Othello and Iago's Love

Every commentator on Othello remarks on the cold, calculating, cunning, conniving character of Iago. And, indeed, he is so. From the beginning of the play, where he rouses Brabantio in the middle of the night (1.1), and then tries to rile Othello with news that Brabantio spoke "such scurvy and provoking terms/ Against your honor (1.2.7-8)," to the last scene where he denies complicity in the scheme which he developed (5.2), Iago is the epitome of manipulative ruthlessness. Lest the reader miss his acts of evil, he also speaks his evil intentions in several pointed soliloquys.

His first three soliloquys, in 1.1, 2.1 and 2.3, speak in ever more precise language about the plot he is developing. What is a general plan in 1.3 to "abuse Othello's ear/ That he (Cassio) is too familiar with his wife (1.3.395-396)," has taken on the specific design by 2.3 to take advantage of Desdemona's "goodness" by pouring a "pestilence" in Othellos' ear to the effect that Desdemona intercedes for Cassio because she loves him. In the meantime, in 2.1, Iago speaks a soliloquy in which he says his plan is "yet confused (2.1.311)," but is similar in almost every way to his speech in 2.3. The major difference between the two soliloquys in Act II is that Iago unexpectedly uses the word "love" five times in 2.1. Though one might read no special significance into the way Iago uses the term, its frequent use (like "Put money in thy purse" in 1.3 or "Cassio, Cassio" in 2.3) should make the reader wonder. Iago's plan is hatched in the context of unresolved feelings about love.

Iago's Words

As he ruminates on his designs, he says,

"That Cassio loves (1) her (Desdemona), I do well believe't;/ That she loves (2) him, 'tis apt and of great credit./ The Moor (howbeit that I endure him not)/ Is of a constant, loving (3), noble nature,/ And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona/ A most dear husband. Now I do love (4) her too...(2.3.286-291). "Make the Moor thank me, love (5) me, and reward me...(2.3.308)."

What is interesting about Iago's fivefold invocation of love in this soliloquy is that his use of the term doesn't seem to comport with his harsh dismissal of love earlier in the play. Recall that when Roderigo was in romantic depression over Desdemona and was contemplating suicide, Iago quickly tried to console him through some cynical lines as well as the metaphor of the garden (1.3.300ff.). His point was that our body is like a garden and two of the branches that grow in it are reason and love/lust. If love and lust are distinguishable at all, the former is a "sect or scion" (an offshoot) of the latter, and they are both controlled by the will (1.3.326).

But that is not Iago's approach to love in 2.1. In 2.1 he weighs his motivations by considering competing loves: Cassio's for Desdemona, Desdemona's for Cassio, his for Desdemona and Othello's for him. Granted, he will take advantage of people's inclinations to love by making love the instrument of their downfall, but he seems overly concerned with assessing love. Perhaps one can explain the divergence in Iago's approach in 1.3 and 2.1 by realizing that he is actually trying to help Roderigo in 1.3, and by explaining that the will is in charge of love/lust he can restore Roderigo to his senses and turn him from his suicidal instincts.

Unresolved Feelings of Love

The fifth (and last) appearance of "love" in Iago's soliloquy is most surprising. He will report Cassio's designs toward Othello's wife to Othello so that the Moor will "thank me, love me, and reward me (2.3.308)." While some scholars see in Iago's plan to bring down Othello his bitterness at Othello's rejecting him not only for a promotion but also sexually, I think that taking "love" here in a non-sexual sense is even more powerful. Iago would then be saying that what is truly at the base of his motivation is that he wasn't "loved" by Othello--that he wasn't included in as part of the team, part of the intimate company of military men, part of the "troika" of Othello, Desdemona and Iago, who could extend the glories of Venetian rule wherever they went. For the fact is that Iago loved Desdemona-- not out of "absolute lust" (2.3.291)--and probably envisioned some kind of three way love relationship among Desdemona, Othello and Iago. When he didn't receive the promotion, Iago knew that the love he had envisioned was also impossible to attain. Iago's villainy, true and malefic as it is, probably owes a great deal to his feeling that he cannot be loved any longer, by both Desdemona and Othello.