“What hath he [Cassio] said?”
“Why, that he did–I know not what he did.”
“What? what?”
“Lie–”
“With her?”
“With her, on her; what you will.”
Iago is deliberately tormenting Othello by giving hints of sexually suggestive terms, but withholding any real information. He allows Othello’s imagination to run wild and the imagine the very worst. This gives a much greater impact than any explicit information could, and leaves Othello begging Iago for more knowledge, giving Iago power over Othello. A. C. Bradley compares Iago to Goethe’s Mephistopheles, in that “His thwarted sense of superiority wants satisfaction. What fuller satisfaction could it find than the conscoiusness the he is the master of the General who has undervalued him and of the rival who has been preferred to him” which mirrors Mephistopheles in his desire for power over Faust as part of a competition with God. Millicent Bell explains Iago’s motivation as “He despises the idealism that sustains Othello’s virtues… His effect upon Othello will be to destroy the very qualities he singles out to despise – Othello’s constancy… his lovingness and his nobility… his free, trusting nature” and ridding Othello of these characteristics would bring Othello that much closer to damnation.
Othello’s symbolic marriage to Iago is taken by many as evidence of Iago’s “repressed homosexuality”. However, the marriage really represents the signing over of Othello’s soul to the devil. At the beginning of their exchange, Othello is seen demanding “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore! Be sure of it; give me ocular proof” (3.3.356-357) after which he gradually becomes more desperate, first with “make me to see’t; or at least so prove it that the probation bear no hinge nor loop to hang a doubt on” (3.3.361-363) and ending with “Give me a living reason she’s disloyal” (3.3.406) progressing in a very short time from ocular proof, to any sort of proof, then desperately to simply a reason. He now is even willing to accept the evidence of a dream, and even when Iago protests “Nay, this was but his dream” (3.3.424), Othello rages on with “I’ll tear her all to pieces!” (3.3.428). In this scene he moves from demanding proof to swearing he will have vengeance. He now calls upon hell, proclaiming,
Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell!
Yield up, O Love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 'tis of aspics’ tongues. (3.3.444-447)
Iago hears this and knows that Iago is now ready to offer him his soul. Iago recognises this summoning of the devil, but it is Othello who first starts speaking in the language that reminds readers of the marriage ceremony. When Iago tries to calm him, saying “your mind may change” (3.3.449), Othello responds four times with the word “Nev’r” reminding us of the permanence of this change. He then kneels and pronounces “Now, by yond marble heaven, In the due reverence of a sacred vow I here engage my words”, and Iago, kneeling as well, vows “Witness, you ever burning lights above… that Iago doth give up the execution of his wit, hands, heart to wronged Othello’s service”. The references to heaven, the sacred vow, the calling of witnesses from above, and the giving up of Iago’s wit, hands, and heart, are all very recognisable as parts of a marriage ceremony. Also apparent are the similarities of Iago’s speech to Desdemona’s speech, just after her wedding, “And to his honors and his valiant parts did I my soul and fortunes consecrate” (1.3.248-249). During this ceremony, Othello and Iago kneel, one of the very few stage directions in the play. [ Shakespeare uses stage directions very sparingly, and when they are used it is often for symbolic actions essential to interpretation. ] In contrast to a holy marriage, in which the bride and groom stand, Othello and Iago’s marriage is of a lower rank and performed at a physically lower level. Bruce R. Smith describes it as a “parody of a marriage rite” and remarks that “the parody is all the more grotesque because Iago will use Othello’s trust to destroy him.” After they rise, Othello asks of him
I greet thy love,
Not with vain thanks but with acceptance bounteous,
And will upon the instant put thee to’t.
Within these three days let me hear thee say
That Cassio’s not alive (3.3.467-470)
Here he is accepting Iago’s love, but at the same time demanding proof of it. The idea of revenge is Othello’s own, which shows that after his marriage to the devil, no further temptation is necessary. Iago responds that he will kill his “friend” at Othello’s request, but pleads for Desdemona’s life to be spared. He, of course, only says this to plant the idea of revenge on Desdemona into Othello’s head, and Othello responds,
Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! Damn her!
Come with me apart. I will withdraw
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now are thou my lieutenant. (3.3.473-475)
Ironically, he is damning her and calling her the devil, which can almost inspire pity of his cluelessness, as he does not realise who is really damned, and who is really the devil. Iago closes the scene with “I am you own forever” (3.3.476), a final affirmation of their marriage, but rather than “Til death do us part” it is forever, as Othello has just damned himself and will spend eternity with the devil in hell.
The permanence of this deed and Othello’s inability to turn back continues to be shown until his death. Othello’s speech to Desdemona about the handkerchief, where he tells her “There’s magic in the web of it… The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk” (3.4.69-74) shows his abandon of religion and return to superstition. Though he no longer needs evidence, he will gladly drink up any that I provided, because this will give him a reason to give to himself. When Iago sets up the encounter in which Othello overhears Cassio talking about Emilia, he automatically assumes that he is talking about Desdemona, despite not a single mention of her name or any other distinguishing feature. Even when evidence is presented to the contrary, Othello refuses to shift his paradigm back to what it was before his marriage to Iago. When he asks Emilia about the encounter she saw between Desdemona and Cassio, she tells him truthfully that she heard every word they said to each other and never sent her away. Othello responds simply with “That’s strange” (4.2.11), taking it not as evidence against his belief, but concluding that Emilia must be an accomplice in this. This is evidenced when he calls her in later, saying “You, mistress, that have the office opposite to Saint Peter and keep the gate of hell!” (4.2.89-91) and throws her coins, casting her as both the keeper of the gate of hell, and as the brothel keeper. In the same scene, Othello accuses Desdemona of being “a public commoner” (4.2.72) “a strumpet” (4.2.81), and “a whore” (4.2.84). This was never even hinted at by Iago, and, as Stephen A. Shapiro explains, “Iago has told Othello that Desdemona has betrayed him with Cassio. But Othello is inventing elaborate variation on the adultery theme when he transforms her into a ‘public commoner’ ”. In the final scene, Othello recognises Iago for the devil that he is, spitting out “I look down towards his feet [looking for cloven hoofs] –but that’s a fable. If thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee” (5.2.283-284), (which Iago does not deny, saying “I bleed sir, but not killed”). Othello even goes so far in his recognition of reality that he calls himself “Fool! Fool! Fool!” for falling for Iago’s trickery. However, he still does not recognise his own part in his fall, calling himself “one that loved not wisely, but too well; Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, perplexed in the extreme” (5.2.340-342) and so dies, thinking of himself as an innocent man fooled and tormented to the point of insanity. Iago’s part is Othello’s fall was not nearly as great as Othello makes it out to be. In reality, Othello willingly offered his soul to the devil in marriage, and from that point on, mdae up all the evidence necessary to condemn his wife, and was unable to return towards salvation.
Sources
Bell, Millicent. (2002). Shakespeare’s Tragic Skepticism. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
Bradley, A.C. (1904). Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on hamlet, Othello, King Lear, MacBeth. St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Shapiro, Stephen A. (1997). Othello’s Desdemona. Gale Research.
Smith, Bruce R. (1991). Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England: a cultural poetics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
