Iago: The Instigator Behind the Mayhem

In “Othello: A Modern Perspective” Susan Snyder discusses the various approaches that could have led to the disaster of Othello and Desdemona’s marriage. She takes us through the options, starting with villain of the play, Iago, who plans repetitively throughout the play to cause trouble and disruption. After this we hear Snyder suggest how because of the shared status of outsiders, it can draw Othello to worry of Cassio, his chosen lieutenant, and begin to rely on other sources like Iago. Finally Snyder suggests that Desdemona herself played a main role in the way the marriage went wrong because of her persistent attitude to want to live their married life together in Cyprus.

When reading Snyder’s analysis of Othello it becomes obvious to me as a reader through depth of evidence that Iago is responsible for the sheer destruction of Othello and Desdemona’s marriage. In the last part of the play all is revealed to the characters on stage, for which Snyder comments “It is Iago whom everyone onstage condemns at the play’s conclusion” (288). Although certain characters had suspicions that the entire story was being fed into Othello’s mind by an individual, there was not one who knew the full rendition of scheming and plotting that Iago was undergoing. The irony of this idea is that we as readers watch Iago talk through his evil plan right from the very start. The first speech we see of him alone, entails of his idea to make Cassio lose his position whilst hurting Othello at the same time. He proclaims “Let me see now: To get his place and to plump up my will In double knavery” (1.3.435). As of now Othello thinks highly of Cassio and so ultimately, if Iago had never decided to play the two characters against each other, Othello would never have began to imagine Cassio with his wife Desdemona.

Iago is also seen as the obvious cause to the crash of Othello and Desdemona’s marriage because he himself has reasons to dislike Othello and want to get revenge. First, there are suspicions in Iago’s mind that his wife Emilia and Othello have slept together behind his back in the past. If this wasn’t enough to anger Iago, he is unhappy with the Moor’s decision to make Cassio his lieutenant, when he believes he himself is more worthy of this second in command position. The plan Iago makes in the play sets out to get revenge on both Othello for the reasons stated above, but also on Cassio. Iago is jealous of Cassio and his position, and so this plan gives him chance to see Cassio suffer, whilst losing the respect from Othello and therefore his position. The initial plan for outcome was that Iago would then become second in command, although this did not quite work out as originally hoped.

When looking at Iago and his importance in the entire play, we see that he uses a persuasive yet modest act with enough characters that almost every character in the play falls into the trap of this lie. The male characters in the play are easily encouraged and do not appear to feel strongly with their own opinions. Othello proves this, when after one conversation with Iago about Desdemona’s unfaithfulness with Cassio, he claims “She’s gone, I am abused, and my relief Must be to loathe her” (3.3.308). The ease of this persuasion makes it very simple for Iago to lure Othello and others in to his plan full of manipulation and scheming.

Works Cited

Mowat, Barbara A. and Paul Werstine, eds. Folger Shakespeare Library: Othello by William Shakespeare. Simon and Schuster, 2009.

Snyder, Susan. “Othello: A Modern Perspective.” Folger Shakespeare Library: Othello by William Shakespeare, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. Simon and Schuster, 2009. 287-98.