iago Flashcards
intro:
-now he is a disgruntled employee, motivated by hatred and jealousy, fuelled by convoluted and contradictory delusions and inflated ego.
-we are made na accessory to his plots an guilt, complicit in his bigotry/
-All of these could be in an effort to mask whether he is comfortably evil, or not comfortable with being evil for evil’s sake.
Key characteristic’s:
The disgruntled employee:
-characterises Iago as resentful and egocentric individual who feels overlooked and undervalued by his peers.
- ‘I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.’
The jilted husband:
-Iago is ruled by sexual jealousy, exaggerated pride and belligrated competitiveness.
-‘villainous whore’
-‘would she give you as much her lips…you would have enough’
-Men view women as trophies for their ego and virility, not caring for their wives as fellow human beings, but their subservience
the serpent:
-‘thou shalt enjoy’
-‘you know I love you’
-like the serpent in the garden of ode, Iago doesn’t commit any crimes himself, instead he orchestrates them.
The entrepenuer:
-‘I follow to serve my truth upon him’
-Iago doesn’t fear divine judgement or moral consequence because he only cares for what he wants.
The undecided:
-‘A great arithmetician’
-‘fear Cassio with his night-cap’
-The truth might be that there is no real motivation behind his action: he might merely crave drama and chaos.
The bigot:
-‘Lusty moor’
-villanous whores’
-Therefore, he emphasises the hegemony of white masculinity and it’s pathological fear of outsiders
The preacher:
-He champions same-race union and female subservience while admonishing hiprocrisy.
-He depicts sexual desire as a stain or blemish in the sanctimony in this monologue that closely resembles a sermon.
The cynic:
-He condemms the corruption and favouristm of ostensibly infallible institutions
-rejects the concept of love.
Key themes:
Shakespeare uses the construct of Iago to explore the conflict between what one wants to be truly and what is really true. This appeals to personal and to the social such as Venetian society’s belief that it represents perfection. Iago, the master of facade is able to defy the lines between appearance vs reality and falls victim to his own fantasies.
Jealousy and cuckoldry:
-He portrays jealousy as Iago’s chosen tool for destruction, using it with ease to manipulate others and ultimately decide their fate.
-‘ it is abroad that twin my sheets’
-‘I fear Cassio with my night-cap too’
-‘lusty moor’
Prejudice and race:
-He recognised that peoples bias’ make them vulnerable to manipulation and he exploits them.
-whether Iago truly believes the truth the abuse he spouts is inconsequential, for the result to end the same.
- ‘old black ram’
-‘or else the devil with grandsire of you’
-Desdemona and Othello’s union defies the principle heirarchies of race and social standing upon which Iago’s Venice is built.
Symbolism:
-Iago is a symbol for the inhumane and violent ways in which institutions, such as imperialism, white supremacy and mysogny are upheld and forced on those who seek to defy them.
-Equally, his character can be interpreted as a caricature or imitation of a preach, a religious teacher who appeals to ones inner morals to justify twisted means.
-Iago is a conduit for a dogma and with systems of Venetian society, what was once a ‘dormant’ tension is now graphic and outright.
Iago character analysis notes:
-Shakespeare presents Iago as a collection of unsolvable puzzles.. Possibly Iago was always a villain and confidence trickster who set up a false reputation for honesty, but how can one set up a reputation for honesty except by being consistently honest over a long period of time? Alternatively he might be a man who used to be honest in the past, but has decided to abandon this virtue.
-It’s difficult to know what Iago’s really like because he’s able to adapt to every character and situation. His true nature always stays hidden; he even lies in his sililoquies so the audience in can never truly trust what he says.
Iago as a ‘vice’ character:
- ‘vice’ character personified evil and immortality, in medieval morality plays. Although Iago is more complex than that, its likely Shakespeare was influenced by this literary tradition.
