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Othello, Evidence for Iago's homosexual feelings can be seen in the…

- - - - Shakespeare presents jealousy as all consuming and unnatural. Iago experiences professional jealousy that turns him into a cruel antagonist and Othello's sexual jealousy (springing from love and insecurity) turns him into an irrational beast.
  - - - Iago, the previous embodiment of honesty and the later personification of deception, makes others see what he wants them to see:
        
        Talks to Cassio about Bianca but makes Othello believe they speak of Desdemona (4.i).
        
        Makes Othello see more to Desdemona and Cassio's relationship than there is (3.iii).
        As a result, Othello's perception is warped-he comes to see Desdemona's "beauty" and "sweet" smell as masking corruption and evil within her.
- - - - He has courage, intelligence, the skill of command, and the respect of his troops. Under pressure, he makes an inspiring speech. (As play was written during the Renaissance Era when the 'ideal man' was created, it can be assumed that at the start of the play Othello ws much like a representation of the 'ideal man') Othello is an outsider who is intelligent and confident in military matters but socially insecure. He leads an intense life, swinging between triumph and dread. He is different from those around him, due to his origins and his life history, but he shares their religion, values, and patriotism to Venice.
        
        Othello is aware of the precarious nature of success and happiness. "But I do love thee, and when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again" (III.3, 91-93). These are the words of a man who knows chaos and believes himself to have been rescued from it by love. Love for Othello puts order, peace, and happiness into his mental world, which would otherwise lapse back into chaos. He has grown up in exile, slavery, danger, and despair, now, as a professional soldier, he lives amongst chaos on the battlefield, but he need no longer have it in his inner being, because he has love.
  - - - At the end of the play when he refuses to explain his motives ; "From this time forth I never will speak a word", suggests that he either doesn't have any motives or that he won't reveal them - this makes him seem even more ruthless and means that he remains in control. Some critics argue that there is no reasonable motivation to justify Iago's cruelty. He may even be considered a 'Vice character' (personified evil).
        
        Furthermore, it would seem that Iago is unable to connect with people in an ordinary way.
        As he doesn't have a high opinion of women, he is often labelled as a misogynist:
        
        He displays contempt for women throughout the play either suggesting that they are promiscuous or adulterous.
        
        His marriage to Emilia is loveless and he keeps her only to use and exploit her for his own gain.
        
        His relationships with men are even more complicated :
        
        He hasn't got many friends - only using them for his own gain.
        
        His relationship with Othello is complex because Iago seems to both love and hate him.
        
        Despite Iago's hidden hatred, they have a close relationship which grows more intense. Some critics argue that there may be homosexual undertones in their relationship (Laurence Olivier plays on this when he played Iago).