Shakespeares Othello - Iagos Deception as Catalyst for Truth Essay

Iago Deception as Catalyst for Truth The audience will gain a more complete understanding of Iago in The Tragedy of Othello if Iago is viewed as a complex char flecker and not simply as a conventional villain. Iagos devious schemes destroy lives both liter every(prenominal)y and figuratively, but they may as well as serve to reveal the character of others in intricate ways. A critical interpretation of Iago reveals that although he is principally a deceiver, he is also a dramatic agent of truth. Even though his acts are poisonous and deceitful, the title honest Iago is fitting in the sense that he reveals the on-key nature of his victims, as well as the propensity for human beings to act in accordance with their inherently dark natures. While based in deception, Iagos machinations expose the truth of Brabantios hidden racism, Cassios inner vanity, and Othellos repressed sexual possessiveness. Iago sprucely emphasizes the issue of race and its association with devilry when he an d Roderigo announce to Brabantio that Desdemona has eloped with Othello. Iago is the jump to emphasize the biracial nature of the marriage by referring to Othello as an honest-to-goodness black ram and to Desdemona as a white ewe (1.1.85-86).1 Iago then associates Othello with the look of the devil (88) because he is black, warning Brabantio that he has lost half his instinct (84) now that Desdemona is married to Othello. It is Iago who initially suggests that Othello exemplifies the stereotype that a black someone is inherently evil and likely to be a practitioner of witchcraft. Granted, it is marvellous that Iagos few brief statements give birth to Brabantio as a racialist yet by plaguing Brabantios thoughts with a dialogue that feeds his natural tendency tow... ...ility to recognize Iago completely is the natural human tendency to deny that which is abhorrent in our own natures, and to find scapegoats on which to place the blame for our darker sides. As a conventional vil lain, Iago becomes an easy scapegoat we place the responsibility for the moral failings of others on his ability to manipulate and deceive. Yet as an agent of truth, Iagos most pregnant revelation is that we tend to deny the reality that, as human beings, we all possess the propensity to judge what is foreign to us in anti-Semite(a) ways, to esteem ourselves too highly, or to be sexually motivated and possessive. Indeed, Iago has the run low laugh in being honest Iago as an agent of truth-for he manipulates not only the characters, but the audience as well. Note 1. entirely references to Othello are from the Signet Classic Edition (New York Penguin, 1998).