyone who seems to have the type of characteristics that he wishes he possessed.
