Iago's Manipulation of Characters in William Shakespeare's Othello

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Iago's Manipulation of Characters in William Shakespeare's Othello

Introduction

The play 'Othello' was created by William Shakespeare. Othello is a

tale set in Venice at the time when adultery was a hanging offence. It

is a tale all about jealousy and manipulation by one of the main

characters, Iago. It was originally created by Giraldi Cinthio and was

titled: 'The Story of Disdemona of Venice and the Moorish Captain'

Shakespeare created his play by taking the characters and location and

then adapting it to his own style for effect.

Iago manipulates the characters by revealing and exploiting their

fatal flaws to bring about their downfall. Iago uses Othello's

jealousy of Cassio to make Othello believe he is having an affair with

Desdemona. Iago uses Desdemona's trust and love for Othello to bring

about her downfall. Iago even uses his wife's trust to make her not

notice his schemes. Iago also uses Cassio's fatal flaw, trust. Cassio

is in love with Desdemona. Iago has his own weakness too, greed. He is

greedy for power and is jealous of Cassio for being promoted above

him, and will do anything to stop Othello and Cassio.

In act 1 scene 1, Iago starts to manipulate Othello straight away.

Iago is speaking to Roderigo about how he despises Othello and wants

revenge. Iago refers to Othello as 'it' or 'him' never speaking his

name, this is used to make Iago sound more devious, and to give more

effect to the scene. Iago carries on and says that he also hates

Cassio for getting 'his job' by being promoted to lieutenant ahead of

him, a promotion, Iago feels, should have belonged to him. Iago vows

that he will get revenge upon Othel...

... middle of paper ...

... realising until the damage had been done.

Iago managed this by using rhetoric in his manipulation. He uses Ethos

- the use of an authority or educator to break up arguments - and he

uses Pathos - the use of emotive language and imagery to add dramatic

effect - and finally Logos - the use of logic, data and statistics. He

carefully uses all of these on all characters throughout the play to

bring about their deaths.

An example of Ethos was when Iago talks to Montano about Othello and

Cassio's drink problem, an example of Pathos is when Iago talks to

Brabantio about Othello and Desdemona's marriage, and an example of

Logos is when Bianca is seen with the handkerchief by Othello. All of

this clever and sly manipulation leads to the downfall of several

characters, and the imprisonment of himself, (which was unplanned).

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