The Duke in Othello accepts Brabantio’s complaint against an unidentified ‘abuser’ of his daughter, but when he learns the ‘abuser’ is Othello, whose skills are essential to the benefit of the state, he bends the law on the ‘Moor’s’ behalf. The audience is aware that Othello must die, and he does, as this play is one of Shakespeare’s tragic flaws. They know that he cannot live, after committing such a deed, and loosing all his respect, he must then die in order to regain some of his respect and nobility. There are two major characters in this tragic play; firstly Othello, the cultural and racial outsider, who is ironically the noble Christian and Iago, is the ‘Barbary horse’. Othello is possibly one of the most highly regarded and respected characters in the play because he led the army, which saved the country from the Turkish fleet. In Act 1 scene 3, he is clearly a noble and well-spoken man and this is conveyed throughout his speech, "Most potent grave and reverend signors". Also, he does not let his eloquence suffer as he is put under increasing strain by Iago’s plots, however, as the play goes on we notice a very distinct change in Othello when thoughts of Desdemona with Cassio corrupts his love. He seems to have a very strong relationship with Iago and Cassio; Shakespeare intends this so that it builds up the tension for the audience for what evil is to be performed by Iago. Othello regains his serenity in the final moments of the play and once again seduces the audience with his words. Othello is made to be a tragic figure because there is the tension between Othello’s victimization at the hands of a foreign culture and his own willingness to torment himself so he is not just one of Iago’s ridiculous puppets.
Iago, possibly the most heinous, motiveless villain in all of Shakespeare’s plays however, he is possibly the most successful character and he can play a number of roles convincingly and adapt his style and tone to suit the situation. In the first scene, he claims to be angry at Othello for having accepted him over for the position of lieutenant, and then goes on to say he thinks that Othello may have been ‘twixt his sheets’ and ‘done his office’ with Emilia. None of these claims seem to explain Iago’s deep hatred for Othello and his lack of motivation and unwillingness to express to his true motivation make his actions more terrifying. Iago seems to enjoy watching the pain and damage he has caused. Subsequently, Iago seems to find it funny especially in his scenes with the foolish Roderigo; he almost seems to wink at the audience as he reveals his manipulative abilities. He uses all of the play’s characters, the trait that is most lethal to Othello: trust.
Iago seems to be obsessed with plants. Iago’s speeches, particularly with Roderigo, make extensive and elaborate use of plant metaphors such as: ‘Our bodies are our gardens, to which out wills are gardeners… the power and corrigible authority of this lies in out wills’, ‘Though other things grow fair against the sun.’ The characters in the play seem to be the product of certain inevitable, natural forces, which, if left unchecked, will grow wild. Iago appears to know these forces particularly well. He, according to his own metaphor, is a good ‘gardener,’ both of himself and of others. GARDEN OF EDEN! Serpent (Iago) drips ‘poison’ in Othello’s ear.
Shakespeare has made Iago speak in prose. It helps lower the emotional temperature whilst Iago’s bantering wit once more engages the audience. By understanding human actions Iago believes that he has discovered the master secret because of his desire for security and power over the other characters so exploit those less clear sighted than him. This makes him superior to everyone else.
Early on in the play, Iago seems to present himself as a friend, in an attempt to gain Othello's trust. This shows us that Iago plans develop early on destroying Othello's marriage and where Othello's state of mind starts to change and Iago starts to creep in with his 'poison' and comments like 'Look to your wife, observe her well with Cassio…' however, 'My lord, you know I love you…' makes Othello feel secure and think he has found a trusting ‘friend’ in Iago and soon enough Othello has his suspicions of Cassio and Desdemona so, already we can see jealously sneaking in.
Throughout the whole play Othello has a gracious and exquisite use of language out of all the characters despite his claims to lack this. To enhance this he speaks in blank verse throughout the first part of the play. The poetic language does not last all the way through the whole of the play though as later he talks in prose. He uses this language when, "chaos comes in," all of Othello’s language starts to deteriorate because of anger, hate and jealously he feels towards Desdemona and Cassio. By 4 I, Othello has been convinced of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness and he is very different to the general we saw in Act 1; his speech is now dis-jointed and lacks clarity. He is no longer the polite and articulate speaker we used to know. We see a ‘Barbary’ Othello who speech is contemptuous, abrupt and rather like Iago’s. Considering where the scene is set, a hidden in a castle which contrasts with the setting of Act 1 scene 3 in the council chamber where Othello is open, honest and has nothing to hide. In Act 1, 3 there is a lot of entrances and exits indicating the panic and mayhem however, this atmosphere is put to an end when Othello enters. However, in 4, 1 there maybe more pandemonium yet, there is still a consistent feeling of panic signifying the change in Othello’s character. When Othello loses his gracious language he begins to use a less extensive vocabulary and his speech has transformed, with the theme of heaven and he clings to images of the devil and the elements. To help the audience understand the anger Othello uses hyperbolic language like, "I'd rather be a toad and live on a vapour of a dungeon". Othello simply says this to illustrate how badly he feels about Desdemona's affair. He uses an image of a toad because, to him, it was thought of being the slimy and almost the lowest form of life. So he emphasizes this in his anger to explain the situation he is faced with. All this is down to the extended metaphor which runs throughout, that of light and dark, pure and evil, heaven and hell. Furthermore, the idea of ‘Eden’, as Iago replays the role of the ‘serpent’, whilst ‘poisoning’ the ear of Othello.
When Othello killed ‘pure’ Desdemona he was not in a normal state of mind, he was acting to jealousy which caused many other human emotions in the play. The nature of anger caused him to become irritable and aggressive, also hatred, which did not allow him to be considerate, and as a result he suffered from human frailties. Othello’s gullibility allowed him to believe the false accusations made by the manipulative Iago; therefore he couldn’t distinguish fact from fiction.
