Of all the villainous villains to ever create villainy, the most awesome has to be Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello. This guy managed to conspire a plot that would kill his captain’s wife, Desdemona and strip Othello’s position as captain from him, and (in theory) move Iago up the ranks and into Othello’s old position all while never allowing suspicion to land on Iago, the mastermind himself! Of course, if you’ve read Othello, you know that his plan doesn’t work out for anyone in the long run. Even though his plan failed, Iago and still a super awesome villain and all good villains need a motive; so, what was Iago’s? Throughout Othello, it is revealed that Iago is upset that Othello was promoted to captain since Iago wanted that position and that Iago suspects Othello of sleeping with his wife, Emilia. These reasons, on the surface, may seem logical and may be excused as enough evidence to allow the story to progress but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll notice that these reasons don’t have quite enough support to make sense… Iago’s excuse that he wants Othello’s position is a good excuse for being so villainous but when he finally slinks his way into the captain’s position, he doesn’t seem all to excited. He gets promoted and yet continues to cause chaos throughout Cyprus so what could be the reasoning behind that? Well, he did make his excuse about Othello sleeping with Emilia but last I checked, Iago doesn’t seem to care too much about Emilia’s love. Even when he did bring up the idea of Othello with Emilia, Iago didn’t go into any detail and left the thought hanging, unexplained. It seems that if he cared about it, he would have made the affair into a bigger deal but Iago doesn’t. So if Iago’s reasons for causing all this trouble are neither Emilia’s possible affair or Iago’s jealousy for Othello’s position, what could it be? Maybe Iago’s not jealous for Othello’s rank but he is jealous for his love? After all, Iago does hint at the idea of him being homosexual. While talking to Othello, Iago makes some weird comments such as saying “I am yours forever” (iii.iii.488). While he could referring to his duty to serve Othello, it is quite an odd way to say it… He could have said “I’ll always be loyal to you” or “I’ll serve you forever” but he said “I am yours forever”. That’s a pretty romantic comment, let alone to end a scene with. Iago also says that he hates women and constantly upholds his idea by mocking Desdemona, emotionally separating himself from Emilia, and showing little interest in sexual appeal. He does say that he “I do love her too” (ii.i.216) but justifies himself with mention that he loves her “Not out of absolute lust—though peradventure I stand accountant for as great a sin— But partly led to diet my revenge, For that I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leaped into my seat.” (ii.i.217-221). Basically, he would love her in order to make Othello sad so I’m not counting that as true love in my book. Iago even gets Othello to kill Desdemona for no apparent reason other than to make Othello even more angry at himself. Desdemona wasn’t standing is Iago’s way on his rise to captain status, so killing Desdemona must have been because he wanted Othello to be lonely again… But why? So Iago could swoop in and take Othello as his true love, living out their days as lovers in Cyprus! Iago being homosexually attracted to Othello would explain everything; his hatred for women, his romantic remarks to Othello, his unnecessary side-mission to kill Desdemona. All his hard work to gain Othello’s love, gone to waste as Othello killed himself! The facts add up; Iago, the greatest super-villain mastermind to ever grace the stage, quite possibly have been homosexual. Interesting, am-I-right? Citations:
CyberGhostface. Othello and Iago Movie Scene. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., 21 Mar. 2005. Web. 1 Feb. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Othelloiagomovie.jpg#filehistory>. "I hate the Moor...". Digital image. The Lantern of Knowledge. N.p., 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Feb. 2016. <https://thelanternofknowledge.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/beware-the-iago-in-all-of-us-how-to-see-evil-in-people-and-in-ourselves/>. Leighton, Edmund Blair. God Speed! Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., 1900. Web. 1 Feb. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtly_love>. Shakespeare, William, Sir. Othello. 1604. SparkNotes. Web. 1 Feb. 2016. <http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/othello/section5.rhtml>.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The banner image was retrieved from WikiShakespeare.
|