Shakespeare Iago's Character in Othello This Paper

Shakespeare Iago's Character in Othello This paper analyzes Iago's speech to Roderigo in "Othello," by William Shakespeare. Specifically, it discusses what the speech reveals about Iago's character. Does the play ultimately seem to suggest that Iago is right? Iago is a tortured character who displays many different and unhealthy psychological traits. He ruins the lives of those around him, and the play clearly shows he is a jealous, unhappy, and scheming man who cannot be happy, so he decides no one else can be happy, either.

He is central to the play because he causes so much death and unhappiness. It is clear his garden needs to be tended for a long, long time to make it healthy. Iago's Character in Othello Iago could be one of Shakespeare's most evil and frightening villains. He has no remorse, and is totally consumed with his own hatred of Othello. It colors everything he does in the play, and has clearly turned him into a bitter and spiteful man.

In his speech to Roderigo in the First Act, Third Scene of the play, he reveals quite a bit about his own personality and psychology. It is clear he is not a kindly, romantic, or loving man. (A man that kills his own wife is none of these things). He says, "our bodies are gardens," (Shakespeare 1:3:315) which at first seems a bit romantic and earthy, but then compares the garden's fruitfulness with our own wills.

This makes sense, because we are responsible for our own wills, and our own bodies, and so, we are responsible for what "grows" there, but he is really showing his cynicism and negative outlook. He is clearly a pessimist when he says, "the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions:" (Shakespeare 1:3:322). He feels we are nothing more than base humans, who are led by our emotions and our sexuality.

Iago is even more evil because he schemes against his leader, who is supposed to be his friend. It is clear he is angry about being passed over for promotion, but if Othello understood even a little bit about this man, it is clear why he would pass him over. Iago is a man who allows his emotions and hatred to rule him, and he is not the kind of man a leader would want behind him in battle.

In turn, Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is unfaithful to him, and one reason for this is his cynical and unemotional nature. Perhaps he is jealous that two people can love each other so much. He says, "but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect or scion" (Shakespeare 1:3:323-324).

This means he looks at love with scorn, that only a fool would indulge in, and in the garden, it is simply a leaf or a division of a plant, dividing someone into two people, and ruining their purpose. He is not only cynical, he is unhappy, and this may be one reason he is so determined to ruin the people around him. Clearly, his garden is full of weeds, and he has not tended it carefully. Iago has nothing good to say about love or those who love.

It seems as if he finds them weak, and he despises weakness - in himself, or anyone else. He is certainly not "sterile with idleness," it is more "manured with industry (Shakespeare 1:3:319), and it is true that his industry throughout the play is filled with dirt and manure, as he schemes against just about everyone in his life. He is evil because he has no conscience or remorse, and because he cannot recognize the goodness of the people around him.

He might even be paranoid in his delusion that Othello slept with his own wife. Of course he is jealous of Othello, because he is a bold and successful leader, and because he is obviously in love with Desdemona. In Iago's garden, jealousy is a terrible weed that takes over everything else, and colors the way he sees the world around him. Iago does have a charming and humorous side, and it often comes out in his long speeches that tell more about the man and his thoughts.

In this speech to Roderigo, he compares sensuality to reason, and this is amusing, because there is really nothing reasonable about love and sensuality. It is clear Iago has an understanding of the people around him, and how they think, which is another thing that adds to his underlying evil. He can read the people around him, and he knows what will hurt them the most. He is cunning, and he is deceitful.

All of his character traits show him to be a very disturbed man, who today would probably get a lot of psychological counseling. It is hard to know just what has made Iago so unhappy, so jealous, and so essentially evil, but clearly, his life has not been one filled with joy and love. Ultimately, the play does not make Iago right, because Othello and Desdemona are such tragic figures. Othello becomes a victim of.