Iago's Motivation in Shakespeare's Othello

Iago's Motivation in Othello

Iago is a "moral pyromaniac." Harold C. Goddard writes that Iago

consciously and unconsciously seeks to destroy the lives of others, especially

others with high moral standards (Goddard 76). However, Iago is more than just

a "moral pyromaniac," he is a moral pyromaniac whose fire is fueled by pure

hatred. He is a hungry powermonger whose appetite for destruction can only be

satisfied after he has chewed up and spat out the lives of others. Iago lusts

for power, but his sense of power is attained by manipulating and annihilating

others in a cruel and unusual way. Iago prepares and ignites his victims and

then watches, with an excitable evil in his eye, as his human pyres go up in

flames.

Iago undeniably has an unquenchable thirst for power and domination.

Critics such as M. R. Ridley believe that the ability to hurt is the most

convincing display of one's power (Ridley lxi). Iago has a deep, inbred desire

to cause and view intolerable suffering. The power of Iago is exercised when he

prepares and then implements an evil plan designed to inflict man with the most

extreme amounts of anguish possible. Iago controls the play, he brilliantly

determines how each character shall act and react. He is a pressing advocate of

evil, a pernicious escort, steering good people toward their own vulgar

destruction.

Iago must first make careful preparations in order to make certain his fire

of human destruction will burn with fury and rage. He douses his victims with a

false sense of honesty and goodness. And, as do most skillful pyromaniacs, Iago

first prepares his most important target, Othello:

Though in the trade of war I have slain men, Yet do I hold it very

stuff o'th' conscience To do no contrived murder. I lack the iniquity.

. . I had thought t'have yerked him under the ribs . . . . . .he

prated

And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms Against your Honor (I,

ii 1-10).

These sentences are obvious lies (to the reader), but they are crucial to the

saboteur because they present Iago to Othello as a brave, loyal, and moral