He warns Cassio to stay out of the way but tells him that he would like to speak once Othello has gone. Othello comes out of his trance, and Iago explains that Cassio stopped by and that he has arranged to speak with the ex-lieutenant. Iago explains that he will make Cassio retell the story of where, when, how, and how often he has slept with Desdemona, and when he intends to do so again. When Othello withdraws, Iago informs the audience of his actual intention.
Othello will be driven mad, thinking that Cassio is joking with Iago about Desdemona. Just as Cassio says that he no longer wishes to see Bianca, she herself enters with the handkerchief and again accuses Cassio of giving her a love token given to him by another woman. Othello has recognized his handkerchief and, coming out of hiding when Cassio and Bianca are gone, wonders how he should murder his former lieutenant. Othello goes on to lament his hardheartedness and love for Desdemona, but Iago reminds him of his purpose.
He suggests that he will poison his wife, but Iago advises him to strangle her in the bed that she contaminated through her infidelity. Desdemona enters with Lodovico, who has come from Venice with a message from the duke. The contents of the letter also upset Othello—he has been called back to Venice, with orders to leave Cassio as his replacement in Cyprus. When Desdemona hears the news that she will be leaving Cyprus, she expresses her happiness, whereupon Othello strikes her.
Othello does so, only to accuse her of being a false and promiscuous woman. Lodovico cannot believe that the Othello he has just seen is the same self-controlled man he once knew. Now, insofar as Turks represented savagery in early modern England, Othello has exposed his own inner Turk, and he brutally orders his wife to bed.
As he stood before the senate at the beginning of the play, he was a great physical as well as verbal presence, towering above Brabanzio in stature and in eloquence, arresting the eyes and ears of his peers in the most political of public spaces, the court.
One reason could be because of Othello promoting Cassio instead of Iago or the second reason could be because Iago thinks that Othello slept with his wife.
Be sure of it. Give me the ocular proof, Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, Thou hadst been better have been born a dog Than answer my waked wrath! O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world, To be direct and honest is not safe.
This really takes a toll on Othello and means a lot to him because Iago claims to be an honest and good friend to him. Othello is known to be a character that expresses a lot of honesty especially in his previous speech in the play so for Iago to be honest with Othello shows that Iago is being serious and truly cares about him.
As their conversation goes on, Othello demands that Iago finds proof or else everything he has said is garbage and means nothing. Iago goes on to say that he heard Cassio talking in his sleep, saying to Desdemona that they need to be careful and hide their love. Cassio also curses fate for giving Desdemona to the Moor. Cassio refers to Othello as the Moor, which is super insulting! After Iago says that, I feel like Othello starts to give in more and more and believe what Iago is saying.
Iago does all this not for any good reason, but for love of evil. Iago is surrounded with bitter irony: he is not as he seems, his good is bad for others, people repeatedly rely on him, and he betrays them. He likes to have others unwittingly working to serve his purposes. But for all this, as his plot against Othello starts moving and gathering momentum, he loses control of it and must take real risks to prevent it from crashing. Iago is a man with an obsession for control and power over others who has let this obsession take over his whole life.
Necessity forces his hand, and, in order to destroy Othello, he must also destroy Roderigo, Emilia, Desdemona, and ultimately himself. The one man who survived Iago's attempt to kill him, Cassio, is the only major character left standing at the end of the play.
William Hazlitt wrote: "Iago is an extreme instance. He is quite or nearly indifferent to his own fate as to that of others; he runs all risks for a trifling and doubtful advantage, and is himself the dupe and victim of ruling passion — an insatiable craving after action of the most difficult and dangerous kind.
The great nineteenth-century actor Booth wrote about playing Iago: "To portray Iago properly you must seem to be what all the characters think, and say, you are, not what the spectators know you to be; try to win even them by your sincerity. Don't act the villain, don't look it, or speak it, by scowling and growling, I mean , but think it all the time. Be genial, sometimes jovial, always gentlemanly. Quick in motion as in thought; lithe and sinuous as a snake.
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