Othello is a tragedy written by Shakespeare in 1602. The main character, Othello is a popular general in the town of Venice. He falls for the young Desdemona and all goes well for a while, until Othello promotes Cassio instead of Iago. This causes Iago to become jealous and he plots a malicious plan to make Othello unhappy. He manipulates different people into getting them to do what they want; Emilia who is Iago’s wife steals a handkerchief for him. The handkerchief plays an important part in the play as Othello gave it to Desdemona as a token of his love. Desdemona treasures the handkerchief but mistakenly leaves it behind one day; this is when Emilia steals it. Once Iago has the handkerchief his entire plan falls into place. …show more content…
Therefore he could just be using this as an excuse for his plans, as this would make the audience see him not as evil but as unhappy and wanting revenge which would make them sympathetic for him. However, as this seems like a cover for his for his evil plan, again it is clear that he doesn’t really care about Emilia.
Shakespeare gives Iago the line, 'He holds me well, the better shall my purpose work upon him.' I think that Shakespeare does this to show that because Iago thinks very highly of himself Othello will too, and never suspect that he is telling him lies, and that he will always trust him. He also uses the word; 'purpose' which seems like he is trying to the audience, this is what he has to do, like it is his purpose to bring Othello down.
Shakespeare also shows that Iago hates Othello by undermining him, for example Iago says, I hate the