Iago's Motivation In Othello

Everything people do is driven by some force they have in their life. Every word they speak and every action they take has a purpose behind it. Iago, our antagonist in Shakespeare 's tragedy Othello, is quite a motivated person in his mind. According to the play, both stated and inferred, Iago has many motives as to why he seeks Othello’s downfall. In Iago’s mind, he believes that his motives were strong enough to get away with or justify murder. Iago was a highly motivated character in this play and was able to justify his actions without feeling any remorse for the misery he had caused and the people he was responsible for killing.

Although his reasons were wrong, Iago had enough to rationalize what he did. Some of the reasons he used to fuel his hate was his suspicions about Emilia and Othello having an affair, Othello’s promotion of Cassio instead of Iago even after all Iago’s loyalty, and a possible desire for Desdemona who fit the description of a perfect wife. I have concluded that the main reason behind Iago’s hateful actions was Othello choosing Cassio over Iago. I believe that this was the biggest reason because throughout the play, Iago becomes so infuriated and vengeful he attempts to kill Cassio. If Cassio’s promotion didn’t have such an impactful on Iago, then why would Iago go to

Iago planted Jealousy within Othello with a rumor that Iago made up himself. He told Othello about Cassio and Desdemona having an affair behind Othello’s back. Iago could have made this rumor about anyone but he still chose Cassio. Iago wants Cassio and Othello to suffer for the decision Othello made. He makes Othello so infuriated that he wants Cassio dead. In Act V, Scene i, Iago even attempts to kill Cassio. Iago obviously has some serious reasons to want Cassio dead and that is because his anger has festered within him and has now decided to boil over and destroy