Shakespeare presents Iago as a manipulative deceitful villain in act III scene III. Do you think he has intended Othello to be seen by audiences as being as much to blame for his demise as Iago?

Shakespeare presents to audience that Iago is a deceitful villain controlled by jealously and anger, are we to blame him for this? I think that Shakespeare intended us to see Iago as a Villain and only that not to pity him, we can see this by the fact that Iago is never seen as a nice person and is "second best" to Cassio.

Racism comes from almost everyone in the play and is used fluently. At the beginning of the play in act one scene one Roderigo and Iago have met up. They talk about Othello and use words like "thicklips" to describe him and his name is never mentioned till scene two were Othello is present. In this scene Iago says "an old black ram is topping your white ewe". This is the language he uses to tell Brabantio that Othello and Desdemona are in love. As we have not yet seen Othello at this time the audience see Othello as the villain, because all of the bad things said about him and everyone seems to dislike him. This gives us the impression he has done something wrong. This impression is quickly changed when you see Othello and when Iago is presented warning Othello and being kind to him. Now the audience sees that Iago is two-faced it becomes clear that it's Iago we shouldn't trust. You quickly see who the villain is; this helps us to trust Othello. Considering that Othello was written over four-hundred and ten years ago, one argument that because Othello is black he is seen as flawed. If he is flawed is he prone to loosing his temper?

The power of the strawberry Handkerchief in Othello is great. The handkerchief symbolizes different things to different characters. Since the handkerchief was the first gift Desdemona received from Othello, she carries it about her constantly as a symbol of Othello's love. Iago manipulates the handkerchief so that Othello comes to see it as a symbol of Desdemona herself. When Othello finds that Cassio has it he immediately believes that Desdemona is with Cassio. This makes me believe that it was partly Othello's fault because he was unable to keep control of himself, unable to keep control of Iago and unable to keep control of "the green eyed monster". Although Othello could be blamed for his emotions I believe that Shakespeare intended us to sympathise for Othello and go against Iago with everyone putting him down calling him "the moor" and "the black ram".

Iago's language is very important throughout the play. He and others contently refer to animals. In act 1 scene 3 Iago remarks that drowning is "for cats and blind puppies" he also call Othello a "Barbary horse," and an "old black ram," When animal terms are used with Othello, they reflect racism in Shakespeare play, often violent and cruel. "Barbary horse" is a particularly rude and absurd comment said by Iago, at this time Othello has not been seen but the audience but from the metaphor the audience would have known he meant a savage moor.

Hells demons and monsters are also a constant metaphor used throughout the play. "Green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on" This is used to describe jealously; Emilia also describes it as "monster Begot upon itself, born on itself" meaning a mysterious, evil and self generating monster. I think by this Emilia means that a monster has grown inside of Othello and has taken over. This could side to not blame Othello because he is not in control and they are not his own actions. Othello's vision of Desdemona's 'betrayal' is "monstrous, monstrous!" The metaphors of monsters takes off were the animals left of, or were the use of animal terms cannot go. A monstrous hellish demon presents the characters not just as jealous but as grotesque, demonic, and deformed. Iago's techniques of manipulation have a fast and strong impact on Othello. Othello's language also changes throughout the play

I believe Shakespeare wanted to show how Iago was a manipulative villain and Othello was only a puppet in his scene. Iago pushed Othello to doing what he did and he was controlled by jealously, I think Othello's love for Desdemona and Iago's trickery drove him to killing Desdemona.