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Honest Iago

th a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly" [Act V, Scene I, Line 19] Iago is aware of his lack of "social graces." However Iago does not feel ugly toward himself. He feels vindicated; "But Ill set down the pegs that make this music, as honest as I am." [Act II, Scene I, Line 194] Ironically, Iago says of himself "yet do I hold it very stuff o the conscience to do no contrived murder. I lack iniquity sometimes to do me service." [Act I, Scene II, Line 2] How does Iago see others? He sees the world and other people as animalistic and ruled by their basest desires. Perhaps Iago knows this because he knows himself so well. Iago warns Brabanzio that "even now an old black ram is tupping your white eweyoull have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, youll have your nephews neigh to you, youll have coursers for cousins, and jennets for germans" [Act 1, Scene 1, Line 88 and 110] Iago describes Othello as a man ". . . will tenderly be led by the nose as asses are." [Act I, Scene III, Line 377] Iago tells Roderigo "I never found a man that know how to love himself . . . Virtue! A fig! Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are gardens, to which our wills are gardeners . . . If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions." [Act I, Scene III, Line 308] Iagos intelligence and knowledge of human nature (others and his own) allow him to control the other characters with ease. Why, Iago, why? The initial motive for Iago's devious behavior is to right a misdeed against him; he, not Cassio, should have been lieutenant. "And I, of whom [Othellos] eyes had seen the proof . . . must be beleed and calmed" [Act I, Scene I, Line 28] Then he changes his motive to jealousy; he proclaims Othello has had an affair with his wife, Emilia. "And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets he...

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