I am not what I am

Perhaps the most heinous villain in Shakespeare, Iago is enthralling for his dreadful character. He is one of Shakespeare’s most complex villains. At first look, Iago’s character seems to be pure evil. However, such a scoundrel would divert from the impact of the play.

Iago’s entire scheme begins when the “ignorant, ill-suited” Cassio is given the position he desired. Iago is consumed with envy and plots to steal the position he feels he most rightly deserves. Iago deceives, steals, and kills to gain that position. He is willing to take revenge on anyone—Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo, Emilia—at the slightest aggravation and obviously enjoys the pain and damage he causes. However, it is not that Iago pushes aside his conscience to commit these acts, but that he lacks a conscience to begin with. He is able to tell the audience, “And what’s he then that says I play the villain, and know that it will laugh as though he were a clown” (Act 2 Scene 3). Iago seems to have no soul; he never repents, never lets up with his schemes, and never seems to tire of harming whatever he is able to. His language is also revealing of his dark character. He uses the cliché “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve” to convey how his heart is false. But he transforms this cliché into something more dark and fierce when he adds the image of the birds tearing at this heart. Already he has foreshadowed the great trickeries that he will wangle and engineer, and the ominous qualities that make up his core.

The relationship between Iago and Roderigo is apparently fairly close. As far as Roderigo knows, Iago is his friend. Does Iago share the same kind of feeling? Appearance is one thing and reality is another, as Iago soon will tell. The key to Iago’s character is in the line “I am not what I am.” Roderigo should take this as a warning but fails to. Iago is often funny, especially in his scenes with the foolish Roderigo. He seems to almost wink at the audience when he revels in his own skill. I find myself an “entertained spectator” when watching the interaction between Iago and Roderigo. I find it ironic that after Iago’s lengthy confession of duplicity, Roderigo still does not suspect him of double-crossing or manipulation. Appearance vs. reality is a crucial theme in Iago’s story.

If one looks in modern day cinema, one will see the villain, evil to the core. Shakespeare took his villains to a higher level. He did not make them transparent like the villains of modern cinema. He gave his villains depth and spirit. Iago is a perfect illustration of “Shakespeare’s villain.” His amorality and cynicism give, what would be a very dull character, life.