Iago - Helen Gardner - Danice

‘He is monstrous because, faced with the manifold richness of experience, his only reaction is calculation and the desire to manipulate … Ultimately, whatever its proximate motives, malice is motiveless; that is the secret of its power and its horror, why it can go unsuspected and why its revelation always shocks.’

To what extent do you agree with this view?

DISAGREE:
Act 1 -

• ‘Never set a squadron in the field’- envy for Cassio being promoted to lieutenant over him gives him reason to be monstrous.
• ‘Old black ram’- Racism
• ‘Boarded a land carrack’ - Iago may be jealous of the love Othello has with Desdemona. Also there is a semantic field of the sea, ‘Boarded’ = sexual connation. Desdemona chooses Othello over her father ‘So much duty as my mother show’d to you, preferring you before her father’ - this makes her the patriarchal ideal for a dutiful wife. Contrasting with Iago’s relationship with Emilia as she is not obedient ‘Tis proper I obey him, but not now’

Act 2 -

• ‘Good Iago, go to the bay and disembark my coffers’ – being instructed by a black man.
• ‘for that I do suspect the lusty moor hath leap’d into my seat’ – Othello is unworthy of general, Iago thinks that it should have been his job.
• ‘He was a wight of high renown, and thou art but of a low degree’ – Iago challenges Cassio’s high status by questioning if he deserves it due to his ‘low degree’.
• Iago is once again interrupting Othello’s and Desdemona’s consummation of marriage by creating chaos with getting Cassio drunk. In Act 1, it could be argued that their consummation was interrupted by Brabantio due to Iago. This contributes to the idea that Iago is jealous of Desdemona.

Act 3 –

• ‘To have a foolish wife’ – belittling Emilia

Act 4 –

• ‘Very obedient’- jealousy of Othello’s ideal relationship.
• ‘made you to suspect me with the Moor’ – Emilia says that Iago was once jealous and suspected that Othello slept with Emilia. This could give him reason to want to bring him down to his level, for jealousy. This would explain why he tries to convince Othello that Desdemona is sleeping with someone else.

Act 5 –

• ‘He hath a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly’ – Iago is jealous of Cassio’s kind heartedness. Iago is so corrupt that he cannot bear to see someone better than he is.
• ‘Charm your tongue’ – Iago cannot control his wife, making him look weak in the society that he lives in. This could go towards why he is jealous of Othello’s relationship with Desdemona.
   

COUNTER ARGUMENT:

Act 1-

• ‘I am not what I am’- He already possesses duplicitous traits so doesn’t necessarily.

Act 2 –

• ‘Reputation is an idle and most false imposition’ – means that reputation is not the motive of Iago’s maliciousness.

Act 3 –

• ‘I never knew a Florentine more kind and honest’ – Iago’s monstrous behaviour cannot be caused by hatred of Cassio’s place in society’s hierarchy because they are the same. This means that his malice is motiveless.
• ‘Now art thou my lieutenant’ – Iago now has no reason to continue his monstrous behaviour.
• ‘the happiness!’ – Iago is enjoying the pain he is creating. This makes him seem malicious.

Act 5 -

• ‘I’ll be at thy elbow’ – Iago is malicious because he represents the devil, therefore he does not a reason to destroy lives.

Act 5, Scene 2

1. What reasons does Othello give for having to kill Desdemona?
Othello believes that he must kill Desdemona as a way of bringing justice to his situation. He believes that if she lives, she will only 'betray more men'. Therefore he is acting virtuously because he thinks that he is protecting other people from her infidelity.




2. What evidence is there to suggest that Shakespeare adhered to racial stereotypes in this scene?
Extreme emotions - 'it is the cause, it is the cause'
Noble savage - 'she must die, else she'll betray more men'
Lascivious - 'So sweet was ne'er so fatal'
Danger - 'thou art on thy deathbed'
'For they thinke that the chastity of their wives should be assaulted, and so consequently they should be capricorneified' - 'thou art to die'

Depraved (Edward Said) - 'Had all his hairs been lives, My great revenge had stomach for them all.'

Child-like (Edward Said) - 'Out, strumpet! weep’st thou for him to my face?' 'addicted unto rath'

'Mystical negro' stereotype - 'It is the very error of the moon, She comes more nearer earth than she was wont And makes men mad.'

Irrational behaviour - 'She’s like a liar gone to burning hell.'Twas I that killed her.'

3. Othello tells Desdemona that Cassio has confessed to sleeping with her (line 68). What was this 'confession'?


The confession is where Iago tricked Cassio into talking about Othello's handkerchief. This is shown when Othello tells Desdemona 'By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in his hand'.


4. Emilia says "Good gentleman, let me have leave to speak./ 'Tis proper I obey him - but not now!" [5.2.192-193] what does this indicate about Emilia and society? Consider the circumstances the characters are in.


Emilia is referring to how in the patriarchal society that she lives in, it is expected that she should obey Iago because he is her husband. Patriarchal ideologies expect women to suppress themselves to men which is why Emilia states 'Tis proper I obey him'. However, due to the difficult circumstances that Emilia is presented in, her mistress has been murdered due to her husband's duplicitous planning. This is why she makes the decision to speak out, within her restraints of the patriarchal society e.g. asking for permission to speak her behind instead of saying what she knows freely. Therefore, although she is defying her husband, meaning that she is rebelling against patriarchal ideologies, she is also sticking to the private sphere partly by asking permission to speak.


5. How is Emilia presented in lines 125-233. Consider the language she uses, how she behaves and what she says to Othello and Iago.


Within the harshly built up environment of Shakespearian Italy, a maid would not speak out against her employee, similar to the present day, for fear of losing your job. To add to this, Emilia would have been confined to the pressures of a patriarchal society when Shakespeare wrote it. Emilia really pushes the boundaries when she calls Othello 'the blacker devil', this would be insulting to Othello as it draws attention to his race however Othello may have been used to racism. Either way, Emilia behaves outwardly for the first time in the public sphere in Act 5, scene 2, compared to when she speaks freely about men with Desdemona in Act 4, scene 3.
Emilia is so angry and distraught by the death of Desdemona that she shows the opposite to her normal gender binaries by bad mouthing her husband 'If he say so, may his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day!'. This would show that she is not thinking normally because she is not behaving within the confinements of being a wife in a Shakespearian society.


6. List all of the names Emilia calls Othello when she realises what he has done. How does this contrast with how Othello was portrayed at the start of the play?
'Black devil', 'devil', 'rash as hell', 'thou wast worthy her', 'O gull! O dolt!

As ignorant as dirt!', 'the moor', 'murderous coxcomb' and 'cruel moor'.

How does Shakespeare create a sense of fear and confusion in Act 5, scene 1?

Setting
Language
Structure of lines
Use of characters
Dramatic methods

• Unity of time and place by 'Outside Bianca's house' - links to beginning of play in Act 1-scene 1 where the audience were first introduced to Iago and Roderigo getting up to no good. Act 1 -scene 1, audience were aware that the characters were nasty what with trying to get Othello and Desdemona in trouble but a much darker atmosphere is set in act 5 scene 1 as it set at night time - pathetic fallacy to portray a murder?

• Iago instructs Roderigo to 'stand behind this bulk', making the audience fully aware that Roderigo is still obeying to Iago's devilish plan. This is where tension begins in the audience because they know that they're attempt to kill Cassio is coming very close.
• 
  Iago tells Roderigo that he'll be 'at thy elbow', this is dramatic irony as he is anything but supporting him. Further on in the scene, the audience see that Iago wants Roderigo dead as much as Cassio when he says that 'every way makes his gain'. This emphasises Iago's duplicitous characteristics once more as he presents yet another empty promise. Additionally, Shakespeare portrays Iago as the devil when he says 'I'll be at thy elbow' because this symbolises medieval myths of the devil being summoned by calling his name. Iago is referring to himself as the devil as he says he will help when called.
• 
  Confusion is evoked in the audience when Roderigo admits to having 'no great devotion to the deed', making the audience question why he will do it then. Shows that he is too afraid of Iago to challenge him - evoking fear once more for the antagonist. 
• 
  Psychopathy - makes the audience feel fear as 'every way makes his gain', when referring to the two men dying. This would scare he audience as he is so unmerciful. 
• 
  Perhaps Iago is afraid of himself and since his lack of morals has been made so aware by Cassio's purity, Iago's corruption that he must get rid of him, in order to make himself feel better. Relates to other parts in the play. 
• 
  Catharsis, as theoried by Aristotle, is put into action when they feel bad for Cassio as he is being attacked for no reason by Roderigo.
• 
  Confusion is aroused in audience when Othello mistakes Roderigo for being Cassio 'O Villain that I am/It is even so'. Shows that Iago is Othello's eye and ears and this is Othello's tragic flaw. This is emphasised because of the setting being at night - highlighting the mood of death.
• 
  Fear for desdemona when Othello realises that he has to present his end of the deal where he kills Desdemona 'thine eyes, are blotted'. Here, we see just how vicious Othello is (negro-stereotype?) and this is where the peripeita takes place rapidly. Everything is downhill from now on.
• 
  Confusion as to who Roderigo is calling a 'wretched villian' - himself? Cassio? or Iago?
• Bianca is confused as to why she is being blamed for the attack and states that she is as honest as Emilia - this would not be seen to be true as they are from two different realms of the patriarchal society, Emilia would be seen as the good honest woman who tends to her husbands needs whilst Bianca would be seen as a mad/bad woman as she is a prostitute. Emilia is also confused as to why Bianca would even think that those two are equal. Marxism possibly - class.
• 
  Iago manufactures the idea that Cassio and Roderigo are fighting over Bianca, this take the attention from Iago.