An Analysis of Othello's Downfall

Total words: 346
William Shakespeare's play, Othello, deals with the main character, Othello's downfall that is orchestrated by one person, Iago, Othello's right-hand man. In the first act, Othello is the earliest person to refer to " . . . Honest Iago " (I.iii.294), when he asks Iago to escort Othello's wife, Desdemona, to Cyprus. The word "honest" appears 47 times in the play; 26 times it refers to one character, Iago. Yet, Iago is anything but honest, and one's suspicion is confirmed later in the scene when Iago admits to the audience in a soliloquy that, "The Moor is of a free and open nature, / That thinks men honest that but seem to be so" (I.iii.399-400). By the end of the first act, the dramatic irony is that the audience is well aware that Iago is the most dishonest person in the play.

The audience's suspicions of Iago's honesty is aroused in the first scene when Iago and Roderigo wake Brabantio to tell him that his daughter, Desdemona, has been stolen from him. Instead of Iago announcing who he is, he steals away and tells Roderigo:

Farewell, for I must leave you.
It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place
To be producted, as if I stay I shall,
Against the Moor. . . . (I.i.161-64)

Leaving Roderigo alone to face Brabantio's wrath, Iago runs to warn Othello. . . . rest of paper-----now, the conclusion:

Though the word "honest" is used only three times in the first act, the audience is well aware that the word is a misnomer. Iago incites Brabantio to hunt down Othello, he tries to stir Othello up to a fevered pitch before Brabantio finds him, and then plays the part of the dutiful servant to Othello in the senate, only to denounce him at the end of the act. Honest Iago? No. In the opening act, the audience sees the duplicity of that word, and is not deceived into believing anything but that Iago is out for his own good, and he uses the cloak of honesty as his guise.

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