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Essay On Iago In Othello

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Recommended: Describe the character of iago in othello

In the world, there are many individuals who are truly nefarious. They continuously contribute to the darkness present in modern society by exploiting the hamartia of good people and by enacting chaos wherever possible. By psychologically toying with others, these people are able to get what they want and unravel an entire community by exploiting on one small flaw. Consequently, even the smallest evil deed has an immense impact on the balance and peace within a group through a ripple effect of growing darkness. Much like these individuals, Iago, from William Shakespeare’s, Othello, is truly diabolical. Throughout the play, he commits atrocious acts towards Cassio and Roderigo. Withal, by getting Cassio drunk and stabbing him as well as using Roderigo as a purse and murdering him, Iago exemplifies his contemptible nature and his twisted character.
Furthermore, Iago is also truly immoral because of his acts towards Cassio. Iago commits atrocious acts to Cassio in order to attain revenge for not being named lieutenant instead of Cassio. Iago’s first act of malice towards Cassio is inebriating him, knowing bad things happen when he is intoxicated. Iago machinates for a way to get Cassio caught drunk by someone of importance in order to get him demoted. Iago reveals his plan when Cassio and the others step out to get a drink in saying, “If I can fasten …show more content…

By getting Cassio intoxicated and stabbing him in addition to using Roderigo as a personal bank and killing him, Iago highlights his foul and twisted persona. Had it not been for Iago’s malice, there would never have been so much innocent bloodshed and death. With an evil such as Iago, no one is safe from being manipulated into their own demise. With no concrete defense against individuals like this, it is important for individuals to be wary of their weaknesses as they may be used against them without their

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As the play begins Othello is looking for a new Lieutenant. Iago has always been dependable to Othello, but he ends up overpassing the position to Cassio, who doesn 't know anything about war duties. Although Iago wants to exterminate Othello over of his jealousy of his popularity, he also wants to sabotage him because of the promotion that he thinks was mistaken, he uses Desdemona as a sin. Indeed Iago is going to destroy Othello because of the promotion that was misconstrued.

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This is all part of Iago’s plan to destroy Cassio’s reputation. I think that Iago is being intentionally annoying which he is in the play and to the audience. Or he could just be like that in reality. He reminds me of Donald Trump for some reason. I looked up character traits of Iago and what popped up was; evil, manipulative, jealous, and dishonest.

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The tragedy begins with Iago’s soliloquy, here Iago’s envy towards Cassio is immediately conspicuous. He states that Cassio has “Never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knows, More than a spinster”. Consequently Iago’s envy is mistaken for jealousy, which is why he comes across as the villain in the play. However, he also tries to disguise his villainous actions by “justifying” them. “Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty” “I am not what I am.”

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Fred West characterizes Iago in Shakespeares’ Othello as a psychopath in his article “Iago the Psychopath” because of his manipulations and false honesty, yet his definition overlooks important characteristics such as his failures in relationships, parasitic lifestyle. unreliability and irresponsibility. As West mentioned, Iago has no motives. “His motives-or excuses- come more as afterthoughts, not as stimuli toward the heinous actions he perpetrates.”

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and he pretends he never met Roderigo before. He stabbed Roderigo and yelled “O Murd’rous slave! O villain” (V. i. 63). Iago literally stabbed Roderigo to death. If Iago didn’t come up with the plan to kill Cassio or if he let Roderigo leave, Roderigo would have

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Iago saw himself as the best for the position just as a person would who wanted control. He never sees Cassio as the superior Lieutenant, but as a man who was no better than him. Iago wanted for himself what he couldn’t have, so he did what he knew best, took

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but he ended up getting a better life after all of this was done). The reason iago did what he did was because othello promised him a job as lieutenant in the venetian army and then went back on his promise to hire Cassio as lieutenant who not only was not a soldier he also was not from venice he was from florence and that made iago mad, and

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Psychopaths have attributes of detachment, insincere speech, selfishness, and violence. In the tragedy, Othello, the playwright William Shakespeare constructs an antagonist with such traits. This evil character, Iago, is known for being one of the most sinister villains Shakespeare has even written. Through Iago’s psychopathic manipulations and detached persona, Shakespeare shows that psychopaths are not redeemable in the play.

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Though given the nickname “Honest Iago”, his acts throughout William Shakespeare's, Othello, is not so honest. Iago is an intelligent, convincing, and manipulative man. He enjoys feeding off of people's misery especially when something is in it for him. His intelligence allows him to convince people using the sway of his words so fluently and make them blind to the truth by eluting them with false appearances and telling half truths. This allows him to numerous characters throughout Othello by using their personal beliefs, jealous tendencies, and misleading them into false assumptions by twisting the truth around in his own words in a way that will be beneficial to himself.

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While he knows that his actions are immoral, he embraces it fully by calling for evil forces to help in his plans to destroy Othello’s life. This imagery shows Iago’s true nature to the audience, one that wishes for the corruption of people’s lives and actively acting it out. Moreover, Iago refers to himself as a devil in a soliloquy after Cassio drunkenly --------, saying "When devils will the blackest sins put on, / They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, / As I do now" (2.3.351-353). He reveals his intentions to harm Othello to the audience, showing that he does not have empathy for Othello or those his actions would affect, showing his ------------------------------------------------------------------------.

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Secondly, Iago manipulates Cassio the most throughout the book. He uses Cassio’s social status and his trust with Othello to ruin his reputation. Iago is jealous of Cassio because he is higher status and has a strong relationship with Othello. For Iago’s plan to work he needs to get closer to Othello, but first he needs to break Othello and Cassio’s trust first. So one night Cassio is supposed to be keeping a party under control Othello tells him “good Michael, look you to the guard tonight.

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“Othello” written by William Shakespeare revolves around this protagonist who is depicted as strong and powerful. To everyone he is known as Othello or the Moor. Throughout the play, Shakespeare portrays numerous counts of jealousy and manipulation around many of the characters. It is mainly illustrated through Iago, the antagonist of the play, who manipulates other to their downfall. Iago who is known for always being true and honest towards others has easily earned the trust of everyone around him, thus giving himself an advantage on his schemes.

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As it has been presented throughout the whole play, the hatred Iago has towards Othello has always been to get rid of him due to him being awarded Lieutenant. However, it seems that once Iago got promoted to Lieutenant shortly after Othello’s death, he stills seems to feel hatred. It maybe because Iago does not like himself and always was jealous of Cassio and Othello’s actions and how they were. Therefore, telling lies and creating schemes to make himself believable which he successfully does with Othello. They have known each other for a long time and the reason he trusts Iago because he is noble, smart with his words to allow others to have trust in

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If Roderigo exposed Iago when he said he would, a lot of misfortune would not have occurred. Therefore, Roderigo demonstrates the dark side of human nature by being jealous and unintelligent. To conclude, the dark side of human nature is demonstrated by Iago who is selfish, Brabantio who is doubtful, and Roderigo who lacks cleverness. William Shakespeare’s Othello shows how easy it is to let emotions take over one’s mind.

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Kolin observes that Iago stands out among Shakespearean villains since he is the only one to survive his own monstrous acts (25). Unlike Richard III, apart from telling stories, Iago carries out a downright fraud through other means of manipulation, which makes him the most evil and intelligent character. To be exact, Iago is a puppeteer who sets up scenes to deceive the “credulous fools”—Othello, Cassio and Desdemona (4.1.45). Iago talks to Cassio about Bianca while telling Othello that the subject of their conversation is the Moor’s wife. He is so smart and careful that he even gestures Othello to come closer when Cassio is about to illustrate how Bianca entangles him.

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