Iago lays his plots to turn the gentle qualities of Othello’s wife into her own destruction and and make a net for her out of her own goodness to entrap her: first setting Cassio (Othello’s Lieutenant) on to entreat her mediation, and then out of that very mediation evolve stratagems for his purposes.
Iago’s first act of interference in Othello’s downfall is to artfully plant doubting insinuations into his mind about his wife Desdemona’s faithfulness (which he has already planned) and then increase the moor’s
suspicions about her and his Lieutenant Cassio, as he becomes consumed with jealousy.
Othello is then torn between his love for Desdemona and the ambiguity inculcated by Iago of her faithfulness. Because of his love, Othello finds that Desdemona’s supposed betrayal and disloyalty harder to bear than anything else therefore his brutal and violent behaviour is shown to be noticeably more operative on her. Othello makes his own false conclusions and as his passion increases he utters these words:
“Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not
Chaos is come again.” (III.3.90-2)
these lines suggest that Othello will be utterly lost if his love is destroyed.
As Iago’s poisonous schemes progress and take effect on Othello, his language becomes more evidently fragmented to show the turmoil and disorder in his mind.
Othello’s change, revolves mainly around one pivotal scene where his eloquent blank verse previously seen within the first and second act of the play has now given way to prose and disjointed sentences. Othello has now made himself extremely vulnerable to Iago’s “poison” by trusting Iago’s words than seeking the truth from his own wife.
As we look at Act Three and the scenes within this act, we can see the manner in which Othello’s change is manifested through his speech and actions. From his speech in Act one his words have already told us that he is a man of self control and good heartedness but now in these scenes he is depicted to be man of uncertainty and violence. The disruption in his mind is signified when he says:
“Death and Damnation! O!”
(III.3.395)
and in this same scene, as Iago continues to torment his thoughts, we can perceive the violence of his words when he talks of “Poison or fire or suffocating streams,”(III.3.392) and his anguish when he cries:
“O monstrous! Monstrous!”
(III.3.424)
yet, Othello’s speech becomes even more desperate and his sentences become shorter with much use of punctuation. Exclamation marks are used at the end of short phrases and question marks are used just as frequently. His yet most ferocious excerpt is when he exclaims:
“ I’ll tear her all to pieces!”
(III.3.429)
this being intended to Desdemona, and when he cries, “O blood, blood, blood!” (III.3.449) showing more violence and anger, Iago still keeps on trying to advance Othello’s provocation and distress.
At the end of this scene, Othello seems convinced already that Desdemona has not been “honest” and now in his bitterness, he uses harsher language unfamiliar, and more base - thus his vernacular is analogous to Iago’s.
There is much more violence shown through Othello’s words and his repeated, hurried sentences when he speaks to Desdemona, indicate his insecurity (and the success of Iago).
Othello commits his first violence on Desdemona when he strikes her in front of Lodovico, a visiting emissary from Venice - this course of action now shows Othello’s tragic flaw; he has made himself susceptible to Iago.
Conclusively, and especially at the end of Act Three, we see how the language of Iago and Othello has been interchanged with their roles. Iago is now clearly the master in this relationship , as he speaks of vows to heaven of service and obedience whilst Othello using language more appropriate to Iago- for example “Damn her, Lewd Minx” and “Fair Devil”.
Language is ultimately very effective when trying to express the emotions and actions of Othello and through his speech and actions, we can begin to empathize and absorb what is really happening in the play.
