Othello Study

Style: Tragedy
Other Shakespearean tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth (true tragedies)
Interesting facts: Othello is the only domestic tragedy making it much more personal, Iago is referred to as "honest" 52 times, Iago also has more lines than the title character, Venetian generals were always foreigners as they would have no mutinous desire for power.
Mood: Suspenseful, ironical, tragic

Iago's Deceptions throughout the play:

• Telling Roderigo Desdemona loves him and will soon be his.
• Half-joking that Cassio and Desdemona are a little too friendly
• Getting Cassio drunk and getting Roderigo to fight with him
• Telling Roderigo Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair
• Telling Othello he may be cuckolded.
• Advises Desdemona to speak on Cassio's behalf
• Putting Desdemona's handkerchief in Cassio's room
• Manipulating Othello into hearing a conversation where Cassio talks of a woman - assumed to be Desdemona
• Telling Roderigo that Desdemona will be his if he kills Cassio
• Stabs Roderigo
• Wounds Cassio
• Kills Emilia
  

Iago's Motivation:

• Jealousy of Cassio. Cassio is a "daily beauty" and a little too friendly with women, especially Emilia. Iago says in his second soliloquy that he "fear[s] Cassio with my nightcap too". Iago is not good-looking.
• Angry at Othello because he didn't get the lieutenant promotion. It went to a "one Michael Cassio" who "never set squadron in a field" when it should have gone to Iago in his opinion due to the fact that he has "seen the proof at Cyprus"
• He suspects that Othello "hath leapt into [his] seat" and slept with Emilia. His fear of being proven a cuckold leads him to plot revenge without much proof at all. Other mention of this is in his first soliloquy saying "and it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets/He has done my office"
• Believes that Othello is inferior to him. Othello is a "black Moor" with "thick lips" referred to by Iago in derogatory animalistic terms.
• Iago's own insecurities about himself. It is suggested by his jealousy of Cassio in both position and looks that Iago is not good-looking or youthful. His only weapon is his intelligence. Who wants a cunning man when there is a friendly and good-looking one available? This could be Iago attempting to eliminate the reasons for his insecurity by eliminating those who provoke it. Remember, everything is relative and relatively he would undoubtedly feel undeservedly inferior. No one believes that they themselves are evil.
  

Regardless, Iago is determined to right the things that have been wronged against him. When one's wants are put out of balance or are discarded, they look to right the wrong against them. Shakespeare applies this logic to Iago in the extreme. Iago is bent on revenge and will do anything to get it.

However Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous description of Iago counters all of the above. He claims that it is merely the "motive-hunting of a motiveless Malignity". This means simply that the above reasons for his deceptions are not reasons at all, but rationalisations. Coleridge defines "motive" quite differently to what we do now (we define it as the emotions and desires fueling our actions). He defines Iago's supposed motives to be a "keen sense of his intellectual superiority" and also his "love of exerting power".

Iago's Language:
Towards Othello - Derogatory and animalistic. References to him as a "black ram" combines both black and white and animal imagery. Othello's affair with Desdemona is described as having "your daughter covered with a/Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews neigh". This is Iago telling Brabantio how disgusting it is for a "fair maiden" like Desdemona marrying an old black general. By comparing Othello to an animal he's belittling him as an inadequate copy of a Venetian. Iago plays on Othello's difference in appearance, plays on Othello's own insecurity. This boosts Iago's self-image, confidence and esteem in order to balance out his "love of exerting power" from a lower position as Coleridge says.

Repetition of "honest" - referred to 52 times. Only refers to himself as honest in irony, everyone else (save the audience) doesn't believe him. This is where the real irony lies. Shakespeare recycles his Twelfth Night line and transfers the same tone and irony to Viola to Iago and says "I am not what I am".

Chauvinist attitude toward women - most prominent in the beginning of the second act as he insults Desdemona saying that "if she be black and thereto have a wit/she'll find a white that shall her blackness fit". Here is a pun as white can be substituted with wight (a man). He also says that women only "rise to play and go to bed to work". Reflective of this attitude is his treatment of Desdemona as merely a function of his dastardly plan to get Othello. "The first casualty in war is innocence" meaning Desdemona who has done nothing wrong is sacrificed in Iago's battle for power and revenge.