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Taking place in the closing stages of Act One, Iago's soliloquy is a culmination of all the scheming and skulduggery preceding it and confirms audience's suspicions that Iago is planning the ultimate downfall of Othello. Whilst Iago's eagerness to catalyse an already grave situation is well known by the audience, such as when he urges Roderigo to "call up [Desdemona's] father" alerting him to the theft of his daughter, before this soliloquy Iago's willingness to manufacture cause for conflict entirely through his own manipulation has not been observed.
When finally Iago is left alone on stage he is able to divulge his plan's to "abuse Othello's ear' doctoring him to believe that Cassio has become "too familiar with [Othello's] wife".
The manifestation of these plans will become the driving force behind the remaining four acts and as such this soliloquy, in which the audience becomes aware of this scheme, is greatly important. As cunning and deceptive as we have come to expect, this soliloquy is confirmation to the audience of the self-superior, malicious, scheming character of Iago.
Having moments earlier told Rodrigo that "I have professed me thy friend", Iago commences his soliloquy by sneering at the gullibility of Rodrigo mocking "thus do I ever make my fool my purse"; the repeated use of the possessive pronoun conveys the extent to which Iago is able to control Roderigo through deception as well as his belief in his superiority over Roderigo.
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Roderigo is belittled by Iago further as he describes Roderigo as a "snipe" - a flightless bird - alluding perhaps to Roderigo's inability to escape his influences.
Though our opinion of Iago is only verified, this soliloquy may enable audiences to sympathise with Roderigo more so than before.
Whilst Roderigo's actions are often malicious, his gullibility and imperfections, captured aptly through the "snipe" metaphor, are certainly known by and manipulated to the advantage of Iago. Indeed Roderigo as well as Cassio, are perhaps not regarded as autonomous beings by Iago; instead they are thought of as pawns whose actions are preconceived to achieve his ends of corrupting Othello.
What is perhaps worse than Iago's past and planned uses of manipulation is his admission of the pleasure he takes in such malevolent actions. While describing his deception of Roderigo, Iago explains that he does so "but for my sport" displaying the base enjoyment he is able to glean. While making this confession Iago shows no remorse or knowledge as to the malevolence of his actions. The audience's observation of the accepting and subsequently somewhat vulnerable nature of Othello is also it seems acknowledge and appreciated by Iago.
Musing that "the moor is of a free and open nature", audiences are chilled both by the astuteness of Iago as well as by the fact that Iago is aware of Othello's weaknesses. Iago's observation that Othello has an "open nature" may be construed as a sexual reference, conveying perhaps the ease with which Othello can be exploited with sexual stimulus, in this case Desdemona's affair. As with the preceding act, this soliloquy uses the theme of obscurity to feed into the overarching idea of deception.
The main example of this is Iago's description of the process of realising his plan, advising that "hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light", using the rhyme between "night" and "light" to augment the declaration of the critical secrecy of his plan with more gravity. Iago's description of his plot as a "monstrous birth" seems inconsistent with his previously displayed shameless malevolence - perhaps he displays the shadow of guilt over his plan as he is aware of the elements of Othello's greatness such as courage and battle-prowess being a man of war himself.
Despite the possible existence of respect for Othello, another theme of this soliloquy is the contempt Iago has for Othello owing to their differing races. Such is the racism of Iago that he denies Othello the capacity for rational thought and describes how, instead, Othello's actions are governed entirely by his passions like an ass being "led by the nose" toward the next meal. Othello is dehumanized further by Iago as he denies him the respect of his name, instead just referring to him as "the Moor". A theme used previously in the act is that of betrayal, most notably the supposed betrayal of Desdemona's father.
During this soliloquy the more particular concept of betrayal within marriage is referred to twice. The first implementation is where Iago refers to how, abroad, he is being humiliated by Othello as he states "it is thought ... that 'twixt my sheets [Othello's] done my office", complaining that there are rumours of Othello fulfilling Iago's job by engaging in sexual activities with his wife. Perhaps it is in response to this alleged affair that Iago's plan is to frame Cassio as having had relations with Desdemona, again inciting the theme of marital betrayal.
As though to compliment the overarching idea of Iago's deceptiveness, at times his use of language can be slightly unclear as though while deceiving the other character he is simultaneously trying to conceal something from the audience. Most often throughout the soliloquy Iago withholds the names of the character he is referring to and instead either uses metaphor or other similarly vague terms. For example Iago calls Roderigo "my fool" as well as using the metaphor of "a snipe", whilst he mainly refers to Othello as "the moor".
As Iago goes through this soliloquy there is a sense, despite the slightly obscure use of language, that with all other characters off-stage the audience is finally allowed a brief glimpse into his thought process. Both his use of rhetoric questions and the long meandering sentences he uses manufacture the sense that Iago is thinking out loud for example as he appeals "How? How? Lets See. After some time, to abuse Othello's ear that he is too familiar with his wife; he hath a person and a smooth dispose to be suspected, framed to make women false". The repeated question "how?
How? " also perhaps conveys Iagos chilling desperation to devise a plan capable of felling Othello. Overall this soliloquy has a variety of effects on the audience. Whilst at first it may be perceived as a comfort finally having the plans and motivations of Iago illuminated this is quickly thwarted as his sinister intentions planning the downfall of Othello become apparent. In revealing his intentions, Iago has endowed the narrative with a foreboding atmosphere as the audience wait, their breaths bated, hoping that his desires do not come into fruition.
Iago's Soliloquy in Shakespeare's Play Othello. (2020, Jun 01). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/iagos-soliloquy-in-shakespeares-play-othello-essay
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