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Characterisation / Iago - Coggle Diagram
Characterisation / Iago
As a Villain.
Like Richard III, is inherently evil.
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Like Edmund in King Lear, Iago fashions his plots out of the material he has at hand.
Motives.
Professional jealousy, he disgraces Cassio.
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Sexual jealousy, Othello.
He says he hates Othello because he suspects the general has "’twixt my sheets … done my office" (Act 1 / Scene 1).
"nothing can, nor shall content my soul, / Till I am evened with him, wife for wife" ( Act 2 / Scene 3). And because of this gnawing paranoia, Iago determines to use Desdemona’s goodness to "enmesh ’em all" (Act 2 / Scene 3).
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A Freudian interpretation of the play might suggest that Iago is subconsciously in love with Othello. This is how Laurence Olivier played the part of Iago. At the line ‘I am your own forever’ (III.3.486), he kissed his Othello (Ralph Richardson) on the lips.
We might add misogyny and racism to the motives outlined here; although he never says explicitly that he hates women or foreigners, his exceedingly low opinion of them, which comes across in many of his speeches, suggests that Iago wants to degrade those he despises.
Orson Welles, director and lead actor in his own 1952 film version of the play, felt that Iago must be motivated by impotence (erectile dysfunction).
How is Iago successful?
He can play a number of roles convincingly, and is able to adapt his tone and style to suit any occasion.
With Cassio he is bluff, coarse and genial. He also offers the lieutenant plausible practical advice
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With Montano and Lodovico he makes a point of stressing that he has Othello’s and the Venetian state’s best interests at heart. There seems to be an absence of ego in all his dealings with these characters, who are socially and professionally superior to him. But this is deliberate.
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Iago only bothers to speak to his wife pleasantly when he thinks she has something he wants, otherwise his tone is cold and contemptuous.
He pretends to seem most anxious about the consequences of the brawl in Act II Scene 3, and hesitatingly describes his ‘friend’ Cassio’s part in the evening’s events. His show of reluctance in Act III Scene 3 is also effective, by pretending that he doesn’t wish to divulge his thoughts he manoeuvres himself into a position where he is able to poison Othello’s mind thoroughly.
Iago has an acute eye for his victims’ weaknesses or flaws and exploits them mercilessly: he is puppetmaster. Iago’s role-playing enables him to become stage manager and dramatist, controlling his victims’ fates increasingly effortlessly.
Descriptive - he adds surplus detail to the fictional events he recounts to make them more believable.
As an audience, we feel as if we get close to him because he draws us in through his use of asides and soliloquies, but at the end of the play he somehow eludes us when he refuses to speak.
Iago and Othello.
Some critics suggest he seeks to replace Desdemona in the Moor’s affections because he has latent homosexual feelings.
Iago certainly sets out to prove to Othello that his ‘love’ is more honourable than the "super-subtle" Venetian’s (Act 1 / Scene 3).
Gradually, Iago accumulates the control and power we once associated with Othello. He does this so successfully that Othelo even begins to speak and think like his petty, reductive inferior.
Iago makes Othello believe that he is loyal, conscientious and noble minded (these are of course – ironically – Othello’s best qualities).
Perhaps Othello's need to fit in made him so fond of everything he saw in Iago, for he saw it in himself also.
In Act 6, Scene 1, Iago manipulates Othello to eavesdrop on Cassio, and then manipulates how Othello understands what he's heard.
quote en quote;
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And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns
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Where, how, how oft, how long, and when,
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Iago’s Machiavellian antecedents in Shakespeare’s plays include the corrupt and corrupting Richard III, who, like Iago, takes the audience in through his use of asides.