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Iago's Evil

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Pride, revenge, jealousy, and love; all cornerstones throughout time as to why people commit atrocities to one another daily. Time has still not changed sadly as we look out and still see what these feelings bring some of us to do to others. In Othello we first handly get to see the actions and plans that go into place to make something of this nature happen, but we never truly get to know why Iago decided he was done. Shakespeare makes sure of this when he ends on Iago being shipped away to be tortured until he answers for why he has done such evils (Act V, scene ii, line 3740) and this was meant to be done by Shakespeare. Shakespeare wanted the audience to come up with his or her own opinions on why a characters like Iago would risk everything …show more content…

You can almost call Iago half a “motiveless malignity” because in the story he does do things to people that seems to just happen because of his true evil nature. At the same time he isn’t completely due to his plan for why he is doing this in the first place. The fact he also doesn’t reveal why he has went forth with his plan at the end is also a major point for this argument as well. People say Shakespeare wrote that because he wanted the audience to know that even Iago wouldn’t say why he did it because he doesn’t know why. He had no motive and just wanted to see Othello and everyone else around sink in complete and utter chaos. Shakespeare wrote the ending this way so the audience could have their own view on why Iago did this and where the evil originated from. Reinstating the idea that Iago did not act without motive and did have a reason to carry out the horrific plans. With the term “motiveless malignity” disproven as the main reason for Iago’s evil there has to be a reason for why he is doing these things and risking so much. We see early in the story that Iago has a disdain and unlovable relationship with his boss Othello. Whether it is when he is walking with Roderigo gossiping and saying racist things about Othello or when he uses racist and weirdly sexual statements to describe the marriage

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