So I have this mental picture of Iago. A tall, lanky white guy with dark, greasy hair. His hands are pasty and frail with fingernails that are just slightly to long for a man. From far away he just looks like a punk, the kind of guy that, if you saw him on the street, you would cross to the other side, but up close you can see the fire in his eyes.
Literally, fire.
When I think of a pyromaniac, I think of someone who sets fire to other things, but in the case of Iago, he has first set fire to himself.
Iago, at some point, was a decent human being. When it came to Othello at least, we know that Iago had issues with him, namely that he suspected him of sleeping with Emilia, but because he was so caught up in this idea of becoming his lieutenant, Iago continued to serve Othello dutifully, dazzled by the glorious promises that war, that Othello, held for him – the same way a man goes to church under the impression that he'll end up with a nice two-bedroom in the clouds someday.
So Iago swept all his problems with Othello under the rug, thinking that it would all be worth it when he was appointed lieutenant. The thing about religious people is that religion is not just one facet of their lives. Religion is their life. So when Iago didn't get the job, he didn't just shrug and head for the job classifieds. Othello choosing someone else was like the churchgoer discovering that Heaven doesn't even exist. It was enough to cause Iago to throw not only his admiration for Othello to the dogs, but everything else as well. Just like a teenage girl might tearfully burn all tangible remembrances of a foregone sweetheart, Iago flung himself into a fire formed from a homemade spark and plenty of timber that even the heavy carpet couldn't smother.
The most dangerous property of fire is that it spreads. If it didn't, we wouldn't get tickets for parking in front of those ridiculous yellow things or have any use for Smokey the Bear. When Iago's soul went up in flames, he recognized that everyone else around him was still under the illusion that had once blinded him. He saw that he was now on a different plane from his former equals, like a puppeteer to his puppets. He saw the perfect opportunity to play an evil, wicked, brilliant game. What is so beautiful about the way Iago destroys the lives of the people around him is how natural it is. Although he is the author of a multifaceted tragedy, he really didn't have to do much. When his own morals caught fire, it was only a matter of time before the fire spread to someone else, and then another, and another. Suddenly Iago finds himself in an enclosed incineration pit (Cyprus) that is suffocating everyone but him. But because everyone's religion is Iago's game, and Iago's game is everyone's impossibility (even his wife refuses to believe that anyone could concoct a plan so cruel), no one even thinks to stop, drop, and roll until it's far too late. By manipulating the devotion, love, virtue, and good of other people into a masterfully malignant web of malice with uncanny ease, Iago has made the transition from worshiper to god and becomes the victor of his own game.
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3 comments:
That's really interesting what you say about religion. I think that really fits for Iago, about how this "religion" is consuming his life, and how it spirals him out of control when it falls apart. That is a really good analysis of the situation.
I think you have a good point about Iago being rather immoral, and setting fire to other people's lives by using their virtues against them. But, I also think that though Iago deluded himself somewhat, by reasoning the unreasonable, I think the other characters were just as delusional about reality as Iago. So, though Iago burned down many good aspects of people, he also burned down the false realities in which the other characters lived, and revealed some of the nastier aspects of human nature. Like you said, the beauty of Iago's plan was that he didn't have to try very hard. The traits that he brought out in other people were already there. If you look at it from this perspective, it makes Iago look much more human, or at least more in touch with the true nature of humans.(besides deluding himself, which he did quite often throughout the play.
I don't know, I'm really stuck on the fact that Iago is the devil, so I don't really think that he ever was much of a man with religion. And while, yes, the devil did fall from heaven, the play doesn't go back that far. When you look at it, Iago is a really terrible (and wuvable) character. When he's talking with Desdemona and Emelia on Cyprus, the jokes he makes are really crude and bad and he has been embezzeling Roderigo before the play began.
I also don't think that he was very religious to begin with. and I don't think that his actions were a game to him. I think that it was in and yet out of his control. that by the end of the play, he becomes all burned up. He is not laughing at the end. and it is a fact that he did not win. Emelia calls him out and Iago gets hunted down into the night.
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