The first act definitely reminded me of several people in my high
school days. Everyone knows there always some type of pointless drama going
around in high school. And it is normally started by some childish immature
person. Iago reminded me of all the two-faced people in my past.
Shakespeare
could not have came up with a more perfect deceiving character like Iago. As
the perfect antagonist Iago cunningly causes conflict among the townspeople of Venice . Iago betrayed
Othello by telling Brabantio his daughter was "stolen" by Othello in
the middle of the night. Iago did this because he was mad that Othello granted
Cassio the lieutenant position and not him.
Shakespeare brings to light the
subject of betrayal through his use of symbolism.
At a certain point during the play Iago tells Rodrigo, "But I will wear my
heart upon my sleeve, For daws to peck at; I am not what I am" (1166). Iago
takes this saying and turns it into something sinister when he mentions the birds
ripping the heart to pieces. This symbolizes and foreshadows Iago's true
intentions of destroying Othello's love for Desdemona.
I like how personal your writing is. I totally understand about the two-faced people thing. I think you picked the perfect quote to show the symbolism in the play, but does it really foreshadow Iago's true intentions for demolishing Othello and Desdemona's relationship or is there more to it?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way you describe Iago as the perfect antagonist. I agree with Sydney that the quote does help reinforce symbolism, but I don't think that it really shows that he is going to destroy Othello's love for Desdemona. I think it does foreshadow he will take him down, but not just their love.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about Iago being very immature and he almost acts like a high school student. People like him are so egoistic and stuck up that they think that they are better then everyone else. The two faced statement made perfect sense to me because whenever Iago is with Othello he is this perfect person and when ever he is by himself he turns into this mean two faced manipulator.
ReplyDeleteI think your comparison of Iago with people we may have all known in high school is good because i am sure we can all relate to that. I think you're right Shakespeare created Iago to be the perfect antagonist of the story, without him the whole story would fall apart. He is the one who brings everyone together by creating the problems because of his selfishness and hatred.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm pretty sure I went to high school with those same exact people who like to manipulate and destroy people haha. I think that Iago is definitely one of Shakespeare's most memorable antagonists due to the fact that he has two different personalities. He is all proper and nice to Othello but behind his back he wants to kill and destroy him. I loved how you picked up on the symbolism in this act. He tells Rodrigo "I am not what I am." He definitely has a split personality when he's with Othello.
ReplyDeleteThis too reminded me of high school. There was always that one person who would try and one up everyone, then play the victim when stuff hit the fan. Although in high school, people weren't that intelligent.
ReplyDeleteYour real life example is very relatable, I'm pretty sure most of us experienced this in high school, unfortunately. Having Iago as the main antagonist of the story made it a smooth sailing play. Iago's pointless drama aka jealousy caused the protagonist's conflict. Without Iago the play will be very dull and there won't be any thrill. Though, his character makes us realize how much jealousy could affect our personal relationship and thought process.
ReplyDelete