Iago of William Shakespeare's Othello

Iago of William Shakespeare's Othello

There are many examples of animal imagery throughout Shakespeare's

Othello that are used by the characters in the play both innocently

and with the intent to cause harm. Shakespeare uses imagery in Othello

to emphasize several of the themes that are found in the play,

including reality vs. appearance and good vs. evil. The imagery of

people as beasts is strongly introduced in the first scene of Act I,

and is thereafter found fairly evenly throughout the rest of the play,

maintaining the mood that people are little more then animals, acting

on their primal urges.

Many of the bestial images are used by Iago in reference to Othello.

He is determined to expose Othello for the beast he is by "bringing

this monstrous birth to light" (1.3.395). In the first scene of the

play, Iago claims that he dislikes Othello for promoting Cassio over

himself and later claims that he suspects that Othello has slept with

his wife, and uses these as excuses to seek revenge on Othello to

prove that he is an animal unworthy of Desdemona. In reality, however,

Iago's true motives are for his own evil pleasure and in this pursuit

of "joy, pleasance, revel, and applause transform[s] [himself] into

[a] beast" (2.3.291).

Iago makes his feelings known for Othello in the first scene of Act I,

when he and Roderigo tell Brabantio that the "old black ram [was]

tupping [his] white ewe" and that with his daughter "covered with a

Barbary horse", his grandchildren "will neigh to [him]" (1.1.85;

1.1.108). Iago quickly angers Desdemona's father with his vivid

bestial images and it is here that we realize the depth of Iago's

cr...

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...convictions for upholding honor and justice. Instead, it is Iago,

while in his attempts to prove the Moor a beast, exposes himself as

the true animal in Othello.

From the beginning of the play, we are aware of Iago's lack of human

compassion. He tells Roderigo that "Ere I would say I would drown

myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a

baboon", or that he would rather be an animal then give his life for

someone else or for the sake of love (1.3.314-316). As the play moves

along, Iago becomes more and more beast-like as his determination to

destroy the Moor intensifies. Though he claims he has reason to hate

the Moor, his reasons are a shallow excuse for his animal behavior.

Unlike Othello, Iago needs no just reason to carry out a murder, but

only his own desire for bestial gratification.