Othello Passage Analysis

Othello is a medieval morality play written by Shakespeare in 1603. The play explores the fall of the tragic hero, Othello, from the ranks of the Venetian army. Othello’s marriage is manipulated by his bitter Ancient, Iago, the antagonist of this play. In the following passage, Iago uses his language to skillfully maintain his control over his puppet, Roderigo. Moreover, Iago uses a focused dialogue, and clever techniques to convince Roderigo, Iago is also characterized as a cruel character to the audience. Shakespeare also uses this passage to maintain the shift of power in this passage. One overarching idea is that Shakespeare is uses this passage to reiterate to the audience that Iago uses his language expertly to deceive Roderigo.

Shakespeare structures Iago’s speech so that he may regain any support from Roderigo that might have been shaken. To give context, Brabantio reluctantly gave Othello and Desdemona’s marriage, his blessing despite Iago to ruin Othello. Roderigo goes on to says he’s going to drown himself. The structure of Iago’s response is very interesting. First, he disregards Roderigo’s plan to drown himself in a mocking manner. Iago begins his monologue with a very harsh tone. “Come, be a man. Drown thyself? Drown
This is seen when Iago states : “Let us be conjunctive in our revenge.”. Iago uses the word us, and our to unite them. To Roderigo, this technique gives the feeling that he is as involved with the plan as Iago is. But to the audience, knowing the deceptive nature of Iago, Iago is simply using him as a pawn. And when Roderigo counters “Wilt thou be fast to my hopes.”. Iago states: “I re-tell thee again and again...I hate the Moor: my cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason.”. This line is used to remind Roderigo of the fact that both men share a hatred for Othello. This gives a tone of false unity within the