Iago in Shakespeare's Othello Essay

Iago takes on many different persona’s to enact his plan of revenge upon Othello. He plays the friend, a trustworthy and credible source of

Evidence of his psychopathic personality is seen early in the play. He manipulates the wealthy Roderigo into awakening the senator Brabantio (“Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight”); and then he utters very offensive smutty lines about a black ram and white ewe, which indicate the way his sick mind operates. Iago’s very language reveals the level at which his evil mind works. Francis Ferguson in “Two Worldviews Echo Each Other” describes the types of base, loathsome imagery used by the antagonist Iago when he “slips his mask aside” while awakening Brabantio:

In the tragic play, Othello, the playwright, William Shakespeare, makes the readers believe in Iago’s deceiving motives, when in reality he is motivated out of his crazy nature. Shakespeare skillfully creates a villain who provides multiple motives for his malicious plan, but realistically Iago’s motivation is purely out of his sociopathic nature and little remorse for the pain he causes others.

The relationships in Shakespeare’s plays are never simple and even less so when one narrows the field to his tragedies. In the case of Iago and Othello this complicated relationship is made more so by the interwoven theme of appearance verses reality. The idea of Iago, the wolf in sheep’s clothing, fighting both for and against his master that permeates the play. Othello, however, a seasoned warrior being unable to see through the guise is a flaw his companion takes advantage of. Iago’s hatred is the biggest mystery of this play, making the reader wish Shakespeare had written a prequel.

Epilepsy on the part of the protagonist is unusual and physically abnormal. But the more serious abnormalities in the play are psychological. Iago is generally recognized as the one character possessing and operating by abnormal psychology. But Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes tells of the time when the hero himself approached “madness”:

William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ is one of the most emotionally fraught and psychologically intense of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The deeply psychological ideas it explores such as the nature of narcissism and psychopathy become a concentrated concoction of jealousy, hatred, insecurity, rage and repressed sexual desires within their isolated setting on the Island of Cyprus. When one applies a psychoanalytic lens to the play the internal workings of the human mind bubble to the surface with an intensity that is difficult to ignore. This is best expressed by analyzing the characters of Othello, a clear example of a narcissist and Iago, an id driven psychopath, and the way in which the two influence and psychologically feed off each other.

William Shakespeare’s Othello would not be a dramatic tragedy if the smiling villain, Iago, were a deaf mute. There is no doubt that the destruction of each character can be blamed on jealous Iago. The theme of jealousy helps propel the plot naturally and demonstrates the consequences of being morbidly jealous. The circumstantial evidence Iago provides acts like a lethal poison, which surrounds Othello in suspicion and envy but also turns him into an inhuman murderer. Jealousy is the ‘monster’ that unresonably conducts the great suffering in the story.

Othello, not knowing that Cassio was in fact speaking with Desdemona in hopes of being reinstated as Lieutenant, mistakenly believes that the two are having an affair and that Desdemona has lost her chastity. Iago skillfully capitalizes on the situation by developing his attack further: "She did deceive her father, marrying you" (3.3.220). Othello begins to see Iago's reasoning: if she could deceive her father, she could just as easily deceive her new husband. Once Othello's bliss has been decimated, Iago concentrates on weakening Othello's perception of himself; Iago very carefully and very tactfully chooses words and metaphors that subconsciously pit Othello against the Venetians. Othello begins to perceive himself as an outsider in his own country, "a malignant and turbaned Turk" (5.2.365). A fruitful marriage with a Venetian woman becomes out of the question in Othello's mind. Iago's successful manipulation takes a self-confidant man and reduces him to one at ends with himself and with the woman he loved.

And looking within Iago for the cause can yield the answer that the ancient is psychologically sick. In Shakespeare’s Four Giants Blanche Coles comments on the mental illness that appears to afflict the despicable Iago:

From a Schizoprenic Macbeth to Juliet with Borderline Personality Disorder, there are a myriad of theories about which Shakespeare characters have mental disorders. Many of these theories are grasping at straws, but a few characters throughout his plays show true symptoms of larger underlying mental disabilities. These mental disabilities can be subtly written in the text, and augmented in live performances in order to elicit the audience emotional reaction that is pertinent to one's directorial vision. I argue that both the text and stage productions of Othello portray Iago as a sociopath who will take down anyone standing in the way of his path towards success. The stage production of Othello at the National Theatre reinforces

By taking advantage of this fact, he is able to kill two birds with one stone. Iago feeds on Othello's jealousy by setting Casio up to look like he is conducting an extra marital affair with Desdemona, refuting Othello’s initial denial.  However, eventually, Iago has Othello so angered that he accepts Iago's offer to kill Cassio for him.

Iago plants ideas in Othello’s head, uses the innocent actions of others as his proof; and Othello, who is not practiced in worldly matters, believes his the misnomer of the “honest Iago”, and eventually is consumed by the lie.

You have told me she hath received them, and returned me expectations and comfort of sudden respect and acquaintance; but I find none” (IV, ii, 186-190). Roderigo started to see that Iago is cheating on him, but Iago is smart enough, and Roderigo is dumb enough for Iago to confuse him. In the second act during the party after the defeat over the Turks, Cassio becomes very drunk and easily taken advantage of. He then runs into the room where everyone is and attacks Roderigo. Montano intervenes and is then wounded by Cassio; Othello is forced to demote Cassio from his position of Lieutenant. With Cassio devastated he asks for advice from Iago, he then informs Cassio the only way to gain his position back is to talk to Desdemona. Cassio then leaves “good night, Honest Iago” (II, iii, 306). Shakespeare put in those two extra words on purpose; he is trying to show how Iago is already able to play with people’s minds and how manipulative he can be. Us, the audience knowing what Iago really wants to do, but Cassio puts trust into Iago with his position and future. The last person to believe Iago is honest and to trust him is Othello. Iago started to tell Othello of how Desdemona might be sleeping with Cassio, and how she is cheating on him. Othello does not believe him as there is no proof, “I’ll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; and on the proof there is no more but this” (III, iii, 190-191). Othello knows

In reference to Iago’s character, critic William Hazlitt had stated that Iago was an extreme instance of “diseased intellectual activity with an almost perfect indifference to moral good or evil rather a decided preference for the latter”. This linked to Iago’s ‘motiveless malignity’ as he attempted to justify the deceptive plans he was carrying out in the play which is represented in his soliloquy “But for my

Far more advanced for his time period, Shakespeare’s talent went unrecognized in the category of not just literature, but psychology as well. During the Elizabethan time period, it was unaware that a human could have psychological defects, let alone have characters who express these faults in a play. Shakespeare’s Othello was produced with two of the main characters having significant behavioral disorders. With a changing motive, the antagonist Iago expresses the symptoms of a narcissist and a sociopath by manipulating the protagonist Othello with lies about his wife. The infected Othello becomes caught up in Iago’s deception which causes him to show the traits of having low serotonin levels and appears to be going