Oct 7, 2008

Othello | The Relationship Between Othello and Iago

Essay discussing the relationship between Othello and Iago, focusing on the military context and interdependence of the relationship.

At the start of Othello, Iago makes very clear to Roderigo the apparent cause for his hatred of the general. His lack of promotion to lieutenant leads him to declare:

… be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affin'd
To love the Moor.
(I.i.38-40)¹

Such a motive is not a grand-scale one, nor one which might cast Iago as the Universal Villain. His secondary motive, however, provides a different insight into his character, and provides the first instance of the theme which will dominate this play—sexual jealousy:

I...