Shakespeare's Othello is a play exemplifying a villain manipulating a tragic hero. The villain, played by Iago would be persecuted by the other characters if the play was to continue. By the end of the play Iago had turned every character against himself and caused 3 deaths resulting from his actions. Iago would be persecuted for three main reasons; he planned a scheme out for personal gain, he manipulated people against each other, and he also used his honest reputation to install others trust…
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Shakespearean title after his name, Othello, by Shakespeare. Othello plays the hero in the tragedy and is accompanied by possibly the most vile villain that Shakespeare ever created, Iago. However the title of Othello has been under controversy to whether it should have been named after the black hero. Many believe that it should be named after the villain Iago as he appears to be the main character and controls most of the story’s plot line. Even though this is a plausible idea there is no other…
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Iago’s display of machiavellian characteristics ultimately leads to the cessation of multiple characters within the play, this successfully seizes the readers interest over the jealousy fuelled events of the infelicitous Othello. Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian renaissance political philosopher and statesman who acquired the reputation of an atheist and an immoral cynic. In the Aristotelian tragedy of Othello, Shakespeare has created the ultimate villain, Iago, who displays similar characteristics…
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being.” Evil is defined as immoral wickedness acted out by an individual. The main character in Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare, Iago, is evil through the whole play. Iago shows actions that normal people do not express. Iago’s process is evil because he acts upon his feelings to ruin Othello. From the beginning of the play, Iago tells Roderigo that he hates Othello because he does not get the ranking he thinks he deserves. “‘Despise me / If I do not. / I know my price…
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morality is insignificant and unnecessary. Maybe Iago’s morals are not based on right and wrong, but on his own success. By having Cassio take his place as lieutenant, he feels as if he did not succeed but failed. Throughout they play, Iago shows that he believes that only way to get what he wants is to manipulate and kill people that jeopardize his plan. Iago believes that this is the best way of handling his situations. The reader can see Iago’s evil morals when he asks Roderigo, “Why, by making…
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Nothing but an Evil Villain Have you ever read a book and thought of a character a certain way but then viewed the movie and the character was nothing like you thought? This happens to many people. If you watch the movie before reading the book, you tend to view the character like the one in the movie as you read the book. For me, once I viewed Oliver Parker’s 1995 version of Othello with Kenneth Branaugh as Iago, I couldn’t think of Iago as anything but the one he portrayed in the 1995 version…
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reality towards Othello. Iago’s plan to destroy Othello first appears when he found out Othello gave the lieutenant position to Michael Cassio instead of him. In the play, Iago states, “The native act and figure of my heart/ in complement extern, this not long after/ but I will…
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embraces a villain that has come to constitute the true definition of the word villain. Iago is able to successfully manipulate almost every character around him without succumbing to guilt or exposing his own duplicity. As such, these characters have the potential to become very flat if they can fall under a certain label. There is little potential for substance in a character of repeated use that can fit into any plot and have the same affect. Iago could simply lie under the broad title of villain, but…
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two categories of characters that he uses to build up the story and achieve specific themes; Villains and heroes. A Villain is a character that is a bad, downright evil, and ill-intentioned hated by readers and other characters. One thing that is common among this category of characters is that they are human beings, and their actions are motivated by normal things in the human life. Characters become villains when they react to life circumstances in a cruel and horrible way such as killing, deceiving…
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between the characters in Othello, and because of this, Iago is a primary character to the story’s plot. In Othello, Iago is a 28 year old standard bearer for the Venetian army, commanded under the Venetian general Othello. Being the most wicked villain in Shakespeare's writings, Iago is especially terrifying in his lack of real motives for his actions against Othello. In the first scene, Iago claims to be angry at Othello for having the lieutenant position passed over him, an experienced soldier…
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