Lealands High School

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LEALANDS HIGH SCHOOL

ENGLISH/ENGLISH LITERATURE GCSE

STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE

How does Shakespeare’s character, Iago, conform to the literary tradition of the villain?

In this essay I am going to say whether I think Shakespeare’s character Iago conforms to the literary tradition of a villain. The Collins Plain English Dictionary defines a villain: “You can call someone the villain or the villain of the peace when they are seen as the cause of all the trouble in a situation”.

These definitions are certainly true of most literary villains. From a young age children are taught the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. Many fairy tales and young children’s stories include heroes (or heroines) trying to defeat and overcome the evil embodied by the villain of the story. Many stories include either a beautiful heroine or strong, athletic hero, all of whom make the villain exceedingly jealous. For instance in Cinderella, her stepmother is resentful because Cinderella’s physical and inner beauty is superior to those of her own daughters.

Jealousy is the main drive for any literary villain. Even in fairy tales such as Snow White the evil queen is jealous of the fact that Snow White is so beautiful. Jealousy is probably the most common and supreme trait of villainy. Every villainous character has some source of jealousy and normally they have an ambitious streak. Famous literary villains such as Macbeth have a great and growing ambition. Once he got a taste of power, his greed started building and the more power he gains the more ambitious and ruthless he became.  For example once he has been given Thane of Cawdor and has been promised (by the three witches) that he will become King, his greed builds and inevitably results in him murdering Duncan. This proves that once a thought of ambition is embedded in the mind of a villain, it feeds and grows until they reach their desired status.

Another literary villain who is in some ways similar to Iago is Professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes books – ‘The Final Problem’ and ‘The Valley of Fear’. In ‘The Final Problem’ Holmes describes Professor Moriarty as “the Napoleon of crime…... He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker…. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them.” Although that was referring to Moriarty’s criminal ring, Iago could be described in the same way except that he is working alone and so is a more cunning and shrewd villain.

Although jealousy and ambition are the greatest reasons for villainy, being sly, deceitful, manipulative, organised and clever are also a villain’s greatest features. Out of all of those traits being organised is by far the most essential. For the villains to keep so many plots going, it shows just how thoughtful and organised they are. Especially Iago, who even manages to disguise himself as ‘honest’.

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I also feel that most literary villains are immoral. In each case each character has feelings of guilt or a sign of remorse. In Macbeth’s case this is made most obvious. After cold-bloodedly having his best friend, Banquo, murdered, Macbeth’s guilty conscience builds. His guiltiness and regret is built up to such an extent that he starts to hallucinate.

What could be argued, as the greatest and most infamous literary villain of all time is the Devil. He is seen as the supreme form of evil and any kind of villain is seen to be his incarnate. He also ...

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