In this play Othello has a wife, Desdamona whom he admires, trusts, loves and has faith in her. We see this when Desdamona is called for before the senate.
“Let her have her voice”
Othello’s language changes when Iago corrupts him and wrecked by jealousy. His speech is very doubtful and the audience see this when he asks Iago to show him proof about Desdamona cheating on him.
Iago is seemingly honest, trusting and loyal through the eyes of all the characters in the play but through the audiences’ perspective it is quite the opposite. He is crafty cunning and crude, vulgar in some instances such when Roderigo is standing at the pier and Iago is mocking Brabantio, telling him “A black ram is tupping your young white ewe.” Iago also has and advantage of being crude and crafty because people trust him and think that he is ‘honest Iago’. This helps him to find their weaknesses and in doing so can plot cunning cold hearted plans to ruin peoples lives, he also has initiative and always improves so that if one plan fails he can plan another in a short term. Iago is also two-faced, he shows the audience this by swearing on ‘Janus’ a Roman god, who had two sides to him. He also tells Roderigo ‘I am not what I am’, meaning he is not what he seems to be.
At a point in Act I Scene III, Iago is merely taunting his wife Emilia saying very negative things about her and about women in general.
“You are pictures out doors”
“Players in your housewifery and housewives in your beds”
These quotes suggest that Iago thinks all women in general act dumb when they’re outdoors and in their bedrooms they’re like whores. Iago tells us that men should love themselves.
Desdamona is the wife of a General ‘Othello’. She is seen as innocent and pure to most of the men in this play. Cassio describes her as the ‘paragons description’, this suggests she is too perfect to be fully described. Unfortunately, her constant defence for Cassio allows Iago to do what he does.
“My Lord shall never rest, I’ll watch him tame and talk him out of patience…”
As Iago says Othello’s soul is so infetter’d to her love, we think Othello loves her too much and he is outraged that she may have betrayed him with another man and will ruin his reputation.
“Farewell the plumed troops and the big wars, that makes ambition, virtue!”
Iago also repeats Brabantio’s statement to Othello about how she has betrayed him and she may do it again.
“She has deceived her father, and may thee.”
Other than this Desdamona is independent and we see this when she sticks up for Othello before the senate. She is also defiant and witty and we see this when she sticks up for Emilia to Iago.
“These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ th’ alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for that’s foul and foolish”
Cassio is the lieutenant serving the General Othello whom he loves and admires and is loyal to. He is also noble and courteous, I’d like to say he is a ‘proper man’. We see this when he approaches her as a he greets her. Iago describes him as a smooth talker.
“He hath a person and smooth dispose.”
Cassio being a smooth talker, Iago is able to build on that and use him in his plan because he can quickly convince Othello that Cassio is flirting with Desdamona. We find that he is quite flirtatious and rather a ladies’ man.
“Tis’ my breeding, that gives me this bold show of courtesy”
He is also obsessed with his status.
“Reputation, Reputation, Reputation; oh I have lost my reputation I have lost the immortal part of myself”
The repetition of this word gives us this view that he is infatuated.
Act III Scene III is a key section and vital in how Iago starts his poisoning on Othello. Iago uses vague answers and he holds back from telling Othello his complete feelings. This shows that Iago is a tricky character and that he uses the power of suggestion.
“Hah? I like not that” and “For Michael Cassio, I dare be sworn, I think that he is honest”
He can be very manipulative in what he says. He says he is ‘not bound’ to telling the truth. A key line Iago says is a very incredibly ironic comment.
“Men should be what they seem”
Also a vital part in this scene is how Othello’s language is beginning to change as shown by his soliloquy. ‘I had rather be a toad’, ‘dungeon’, ‘plague’, ‘base’, ‘I am abused’. Although he asks Iago for ‘ocular’ proof he is never given this actual evidence. I think this means that his own paranoia wants to believe that Desdamona is betraying him. He also uses a barbaric statement, ‘I’ll tear her all to pieces’ and how he speaks of ‘black vengeance’ and his need of ‘wide revenge’. At the end of the scene he is calling Desdamona ‘lewd minx’ a ‘ fair devil’.
