Iago
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For other uses, see Iago (disambiguation).
Iago is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Othello.
Iago, second in friendship to Othello behind Cassio, spends most of the play attempting to bring about Othello's downfall by leading him to believe his wife, Desdemona, is being unfaithful to him with Cassio, his chief lieutenant. He eventually does destroy Othello's reputation (which leads the Moor to kill himself) but sets the stage for his doom when his wife Emilia reveals his plot. At the end of the play Iago is ordered to be imprisoned/executed by Cassio.
[edit] Description of character
Iago is one of Shakespeare's most sinister villains, often considered such because of the unique trust that Othello places in him, which he betrays while maintaining his reputation of honesty and dedication. Shakespeare contrasts Iago with Othello's nobility and integrity. He has more lines in the play than Othello, the most that any of Shakespeare's non-title characters have. Iago is often referred to as "honest Iago," displaying his skill at deceiving other characters so that not only do they not suspect him, but they count on him as the person most likely to be truthful.
Iago fits into the malcontent character type because of his bitter and cynical view of the world around him.
While the play suggests motives for Iago's hateful scheming, many readers feel that a deeper root remains hidden. Iago cites suspicion that his wife has been unfaithful to him with Othello or bitterness that Othello passed him over for a big promotion but many interpretations of the play include the idea that Iago is a representation of the devil.
Iago has been played in theatrical performances by many famous actors, such as Ian McKellen, Christopher Plummer, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Eccleston, Andy Serkis and Kenneth Branagh.
[edit] Possible motives for Iago
Iago has been described as a "motiveless malignance" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This reading would seem to suggest that Iago, much like Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, wreaks havoc on the other characters' lives for no ulterior purpose.
Possible analysed motives include:
- Failure to be promoted
- Racism
- Jealousy (of Emilia, of Desdemona or of Othello)
- Sexual infidelity
- Homosexuality
- Insecurity
- Supreme intellect unregulated by emotion or conscience (psychopathy)
- Sadism
In the exposition scene in Oth I,1, he himself states that his prime motivation is rancor at having been passed for promotion to the top post. Racism, disgust at seeing "a black ram tupping a white ewe", and supreme confidence in his ability to cause the fall of Othello and get away with it could therefore be considered quite secondary, although present. In contrast, it may be that Iago does not undergo racist feelings, but rather that he relies on Venetian society's racism to incite prejudicial action (Having noticed the usefulness of such a tool means Iago could use it without intrinsically being himself a racist - this connects heavily with the Machiavellian "Supreme intellect" motive). In addition, later in a soliloquy, it is revealed that he suspects Emilia of infidelity with Othello and Cassio.
