Close Reading of Lago’s Soliloquy Essay Example

thinking through the problem, stopping and starting along the way. By the end of the speech, through rhyme and (finally) a fluid, non-broken line, Iago has his plan worked out: “Hell and night / Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light” (385-6). As an argument-laden passage, Shakespeare’s words do not contain many images, but those that are here are powerful in their expression of ideas.

Roderigo, for example, is referred to as “a snipe” (367), which as Edward Pechter explains in the accompanying footnote, is a “long-billed bird, used as a type of worthlessness. ” Roderigo is a little bird, a nothing, and perhaps the long bill connotes a kind of getting involved in business in which he is out of his depth. Another small image is that of Emilia’s possible affair – which allegedly occurred “’twixt my sheets” – a striking sense that Iago’s frustrations are sexually motivated. Perhaps the most striking image, however, is that of Othello as donkey, who “will as tenderly be led by the nose / As asses are.

In this image, the audience clearly sees how much Iago despises Othello, characterizing him as slow, stupid, and easily manipulated. The diction of this passage principally shows an evil, intelligent mind at work. Not only do the caesura mark hesitancy and at mind at work, but they also indicate the complexity of that mind. Iago works through things in a start-stop way, perhaps, but he still does so logically. Notice, therefore, his use of logical markers among his words: “For,” But,” “And,” “Yet,” “for,” “After,” and so on. He takes us with him through his argument.

Knowledge and evidence also seem to

be on Iago’s mind; notice, at the start of the speech, “mine own gained knowledge” (366) and later “I know not if’t be true” (370). Knowledge is important to Iago, of course; he needs it in the play to be able to manipulate people, principally Othello, Rodrigo and Cassio. But as a manipulator, Iago is clearly not a hero-figure, and his diction generally reflects this. While his ideas might be devilishly clever, his words are not particularly difficult or laden with imagery, like his nemesis, Othello.