In Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello, the real villain is Iago. While many of the other characters, particularly Othello himself, commit actions that go against humanity, these events are orchestrated by Iago. On his quest to extract revenge against the Moor of Venice, Iago manipulates, tricks, and lies to everyone in the town to ensure that his plan falls into place. He shows no regard for anyone else, or for the moral code that resides within every human being.
Iago is a villain because he only cares about himself, and his own happiness. He is bitter about Cassio being promoted and wants revenge on both Cassio and Othello. In the very first scene of the play he is complaining about Cassio and saying that Othello has treated him wrongly (Jacobsen 497). He states, “Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains” (1.1.156). A few scenes later, he states, “I hate the Moor” (1.3.368). Throughout the play he frequently states that he hates Othello and this drives his motivation for revenge. He decides to extract this revenge by turning everyone against each other through the spreading of lies, and leading others to believe these lies. He uses the technique of “verbal warfare” to bend minds and manipulate everyone (Jacobsen 499). He orchestrates a chain of events that lead to fatal consequences for some innocent people, all because he wants his own satisfaction. Firstly, he turns Othello against Cassio by convincing Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair, subsequently turning Othello against Desdemona. He states, “With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great/ A fly as Cassio” (2.1.168-169). Once Othello has turned on his own wife, Iago turns everyone else against Othello, believing him to be too mad to rule anymore. When Lodovico questions Othello’s sanity and his ability to be a strong leader and live up to his reputation, Iago edges him on and states, “he is much changed” (4.1.266).
A villain is someone who puts their own desires before others. Iago goes about his deception without any regard to the moral law (Jacobsen 501). He simply does not care about the goodwill of other people and the fact that he has destroyed everyone else’s lives. He puts his own wife in a compromised situation where she attempts to protect her employer from the “wretch” (4.2.15) that put the ideas in Othello’s head, not realizing it is her own husband that has done so. This showcases the fact that he is willing to put someone he loves in a position that conflicts their interests and makes them a bad person by association. For example, he gets Emilia to give him Desdemona’s handkerchief and refuses to tell her what he is going to do with it. He tells her, “Be not acknown on’t,/I have use for it” (3.3.329-330). He manipulates her into giving him the handkerchief this way, even though Emilia knows how important it is to Desdemona.
This can relate to today’s society because people are still willing to manipulate others to get what they want. There are some political leaders who have done this. Villains still exist within society; they simply take the form of many different personas. Some serial killers turn out to be people who no one would have ever expected them to be because they had been perceived as charming or nice. Everyone is capable of holding secrets and keeping secret agendas. It takes a true villain to act on these secret agendas at the risk of the lives of innocent people. Iago is this type of villain. He represents the potential of every person to be tempted by choosing between good and evil. He does this through being a villain that represents the idea of revenge and frustration within society. Many people can relate to the feeling of being passed over for a promotion or losing a competition to someone else. Iago takes this to a new level by plotting revenge and having people killed as a result, but the bottom line is that this evil man felt something that many good people also feel.
Works Cited
Jacobsen, Ken. Iago’s Art of War: The “Machiavellian Moment” in Othello. Modern Philology
106.3 (2009): 497-529.
Shakespeare, William. Othello, The Moor of Venice. In Shakespeare: Othello. Eds. David
Bevington and David Scott Kastan. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2005.
