In the extract I will be looking at Iago starts to plan his revenge against Othello and Cassio. The audience learns that ‘good’ Iago actually hates ‘the moor’ for overlooking Iago and giving Cassio the title Lieutenant. Iago also claims ‘that ‘twixt my sheets he has done my office’ and even if his suspicion is wrong he will still go ahead with his plan.
The act closes as it had begun: with Iago and Roderigo in conversation. Roderigo comes across as weak, turning on Iago for sympathy and claiming that he will ‘incontinently’ drown himself. Iago picks up on Roderigo’s foolishness, ‘I’ thou dost, I shall never love thee after’. This makes Iago appear to me as mocking Roderigo, implying his lack of care and sympathy he has for Roderigo. However, he does not leave the conversation there. Ironically, he says ‘I never found man that knew how to love himself’, however this is not true to Iago, as we are given the impression that he is only concerned about himself. He plots revenge only for his ‘sport and profit’ with out concern or guilt for the lies as he ‘abuse Othello’s ears’. From Iago’s choice of vocabulary, it is suggested that Iago is amoral; he realizes his plot is one of ‘double knavery’ however he continues to reach his goals.
Iago infers that he does not care or show respect for women. He refers to Desdemona as a ‘guinea hen’, suggesting that maybe he could also lack respect and love for his wife, Emilia, which does also reinforces the appearance of him loving only himself. Throughout the play Emilia is paid little attention to by Iago, however, he suddenly becomes interested in his wife when she retrieves Desdemona’s handkerchief, which he uses as part of his revenge on both Cassio and Othello. Furthermore, in this extract, he refers to intercourse with his wife as ‘my office’, which indicates that it is expected of Emilia to entertain him and it is her duty to Iago to do as he wants. Offices are sometimes associated with tedious, boring work, implying how he feels his relationship with his wife is, however this could further imply the type of duties he expects from his wife. This reinforces the idea of his lack of respect to women and his wife. On the other hand, Venetian women have had the reputation of being clever, sly and unfaithful to their husbands. Unlike Desdemona, Emilia has appeared to almost live up to this reputation. Desdemona and Emilia talk about being faithful to their husbands after Othello (who now has been subconsciously heavily influenced by Iago’s plot) accuses Desdemona of fornication. Emilia, like Iago, shows little love for her partner and tells Desdemona that she may consider betraying her husband for the world, she says ‘the world is a big place’. Although, this may be because she realises that Iago does not love her, describing men as ‘stomachs/ and when they are full they belch us.’
Although in this extract Roderigo should have the more status as he is the Venetian gentleman and Iago is a mere ensign, the ensign earns himself more status than Roderigo. His speech does not match the audience’s expectations of a common soldier. He is more flamboyant and cleverly uses imagery of nurturing our gardens as controlling our life and destiny. This makes Iago come across as powerful and confident, whereas, Roderigo is weak and easily manipulated from once wanting to ‘incontinently’ drown himself to winning Desdemona’s heart as soon as possible. By doing this Iago has managed to turn the situation around to use him in his plans of revenge and get the money that he told Roderigo to ‘put in thy purse’. He has managed to persuade Roderigo by using common persuasive techniques: rhetorical questions ‘Drown thyself?’ and he also repeats himself, engraving ideas into Rodrigo’s head ‘put money in thy purse/ fill thy purse with money/ provide thy money’. Iago also chooses to insult Desdemona and Othello whilst he flatters Roderigo by telling him he is better than the ‘moor’ and the ‘guinea hen’.
In soliloquy, the audience starts to feel closeness with Iago as we learn his motives and there are not any secrets between Iago and the audience. The dramatic irony had made me like the character Iago, as I always knew he was going to turn the situation around. We learn that Iago intends to ‘abuse Othello’s ears/That he (Cassio) is too familiar with his wife’ and this would be an easy task as Cassio is handsome. This could imply that not only is Iago despising Cassio for relieving the promotion of lieutenant, but Iago could also be jealous of Cassio’s good looks.
In Elizabethan times stages would often not have any curtains therefore Shakespeare would indicate a change of scene with a rhyming couplet. To end scene 3 Iago uses a rhyming couplet in soliloquy:
‘I ha’t, it is engendered; Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.’
This conjures up images of destruction and danger the plan will do like a monster. The scene takes place at night and this couplet could be inferring the closeness the events of the scene had with hell. However, to me this had conjures up the possibility of Iago’s evil hatching a evil creature within Othello and bringing out an other personality of Othello we have not seen yet.
I really enjoyed the play because of Iago. He makes people believe that he is loyal, conscientious and noble minded, all qualities that Othello has. However, behind this appearance is two-faced dark, devious, malicious and vengeful Iago. He has kept me interested, although I could fully understand him from the soliloquies he had managed to turn every situation around to his liking differently every time. Even with his intelligence, he fails to see that he can not always hoodwink everyone and he is surprisingly found out and defeated at the end of the play. I believe that the villains can always be the best characters of the play or story due to their complicated and cunning nature.
