Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Othello- Motivation

Othello, the Moor of Venice
William Shakespeare


The primary question to all of Iago’s plans and ideas is, why is he doing this? What is the end to his evil means?  Some may argue that Iago is pure evil, that he gets joy out of manipulating other people like his naïve puppets.  I say that Iago has a few concrete, and extremely selfish goals, and that he will do anything he can to reach them.  ‘Anything’ includes hurting, using, and selfishly using others for his own personal gain.  Iago initially uses Roderigo for his money, then he wants Roderigo to start a fight with Cassio so that Cassio will lose his job.  Iago tells Roderigo that Cassio stands in the way of Roderigo’s possible relationship with Desdemona.  Iago says that Cassio would be Desdemona’s second choice if she left Othello and that Cassio was flirting with her: “Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? Didst not mark that?” (II.i.240-241)  Iago truly wants Cassio to be fired because he wants Cassio’s job.  He wants to be Othello’s lieutenant.  Iago manipulates others simply to get what he wants, and I’m sure he will continue to do that throughout the play.

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