Iago Villain Analysis

Iago the Master Villain In the play Othello by William Shakespeare the character Iago is a brilliantly devised character. He is the nemesis to Othello, a general in the Roman military yet is his friend and trusted companion. Iago is such a villain that everyone around him trusts him and feels that he is a confidant, Othello the most. In the beginning the of the play Iago even says it himself that he is a liar and cheat and that he is not what he seems to be. "I am not what I am" (I, 1, 65). This short sentence tells readers right from the start that Iago's character is not what it appears to be. His reputation of an honest man is a false façade. But Iago performs this villainous deceit masterfully. He gets others to unsuspectingly do his bidding and yet never publicly acts as a villain. Always working each situation to his advantage and his favor. Able to make something innocent look otherwise. He is able to trick just about anyone he talks to into doing what he wants. The nineteenth-century actor Booth describes Iago the best saying "To portray Iago properly you must seem to be what all the characters think, and say, you are, not what the spectators know
In the second Book of the Bible Exodus, God says to Moses "I am who I am." (Exodus 3:14) Thus stating that "I am" is a name of God. Iago's statement "I am not what I am" can be read as the opposite. This is something that Shakespeare would have known and perhaps drafted his sentence this way because of the quote in Exodus. If "I am" is God than "I am not" is the devil. Iago shares all the same traits that one would associate with the Devil. A liar, cheater, makes false accusations and false promises, he tells tales to spread the web of lies that he lays out in front of everyone, he is greedy and jealous. Iago is arguably one of the most villainous characters