More Iago than Othello in “Othello”

Iago is more powerful character in Shakespeare’s play “Othello" than Othello himself because we see that the character of Othello is not more than a puppet in hands of Iago. Iago successfully conspire against him and apparently succeeded in destroying Othello.He, with the help of his intelligent mind makes a plan to destroy Othello when he says cassio;

“I hate the moor, let us be communicate in our revenge against him"

His medicine works successfully on Othello who gets suspicious of Desdemona, his loyal wife. Iago very artfully poisons Othello’s mind against cassio and Desdemona whom he loves passionately and made him say;

"I will chop her into pieces"

In the drama we see Iago commenting on Othello’s character as;

“The moor is of free and open nature that thinks man honest …and can easily be led by the nose as asses are”

This divulges the weakness of Othello’s character and strength of Iago’s mind and character .Throughout the play we see Othello as a simple, arrogant man who have not much knowledge about things and people. He is such a poor judge of character that he trusts in Iago, who is an evil deeming Cassio and Desdemona unfaithful to him; often saying about Iago;

“A man of honesty and trust”

But on the other hand calamity occurs in the play because of Othello’s character. It is he who is protagonist of the play whom upon the plot of the drama is based. Shakespeare represented Othello as a towering figure and when he suffers from the tragedy, the reader feel sympathy for him.

It would be right to say that Shakespeare pays more emphasis on the character of Iago than Othello but we must not forget that Iago is mono dimensional character i.e. he is an evil incarnate employing all his acumen for devilish purposes. So, Shakespeare has rightly entitled his play “Othello” rather than Iago.

By : basiliskt