Why Does Iago Hate Othello? Jealousy, Race and a Lost Handkerchief in Shakespeare's Venice

In Shakespeare's Othello, Iago says he hates Othello mainly because Othello promoted Cassio to lieutenant instead of him, but he also offers a string of other reasons, from a rumour that Othello slept with his wife Emilia to open contempt for Othello as a Moor, and in the end he refuses to explain himself at all. That is the key to the play. Othello, a tragedy written around 1603, follows a Moorish general in the Venetian army who is manipulated by his ensign Iago into believing that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously described Iago's endless explanations as "the motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity", and readers have argued about them ever since.

When it was written and where it came from

A performance of Othello is recorded at court on 1 November 1604, so the play must have been written by then, and scholars usually date it to 1603–1604. Shakespeare's main source was a 1565 Italian novella by Cinthio about a Moorish captain, his wife Disdemona and a treacherous ensign. In Cinthio's story only the wife has a name; the others are simply "the Moor", "the Ensign" and so on. Shakespeare gave everyone names and inner lives, compressed the action and added the threat of a Turkish attack on Cyprus, which turned a sordid crime story into a tragedy of war, trust and identity.

The play was not printed in Shakespeare's lifetime. It survives in a quarto of 1622 and in the First Folio of 1623. It also contains two of the four longest roles Shakespeare ever wrote. At 1,097 lines, Iago's part is bigger than Othello's; only Hamlet and Richard III speak more. The villain, in other words, does most of the talking.

Act by act: a secret marriage in Venice

The play opens at night in Venice. Roderigo, a rich young man who wanted to marry Desdemona, complains to Iago that she has secretly married Othello. Iago reveals his grudge: Othello has promoted Michael Cassio over him. Together they wake Desdemona's father, the senator Brabantio, and shout crude, racist images at him about what is happening to his daughter. Brabantio accuses Othello of winning her with witchcraft.

Before the Duke and the Senate, Othello answers calmly. Desdemona fell in love with him, he explains, by listening to the stories of his hard and adventurous life, not because of any spell. Desdemona confirms it, and the Senate accepts the marriage. Brabantio leaves with a bitter warning that a daughter who deceived her father may deceive her husband too, and Iago files the line away. Because the Turks are threatening Cyprus, Othello is sent there to command the defence, with Desdemona, Cassio, Iago and Emilia.

Cyprus: a plot built from small things

In Cyprus a storm destroys the Turkish fleet, so the war ends before it begins. That leaves Iago free to work. He gets Cassio drunk and provokes a brawl, and Othello strips Cassio of his rank. Iago then advises Cassio to ask Desdemona to plead for him. Every time Desdemona innocently speaks up for Cassio, Iago makes it look like evidence of an affair.

The famous turning point is the handkerchief. It was Othello's first gift to Desdemona. She drops it, Emilia picks it up and hands it to Iago, who plants it in Cassio's lodging. Iago then stages a conversation with Cassio about his mistress Bianca, speaking so quietly that Othello, watching, thinks they are talking about Desdemona. When Othello sees the handkerchief in Bianca's hands, he is convinced. A critic in 1693 sneered that the play should be called "The Tragedy of the Handkerchief", but the prop works precisely because it is small: Iago never needs real proof, only things that look like proof.

The last night

Othello vows revenge, strikes Desdemona in front of visitors from Venice, and orders Iago to kill Cassio. In a street ambush, Cassio is wounded and Iago secretly kills Roderigo to keep him quiet. That night Othello comes to Desdemona's bed. She denies any infidelity, but he smothers her. Emilia discovers the crime and, when Othello mentions the handkerchief, understands everything and exposes her husband. Iago kills Emilia. Othello, finally seeing that Desdemona was innocent, wounds Iago and then takes his own life. Iago's last words are a refusal: "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word."

Iago's many motives

Iago gives more reasons than he needs. He hates Othello, often in racial terms; he resents Cassio's promotion; he suspects that both Othello and Cassio have slept with Emilia; he claims to love Desdemona himself; and he envies Cassio's virtues. Some reasons contradict each other, and none is ever proved. The word "honest" appears more than forty times in the play, mostly attached to Iago, which is the cruellest joke of all: everyone trusts the man who lies to them. The critic Robert Watson suggests the endless debate about his motivation reflects something true about the play, namely the unsettling idea that destructiveness may not need a clear cause.

Race in Othello

Othello is a Moor, a respected Christian general and an outsider in Venice, and race is central to how the other characters see him. In plot terms, it marks him as "other": he is both of Venice and not of it. Scholars note that Brabantio's objection to a decorated general as a husband for his daughter only makes sense in racist terms, and that the slurs come from Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio. In Shakespeare's England the word "Moor" was used loosely, sometimes for North Africans, sometimes for Africans in general and sometimes for Muslims of any origin, so Othello's exact origin is still debated.

Readers have disagreed sharply about what the play does with this. Some critics argue it opposes racism by placing racist views in the mouths of discredited characters. Others, including the essays collected in Othello: New Essays by Black Writers (1996), point out that Black readers and audiences may experience a very different play from white ones. The Nigerian writer Ben Okri wrote that Othello can feel like a white stereotype of Black masculinity, and that watching it hurts. A thoughtful reading holds both views in mind: the play exposes how a racist society makes Othello vulnerable, and it was also written and long performed within that society's assumptions.

The stage history shows that clearly. The role was originally played by white actors in dark makeup, and Black actors began to play it in the nineteenth century, starting with James Hewlett in New York in 1822 and Ira Aldridge in London in 1825. Paul Robeson's performance in Margaret Webster's 1943 Broadway production was a landmark, seen by more than half a million people during its run and tour.

Jealousy, Desdemona and Emilia

The play's other great subject is jealousy. A. C. Bradley saw it as Othello's tragic flaw, a passion that turns order into chaos. Shakespeare tracks the infection through language: in the first two acts Iago uses images of beasts and devils, and from the third act on, Othello begins speaking that way himself. Iago's poison literally enters Othello's vocabulary.

Desdemona is often played as gentle and passive, but she begins the play as a young woman who defies her father to choose her own husband. Emilia, Iago's wife, becomes one of the strongest voices in the final act, defying her husband to tell the truth even though it costs her life. Modern productions have also put more emphasis on the play as a story of domestic violence.

Famous lines

Many lines from Othello still live in English. Iago warns Othello to beware of jealousy, calling it "the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on", the origin of the everyday phrase. Iago also boasts "I am not what I am", and tells Roderigo he will "wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at". Othello's final speech asks to be remembered as "one that loved not wisely but too well".

Adaptations

Verdi's opera Otello (1887), with a libretto by Arrigo Boito, is often considered a masterpiece equal in power to the play. On screen there are versions by Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier and Oliver Parker (with Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh), and the teen drama O (2001) moved the story to an American boarding school. If you know Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet, Othello is the tighter, more domestic tragedy: one house, one marriage and one whisperer.

Learn with Othello: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
the green-eyed monster	jealousy	The green-eyed monster appeared when his friend got the job.
wear your heart on your sleeve	show your feelings openly	She wears her heart on her sleeve, so you always know her mood.
loved not wisely but too well	loved too intensely to think clearly	He loved not wisely but too well and ruined the friendship.
a foregone conclusion	something certain before it happens	The vote was a foregone conclusion.
to be one's own worst enemy	to cause your own problems	With his jealousy, he was his own worst enemy.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a moment of jealousy you have seen, using "the green-eyed monster" and "wear your heart on your sleeve".