Othello

Though Shakespeare names this tragedy Othello, it is the villainous character, Iago, who has the greatest number of lines; it is Iago who invites the audience into his mind as he constructs the action of this play. Iago forms the plot of Othello as if he were writing a play himself. He manipulates the other characters with an unnatural, almost supernatural wit and an inhumane, if not an inhuman, depravity. Iago provides the audience with insufficient motivation for his callous plot; he simply seems to enjoy the role of tormentor. It is Iago’s exquisite cunning, his evil bent, his obsessive desire to control and spoil human lives that leads an audience to match his character with a familiar literary fixture. Is Iago the devil?

Diabolical characters show up in literature throughout the ages. They are always clever and always out to ruin lives and mar souls for the pure joy of it. Iago possesses these devilish qualities. His fear that Othello has slept with his wife, and his resentment of Cassio for attaining a higher position are less motives than afterthoughts of a plan to and destroy his social superiors, a plan born of hate and a desire for control. Iago has fun with his skill in psychological manipulation and acknowledges, with pride, his ability to corrupt pure souls when he declares that he will “turn [Desdemona’s] virtue into pitch” (2.3.334). In this same passage, he likens himself to devils: “When devils do the blackest sins put on,/ They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,/ As I do now” These lines show his admiration of and inclination toward the diabolical.

The word devil commonly occurs in Iago’s rhetoric. Twice, he refers to the devil when he informs Brabanzio that Othello and Desdemona have married. He mentions the devil in reference to Othello again when he and Roderigo discuss the inevitability of Desdemona making a “second choice” (2.1.229), and in Act 3, Scene 4 when he talks about Othello to Emilia and Desdemona.

In using the word devil so often when he speaks of Othello, Iago subtly discredits Othello’s virtue. Even when not directly applied to him, the word, in proximity to Othello’s name, seems to suggest that Iago wishes to portray him as less than Christian; in the seventeenth century, the label of devil could be applied to a follower of any religion other than Christianity (Oxford English Dictionary). By invoking doubt in Othello’s Christianity, Iago accentuates Othello’s position as an outsider, the position that leads to Othello’s insecurity and provides Iago with an easy route to deception.

Othello is not the only puppet in Iago’s plan. When Iago gets Cassio drunk to damage his reputation with Othello, Cassio curses the wine, “Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.” Cassio never suspects Iago of trickery and fails to see him as the real devil in the scenario. Instead, he looks to “honest Iago” for advice. As it is to all of his victims, Iago’s deception is invisible to Cassio. Iago seems to have a superhuman ability to lie perfectly.

Iago’s reward for his masterfully woven net of deceit is Othello’s fatal turn on Desdemona. Iago successfully convinces Othello that Desdemona is a devil herself and manipulates him into planning “…some swift form of death/ For the fair devil…” (3.3.481) We see Iago and Desdemona take on contradictory roles in Othello’s mind. He sees Iago as loving, trustworthy and looking out for his best interest while he views Desdemona as a dishonest and manipulative devil. It is reasonable to deduce that, because the characters of Iago and Desdemona are reversed in Othello’s perception, the title of devil could be transferred from Desdemona to Iago.

Iago’s manipulations so corrupt Othello’s trust in Desdemona that he perceives his wife as less than human. He cries out “Devil!” (4.1.235), as he strikes her for a crime of dishonesty. When Lodovico protests the mistreatment on Desdemona’s behalf, Othello repeats “ O devil, devil!

If that earth could teem with woman’s tears

Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.” Othello suggest that Desdemona feels no real emotion, so he justifies his mistreatment of her.

It is not until the rage has run full course and Desdemona is dead that Othello realizes the true orchestrator of his tragedy. Emilia uncovers her husband’s lies, and, at the cost of her life, makes them public to clear her mistress’s name. She declares “Let heaven, men and devils, let ‘em all,/ All cry shame against me yet I’ll speak.” As Emilia speaks, all present learn that Iago has deceived them. Othello identifies him with the devil that he thought Desdemona was when he looks “down towards his feet” (5.2.292) for the cloven hooves associated with the devil in fables and says to Iago “If thou beest the devil I cannot kill thee.” (5.2.293) Iago replies “I bleed, sir, but not killed.” In this line Iago identifies himself to Othello as and admitted but not repenting villain, a devil.

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