This scene allows us to see how manipulative Iago is and how he will say anything to get what he wants. He lies, he plants, seeds of doubt, and he uses Othello's jealousy as a weapon against him. It is important to note that Iago knows something about jealousy because he is jealous himself. It was his jealousy of Cassio's promotion that sparked his motives and he can turn the jealous screw tighter and tighter because he knows how it feels to burn with jealousy. We can call him an expert in the field with firsthand knowledge and, like most criminals, he chooses to use that knowledge for destruction rather than anything else. Iago is malevolent because he is not just being cruel to rather innocent victims, he is taking pride in his cruelty. He knows what he is doing and expresses no regret for doing it. He is proud that he can create such a messy masterpiece. He reveals his true nature when he says:

Work on,

My medicine work! Thy credulous fools are caught, and many worthy and chaste danes even thus,

All guiltless, met reproach. (IV.i.45-7)

Here Iago gives new meaning to the phrase pleasure in pain. He feels no guilt for causing these fools to feel whatever it is they are feeling and calls his tiresome meddling medicine that would be described as a poison. Either way, Iago finds no fault in his actions and wrecking lives. This passage, more than any other, reveals the depth of Iago's sickness. While many would argue that he is simply an evil man, he is also a sick man in...

He is under the mistaken belief that hurting someone else actually improves one's own lot in life and nothing could be further from the truth. In his mind, the image of a wrecked Othello brings him pleasure but it is fleeting and unsubstantial. He cannot know this because he, too, is blinded. Iago is as sick with his need for revenge as Othello is with jealousy and, as we know, all of these emotions run amuck lead to disaster.
If ever a villain were to win Lifetime Achievement Award for villainous behavior, it would be Iago from Shakespeare's Othello. He is the most dangerous of villains because he is smart and he knows how to manipulate people. By exploiting weaknesses in the personalities of those around him, he is the grand player successfully moving the pieces on the game board into strategic positions until they devour one another. He never falters and he never once thinks that he cannot do it. He is dangerous because he knows he is dangerous and lives to see that danger played out. His confidence and intelligence trump the goodness of Othello, Desdemona, and everyone else and he knows this as well. Iago is the Villain Laureate of English literature remembered for successfully creating a mess out of everyone's life without getting his hands the least bit dirty.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Kenneth Muir, ed. New York: Penguin Books. 1968.