Despite what he said, Iago was not motivated by his jealousy of Othello’s position and he did not really think Othello was sleeping with his wife. If there’s anything I learned from Othello, it’s not to trust anything Iago says.
Which means we have to dig a little deeper to find Iago’s true motive. The more digging we do, the more we will find that maybe Iago isn’t really as straight as he seems. It’s a bit of a strong claim, I know. But here’s a few reasons that might convince you that Iago is in love with Othello. Iago hates women: Iago is the most sexist character in Othello. Actually, he’s the only sexist character in Othello. He made several low blows to the women of the play (including his wife) about all that they’re good for. The songs he sang to Desdemona were extremely degrading, and he claimed that women’s only purpose was “to suckle fools and chronicle small beer” (II,i,71), ouch. Not only did he say that, but he also told Desdemona that she, “rise to play, and go to bed to work” (II,i,67) ouch again. But it’s not just any other woman that he seems to hate. He doesn’t really seem to care all that much about his wife Emilia either. When she gave Iago the handkerchief, despite what her morals were telling to do, she was met by Iago saying, “you have a thing for me? It is a common thing” (III,iii,139) another ouch. The greeting he gave his wife was very telling that he looks upon her as a typical strumpet so to speak, saying that the ‘thing’ he was implying was so common. Then after he gets the handkerchief from her, he just kicks her out. Say what? She went through all that just to get paid dust. Okay Iago, we see right through you. We know you don’t like women, not even your wife. Not-so-straight things Iago did: When Iago presented Cassio’s sleep talking to Othello, he mentioned that he, “lay with Cassio lately” (III,iii,147), then went on and on about how Cassio kissed him, and didn’t seem too bothered by it. Why would that be, Iago? Hm? HMMM? Not to mention Iago is really loyal to Othello. He even told him, “I am your own forever.” (III,iiii,151) Woah there Iago. Pretty big declaration two married men are sharing. Sounds like he’s pretty much telling Othello that he’s in love with him. Why didn’t he just kill him?: If all those motives he claimed to have were true, why didn’t he just kill Othello himself? Oh yeah, because those motives aren’t true. He didn’t want to kill Othello, he just wanted Desdemona out of the way, so he could have Othello all to himself (even if they were still just best friends). He convinces Othello to kill Desdemona: Well, Othello’s mind was pretty made up at that point, we all knew what Desdemona’s fate was going to be. But at first, Othello was planning on poisoning her when Iago stepped in and told him, “Strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated” (IIII,i,185). Iago wanted to make sure Othello hated Desdemona to the very last second, and the only way he could secure that achievement, was making sure when Othello killed Desdemona, it was in an intimate way instead of passively. Unfortunately, all of Iago’s plans to steal Othello away, and go riding off into the sunset didn’t really work out for him. Instead he made everything worse, and got himself sent to be tortured, right after the love of his life offed himself. Pretty tragic. Might be why it’s called a tragedy.
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Okay, let’s be real. Shakespeare isn’t fun to read. At all. BUT, we have to admit, that there’s a reason why this guys plays are such a big deal. They’re actually pretty good.
Once you get past all the fancy confusing words that really nobody understands, (probably not even Shakespeare himself) the story isn’t really half bad. It’s getting there that’s the hard part. Let’s talk about some tips to make reading Shakespeare a little less painful. 1. Read out loud: This strategy might annoy your roommates, but boy does it help. Considering what you’re reading is in fact a play, it’s written to be spoken, not read in your head. When comprehension gets tough, just start reading aloud. It’s amazing how quickly things begin to just click. If you want to get really into it, try acting it out, and make the reading more fun and engaging. Try saying Shakespeare is boring after that! 2. Don’t beat the long speeches to death: See, the thing about Shakespeare, is that he really likes to make things ultra fancy. Those really long speeches that seem to be on every page? All those words thrown in there really aren’t all that important. So instead of spending all your time reading the speech over and over (and over and over) look at the last few lines. Typically, those last few lines wrap everything up the character was trying to say, and if you get a grasp on that, you probably have a pretty good understanding of what just happened. So don’t worry if you don’t understand every word Shakespeare is trying to say, that isn’t the intention. Picking up on the little things with slowly lead you to the bigger picture. That’s the point isn’t it? 3. Slow and steady wins the race: Look, I get it. We’re all high school kids here, and our main goal is to spend the least possible amount of time anything we need to get done. But, unfortunately Mr. Shakespeare doesn’t care that you have a billion other things to do. So if you want full comprehension, you might want to schedule a little extra time to read. The slower you read, and the more you take in the words, the more likely you are going to understand what’s on the page. If you get to the end and have no clue what you just read? Go back an read it again! Shakespeare can be time consuming, but if you want to understand it, it’s important to take that time to get to your full potential of comprehension. Reading Shakespeare can get a bit annoying, but let’s not take it out on the poor guy. He’s kind of a genius. The more you read Shakespeare (and actually understand it) that’s just one step closer to being a genius! Okay, maybe not full-on daily quoting of Shakespeare - unless you want to do that kind of thing - but understanding Shakespeare is pretty impressive, and just putting a little bit of work into your reading, it’s not that hard to do. Let’s all be geniuses together! The cause of all that went down in Othello may seem obvious, since Iago was the main manipulator, but we don’t always have to blame a person. It is often argued that jealousy was the root cause of it all, but when it really boils down to it, insecurity leads to jealousy, which lead to Othello to lose his cool. Of course if Iago was never in the picture, all of this wouldn’t have happened, (not in this way anyway) but taking Othello’s reactions into consideration we can tell that his insecurities would have eventually caused problems between him and Desdemona down the road. So essentially, although Iago is without a doubt the villain of the story, we can’t put all the blame on him when Othello was the one to put his hands around Desdemona’s neck. What we really need to think about, is why Othello killed Desdemona. Clearly, Iago put all these crazy thoughts into Othello’s head, making him think his sweet Desdemon was cheating on him with Michael, making his jealousy flame up like mad. Why though? Because poor Othello was weighed down by a ton of insecurities regarding his race. He had to deal with constant reminders that he was different from everyone else, especially since he was not a venetian. It’s easy to understand why, especially after Brabantio made it clear that he did not want Desdemona marrying Othello, telling him “that will confess perfection so could err against all rules of nature” (I,iii,37) and implied that the only way he could get Desdemona to love him was to use witchcraft, which is quite the ego killer for a man. Even with someone as powerful and successful as Othello, him being referred to as ‘The Moor’ so often is quite degrading, causing his insecurities to get the better of him. We can decipher that these insecurities were constantly weighing on Othello’s shoulders, and the second Iago started planting ideas of Desdemona cheating on him in his head, his insecurities made it all unquestionable, so without even thinking Iago was lying (or, I don’t know, confronting his wife) he immediately broke out into a jealous rage, which was rooted from his insecurities. Moral of the story, don’t be insecure. Ever. Or you might accidentally kill your wife. (oops!) Yes. Iago sucks. Yes. He’s the villain. BUT, due to Othello’s insecurities regarding his race, his jealousy got the best of him, which lead to the tragic ending of the play. Insecurity can be a fatal flaw. |