Iago, Man's Animal Appetites, and the Great Chain of Being

By V. West

In Shakespeare's Othello he is the grand architect, the puppeteer even, who manipulates the players and the action— but above all he is one of fiction's favorite and most perplexing sinners: Iago. In a script we are given essentially nothing but words, but words can be a very revealing judge of character. Thus through Iago's language, which is ripe with profanity, sensuality and above all animal imagery, Shakespeare has left us clues about the nature of the enigma that is one of his most striking villains. To fully comprehend Iago, however, we must also examine one of the most potent beliefs of the Elizabethan era: The Great Chain of Being. This belief stated that every thing in the universe held a rank in a great hierarchy in which God ruled supreme. Minerals had the lowest rank, then plants, followed by animals, humans, angels and finally the Divine Ruler. This Ladder of Life can be found at the heart of many Medieval and Elizabethan works, and it is crucial to understanding Iago's animalistic language. Iago's animal metaphors are one of his key tools in awakening the baser passions of those he manipulates, they are hints that expose to us Iago's ranking as the villain of the piece and they are windows into Iago's character, revealing his internal struggle between human reason and primal appetite.

Iago's animal imagery is one of the major devices he uses to control his victims, as it helps him call out their rasher, more impulsive and more violent sides. In Othello, Iago commands the action indirectly, using others as puppets to do his will. He can make pawns of the other characters because he knows that men are weak when consumed by envy, lust and rage, and are prone to behaving rashly. According to Elizabethans, man, who stood in between Angels and Beasts upon the Chain of Being, was eternally caught between animal appetite and divine reason. Envy, lust and rage, along with other physical sins, were part of man's animal aspect. When persuading Brabantio that his daughter Desdemona is being violated by Othello, Iago makes sure to infuse his words with strong animalistic descriptions to rouse Brabantio's anger. He compares Othello to an "old black ram" assaulting Brabantio's "white yew" (I-I, 88-89). He later makes sure to do the same when he is inspiring jealousy within Othello. While convincing Othello that his wife Desdemona is unfaithful to him with Cassio, Iago speaks of the two adulterers as being as "prime as goats, as hot as monkeys" and as "salt as wolves in pride" (III-III, 403-404). In these instances, Iago is skillfully playing upon the Elizabethan belief that man is balanced between feral impulsiveness and divine logic. He is using animalistic terms to coax his victims away from their divine reason, so that they may be ruled by their animal passions, and so more susceptible to manipulation.

In any script, a character's manner of speech is a strong determinant of his nature and his role in the plot, and Iago's language marks him at once as the most villainous of the characters. From the moment Othello begins, it is clear that Shakespeare wishes us to know that Iago is dishonest. As the Chain of Being was one of the fundamental principles of society in the Medieval times and the Renaissance, most Elizabethans were firmly convinced that ranking was essential to keep order amongst the chaos, and that the gravest of human sins was to upset the Great Chain by stepping outside of one's rank. In Dante's poetic epic "Inferno", a great work of medieval literature, he describes the lowest circle of hell as being reserved for those who have betrayed their masters, hence who have aspired to a rank superior to their own. In the opening scene of Othello, Iago confides in Roderigo that he not only aspires to Michael Cassio's rank, a rank above his own, but that he plans to deceive Othello, his master. He reveals that though he serves the Moor as his ancient, he only "[follows] him to serve [his] turn upon him" (I-I, 43). Here Shakespeare is already condemning Iago as the sinner of the piece, showing the villain delighting in the idea of committing the foulest of Elizabethan crimes. Iago's animal imagery is a device serving the same purpose: as beasts are lower than men upon the Chain of Being, Iago's language instantly exposes to the reader that he is the lowest ranking and basest of the tragedy's characters. One can organize the characters of Othello themselves into a kind of hierarchy, with the morally honest characters holding higher positions and the morally dishonest characters holding lower positions. These ranks are established even in the characters' languages. Before Othello is corrupted by Iago, his dialogue is full of allusions to heaven and religion, as angels and God were considered highest on the Chain of Being. He conveys his joy through such expressions as "Amen to that, sweet powers!" (II-I, 195). Yet as Iago sinks his claws deeper into the tragic hero and as Othello begins to abandon himself to the sins of jealousy and rage, his language becomes more animalistic and hellish, as beasts and demons were inferior on the Great Chain. His suspicions burst forth in crude words, such as "A horned man's a monster and a beast" (IV-I, 63). Thus Iago's constant use of such demonic, animalistic speech reveals him immediately to be the play's most deceitful and immoral figure.

Though Iago believes himself to be governed by reason and to be detached from impulses and heated emotions, his animal metaphors betray his true nature: that of a man enslaved by his passions. The principle that Iago claims is his life philosophy mirrors The Great Chain of Being's principle regarding humans: that we are ever divided, and have been given divine reason so that we do not fall completely prey to our appetites, like animals. Iago relates to Roderigo that "if the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions" (I-III, 328-331). Though he asserts that this is his code to live by, Iago utterly contradicts himself, as he later lets jealousy, a "physical sin" associated with man's animalistic side, dictate his actions when Michael Cassio is appointed to the position which he covets. In a very revealing soliloquy, Iago boasts to us of how he plots "to get [Cassio's] place and to plume up [his own] will in double knavery" (I-III, 395-396). Iago may deceive most of the other characters that he is honest and ruled by reason, but his animalistic speech speaks against him. Throughout the play Othello and many others praise Iago's virtue and loyalty, avowing that he is "brave, honest and just" (I-V, 31). This is only because Iago has always sinned indirectly, using others so that his crimes cannot be traced back to him. When he at last acts directly, and Roderigo sees Iago for what he truly is, he calls the villain a crude, animalistic insult. Upon being stabbed by Iago, the poor fool cries: "O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!" (I-V, 73). This is a pivotal moment: here Roderigo is ripping aside Iago's pretence of divine reason and revealing him to be "inhuman": as enslaved by passion as an animal. Iago's animalistic descriptions make his deceptions meaningless and bare his actual nature: that of one who has abandoned himself to his animal appetites.

Through his animalistic, crude and sensual speech, and by delving into the Elizabethan philosophy of the Great Chain of being, we can indeed divine some of the mysteries of this bewitching and elusive sinner. We can conclude that his beast-filled language is an instrument he uses to manipulate others, that it is an indicator of his rank as the tragedy's villain and that it offers us a glimpse into his character, showing us his inner weakness in face of his animal passions. Still, just as Iago's lips remained sealed when Othello demanded what had spurred him to commit his vile deeds, this trickster who has ever lured us and thwarted our understanding will continue to closely guard many of his secrets.