Shakespeares Othello - Iagos Deception as Catalyst for Truth Essay

Iago Deception as accelerator for Truth The audience will achieve a more realized understanding of Iago in The Tragedy of Othello if Iago is viewed as a complex component part and not simply as a conventional villain. Iagos devious schemes suppress lives both literally and figuratively, exactly they may also serve to emit 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 doer of truth. Even though his acts are malicious and deceitful, the title honest Iago is appointee in the sense that he reveals the true constitution of his victims, as comfortably as the propensity for piece creations to act in accordance with their inherently dark natures. While based in deception, Iagos machinations expose the truth of Brabantios hush-hush racism, Cassios inner vanity, and Othellos repressed sexual possessiveness. Iago cleverly emphasizes the issue of race and its fellowship with de vilry when he and Roderigo announce to Brabantio that Desdemona has eloped with Othello. Iago is the first to emphasize the biracial nature of the marriage by referring to Othello as an old black ram and to Desdemona as a white ewe (1.1.85-86).1 Iago then associates Othello with the image of the devil (88) because he is black, warning Brabantio that he has lost half his soul (84) now that Desdemona is married to Othello. It is Iago who ab initio suggests that Othello exemplifies the stereotype that a black person is inherently evil and probably to be a practitioner of witchcraft. Granted, it is unlikely that Iagos few brief statements devolve birth to Brabantio as a racist yet by plaguing Brabantios thoughts with a dialogue that feeds his natural tendency tow... ...ility to perceive Iago completely is the natural human tendency to cut across 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 v illain, Iago becomes an easy scapegoat we place the responsibility for the moral failings of others on his ability to manipulate and deceive. notwithstanding as an agent of truth, Iagos most meaningful revelation is that we tend to deny the reality that, as human beings, we all possess the propensity to jurist what is foreign to us in racist ways, to esteem ourselves too highly, or to be sexually motivated and possessive. Indeed, Iago has the last laugh in being honest Iago as an agent of truth-for he manipulates not only the characters, but the audience as well. Note 1. All references to Othello are from the Signet Classic variant (New York Penguin, 1998).