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Possibly the most heinous
and vicious villain in Shakespearean plays, Iago is fascinating for his most
terrible characteristic: his lack of convincing motivation for his actions.
In the first scene, he claims to be angry at Othello for having passed him
over for the position of lieutenant (Act I, Scene i, L7-32). At the end of
Act I, scene iii, Iago says he thinks Othello may have slept with his wife,
Emilia: “It is thought abroad that it is twixt my sheets / He has done my
office” (Act I, Scene iii, L369-370). Iago mentions this suspicion again at
the end of Act II, Scene i, explaining that he lusts after Desdemona because
he wants to get even Othello’s wife for wife. (Act II, Scene I, L286). None
of these claims seems to adequately explain Iago’s deep hatred of Othello,
and Iago’s lack of motivations or his inability or unwillingness to express
his true motivations makes his actions all the more terrifying. He is
willing to take revenge on anyone: Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo,
even Emilia at the slightest provocation and enjoys the pain and damage he
causes.
Iago is often funny, especially in his scenes with the
foolish Roderigo, which serve as a showcase of Iago’s manipulative
-abilities. He seems almost to wink at the audience as he revels in his own
skill. As entertained spectators, we find ourselves on Iago’s side when he
is with Roderigo, but the interactions between the two also reveal a
cowardice in Iago, a cowardice that becomes manifest in the final scene,
when Iago kills his own wife (Act V, Scene ii, L231-242).
Iago’s murder of Emilia could also stem from the
general hatred of women that he displays. Some readers have suggested that
Iago’s true, underlying motive for persecuting Othello is his homosexual
love for the general. He certainly seems to take great pleasure in
preventing Othello from enjoying marital happiness, and he expresses his
love for Othello frequently and effusively.
It is Iago’s talent for understanding and manipulating
the desires of those around him that makes him both a powerful and a
threatening figure. Iago is able to take the handkerchief from Emilia and
know that he can deflect her questions; he is able to tell Othello of the
handkerchief and know that Othello will not doubt him; he is able to tell
the audience, “And what’s he then that says I play the villain”, and know
that it will laugh as though he were a clown (Act II, Scene iii, L310).
Though the most habitual liar, Iago inspires all of the play’s characters
the trait that is most lethal to Othello: trust.
Desdemona is a more plausible, well-rounded figure than
much criticism has given her credit for. Arguments that see Desdemona as
stereotypically weak and submissive ignore the conviction and authority of
her first speech, “My noble father, / I do perceive here a divided duty.”
(Act I, Scene iii, L179-180) and her terse fury after Othello strikes her,
“I have not deserved this.” (Act IV, Scene I, L236) Similarly, critics who
argue that Desdemona’s slightly bizarre bawdy jesting with Iago in Act II,
Scene i is either an interpolation not written by Shakespeare or a mere
vulgarity ignore the fact that Desdemona is young, sexual, and recently
married. She later displays the same chiding, almost mischievous wit in Act
III, Scene iii, Lines 61-84, when she attempts to persuade Othello to
forgive Cassio.
Desdemona is one of memorable female characters in
Shakespeare’s plays. She is at times a submissive character, most notably in
her willingness to accept her own murder without much complaint. In response
to Emilia’s question, “O, who hath done this deed?” Desdemona’s final words
are, “Nobody, I myself. Farewell. / Commend me to my kind lord. O,
farewell.” (Act V, Scene ii, L133-134) The play, then, depicts Desdemona
contradictorily as a self-effacing, faithful wife and as a bold, independent
personality. This contradiction may be intentional, meant to portray the way
Desdemona herself feels after defending her choice of marriage to her father
in Act I, scene iii, and then almost immediately being put in the position
of defending her fidelity to her husband. She begins the play as a supremely
independent person, but midway through she must struggle against all odds to
convince Othello that she is not too independent. The manner in which
Desdemona is murdered and smothered by a pillow in a bed covered in her
wedding sheets is symbolic: she is literally suffocated beneath the demands
put on her fidelity. Since her first lines, Desdemona has seemed capable of
meeting or even rising above those demands. In the end, Othello stifles the
speech that made Desdemona so powerful.
Tragically, Desdemona is apparently aware of her imminent
death. She asks Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed, and she asks
her to bury her in these sheets should she die first. The last time we see
Desdemona before she awakens to find Othello standing over her with murder
in his eyes, she sings a song she learned from her mother’s maid: “She was
in love; and he proved mad / And did forsake her. She had a song of willow.
/ . . . / And she died singing it. That song tonight / Will not go from my
mind.” (Act IV, Scene iii, L27-30) Like the audience, Desdemona watches
passively her husband is driven insane with jealousy. Though she maintains
to the end that she is “guiltless”, Desdemona also forgives her husband (Act
V, Scene ii, L133). Her forgiveness of Othello may help the audience to
forgive him as well.
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