Iago's Use Of Pathos In Othello

Humans are naturally emotional and easily-manipulated beings. They are controlled by their emotions, the good and the bad. Pathos is evoking a feeling of pity or sympathy towards another and in novel writing it is the act of evoking feelings for someone who doesn’t even exist. Writers use pathos to engage readers, helping them feel connected with the characters and keep them interested. Successful authors are often master manipulators. Shakespeare can be seen as one of these master manipulators and is one of the most successful writers of all time; modern writers recycle/reuse his ideas and themes because they are universal and timeless.
In Othello Shakespeare uses pathos for all of his characters, including Desdemona. He depicts Desdemona

as loyal, honest and innocent of character. From the beginning, she is an angel, except the part where she betrays her father for love. In today’s world the audience or readers would be cheering her on, but back in Shakespeare’s time crossing your father and marrying a moor would be more than frowned upon. Even though she betrays her father, she is still painted as an exemplary wife and friend and over all a decent human being. Throughout the whole play she does not turn against her husband like the Duke warned Othello she might, nor does she do anything that would be frowned upon. Even with her dying breath, Desdemona exhales loyalty and love. When Emelia asks what has happened Desdemona covers for Othello, and claims to have done it to herself, never revealing that her husband was the real culprit, although Othello confesses to have done it himself.
Shakespeare makes the audience feel for Othello at the first act when he says “Rude am I in my speech, and little blessed...” (Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 3), but contrary to what he says he shows himself too be excellent with his words and convinces the other characters and of course the audience he’s more than the just a Moor. When Iago tries to place doubt about Desdemona faithfulness, Othello immediately silences him. After all Iago’s manipulations and providing “proof” of her affair with Cassio, Othello then turns into a darker character, turning on his wife and inevitably himself. The audience feels for Othello because he had so much faith in her, but Iago makes him truly believes she is cheating. The fact that Shakespeare made his audience sympathize with a moor is pure talent. People were very classist, and very much prejudiced against “his” kind of people. Remaining safely within the confines of their own communities and social ranks. Going back to the very beginning, he had the status of a tragic hero, brought in for his new post because he was expendable. Nobody cares if he dies, but if the loss of one of their own was unimaginable.
Finally, there is Iago, without a doubt, the villain of the story.

Without him the story wouldn’t have had such a tragic ending. Iago at first comes off as an honest man, after all everyone calls him “Honest Iago”, but the audience gets a full 360 on his character. The audience sees his good, his bad and his reasoning behind everything. Shakespeare makes a point to show that Iago knows what he is doing is wrong. He had a soliloquy where he spoke to the audience in hopes of convincing them that what he is doing is not entirely wrong but innocent. He reasons with the audience, because what he is doing, at least until he completely lies, is harmless if the chess pieces in his game weren’t so foolish. “And what’s he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest, Probal to thinking… How am I then a villain, to counsel Cassio to this parallel course, directly to his good?” (Act 2, scene 3). His soliloquy rings true; what he is saying is a perfectly good suggestion to make. Iago’s intentions are not pure and knows that suggestion, if manipulated correctly, can do lead to the desired outcome for his master plan. The audience knows he is the villain of the story, but they cannot help but feel for his character and even cheer him on at

times.
Pathos is one of the most important aspects of a story, without it we would not care what happened to the characters. Successful writers such as Shakespeare use emotion to their advantage and manipulate the audience, a good author can make us feel for the innocent and ideally go as far as to make his or her audience feel for the villain. "Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives, and we obey them without realizing it." (Vincent Van Gogh)