Iago: The Villain Who Tells You He Is One

Iago tells the audience in Act 1, Scene 1, 'I am not what I am.' He has no mask with us. From the first scene, we watch him construct the lies that will destroy Othello, and Shakespeare gives him the play's cleverest language, its sharpest observations, its funniest lines. He is impossible to like and impossible to stop watching.

His stated motive is being passed over for promotion. Cassio got the lieutenancy Iago wanted. But critics since Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 have noted that the motives Iago offers never quite explain the scale of his malice. Coleridge called it 'motiveless malignity.' Iago seems to take genuine pleasure in destruction for its own sake.

His method is patience and attention. He watches everyone closely and exploits exactly the right weakness at exactly the right moment. He uses Roderigo's money and desire. He exploits Cassio's drinking. He weaponises Othello's love. He speaks in the last scene ('Demand me nothing; what you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word') and keeps that promise. He takes his reasons to the grave.