Essay On Iago's Evil

Iago: A Specialist in the Art of Evil In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, the combination of Iago’s devious planning and manipulative thinking lead to the eventual downfall of many characters. Iago has uncontrollable anger because Othello passed him up for the position of lieutenant, causing him to seek revenge. Without logical motivation, Iago develops a heinous plan that eventually harms almost every character in this play. Through his intense jealousy, deceptive planning, and cynical disposition, Iago is able to devise a plan that eventually entangles everyone in his dangerous web. Iago’s untamable jealousy in the beginning of the play is the spark for his devious plan. Iago shows anger towards Othello because he does not elect him as the next …show more content…
Iago’s lack of guilt is a result of his cynical outlook on life and belief in the common stereotypes of the time. Throughout this play, Iago has a severely negative outlook towards women and people of different races. Othello is called “the Moor” throughout the book by several characters, and Iago uses this term with a negative connotation. This is demonstrated when he calls Othello a “black ram,” which shows the crude and harsh racism that he has towards Othello (1.1). Additionally, Iago thinks women deserve minimal respect. When speaking with two powerful female characters in this play, Emilia and Desdemona, he claims that all women eventually just, “suckle fools and chronicle small beer” (2.1). He believes that all women are good for is taking care of the house and children. The reader can clearly see that he is scornful, and has no regard for women. Ironically, Iago is eventually brought down by Emilia, his own wife, who he kills for revealing his evil plan. All of these factors contributed to the ease with which Iago committed these terrible murders without feeling guilty for his