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Act 1 scene 1 - Coggle Diagram
Act 1 scene 1
The tragic villain
Iago says he admires the men that "Make shows of service on their lords" in order to get ahead, setting him up as a deceitful character. He openly admits "I am bit what I am." His position of tragic villain is immediately cemented in the play, and the idea of appearance vs reality is questioned from the start
Iago tells Roderigo he is bitter because of the way "Preferment goes by letter and affection/ And not by the old gradation" showing his class envy as a possible motivation for his villainy, yet we can't trust him as he also says he only serves Othello to "serve my turn upon him"
Iago's intelligence makes him ever more threatening, he knows it 's "not meet nor wholesome to my place to be produced" outside Brabantio's window scandalising Othello if he wants to be his lieutenant.
There are other examples of dramatic irony that centre on Iago in this scene. Roderigo fails to see that a man who admits he is a selfish fraud might be using him and Brabantio is unaware of the truth of his words to Iago, ‘Thou art a villain!’ By the end of Act I Scene 1, Shakespeare has established Iago as a powerful, manipulative figure, who instigates and stage-manages chaos efficiently.
- Iago hates Othello for promoting Cassio instead of him, and therefore holds a grudge against Cassio too.
- He's discontented because he's held back by the class system and the "curse of service.
- Iago's motives are plausible a) because of concrete facts about his profession and b) because he's an egotistical, manipulative, evil, and envious character
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Conflict
Shakespeare immediately juxtaposes Roderigo's domestic desire/failure to marry Desdemona with Iago's political desire/failure to reach the position of lieutenant. This immediately foreshadows the collision/overlap of political and domestic issues in the play
Brabantio's rounding up his neighbours to help him hunt Othello distorts the private issue of his daughter's marriage, turning it into a very public and political issue.
Summary
- Roderigo is unhappy with Iago for failing to help him marry Desdemona (who has secretly married Othello) despite him 'having held my purse as if the strings were thine'
- Iago insists he hates Othello because he has promoted an inexperienced soldier to lieutenant when he feels entitled to that position, so seeks revenge
- Iago urges Roderigo to wake Brabantio and tell him about the elopement.
- Brabantio discovers that Desdemona is not at home, he calls to gather a group of men to search for Desdemona and Othello.
The tragic hero
We do not see or meet the tragic hero in this scene, we instead hear of his scandals and the perspectives of others, everything we know about him from this scene is second hand.
Deception and Deceit
In act 1 scene 1 we see evidence of deceit from even before the play's beginning. Roderigo was led to believe he'd have Desdemona, Iago deceived himself into believing he'd be promoted, Othello and Desdemona deceived Brabantio by eloping.