Shakespeare Iago's Character in Othello This Paper Term Paper

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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.

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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….....

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