The Blood and Baseness of Our Natures: a study of Iago’s Language
Iago’s language is amongst the most unique of Shakespeare’s characters. Iago practically has his own grammar and vocabulary. . .and we certainly know on “layer” of the Great Chain of Being he dwells. A few linguistic “tics” of Iago we see by the end of Act I:
Devolved, "base" physical imagery:
Virtue! A fig. . .
Our bodies are our gardens (I.3.)
Disregard for religious, Social, or military order:
‘Zounds! (first word out of his mouth in the play—I.1.) Whip me such honest knaves (I.1)
Varied levels of Perversity: Dirty jokes turned into elaborate, detailed conceits:
Thus I do ever make my fool my purse (I.3)
--Perverse circular logic that justifies his actions; strangely admirable
“rugged individualism” in a time period that demanded conformity:
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow by myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, (I.1)
Take a look at Iago’s word choices and speech patterns to see how they affect his meaning. If one looks past obvious obscene jokes, one sees a deeper pathology worked into the language:
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“engender’d”: for the audience of Shakespeare’s day, perhaps the ultimate perversity of Iago would have been the way he invokes female metaphors to present himself as a perverse mother “hatching” plans for others’ destruction. Women didn’t get much respect, but they did GIVE LIFE: that was their job according to the Great Chain of Being. “Monstrousness” at the time meant having no form, no shape, no distinction—Iago’s destruction is careless, a matter of chance, and ultimately indiscriminate.
In this closing couplet, Iago chooses some eerie images: he is giving “monstrous birth”; he will create chaos. Similar to “sport” above, the phrase also alludes to creations of an obsessive, irrational imagination (the imagination was often personified, like Nature, as female—often in a negative way) . To make it even more creepy, the exact rhyme leaves the listener hearing “night light”—words still coupled most often in a lullaby.
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“He holds me well”: Use of ellipsis creates (unintended?) imagery of Iago being “held” by Othello. In masculine society, this would have amused audiences as well as demonstrating Iago’s propensity to dwell in the carnally perverse
“plume up my will”: use of anthimeria (“plume” used as a verb in wordplay and pun) illustrates how Iago equates cunning and intelligence and identity with sexual prowess (not uncommon for the times, but Iago is extravagant about it)
ellipsis shows a mind always looking for a vantage point: ideas move increasingly “inward”, spawning more complex, usually violent fantasies
“abuse Othello’s ear”: Iago’s imagery has a propensity for resolving itself in some sort of figurative dismemberment or anatomical dissection: “beast with two backs,” “drown cats and blind puppies”, “your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul” , “led by the nose”
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Punning on the word “sport”. Iago mixes sexual and hunting metaphors—a common usage of his time. However, the word “sport” infers a large production of the imagination; a “sport” was both a game and a monstrous creation, a chimera, a product of an unhealthily active imagination
Iago’s motives are revealed: he cannot detach his ambition from his sexual jealousy. Friends and lovers are all the same “sports”. Read Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous notes on Shakespeare |
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Double entendres are used to turn dirty jokes into elaborate metaphors |
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe.
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.
I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light