Iago Climax In Power Analysis

Iago’s Climax in Power Shakespeare’s Othello seems to be based entirely around jealousy. This jealous reaches its head in Act IV Scene 1. It seems that the play has been building up to this scene. Othello and Iago seem to have switch leadership position. Everything, at this point, is going right for Iago. One might argue Iago’s power is at a maximum when Othello and Iago are kneeling and vowing to each other, but it would seem that the climax of Iago’s power is truly when his whole plan finally comes together and everything seems to be going according to plan.

To begin the scene, Iago is putting images in Othello’s head about Desdemona’s supposed infidelities. He repeatedly brings up Othello’s gift to Desdemona: the handkerchief. Iago, in this conversation, tries to get Othello to see Desdemona as the handkerchief by saying, “Why, then ‘tis hers, my lord, and being hers, she may, I think, bestow’t on any man” (4.1.12-13). Othello, in his heightened state, will not take that statement at face value. Othello would, and did, take that statement as saying that Desdemona can give herself away to any man. At the

Because of this handkerchief, Othello decides he need to kill Desdemona, even though she tells him of her innocence until she dies. After she died, it was the handkerchief that allows Othello to see her innocence. Once Emilia tells Othello that she gave the handkerchief to Iago, Othello realizes his mistake. This handkerchief, that convinced Othello of her infidelity in Act IV Scene 1, is what eventually gets Emilia killed, Othello dead, and Iago captured. The same evidence of her infidelity is what eventually gets everyone where they do not want to be. The handkerchief that seemed to put Iago at his height of his power, seems to be the factor that puts Iago at rock bottom on Act V Scene