In the story of Othello written by William Shakespeare, a character named Iago is proclaimed as the villain of the story. It must be for the reason that the story ended as a tragedy with multiple deaths, mostly because society perceives death as negative and unneeded outcome for which they must assert blame in order to assure themselves that it was initially not suppose to occur. Which is why in the play, multiple characters asserted the reason for multiple deaths on Iago in order for themselves to assure themselves that they are not as inhumane or wicked as Iago, that they are something better and human who could not stop the “unnatural” force of Iago. That is how Iago got labeled as a wicker evil murderer, an unnatural force that changed and manipulated all of them into becoming …show more content…
Which is where Iago fell a victim to their irresistible urge to assert blame, when a man named Othello, who denied Iago a job at the beginning of the play, went mad at hearing Iago’s mere belief and went off planning the deaths of his beloved adulterous Desdemona who had various opportunities to question the accusations of her and the backstabbing Cassio who he once called friend. When Iago's too loyal wife who followed his every whim and would do anything to please him until she realized her doting servitude to her husband had commenced the path of death to two high profile people in love with one abandoned handkerchief. While Iago was surely not innocent, neither was he guilty of it all or deserved to be called the villain of the play for the tragic ending when all characters caused the death as equally as Iago. Iago should not be called the villain of the story because all of the characters played as the villains; if he were to be called a villain, all of the other characters should also be categorized as villains no matter their role, it all ended in the demise
In Shakespeare's play Othello, Iago Is shown to be the villain. With the cunning use of his brilliance and manipulation, he is able to orchestrate an entire plot to take his revenge on Othello the center of all his ill tempered aggression. By lying to characters like Roderigo and many others, including his wife, in order to
Northrop Frye once said, “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” Othello is the pillar of tragic heros, first playing the part of a loving husband with a beautiful wife, then being manipulated into believing his wife was cheating on him and killing her. Throughout the play, he played the part of the protagonist, everyone hoping he would figure out Iago was lying to him. Othello being the protagonist made the fact he was also a villain bittersweet. His apparent love for his wife Desdemona, his ‘just’ reasoning for killing her, and Iago’s deserving end all contribute to the tragic work as a whole.
In Othello, Iago is Shakespeare’s most malicious character and serves as a vehicle to these two themes. Iago despises Othello; he has a strong will to destroy Othello’s life, yet the motive behind his plan goes unexplained. Iago is a great manipulator of the tongue and lies to everyone in order to advance his plan; however, every character in the play considers Iago an honest character, and Othello even associates Iago with light and eyesight. Othello continuously asks Iago to explain or make something clearer. Until the very end, Iago appears to be honest and helpful to the other characters, but underneath this seemingly harmless façade, Iago is a demon with the strongest will; he will stop at nothing until he ruins Othello’s life. Iago uses a positive appearance to enact his
Iago is widely known as one of Shakespeare’s most famous villains and this is because of the way in which Shakespeare has presented him. Iago is presented to be a man of pure evil who eliminates any form of happiness of hope within the play. The quotation: “Virtue? A fig! 'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners” shows Iago diminishing the virtue of Othello and pointing out that everyone is willful and has virtue until their true intent comes to light. Iago’s attitudes towards women are also very poignant within the play and are one of the aspects of his archetype that are remembered the most. Furthermore, a majority of villains have a reason or an intention to want to cause havoc or to turn to the side of evil. For example, in Hamlet, he is motivated by revenge and achieving what was once lost. In Romeo and Juliet, honour is a prominent theme, alongside the need to keep an age old rivalry that has descended from other generations. However, Iago has no real intentions apart from despising Othello for not offering him the promotion and then later suspects that Othello could be having an affair with his wife, Emilia. Therefore, the fact that he has no hard intention for wanting to ruin the life of Othello and others, is a reason as to why he may be despised by
Iago’s persistence and villainous intentions made Othello become jealous of Cassio and break down his emotions towards Desdemona and want to kill her with fierce rage. Othello would not do such a crime if he knew it was a lie because Othello loves Desdemona and would die for her. Othello was madly in love with Desdemona and they were compassionate for each other, but he was misguided and confused with jealousy and hatred which steered him off course to his sinister fate. Othello cannot be justified as a bad person because of one incident, especially after all the great things he’s done and achieved for the city. Iago is the real antagonist and has become the bad man of the play as his roles are to protect the crown in which was Othello and stay loyal to fellow soldiers but throughout the play he was the complete opposite with characteristics such as being a liar, un loyal to every character in the play.
Fred West addresses the fact of Iago misrepresentation, “It is not sufficient to simply drape Iago in allegorical trappings and proclaim him Mister Evil or a Machiavel or a Vice. Such a limited view of Iago is an injustice to the complexity of his character, since Shakespeare’s studies in personality are acclaimed by psychologists for their accuracy and profundity” (27). West seems to be reminding us that just seeing Iago as the representation of evil within the play of “Othello” is the wrong way to paint him. Iago is a man wronged by Othello in the fact that he was not chosen to be Othello’s lieutenant, which is what put the dastardly idea into Iago’s head to trick them all and bring them to their knees. As Iago tells Roderigo within the first act and scene of “Othello”,
The play "Othello" by William Shakespeare is based on an Italian story in Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi (Groliers). In "Othello" we encounter Iago, one of Shakespeare's most evil characters. Iago is an ensign in Othello's army and is jealous of Cassio's promotion to Lieutenant. Through deception and appearance, we see unfolded a plethora of lies and clever schemes. The astonishing thing about Iago is that he seems to make up his malicious schemes as he goes along without any forethought. Noted writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes Iago's plan as "motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity" (Scott 413). Iago seizes every opportunity to further advance his plan to his advantage. Greed plays a major role as a motive for his various schemes. Throughout the story, Iago portrays himself as a Satan figure. In many ways, Iago can compare with Satan.
Iago is definitely to blame for the misfortune that occurs in the story. Iago disseats every character in the story. Iago’s main reason for doing so was that he felt mistreated and overlooked when Othello assigned Cassio his right hand man. So the only true character Iago truly despises is Cassio. Iago dislikes Othello, but ultimately would rather be his buddy then his enemy. Iago sees Othello as a good guy, but simply sees Othello’s pick of Cassio as just a lapse in judgement. So Iago takes it upon himself to change what he saw as wrong. The only problem is
In this tragedy, Othello, Shakespeare, has created a villain who behaves in this manner. Iago’s hatred, method of revenge, and vengeful hatred are the reasons for the lives lost in this play and the reasons that led to Iago’s downfall. Iago’s hatred of Othello and Cassio causes him to seek revenge, and he is able to succeed because his victims are too innocent to suspect him. Iago is a Machiavellian Shakespearean character who cunningly convinces his victims of his full moral support and proves his innocence in a way that his victims do not suspect him. When Cassio finishes his conversation with Desdemona about how he will not have his job back, Iago unfolds his mischievous plan against Desdemona when he says that, “so will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all” (Shakespeare, 49).
person who has bad things happen to him or her. Likewise, the antagonist is portrayed as evil and villainous, and seeks to destroy the moral protagonist. Many readers and critics perceive Iago as evil, manipulative, and antagonistic. He directly seeks to destroy Othello, Cassio, Roderigo, and any other good character, out of selfish and unprovoked rage. The critic, W.H. Auden, says this in reference to Iago, " Iago is a wicked man. The wicked man, the stage villain...the suffering he inflicts is real (48)." In the play Othello, Othello is viewed as the good, and intelligent character. He is loving wise, and the ideal soldier. The critic William Empson defines him as, "the personification of honour (44)." For these reasons, many readers side with Othello as being the heroic protagonist of the story. Othello is living a successful life, newly married, and prospering until Iago decides to step in. By looking at the play in another perspective, Iago, not Othello, can be viewed as a heroic and good character. Despite Othello's role in the play and portrayal by the critic, Iago's desire and motive to create a better life for himself, as well as his keen and cunning intellect, make him a heroic protagonistic character with whom the audience can sympathize.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago is the antagonist and villain who causes all the trouble and disorder. Othello is the protagonist, and is the main person Iago’s destruction and revenge is aimed towards. Othello is naïve and gives everybody his trust even though he may not know them or they haven’t earned his trust yet. He often refers to Iago has “Honest” Iago, which is a direct showing of irony because Iago is not honest at all (Shakespeare, I, iii. 289). Iago is so angry that Othello didn’t give him the promotion that was given to Cassio that he plans to seek revenge against Othello. He seeks his revenge against Othello by manipulating and lying to all of the people around him including his closest friend Roderigo, Cassio, Othello’s wife Desdemona and even his own wife Emilia. In the end, Iago’s lies and manipulation led to the deaths of Roderigo, Emilia, Othello and Desdemona. This isn’t the first time many of these individual characteristics have shown up in one of Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare Othello was an act of many evil traits, including betrayal, manipulation and jealousy. Evil can be described as an act of someone who causes grievance, destruction, or impairment for one owns satisfaction; Iago, unquestionably, fits the description. Othello represented these traits through character, Iago, as he reveals his true nature of evil by diminishing people lives and becoming the downfall of many people around him. “Hell and night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light” (I, iii, 394-396). Though Iago may not have a purpose of participating in many of his act of evil, he presents it as a self-obsessed driven supremacy. He plots to destroy Othello and to gain dominance by observing each weakness from Othello, and takes advantage of it. He uses his aid of human nature to help with his evil schemes and plots throughout the play. Because he identified Othello’s weaknesses and was able to use verbal persuasion to not only gain Othello’s trust, but to also use that as a benefit to what he wanted to accomplish. It is great importan...
There are several reasons that make Iago such a terrifying villain. Shakespeare gave certain qualities to his creation that made Iago more than just an evil character. These qualities transform Iago into the truly insidious character seen in the play. From the beginning of Othello to the time that Iago is revealed as the culprit, everyone trusts Iago and looks to him for advice. This gives Iago the means and opportunity to pull off his villainy.
Iago, the evil villain of Shakespeare's Othello, is more than just a villain. In many ways he is the most intelligent and appealing character in the play. Iago shows superiority over the rest of the characters in the play. He has the ability to manipulate the characters in the play, therefore controlling the play with every sequence of events. His intelligence shines through his ability to deceive, his ability to strategize, and his ability to twist the truth. Iago is appealing to the characters of the pay because he gives them what they want. Iago is appealing to the reader as well. His character is totally unconflicted about being evil, making him known to some authors as the villain of all villains. Iago is, in many ways, the most intelligent and appealing character in the play.
Shakespeare uses Iago and Othello as the main characters of the play, showing how Iago manipulates Othello into believing his wife is cheating on him. Iago, or “honest Iago”, the villain of the play, a perfectionist at manipulation, that manages to influence people into thinking his deceitfulness is an act of honesty. He spends all of his time plotting against Othello and Desdemona, eventually convincing Othello that his wife has been cheating, despite the fact that Desdemona has been completely faithful. Othello, Venice’s most competent general, and the protagonist of the play. He was a noble and respected war hero, and a loving husband, however he was the target of Iago’s atrocities, which lead him to become an irrational, violent, and insanely jealous husband who murders his own wife at the end of the play.