Shakespeares Othello - There Would be No Othello Without Iago Essay

There would be No Othello without Iago Though the name of the play written by William Shakespeare is called "Othello," the character Othello is not the main character, but rather Iago is. Iago is the character who drives the play, he is the one who makes things happen. Without his greed and hated, there would be no play at all. The whole play is centered around Iago's revenge and in doing so, he is willing to make other people's lives miserable. Through "Othello," Iago uses the other characters to avenge the wrong doings which Othello has inflicted upon him, and will go to any means to do so. The play starts out with Iago not attaining the position he wanted from Othello, but rather the position was given to Cassio, who in Iago's mind is unqualified for the job. This is where Iago starts to spin his web of destruction. Iago hates Othello with a passion, and in his heart he truly believes that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia. "I hate the Moor, and it is abroad that 'twixt my sheets 'has done my office" Othello. Act I. iii. 429-431. Being placed aside for the lieutenant position made him even more mad. He then decided on a plan and took full action upon it "to abuse Othello's ear that he (Cassio) is too familiar with his (Othello's) wife" Othello. Act I. iii. 438-439. Roderigo was Iago's puppet. He believed everything that Iago told him and always did as he said, which in the end got him killed. Through the play one wonders often why Roderigo keeps following Iago's demands, and it was because he truly loved Desdemona. He was willing to kill himself if he couldn't have her "i... ...sp; Every person that came in contact with Iago ended up dead or wounded in some way. Iago manipulated everyone he knew for his own means. In the end he got everything he wanted. He got revenge on Othello and ended up killing three people and seriously wounding one person in the process. One of the people who died was his own wife, but he could have cared less about that as long as he succeeded. If Iago was not around and did not carry with him the animosity, hatred, greed, and selfishness, none of those inimical things would have happened, but then, there wouldn't be a play either. Bad characters are needed in plays and in life. If we always got what we wanted and bad things never happened, then life would be very boring. Iago tormented and played around with Othello's mind, and he enjoyed this immensely, it was his goal and he achieved it.