Iago, the villain in Shakespeare’s Othello, is known for his intricate plot to bring down Cassio and convince Othello that his wife is cheating on him, leading to the deaths of several characters. He is considered an archetypal Machiavellian villain and has been interpreted as acting out of unrequited homosexual desire for Othello. Many well-known actors have played the role, and there have been several film adaptations of the play.
Iago is a fictional character in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. The character has more lines than anyone else in the play, and more lines than any untitled character in any of Shakespeare’s other plays. Many scholars have debated Iago’s motives, personality, and place in Shakespeare’s world. He is considered one of the most evil villains in all of Shakespeare, causing the deaths of his closest friends and his wife.
In Othello, Iago is unhappy that he has not received a promotion from General Othello, who has instead given the position of lieutenant to Cassio. The villain begins to prepare an intricate plot to bring down Cassio, which ends in Cassio’s demotion. Dissatisfied with this result, the character convinces Othello that Desdemona, the general’s wife, is cheating on him. Sure that the villain is right, Othello smothers Desdemona with a pillow, only to be informed by Emilia, Iago’s wife, that Desdemona was completely innocent.
After Emilia’s betrayal, her wicked husband stabs her to death. Othello, horrified by her actions, kills himself. Iago, famously refusing to explain his actions, is captured and presumably executed for his crimes.
The scheming character is often considered an archetypal Machiavellian villain. In his 1532 political treatise The Prince, Machiavelli outlined a course of political existence grounded in the idea that the most effective way to govern is to maintain a perfectly moral public facade while taking any action, however extreme, to maintain or acquire the candies. Iago is held up as an excellent example of this principle as he is only able to carry out his villainy by manipulating the perfect trust other characters have in him. It is likely that Shakespeare was at least familiar with the theory of Machiavellianism, and many scholars believe that he drew on the concept in creating Iago.
A popular but highly controversial interpretation of the character is that he acts out of unrequited homosexual desire for Othello. This concept of the character is drawn from several textual readings, including his apparent hatred of women. The most cited textual example is in act III, scene iii, in which Othello and his traitorous friend are engaged to each other considered by some to be reminiscent of a wedding ceremony. In this theory, his motivation is jealousy that Cassio and Desdemona have supplanted him in Othello’s affection. Typically, this interpretation is either loved or despised by scholars, although Kenneth Branagh incorporated it into his film version of the play.
The tricky villain role of Othello inspires great competition in the acting world, and many well-known actors of stage and screen have taken on the role. Richard Dreyfuss, Ian McKellen, Laurence Olivier and Christopher Walken have all played the character at least once in their careers. Actor Andy Serkis, in his book Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic, suggests his interpretation: that Iago was a good guy who becomes addicted to power when his plans succeed.
Several modern film adaptations of the play have been made, from true-to-text versions by Branagh and Olivier to 2001’s O, a modernization set in a high school, where the villain is a steroid-addicted basketball player. With more than ten film adaptations of the play produced since the 1920s, the fascination with Iago and his divisive motivations appears to continue to gain popularity, as more and more theories are concocted by scholars and fans of the play.
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