Many of Shakespeare’s plays highlight the very high importance in Shakespeare’s day of a woman being ‘chaste’. This was very vital for women in Shakespeare’s day. This means that a woman must not have any extra marital sex of any sort. Before she was married she was to be kept as a virgin and whilst she is married, she must not have sex with another man apart from her husband. If any of these rules was to be broken, she would become a total outcast and would be difficult to be accepted again by her family. Iago used this belief in the vital important of ‘chastity’ as a way to make Othello turn against his wife Desdemona and believe that she was the one being false and unfaithful! This may have been the biggest hint which was to be unfolded to show us that something even more bigger and exciting will happen.
In the first scene of the play ‘Othello’, Shakespeare presents Iago as a very untrustworthy and deceitful character. He says ‘I am not what I am’. It is not very clear on what Iago means as he does not make it specific but we can still understand something. It seems as if it is a sudden warning to Roderigo that Iago is a type of man that just can not be trusted. We also remember this quote in our minds simply because it is short, and strangely worded.
All the way through the play, Iago’s character is kept constant. He stays deceitful and two-faced. We can see that this is true as he states ‘I hate the Moor’. He uses the word ‘Moor’ to describe Othello. He then later says ‘My Lord you know I love you’. This is one of the many situations where Shakespeare shows that Iago is being two-faced as we already know that this is not true as he has already stated that he loathes Othello. But even though Iago is doing all this back stabbing with Othello, he portrays himself to others as being an honest man.
Towards the end of Act 1 Scene 3, Shakespeare presents us with Iago’s first soliloquy. ‘He’s done my office’. Iago claims that Othello has slept with his wife. Iago is stirring rumours up with Othello just to deceive him. Iago’s soliloquies enable us to see Iago’s thoughts what he is thinking or how he feels towards the other characters. Shakespeare wants us to loathe this man so Shakespeare gives him crude language when he describes Othello. In the final soliloquy of Iago’s in Act 1, he finds a way of plotting revenge on the men he hates the most which is Cassio and Othello. Shakespeare uses his soliloquies as a method not just to share what he is feeling but to share his evil plans on his revenge. This makes us also think that he is a clever man.
Shakespeare presents Othello to us as an expressive and persuasive man. Our first impression of Othello shows us a very positive side to him and how courageous he is. The language he uses to talk to the senate is very intelligent ‘Most potent, grave and reverend signors’. He shows us how we like this character by his politeness to other people around him. Shakespeare shows us how much Othello loves Desdemona as he states that he would not give up his ‘free condition’ as a bachelor for wealth or status as he has both himself coming from ‘royal siege’. Nor for anything else in the world except for his love for the ‘gentle Desdemona’. It is significant that Othello chooses the word ‘gentle’ to describe Desdemona at this point. It shows he adores her for her ‘gentle’ qualities rather than any superficial beauty. He seems to be referring to more important inner qualities of loving, caring, sensitivity and a delicate femininity. In this way we get an impression of how deeply Othello loves Desdemona. Desdemona’s father Brabantio describes her as being the perfect ideal of the passive, modest virgin, one who is even embarrassed by her own emotions. He says that she is never assertive or ‘bold of spirit’. She is so still and quiet’ of spirit that she blushed at herself if she felt any tender ‘motion’. Our first impressions of Desdemona are that she is timid and ‘gentle as her speech is smooth and eloquent and almost as if she is prepared for it. She is able to speak up for what she believes in; she is intelligent and self assured. Maybe Desdemona puts on a ‘gentle and intelligent’ side with men normally but she appears a strong woman. Her father Brabantio says that ‘she is a maid so tender, fair and happy so opposite to marriage that she shunned the wealthy curled darlings of our nation’ She is very feminine, young and vulnerable and he also describes her ‘delicate youth’.
By the end of Act 1 we have a strong sense of Iago’s determination to destroy Othello’s love for Desdemona. We have heard him say that he will not only poison the relationship of Othello and Desdemona, but he will attempt to try and be as powerful as Othello and does it in a sinful way. ‘I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light’. This quote tells us that a tragedy is yet to come and Iago will do all he can to make that tragedy occur.