In Iago, Shakespeare Has Created An Engaging And Complex Villain Who Governs The Actions Of The Play. Discuss

In Iago, Shakespeare has Created an Engaging and Complex Villain who Governs the Actions of the Play. Discuss

Shakespeare's character of Iago is seen as one of the most intriguing and deceptive characters ever created. His menacing and complete control over the play and how he so easily toys with the course of the performance draws in all those observing his act and leaves his victims grasping for straws of reality amongst a bed of hoaxes. In order to understand how Iago operates one must first understand the play. In brief summary Othello is the story of a high ranking soldier who falls in love and elopes with his wife. His ensign Iago sets out to destroy Othello and his recently promoted lieutenant, Cassio. How Iago brings all their lives into a pit of misery is the tragedy of the moor. The complexity of such a villain lies in his un-nerving calm with which he carries out his twisted duties, using a mastery of the language in order to push and persuade, rarely resorting to physical violence and when doing so, usually using a misled character to do his dirty work. His motives that drive him are despairingly thin; his power over others captivates his audience and his curious crimes lead us Ð''by the nose, as asses are.'

In the time of Shakespeare writing this play there would have been a large host of set stock characters in order to make the plays easy to follow for the audience. Iago does perform to this main baseline of what would have been labelled a Machiavel, a practised liar who secretly plots and schemes. He uses cunning and duplicity to achieve his ends; delighting in his own manipulative evil with the ability to dissemble and disguise his true identity, a theme exceedingly popular theme in the 17th century. Iago conforms brilliantly with this character. In his frequent soliloquies in which he forces the audience to conspire with him, he often shows us the extent of his likeness. Ð''In love and honest kindness.' Iago is commenting on advice he just gave a supposed friend, assuring him of its worth, in fact the advice he just gave will led to his entire plot to be cast underway. It is this self assured lying and disguising of his own identity that links him to the Machiavel, combined with the scheming and manipulation that he performs, keeping the audience informed of his dirty tricks in his soliloquies lest we should miss his ill doings. His conformation with the Machiavel stock character meant the 17th audience would have immediately picked up his intentions and would follow closely to see how this particular evil manifested itself.

His conformation to the mould of an established villain also comes with the close ties Shakespeare makes with hell. To his audience heaven and hell were to very stark realities, and Iago's connection to the latter would have provoked a response out of the audience. Ð''The devil will make a grandsire out of you' Iago is linking himself to the devil, by threatening someone with the prospect of becoming a relation of the devil to the 17th century audience would have stroked a cord amongst the crowd, being a very serious and real threat, and the evil in Iago seems to flow out in his repeated use of devilish imagery. Ð''Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.' Iago is directly linking his plans to hell and this link to dark satanic forces would emphasize to the audience just how potently evil it is.

An involving point about Iago which elevates him above the traditional stock character is that he knows precisely what he is doing. Ð''What's he who says I play the villain.' Iago is being ironic and sarcastic. He knows that he is the evil in the story and that it is his plotting and scheming that will destroy them all. This shows the complexity of him as a villain as he has no illusions about what he is doing; he is perfectly comfortable with his crimes and is in complete control of the play. His comfort in his actions brings into stark light the exact evil he is committing, there is no remorse, no hesitation, all this drawing the audience in as they try to inwardly unravel Iago's complexity.

Iago is not only engaging to his audience, his fellows on stage are equally enmeshed in his lies. Ð''You advise me well.' Cassio describes Iago as honest and obviously takes great heed on what Iago has to say, he considers his advice of the highest caliber. This illusion of friendship shows how deeply Iago's lies run, and how those around him fall into his deception. Ð''I am bound to thee for ever' there is irony in what the characters say as there belief that the advice from Iago is honest and true, and will aid them greatly in life, could not be further from the truth. It is in this advice Iago manipulates and twists the characters to his disposal, the words of his advice to which they so blindly adhere to will ultimately be their destruction. Ð''This fellows of exceeding honesty.' Its apparent the extent to which trust lies in Iago, the other characters are completely deceived by his faÐ"§ade, they stand no chance against him if they still believe in his honesty.

Iago's use of dramatic irony, brings in the audience into the play, as they know what Iago is about to do but they do not know how he will bring about the final transactions of his plan. Iago reveals his true intentions to the audience early on in the play Ð''I am not what I am.' Iago is admitting to the audience that he is not what he seems, and that they should watch this space to see how they play unfolds. They will be kept on the edge of their seats as they try to fathom what will happen next and how the other characters will take to Iago's malicious game. Ð''I follow him to serve my turn upon him.' Iago is admitting to Roderigo in both of these quotes his deception of Othello, but the depth of the meaning is lost on such a simple soul, he cannot see how Iago runs circles around him. To the audience it is another piece of irony, but Roderigo fails to put two and two and takes what Iago says for less than it is. He doesn't realize that if Iago so readily betrays the trust of his loving master, what is to stop him betraying and using Roderigo, a simple minded man of Venice's middle class, who to the audience is so easily toyed with by Iago. Iago uses the dramatic irony to reel the audience in, just as he uses his many soliloquies to force the audience to almost collude with him.

Iago uses the soliloquies to great effect as the audience move with him, as he decides upon the next course of action the audiences are moving at his side, always knowing what he's thinking. Ð''How, howÐ'...let me see', Ð''I ha't,