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.