Iago was an honest man previous to the play, whose actions were a consequence of him going nowhere in his life To What Extent Do You Agree With That Statement?

“Iago was an honest man previous to the play, whose actions were a consequence of him going nowhere in his life” – To What Extent Do You Agree With That Statement?

Of all the characters in Shakespeare's “Othello”, none creates a sense of animosity quite like the complex character of Iago. It is clear that he is known to be a very honest man throughout the characters. However the audience get a sense or the real Iago with his soliloquy at the end of Act 1 in which we learn that he is infact completely contradictory to his perceived persona. He's a duplicitous character, honest and kind on the outside but on the inside he could be described as the Devil incarnate. Iago uses his soliloquies to delineate possible motives but always goes off on a tangent and these motives never referred to again during the play. Iago WAS actually an honest, caring person who, because he was extremely unhappy with the direction his life was heading, decided to become villainous to try and achieve something in life. It is clear that he was hard working but had nothing to show for it: his deserved lieutenancy had been handed to an undeserving mathematician, he was jealous of the social status of Cassia and Othello and above all his honest ways were getting him nowhere in life.

Iago is constantly referred to as “honest” by every major character and yet with huge dramatic irony, they could not have been more wrong about good old “honest Iago.” A couple of examples of characters mentioning their faith in Iago are scenes which are either personal or very important. Othello leaves Desdemona in the care of Iago and Othello says: "A man he is of honesty and trust.” Another example of kind words been spoken about Iago comes in the form of Cassio when Cassio says: “I never knew a Florentine more kind and honest.” These characters have known Iago for a long period of time, especially Othello, and therefore it would be unrealistic and unreasonable to suggest he was under pretence for the majority of his life. Thus proving he has not always been a villain but once was truly an honest man.

It is not irrational to say that Iago was probably honest for the most part of his life up until the point that Othello wrongly promoted Cassio. “I hath looked upon the world four times seven years" – this shows that Iago is 28 years old and the kick in the face of not being awarded a promotion has led him to his villanous life. Iago saw that his life was not going the way he wanted. Iago dreamt of the promotion and wanted to move up in the world and realised that if he did nothing about it, his life would be stuck in first gear. It scared Iago that he could well be stuck in a job which undermines his true ability and he was determined to prevent this injustice from being served. He felt jealous of Cassio over the lieutenancy and had a grudge against Othello for not promoting him."Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me for making him egregiously an ass.” This quote is part of Iagos second soliloquy and suggests that Othello has not treated him as he should. It makes it out as though Othello has neglected his loyal understudy for too long. Iago also feels jealous that Othello and Cassio are leading a better life than he is. Cassio is lieutenant and Othello is of high authority with a beautiful wife who Iago has feelings for, or so he says: "...And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona a most dear husband. Now, I do love her too,..."

Iago believes that he is getting nowhere with his life and this is down to Othello and Cassio. He is jealous of Cassio and Othello and therefore needs to extract revenge on the pair. Honesty is not working at all for Iago and because he wants his life to turn around completely, he does the complete opposite of being honesty and loyal – he becomes evil. Iago admits this himself:

O wretched fool,
That lov'st to make thine honesty a vice!
To be direct ...

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O wretched fool,
That lov'st to make thine honesty a vice!
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I should be wise, for honesty is a fool
And looses that it works for.
Iago begins to search for motives in his head as to why he commits the terrible crimes that he does execute. This is because he is trying to justify his actions because he has a guilty conscience and needs to try to condone his wrong doings. In Iago's numerous soliloquies, Iago concocts several well thought out motives but has no real evidence to back these ideas up and therefore only refers to the motives once and never comes back to them. His first reason for instilling pain on Othello was because Cassio was promoted instead of Iago and yet after he mentions this reason in his first soliloquy at the end of Act I, this motive is never heard of again. On the contrary, Iago states in Act 5 that “Cassio hath a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly.” However, this is after Iago has been promoted to lieutenant and therefore there is obviously some other reason in which Iago holds a grudge against Cassio.

Iago also says that he suspects both Cassio and Othello of having an affair with his wife, Emilia. Once again he has no evidence at all for this theory and thus never mentions this one again either. In addition, this would not be a valid motive for Iago even if it where true because, throughout the play he shows little interest or respect for Emilia and therefore if an affair was going on it would be unlikely that Iago would go to all this trouble for a woman he shares little affection with. Also he does end up killing her in the end.

My final example of Iago’s motive hunting is when he states that he has a love for Desdemona during his second soliloquy and does not mention this supposed love for Desdemona again which shows that, most likely, it didn’t exit in the first place. This motive hunting expressed by Iago is a sign that Iago once had or still somewhat has an honest conscience. He has turned evil to get his life back on track, but shows remnants of a conscience. We can relate to Iago in this sense as we all try to cover up a shameful action by making it seem logical and acceptable in our heads but in reality it is not. Most would suspect that Iago is pure evil and yet the mere fact he contains some sort of conscience proves that his actions are not evil. Aquinas stated “acting contrary to conscience is an evil action,” and Iago shows hints of conscience therefore concluding he is not evil. In Iago's first soliloquy he states in regards to Othello and Emilia, "I know not if't be true, but I, for mere suspicion in that kind, will do as if for surety" This proves he is just trying to concoct logical motives just to silence the ever brewing present conscience that exists inside his not so malicious body.

In the play "Othello", Iago is presented as a character who is seemingly evil, malicious, fraudulent, immoral double crossing being who has decided to create havoc for reasons or pure villainy. However I do believe that Iago is an evil character as some would argue but was once honest and kind and still has honesty within him. It is impossible for anyone to hold such an incredibly high reputation or honesty without being overwhelmingly honest throughout ones life. The time that the play is set is the time in which Iago has decided that being honest and loyal has got him nowhere in his life proven by the fact that Iago did was not promoted to lieutenant which was a role he clearly deserved and he was jealous of Othello and Cassio who were leading a better life than he. Othello had a loyal and honest conscience which he tried to satisfy by providing it with logical reasons as to why he committed he wanted to extract revenge on Othello and Cassio. Iago was not an evil malignant person, but was an honest person with no other alternative but to be deceitful and become a liar to alter the direction of his life which he was quite clearly not satisfied with previously and therefore used his initiative to try to make something he knew, and we knew, he deserved.

Word Count: 1420