Iago

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For other uses, see Iago (disambiguation).

Othello and Iago.

Iago is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play Othello.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Iago, Othello's second lieutenant and closest confidant, spends most of the play attempting to bring about Othello's downfall by leading him to believe his wife, Desdemona, is being unfaithful to him with Cassio, his chief lieutenant. He eventually does destroy Othello's reputation, which leads the Moor to commit suicide. Othello's death also sets the stage for Iago's doom, however, when his wife Emilia reveals his plot. At the end of the play, Iago is arrested and Lodovico orders Cassio to pass judgment on him - and strongly recommends the use of torture (possibly as means to make him speak, especially because of Honest Iago's last words : "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth, I never shall speak word."). Whether Iago will be put to death (perhaps by torture) or sentenced to life imprisonment is not revealed in Shakespeare's play and one may only speculate on his future whereabouts.

[edit] Description of character

Iago is one of Shakespeare's most sinister villains, often considered such because of the unique trust that Othello places in him, which he betrays while maintaining his reputation of honesty and dedication. Shakespeare contrasts Iago with Othello's nobility and integrity. He has more lines in the play than Othello, the most that any of Shakespeare's non-title characters have. Iago is often referred to as "honest Iago," displaying his skill at deceiving other characters so that not only do they not suspect him, but they count on him as the person most likely to be truthful.

Iago fits into the malcontent character type because of his bitter and cynical view of the world around him. While the play suggests motives for Iago's hateful scheming, many readers feel that a deeper root remains hidden. Iago cites suspicion that his wife has been unfaithful to him with Othello or bitterness that Othello passed him over for a big promotion but many interpretations of the play include the idea that Iago is a representation of the devil.

Iago has been played in theatrical performances by many famous actors, such as Ian McKellen, Christopher Plummer, Frank Finlay, Christopher Eccleston, Andy Serkis and Kenneth Branagh.

Iago has been played in the so-called Bollywood (the Indian film industry) movie called Omkara by Saif Ali Khan. The names in the Hindi (India's national language) movie are absolutely named behind the characters from William Shakespeare's Othello. Othello is named as Omkara, Iago as Langda Tyaagi, Desdemona as Dolly and Cassio as Kesu.

[edit] Possible motives for Iago

Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh as Othello and Iago, respectively.

Iago has been described as a "motiveless malignance" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This reading would seem to suggest that Iago, much like Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, or Aaron in Titus Andronicus, wreaks havoc on the other characters' lives for no ulterior purpose.

Possible analyzed motives include:

Failure to be promoted
Racism
Jealousy (of Emilia, of Desdemona or of Othello)
Sexual infidelity
Insecurity
Supreme intellect unregulated by emotion or conscience (sociopathy)
Sadism

In the exposition scene in Act 1, scene 1, Iago himself states that his prime motivation is bitterness at having been passed for promotion to the top post. His racist disgust at seeing "a black ram tupping a white ewe", and his supreme confidence in his ability to destroy Othello and escape detection all present potential motives. In a later soliloquy, it is revealed that Iago suspects his wife of infidelity with both Othello and Cassio. Ultimately, none of these motives are identified as primary, so it is impossible to determine conclusively which applies, if indeed any of them do in isolation, or which is most important among them.

The greatest problem that Iago presents as a character is reconciling his malignant, manipulative behavior within the play, with the high regard that he has earned from Othello, Cassio, and others, who trust him implicitly (to their undoing). How a man as bitter, cynical and amoral as Iago could ever become so trusted is a mystery that the play never explains.

As stated by Andy Serkis, who portrayed Iago in the theater, "There are a million theories to Iago's motivations, but I believed that Iago was once a good soldier, a great man's man to have around, a bit of a laugh, who feels betrayed, gets jealous of his friend, wants to mess it up for him, enjoys causing him pain, makes a choice to channel all his creative energy into the destruction of this human being, and becomes completely addicted to the power he wields over him. I didn't want to play him as initially malevolent. He's not the devil. He's you or me feeling jealous and not being able to control our feelings."

Iago, indeed, only reveals his spiteful and bitter side in his soliloquies, and in occasional asides. Elsewhere, he is charismatic and friendly, and the advice he offers to both Cassio and Othello is superficially sound; as Iago himself remarks 'And what's he then,/That says I play the Villain?' (Act 2, scene 2). It is the dramatic irony, created by the audience's knowledge of his wicked intentions contrasted with the other characters' trust in him, that drives the play.