Iago's Manipulation in Othello by William Shakespeare Essay Sample

In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Iago carefully and skillfully manipulates multiple characters, including Roderigo and Cassio. Iago manipulates Roderigo for his money and manipulates Cassio to take his job and use him to ruin Othello and Desdemona’s marriage. Iago manipulates these two characters quite easily because of their desperation and trust. Roderigo’s desperation stems from his desire to have a relationship Desdemona. Cassio’s desperation emerged as a result of him losing his job and tainting his reputation. Both characters view Iago as a honest man with good intentions. Their desperation and trust prevent them from seeing Iago’s true nature. 

Roderigo, mainly characterized by his desire for Desdemona, pays Iago to help him get her. This shows his desperation and his inability to get her himself. He hates Othello for marrying her. His willingness to expose their marriage to Desdemona’s father shows that he does not have strong morals. 

Iago pretends to help Roderigo get Desdemona; however, he just uses Roderigo for money. Iago appeals to Roderigo’s hatred for Othello, often using this shared hatred to prove his loyalty. Roderigo and Iago do share the desire to separate Othello and Desdemona, however, Iago’s only aims to hurt Othello while Roderigo aims to court Desdemona. Iago pretends to have the same aim as Roderigo to gain his trust. Iago’s manipulation leads the desperate Roderigo to trust him blindly. This blind trust leads Iago to suggest Roderigo to provoke Cassio until he becomes violent, to which Roderigo foolishly replies with “I will do this, if you can bring it to any opportunity.” This moment in the play showed how much control Iago has over Roderigo. Roderigo simply followed orders that put his own safety at risk, just because it was Iago that told him to do so.

Cassio, described by Iago as a “proper man” and “framed to make women false,” worked as Othello’s lieutenant before losing his job. Cassio’s propriety differs greatly from Iago’s crude personality. The jokes that Iago made on the ship made Cassio very uncomfortable as they contained sexual innuendo and other improper aspects. Iago criticizes Cassio when talking to Roderigo, saying that he does not know “more than a spinster” when it comes to experience and that he only knows “bookish theoric.”

Cassio reluctantly drinks when celebrating Cyprus’ victory due to Iago pressuring him to drink because their friends were coming. As Iago predicted, Cassio gets drunk. There was no special manipulation here, just simple peer pressure. While drunk, Cassio hits Roderigo and fights Montano. Iago knew Roderigo provoking the intoxicated Cassio would result in Cassio ruining his own reputation with violence. This later allowed Iago to take his place and make Cassio seem less perfect in Othello’s eyes. Iago also knew that Cassio losing his reputation would make him distressed. He believed that him losing his reputation meant he “lost the immortal part of [him]self.” Iago took this opportunity to convince Cassio that he has not actually lost his reputation and that he should use Desdemona to convince Othello to give him his job back. His desperation for his job back caused him to oversee how inappropriate it would seem if he asked his boss’ wife for his job back. In order to get his job back, he acts friendlier towards Desdemona, which makes Iago’s claim that he and Desdemona are sleeping together seem more plausible. 

Iago had an easier time manipulating Roderigo that Cassio because apart from their desperation, the two share no personality traits. Cassio, a proper man who worked for a general, took more effort and alcohol for Iago to manipulate him than it did for Roderigo, a desperate man with poor morals, shown by his willingness to participate in Iago’s plans. However, overall, the only traits that mattered were their desperation and trust in Iago. Iago only needed them to have those two traits in order for him to manipulate them.