Iago's Motive

An Examination of Resentment

Team Triforce

Exhibit #1

• "I know my price, I am worth no worse a place. But he (as loving his own pride and purposes) Evades them with a bombast circumstance" (I.i.12-14)
• "his eyes had seen the proof/At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds/Christian and heathen" (around 30)
• "Why, there’s no remedy. 'Tis the curse of service. Preferment goes by letter and affection" (36-37)
• "I follow him to serve my turn upon him." (44)

Iago taking political revenge too far.

Even though Cassio has never participated in any battles, Othello named him lieutenant instead of Iago. Thus, Cassio must die and Othello must pay.

Revenge

Exhibit #1

"I stand accountant for as great a sin, /But partly led to diet my revenge" (I.ii.293-294)

Revenge is the chief spark of this play.

But not necessarily the driving force.

• "An old black ram is tupping your white ewe" (I.i.91-92).
• "You’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary/Horse; you’ll have your nephews neigh to you" (I.i.110 - 111)
• "Her eye must be fed, and what delight shall she have to look on the devil?" (II.i.225-226)
• “Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,/May fall to match you with her country forms/and happily repent” (III.iii.226-28)

Exhibit #2

• “What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,/If he can carry ‘t thus!” (Roderigo, I.i.67-68)

• "Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom/ Of such a thing as thou!" (Brabantio, I.ii.89-90)

• “If virtue no delighted beauty lack/Your son-in-law is far more fair than black” (Duke, I.iii.285-286)

• “O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!” (Emilia, IV.ii.132)
• “She was too fond of her most filthy bargain” (Emilia, V.ii.169)

Every character in the play holds racist views toward Othello, whether aggressive or passive. This is especially true for Iago, who makes constant reifications and crude metaphors targeting Othello's unique looks. But... is he truly a racist?

Racism

Exhibit #2

Exhibit #1

• "As, I confess, it is my nature's plague/To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy/Shapes faults that are not" (III.iii.146-148)
• "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy/It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/The meat it feeds on" (III.iii.165-167)
• "Trifles light as air/Are to the jealous confirmations strong/As proofs of holy writ" (III.iii.332-334)
• "Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons" (III.iii.336)

• "I hate the Moor:/And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets/He has done my office" (I.iii.323-325)
• "I do suspect the lusty Moor/Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof/Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards;/And nothing can or shall content my soul/Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife" (II.i.295-299)
• "I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip, /Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb—/For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too— " (II.i.305-307)

• "I fetch my life and being / From men of royal siege" (I.ii.21-22)

• "Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw/The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt,/For she had eyes and chose me." (Othello, III.iii.192-194)

• "Haply, for I am black/And have not those soft parts of conversation/That chamberers have" (Othello, III.iii.267-269)

Exhibit #3

• Racism
• Revenge
• Jealousy
• Envy
• Schadenfreude

The biggest running theme in the story.

What ultimately destroys Othello.

Iago gains his motive from it, ultilizes it, and also criticizes it in the process.

Jealousy

Exhibit #1

• "The Moor is of a free and open nature/That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,/And will as tenderly be led by th' nose/As asses are." (I.iii.336-339)
• "Hell and night/Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light." (I.iii.340-341)
• "In following him, I follow but myself/Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty/But seeming so, for my peculiar end." (I.i.60-63)
• "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:/For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane." (I.iii.383-384)
• "She was a wight, if ever such wight were,...To suckle fools and chronicle small beer." (158, 160)

Envy

Schadenfreude

Iago is envious of Cassio's charm and looks, Othello's social status, and Desdemona's logic-defying selflessness.

"“Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,/Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd/Desiring this man's art and that man's scope.” (Sonnet 29)

Schadenfreude: pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

• "If Cassio do remain,/He hath a daily beauty in his life/That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor/May unfold me to him" (V.i.18-21)
• "For, sir,/It is as sure as you are Roderigo,/Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago. " (I.i.55-57)

Exhibit #1

Exhibit #2

"Thou art a villian!" (Brabantio, I.i.118)

• "How say you, Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?" (Desdemona, II.i.161-164)
• "You may relish him more/in the soldier than in the scholar." (Cassio: II.I.165-166)
• "Villany, villany, villany!/I think upon't, I think: I smell't: O villany!—/I thought so then:—I'll kill myself for grief:— /O villany, villany!" (Emilia, V.ii.190-193)

• "I look down towards his feet, but that’s a fable./If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee." (Othello:,V.ii.299-300)