My plan: What makes Iago carry out his evil plans to destroy Othello and Cassio's reputation? As the play begins, Othello promotes Cassio to be the lieutenant, Iago, who is hiding behind the door, has seen everything. So he asks Roderigo(who likes Desdemona) to alliance with him to get rid of Othello and Cassio. I personally think that the motivation behind it is the failure to be promoted. Throughout the play, Iago portrays racism, insecurity and a nihilistic personality too. These motivations are the reasons behind all the sinister plans.In order to examine these motivations, I plan to explore the following passages and soliloquies:.
(1) Who Othello, Cassio, Iago and Desdemona are at the beginning of the play.
(2) What are the relationships between them.
(3) How Iago gets angry and alliances with Roderigo and uses him. .
(4) How he plots his plans and how he plans the seed of doubt in each of them.
(5) How he plays Cassio and Othello with the help of Roderigo.
(6) What Iago reveals in passages/soliloquies.
(7) What are the motivations of him doing his wicked plans.
(8) How do these passages/soliloquies fit into the overall dramatic impulse of the play.
(9) What major themes/imagery are considered or mirrored in these passages/soliloquie.
Annotated Bibliography.
1) Brown, John R. "Shakespearean Tragedy:Lecture VI". New York, New York. 1992. Print.
This source talks about how the play talks about Iago's honesty and why does everyone believe so much in what he says. In the play, Othello, Cassio and also Desdemona have described Iago as a honest person for more than 50 times. They think that everything Iago says are good advices to them, however, they are wrong. Iago uses his so-called "honesty" to manipulate every one of them.
2) Brown, John R. "Shakespearean Tragedy: Lecture V." New York, New York, 1992. Print.
In this journal, the author talks about how people show their racism element in the play. People in the play including Iago calls Othello as "the moor", which is the meaning of negro or black.