IAGO’S AIM AND REASONS FOR HIS ACTIONS IN OTHELLO

Othello, who is one of the best-known characters in literature, says, "No, to be once in doubt is to be resolved" (Shakespeare, 3.3.181–182) when Iago tells him he suspects that there is a relationship between Desdemona and Cassio, and this quote sums up the teaching of the play perfectly for the common opinion. Because what caused the terrible ends of the characters in the play were the seeds of doubt and jealousy that were planted in Othello’s mind by Iago. However, Iago’s motivations for his actions are not clear in this great tragedy of Shakespeare. Although there are many theories about this topic, Shakespeare originally and purposefully made the reasons for Iago’s plans and actions blurry and hid them from the other characters and the audience even at the end of the play by making Iago swear to silence. Yet, from what we can see in the play—the plot, characters, scenes, tone, and more—we can guess his motives. While some people say that he does everything because he is jealous of Cassio or Othello, some other people say that he does everything to take revenge on Othello because he thinks Othello slept with his wife. In this essay, however, these are not taken as the basis of Iago’s actions. Because when all the quotes that form the basis of these opinions and other quotes from other characters are taken into consideration, it can be stated that Iago’s purpose in the play is to hide his true self, create a new and better reputation for himself, and destroy the reputations of those he thinks are lesser than him like Cassio, Othello, and Desdemona.

Throughout the play, Iago hides everything about himself from everyone, including the audience, and manipulates people about who he is, but he occasionally hints that he is not what he seems like by saying "I am not what I am" (1.1.66). It is obvious that he succeeds because Othello and Cassio repeatedly express their trust in the play. Othello even says, "Iago is most honest" (2.3.7). As the audience or the readers, it sounds strange to us that Othello trusts Iago this much; however, as Paul A. Cantor states, "Cut out of an Achillean mould, he has lived most of his life in the world of epic romance, where people are what they seem and their words can be taken at face value" (297). So, one of the reasons for Othello’s trust is how Iago shows himself to him. If Iago seems trustworthy, he is trustworthy for Othello. Iago states that one is the "gardener" of their will, and they decide who/how they are going to be and seem like (1.3.313–318). It can be said that Iago rules over other people’s will as well as his own. He manages to make himself an icon for honesty and honor. From his perspective, then, it can be guessed that he sees Othello and others as unworthy of their honorable reputations and their ranks because, for example, in the case of Othello, he "knows" that Othello is a savage Moor who presents himself as a respectable man. Thus, he aims to reveal his true self. Moreover, "Iago, with his personal bias, insists that to have a reputation for honor is not necessarily to be honorable; he understandably scants the inverse truth, that to have lost one’s reputation is not necessarily to have lost one’s honor" (Hodgson, 314). This can be thought of in reverse. One can look honourable even if they are not. So, Iago aims to look honorable, even though he is not.

Apart from him covering his true visage, his opinions on other characters and his and other characters’ views and attitudes toward reputation show that it plays a big role in the play and Iago’s goal.

Iago does not like Cassio and his place in Othello’s and other characters’ eyes. He suggests that he is more qualified to be Othello’s lieutenant when he gives Roderigo a reason for his hatred towards Othello. One cannot be sure whether this is the real reason for his hatred or not; however, this can be a reason for his hatred for Cassio. He sees Cassio as an inadequate soldier and a nave Florentine. He thinks himself better than Cassio as a Venetian and a better soldier, thus stating that he has the right to be a lieutenant. Seeing Cassio, someone unworthy of it, being praised for his status and success, he wishes to ruin it and use it as a step on the way to ruining Othello to achieve two goals at once. He directly aims at Cassio’s reputation, and since Cassio values it dearly, as can be understood from his words after losing his job as a lieutenant, it wounds him and opens the way for revenge for Iago. He complains about the following:

CASSIO. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation! (2.3.242-244)

When one digs deeper into this quote, they can see that Cassio sees his military reputation as a part of himself, and without it, he considers the remaining parts "bestial." As is obvious, reputation is an important part of one’s existence for the people of Venice. So, losing it means losing yourself and turning into a beast. This is what Iago aims to do. He wants to destroy his inferiors’ images and expose the beasts underneath them, even if there is not one in the case of Desdemona.

Desdemona is known to be a virtuous and pure woman by everyone in the play, and since Iago values neither Desdemona nor her reputation, because she is a worthless woman, he uses this reputation to reach Othello’s mind. The handkerchief Othello gave Desdemona and Iago used as a tool to ruin everyone is one of the greatest symbols of her innocence. It becomes vulnerable to the outside world when Othello, with a simple mistake, causes it to get lost in Act 3, just like Desdemona and their marriage. So, Iago aims for the handkerchief to ruin Desdemona. Because "For Othello [...] a man’s reputation defines his essential character, because to Othello all men, himself included, are what they seem to be" (Hodgson, 314). It can be understood from how he reacted to the loss of the handkerchief that this also applies to Desdemona. Yet why and how does Iago not hesitate while destroying Desdemona’s pure image? Because his view on women collides with Desdemona’s personality. Desdemona is not the way a woman should be for Iago and is thus not worthy to be around. Their contradiction can be seen clearly from the dialogue they had in Act 2:

IAGO. ‘She that was ever fair, and never proud

Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud;

Never lacked gold, and yet went never gay;

She that being angered, her revenge being nigh,

Bade her wrong stay, and her displeasure fly;

She that in wisdom never was so frail

To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail;

She that could think and ne’er disclose her mind,

See suitors following and not look behind;

She was a wight, if ever such wight were – ‘

DESDEMONA. To do what?

IAGO. ‘To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.’

DESDEMONA. O, most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of him, 

Emilia, though he be thy husband. […] (2.1.145-159)

From the beginning to the end, Desdemona does not hesitate to express her opinions and to be courageous, even toward her father. Thus, while women are already worthless enough for Iago, a woman who is not the way he and many men of his time think she should be is twice as worthless as other women. So, in the end, Iago does not restrain from using Desdemona and her visage to demolish Othello.

Iago does not plan to shatter Othello’s marriage to take revenge, as Peter Hollindale states in his work "Othello and Desdemona": "[…] the effect is to transfer attention to Othello’s individual weaknesses and shortcomings rather than the full marital duality which is tragically ruined" (44). So, it is obvious that Iago wishes to attack Othello personally. At the beginning of the play, Othello is known to everyone as a calm, rational, and fair man. While Desdemona reveals how he fell in love with Othello, she dictates:

DESDEMONA. […] I saw Othello’s visage in his mind

And to his honours and his valiant parts

Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. […] (1.3.248-250)

Desdemona loves Othello for how he sees himself, that is, as a valiant war hero and an honourable and respectable man. Towards the end of the play, however, Othello starts to lose every aspect that makes him a great warrior, general, and man in the eyes of others. Even Desdemona states that he changed by saying:

DESDEMONA. My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him,

Were he in favour as in humour altered. (3.4.118-119)

Yet Othello does not realize that he lost himself because of his jealousy until everything Iago did is revealed. Until that point, he believes that every action he takes is for the sake of honor. When he understands what he did and what he became, he worries about his reputation because, as it was mentioned before, reputation is important for these characters. "He begins with a vast, confident sense of himself in all sorts of settings: Othello the general, Othello the super-mercenary, Othello the indispensable state servant, Othello the civilized dinner-guest, Othello the covert but honorable lover, Othello the governor, Othello the husband; and then Othello the dupe, the jealous husband, the eavesdropper; and then Othello the conspirator, the closet wife-killer and the suicide" (Hollindale, 45). So, his last effort is to protect his image and show that even though he turned into a monster in the end, he was not one before, just as everyone assumed because of his skin color and race. He wants them to remember the visage he built throughout his life and that was destroyed by Iago, who saw Othello as inferior like many others because he was a Moor and not a Venetian.

One can suggest that Iago had a good image at the beginning of the play, and it is not logical for him to try to crush others’ reputations to make a better one for himself. The fact that Iago had the visage of a trustworthy man does not change the fact that those he saw as less than himself had better prestige than him. So, he wanted a better place for himself, and he planned to achieve it by taking others down.

To summarize, Iago despised Cassio for being in a higher position than himself, despite the fact that he is not a better soldier than him; he despised Desdemona for being a woman and not conforming to his standards of a woman; and he despised Othello for being respected by everyone and concealing his savage nature behind his position in the military as a black man. Thus, he aimed to destroy them all one by one, and in the end, he did it partially.