Written by: icecreamfloat
It is said that the words or jargon that people use hint at the kind of person he or she is; more, that a person’s choice of words situate his or her place in society. Iago, throughout the play, shows a penchant for using animal savagery to refer to various characters in the play. What does this tendency show us of Iago as a person?
Shakespeare’s Othello had given us a villain who is evil to the very core of his humanity. He manages to present himself as a good friend to all the characters and gain their trust. Yet, he secretly uses these friendships and images of him as an honest man to deploy his evil plans step by step. Iago is shrewd because he uses animal imagery to suit his evil plans.
As Iago planned to announce Desdemona’s marriage with Othello to Brabantio, he decides to use animal imagery to further add alarm to the rage of the senator. As soon as they face each other, Iago declares “…an old black ram is tupping your white ewe” (1.1, 1.97-98, p.13). In effect, this causes Brabantio to panic as he imagines his daughter being harmed by the Moor. Iago is clever to use such simple words to create a big impact on the emotions of a father towards a daughter in danger. The great contrast between black and white is used by Iago to effectively form an image of an unnatural and impossible relationship between his master and Desdemona. Furthermore, by saying, “…you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you’ll have your nephews neigh to you…” (Iago, 1.1, 1.125-127, p.14) Brabantio gives Iago the instant reaction that he had expected as the senator immediately prepares to go and attack Othello with his soldiers.
However, when the conflict between Othello and Brabantio was settled within the assembly, Roderigo lost hope that he could ever win Desdemona over. As a result, he wishes to commit suicide since he simply cannot contain his loss. Iago, on the other hand, realizes his need for Roderigo in his suit against Othello and hence, convinces Roderigo that killing himself is not the way humans should deal with their problems. He asserts that suicide is only meant for “cats and blind puppies” (1.3, 1.379, p.51) and that he, being a person, should know better than to claim his own life. By comparing his decisions to that of animals, he achieves in making Roderigo exclude his initial plan to kill himself and move on to obey Iago’s demands. In the end, he makes use of Roderigo to attack Cassio and clean himself from any of the crimes committed.
Finally, Iago uses animal imagery in his plot to ruin the clean image that Othello has for his wife which will eventually lead to his own self-destruction. In his shrewd style of persuading his master, we see the transition of Othello’s way of mind as he gradually becomes obsessed with the appearances that Iago candidly presents to him. The moment he realizes that the Moor has indeed fallen into the trap he had laid out, he goes on feeding him with information that would further add to the emotional struggle of his master. A manifestation of such was when he mentioned “…were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys…”, (Iago, 3.3, 3.460, p.145) to refer to both Cassio and Desdemona’s actions towards each other behind Othello’s back. Upon hearing such, Iago instantly manipulates Othello’s mind into thinking that they must be brought to justice for the damage they had caused to his honor and trust. In addition, through the animals that Iago had used to describe his wife and lieutenant, he starts to take every act of kindness and love by Desdemona as an act of deceiving him. All of these contributed to the final execution of Iago’s plan: the destruction of Othello.
As Iago’s plan of deception is revealed in his soliloquies in the play, the audience learns about the true intentions of the villain behind his actions. He had carefully drawn out his plot against Othello and Cassio using the other characters such as Brabantio, Desdemona and Roderigo. With the use of appearances to define the nature and action of every character, he successfully leads the characters to their ultimate downfalls.