"Iago is the essential element in Othello. Without him the play is nothing."

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Edward Gillingham

AS English Lit. Coursework – “Othello”.

“Iago is the essential element in Othello. Without him the play is nothing.”

Task: How far has your reading of the play led you to agree / disagree with the above statement?

        When reading the play, one is struck most forcibly by the brilliance by which Iago orchestrates the demise of those around him. Shakespeare uses him as a means of influence and plot progression within the play, making him present in all areas, and thus making him the essential element. I will demonstrate how Shakespeare achieves this throughout the main body of my essay, referring closely to the text.

        Upon our first exposure to Iago, we are almost immediately, with almost suffocating pace, plunged into the darkness of his character. His opening words:

“’S blood”, given the strength of blasphemy at the time, quite befits a man of such character. He immediately offers a negative view of Othello: “loving his own pride and purposes”, an opinion that smacks of betrayal and deceit when one considers Othello’s view of Iago: “most honest Iago”, perhaps one of the most ironic remarks of the whole play. The opening can also be seen, therefore, to foreshadow the major themes of the play, and for this reason gives evidence to support Iago’s immense significance. The success of Iago is not to be attributed to his darkness however, but as we shall come to see, instead to the way in which he becomes almost invisible through his unrivalled talent for exploitation, using the credulity of others to make it entirely inconceivable that he wants nothing but the best for them:

“Others… keep yet their hearts attending on themselves… throwing but shows of service on their lords… And when they have lin’d their coats do themselves homage.” Thus, his use of Roderigo to provoke Brabantio is our first example of such talent.

Iago must, of course, also be merited as an incredible actor. After having enlightened Brabantio with the knowledge of his daughters marriage to The Moor, and thus being present when Brabantio then arrives to arrest Othello, we see this ability put to use. He turns on Roderigo in such a way that, had we not just been present at the converse between the two, one could be forgiven for thinking them enemies: “Come sir, I am for you.” This almost schizophrenic change of character is so seamless that it is undetectable to others. Of course, this is a trait of Iago’s that owes most to his success as a villain. Another example of this can be found in Act Two: Scene Two. Iago works hard to persuade a reluctant Cassio to join him in a drink. “I dare not trust my weakness”, Cassio explains, to which Iago responds: “’Tis a night of revels, the Gallants desire it”. Again, if we did not know better, we could be again excused for thinking that Iago’s is a harmless invitation. He plans to get Cassio into a drunken brawl, but it is not until Cassio leaves that these true motives are revealed: “He’ll be… full of quarrel and offence. He will then have made Cassio look negligent of his position of responsibility, “That may offend the Isle.”

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 For me, when looking back at such scenes as this, Iago’s brilliance is demonstrated in the way the audience assumes his motives are far less calculated than they actually are. For instance, one would assume Iago manipulating Cassio in this way is to gain some sort of revenge for him being of higher rank than Iago. However, this is only half the truth as in hindsight we see that Iago is positioning Cassio for the next part of his ‘master plan’, creating a means of connection between Cassio and Desdemona. The way in which Iago plays chess with the other ...

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