Play Othello by William Shakespeare Iago

Karolis 12A H/W Iago is a character who is admired and loathed in the equal measure to what extent is he both a hero and villain of Tragedy? In the play Othello by William Shakespeare Iago gets introduced in act 1 scene 1 where he had been complaining to the audience and Roderigo that he had not been chosen to be the lieutenant but Cassio being chosen instead of him by the likes of Othello.

Shakespeare from this scene had shown the audience that Iago will be the Stimulus in the play causing the tragedy in the play because we have seen that he has a motive which is to gain revenge over Othello. This will straight show the audience that he is a villain alike character in this play because of this negative motive he has, so in the beginning of Act 1 Scene 1 Iago will be most likely seen as the villain.

But on the other hand the audience might sympathise with Iago because he had not been chosen to be the lieutenant and that his motive understandable but he will still not be seen as the hero but a character some people can relate with, especially in the context this play had been written, The reason are that most people watching this would have been peasants in their society and the only character they would have been able to relate with is Iago.

Also that in the context of this play people might have been a racist and not have seen Othello as a hero but Iago being a victim of Othello because his colour and that they might believe that Othello does not deserve being a general.

Iago would be most likely seen as a villain to the modern audience because of his mischievous motive and how out of proportion it is from his goal, the audience might feel sympathy for Iago but will most likely not agree what he is doing is a good enough reason to do his plan, but it is possible that the audience say he is a villain but really it is possible that the audience want him to prosper because of his cunning us of him and his plan.

The reason for this is because most production of this genre will not be as good without a cunning villain for example in Shakespeare’s production “Much ado about nothing” Don John had been the cunning villain in this play who is much a like to Iago because he had tried to sabotage someone’s life who had trusted him with a motive which was out of proportion to his goal with a smart plan.

So the modern audience would see Iago most likely as villain but might admire him for how mischievous he is and well thought out plan he had constructed and how in the play starting off in such a bad state he is the poppet master in retrospect Likewise the audience will also have their opinion to Iago’s character but might see him differently as the modern audience would see him, at the context of the play there would be two types of audiences one is the peasants and the other will be the rich.

The peasants and the rich might see him differently to the rich for example, the peasants might not understand why he wants the reputation but on the other hand the rich would see it differently to the peasants. But peasants with the rich might like him because in this play he is the only character to directly speak to the audience giving a feeling to of actually knowing and that we know he thoughts unlike any other character.

So in extent Iago is seen both as a villain and hero to the audience in the Shakespearean times because of the audience differently sympathies with him so I believe he would be more of a villain at that time but they would admire him for the cunning us of his plan, like the modern audience would see him and that he did not let the fact that Othello did not make him the lieutenant drag and that he still tried to gain his reputation from Cassio and ruin the reputation of Othello doing so and since he had been trying to ruin Othello and in the context Othello might have been despised by the audience and might have believed that he should not be such a high ranking because of his colour. In conclusion both the modern audience would see Iago in a similar way but for different reasons, they would most likely see him as the villain but meaning they loaf him but they admire how well thought out his plan actually is and how good he is at lying while he also has become the character who runs the show, to the extent that he would be loafed is certain but the audience who admire him is most likely to be a bigger proportion to the audience who don’t. Furthermore I believe he would also be more seen as a villain because he does not suite the definition of a hero in anyway making him most likely the villain as the audience see him