Iago's character tells Brabantio about Othello and Desdamona then leaves when Brabantio has left to avoid him. "So fare well. EXIT." This shows Iago Is very manipulative and is a coward who fails to accept responsibility for things he has said. We also know this because Iago tells the audience about Othello before we actually meet him. The audience are anxious to meet the Othello Iago is talking about.
When Roderigo is telling Iago how he wants to kill himself Iago tells him how he shouldn't drown himself because you drown blind puppies and cats. "Drown thyself" This shows he has not got much sympathy for Roderigo's problem and is talking about doing cruel things to animals. Showing us he is not a kind person. He also repeats the phrase "Put money in thy purse" This rely means stay close to Desdamona, flirt with her and be good to her. He tells him to do this so eventually he will get some thing back from her. The fact that he is talking about money tells us that Iago doesn't fell much when talking directly about feelings, but he cares a lot about money so it makes the point stronger when he mentions money. This makes him look cold and self centered because he talking about money rather than feelings.
Iago describes his plan as monstrous in his soliloquy. "Must bring this monstrous birth to light." This shows the audience that he knows how badly his plan is going to affect people. It shows us that he doesn't care how much damage he does to people he just wants to his revenge on Othello, telling us that his character is reckless.
In his soliloquy he tells us of his plan to split up Othello and Desdamona by making Othello think that Desdamona is having an affair. He does this by saying" To make women false." This shows that he is being manipulative again by planning to make Othello believe something that's not true. It makes us believe he intends to be two faced and miss leading.
Shakespeare involves the audience in the plot by talking about Iago but firstly he describes Venice. "Venice a street at night." This makes us believe this makes the audience imagine a dark, scary and mysterious place by using stage directions. He says street at night which makes us the audience imagine candle light and dark shadows setting a spooky scene.
We learn straight away that Iago is two faced and intends to betray Othello to get revenge because Othello gives a lieutenants job to cassio instead of Iago. "Nor all masters can be truly followed." Straight away the audience knows a lot more than the characters. This involves the audience because they know all the motives and all about Iagos plan so they want to see how they execute it.
The audience would be interested by Roderigos actions because Iago has a motive for his intentions which the audience possibly understands. It is also significant that we have not yet met Othello so the audience are seeing Iago and Roderigo plot against the most important man in the whole play, yet they don't know what he is really like. "Enter Othello, Iago." This shows us that before we meet Othello the audience anticipate his arrival so they can make there own judgment of him rather than take Iagos opinion and judge him from that.
When the two parties meet it is of a very aggressive nature but from this we learn Othello is of a very calm nature and is a good man not as Iago had described him. "Hold your hands." This now involves the audience even more because they are now going to think twice about what Iago is saying because he has told the audience that Othello was a bad man with bad intentions but it turns out he is neither. Also the audience will be left wanting more ads the two groups of people plan to sort there differences out by going to see the duke at the end of the scene. "The duke in council?" This will involve the audience as the duke is the most powerful character they have heard about so far in the play and they are going to meet him the next scene. When they go and see the duke Brabantio echoes accusations made in scene one that Othello used magical spells and medicines to win over Desdemona's heart. "By spells and medicines." This would have interested a Shakespearean audience in particular because back when the play would have been originally shown the audience believed that black people were magical and had dark powers. This would have interested the audience because they would have thought that that this was exotic. They would have found it very interesting that there was a black person in such a big event like a play because they were seen as evil because they were black.
Othello defends himself of these accusations by saying even being charged with all of the outrageous accusations he has still got the love of Brabantios daughter. "What drugs, what charms, what conjuration and what mighty magic." This would involve the audience through Shakespeare making Othello sound like he is almost admitting he used all of the charms and magic mentioned.
The relationship between Iago, Othello and Desdamona involves the audience because Othello and Desdamona are in love but Iago is trying to split them up. "but that I love the gentle Desdamona" This would involve the audience because they would get involved with the love story and they know all about the conspiracy that Iago is planning so they would like to see how it turns out.
To close Act One Shakespeare leaves Iago on his own. He does this so the audience knows more than the characters to keep them interested. “Must bring this monstrous birth to the worlds light.” This shows that Shakespeare wants people to know that Iago intends to execute his plan in the Act so they keep interested and keep watching the play to find out what is going to happen.
Conclusion
In conclusion Shakespeare uses many techniques to show us what Iago’s character is like. He uses language techniques for example he uses racist language to show us how thoughtless and evil Iago is. He uses words like “Moor” and “Black ram” to portray this. He also uses metaphoric techniques for example he describes Iago being like the god Janus (the god for January). He does this because Janus is a symbol of looking forward to the New Year and looking back on the previous year, to show this it has two faces looking either side. Shakespeare used this to show Iago was two faced. We learn by the end of Act 1 that Iago two faced, deceptive, a villain and we learn he is not a normal Shakespearean villain because he has a reasonable motive.
Shakespeare also uses many techniques to involve the audience. One of these is the way he lets the audience know a lot more than the characters so they become more interested to find out how the play turns out. He does this by having Iago perform a soliloquy to let the audience know what Iago is thinking and planning. He also uses the character types to involve the audience for example he made the main character black because in Shakespearean times black people were seen as magical and mysterious. This would have involved them because they would see him as interesting. They would have found him interesting because they didn’t see many black people in plays. They would have been interested in seeing the rest of the play so they find out what happens to Iago’s plan, whether he succeeds or fails and gets found out.
