Iago feels anger towards Othello because he has promoted Cassio instead of him as Othello’s lieutenant. We can see the anger and the resentment of Iago towards Othello by looking at the words that Iago uses while reffering to Othello, for example “the Moor”, “the devil”, “an old black ram”.
In terms of Iagos feelings towards Cassio, his feelings are of Jealousy because Iago expected him self to be promoted. Cassio is being described by Iago as “mere prattle without practice, is all his soldier ship”. These words show that Cassio does not have the necessary experience in order to be Othello’s lieutenant.
“I hate the Moor” and “He’s done my office” are words of resentment used during the play and they describe the way Iago feels towards Othello and his idea of promoting Cassio as his Lieutenant.
Othello is portrayed as a loyal and faithful soldier to the Venation government. This can be interpreted from the following words that Othello uses himself.
“My services which I have done the signiory”
This describes Othello as being proud of the services that he has done for his government. Also he is seen as someone who respects the power structure of the city because he uses words such as “most potent, grave, reverend signior”, as well as “very noble”.
He is also portrayed as a brave and a skillful soldier who is essential for the Venetian Government plows. Hence the words “Valiant Othello” and “we must straight employ you” are used towards Othello by the Duke and the Senate. These words also show the importance of Othello as a figure to achieve the objectives of the Venetian Government. Hence the words “against the general enemy Ottoman”
Othello is also described as noble in nature and also as somebody who has a great sense of duty. Hence the words “Cassio, I love thee, but never more be officer of mine”. But the main characteristics that are essential to the play is that Othello is somebody who believes what people tell him and can easily be influenced. This is shown in the words used by Iago while describing Othello, “The moor is of a free and open nature”.
In order to ruin Othello and Casso, Iago creates a plan which would show Desdemona as having an affair with Cassio. In order to carry out this plan, Iago pursues his plan to continue seeming to be Othello’s friend and honest adviser. First we can see Iagos plan from the following words:
“I’ll pour this pestilence into his eat”.
“So will I turn her virtue into pitch”.
Iago presents him self as an honest adviser to Othello while carrying out his plan.
“Well my good lord I’ll do’t”
Once Iago has Won Othello’s confidence, he seems to be able to manipulate Othello’s feelings by creating feelings of jealousy with comments like “Ha! I like not that”, and also words like “Cassio my lord?” making it seem like there is something wrong with Cassio being with Desdemona.
During the play we can also see that words like “No further harm”, “Nothing, my lord”, “Honest, my lord?” are being employed by Iago to reasure Othello that Iago is by his side, while appearing to try to minimize something bad.
Once Iago has won Othello’s confidence he reinforces the idea of jealousy in Othello’s mind by using appalling words of advice like “O be ware, my lord, of jealousy: It is the green eyed monster………..” but also by disturbing the reality when he brings other elements to Othello’s attention.
“She did deceive her father, marring you;” Because Othello demands proof of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness, Iago asks Emilia to steal Desdemona’s handkerchief so that he could further carry out his plan.
Once Othello is at the verge of madness, Iago lies to Othello when he says that he saw Cassio speaking in his sleep saying “sweet Desdemona, let us be wary, let us hide our loves”. And finally Iago provides Othello with the proof that Othello has been asking for by presenting Desdemona’s handkerchief as the final proof of her adultes.
“If it be that, or any that was her, it speaks against hey with the other proof”.
Once Iago has planed the firm belief that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio, no further proof is needed by Othello when he says “ Now do I see’t is true”
Othello firmly believes that Desdemona should be killed by saying “Arise, black vengeance…”, “O, blood, blood, blood!” and Othello also has a plan to carry out the killing when he says “I will withdraw to furnish me with some swift means at death for the fair devil”.
Finally, Othello asks his “honest” friend Iago to kill Cassio.
“Within these three days let me hear thee say that Cassio’s not alive”.
These words show how much Othello now hates Cassio by the lies that are being poured by Iago to Othello’s mind.
The audience sees Othello's language change from gentlemanly to crude: "Damn her lewd minx..." Here is Othello uttering in Shakespearian times very bad words. Shakespeare makes Othello change his language and thoughts just to show the audience how someone can easily change from more suspicion. Then the last statement Othello says in the scene proving the point for the audience that Othello has changed: " O damn her, damn her. Come go with me apart, I will withdraw To furnish me with some swift means of death" This changes the way the audience perceive Othello from Othello saying life would be chaos if Desdemona wasn't there at the beginning of the scene to damn her, get her away from me and kill her at the end. This really starts the tragedy with the audience now knowing that evil Iago's plan has worked and the play will have a tragic ending, This builds up the tension as well, because the characters in the play still refer to Iago as "honest" when the audience can see plainly he is not.
Shakespeare uses certain ironies in the play, where he seems to be saying something to a person, but in fact is saying something completely different and evil. An example of this is in Act III, Scene III, where Othello says to Iago, 'I am bound to thee forever.' When Othello says this, he means how he is indebted to Iago, but the hidden, ironic meaning is that Othello is now the property of Iago, and will not escape his evil grip until death. These sorts of ironies again bring out the idea of the villains talking in a riddle, which gets passed on to Othello. This whole idea I think is showing how evil is so powerful that once it has you, there is no escape.
