The Art of Betrayal: Iago's Role in Othello's Downfall

Iago is the antagonist of the tragedy, "Othello" written by William Shakespeare. It is about Othello, the black general, and he is our protagonist. He is so successful that Iago is extremely jealous of him and plans to make an end of him. They are both working in the military. We can say that when Shakespeare was writing this play, the story, “De gli Hecatommithi", which was written by Giambattista Giraldi inspired him. The protagonist of our play is Othello but he is not the only important character. Iago, our devil in the play, is also a very significant character. The important things about this character are his characteristics, how he manipulates people, and what is his function in the play. 

We can associate every bad characteristic feature with Iago. The readers think that he is the most villainous character in Shakespeare’s works. He is good portrayed to the other characters in the play, everyone loves him. They think he is a very trustworthy man and they believe him no matter what. We understand that because they always call him honest. Despite all the bad qualities, he is very intelligent but he uses his intelligence to manipulate people and that is why he is the most villainous character in the play. He uses his good features for evilness. As readers, we know that if anything bad happens in the play, the character who causes is Iago. We can characterize him as evil. He doesn’t treat people well. “You have a thing for me? It is a common thing - To have a foolish wife.” (136) In this quote, we see he doesn’t even appreciate his wife whose name is Emilia. He sees women as useless and he criticizes women badly in the play. He hates every character. “Though I do hate him as I do hell's pains,” (72) We see his hatred in this quote which he says for Othello very well. He is a pitiless and unlikeable man. He is the villain of the play. 

Throughout the play, we see that Iago can easily manipulate people and that makes him the evil character. He manipulates characters by using their faults and weak sides. At the very beginning of the play, we see him talking with Roderigo. We see their true nature. Roderigo is easily manipulated by Iago and Iago makes him believe his love for Desdemona, Othello’s wife. It is a very crucial event for Iago because later, he plans his revenge depending on Roderigo and Desdemona’s relationship. We can say at the beginning of the play, we witness Iago’s jealousy and how he manipulates people very easily. “She did deceive her father, marrying you;” (132) In this quote, Iago is trying to convince Othello not to trust Desdemona. Besides, Iago makes Othello believe that Desdemona is cheating on him. We see how successfully Iago manipulates Othello because Othello believes Iago and kills his wife.

Iago is a very remarkable villain character. He is important in the tragedy because the events that we read depend on him as he makes the tragic events occur. Even, he has far too many lines in the play. From that, we can understand he is a significant character. The plotline happens around events that Iago puts in. He controls every character like they are his puppets. I think he is the evilest character that I see in Shakespeare’s tragedies but even though he is evil, he is very strong and significant.

Iago - How am I then a villain?

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Norman Sanders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.