Look at Iago’s speeches from lines 310 to 360 (Act 1 Scene 3). What is his philosophy to life? By David Palin

In the first of Iago’s speeches he speaks about human nature. He talks about his experience of human behaviour and proclaims that he would become a baboon before drowning himself over a woman. He first mentions his age, “four times seven years”, (or 28 for us humans). He is clearly using this as a reason why his opinion is one of sound backing, with age comes experience, according to him. He also says that “since I could distinguish […] I never found a man that knew not how to love himself”.

Immediately this intrigues readers because this is quite a cynical view of humanity and as he has said from a young age, one where he was able to begin to “distinguish” he saw this. We are led to believe that even as a child he was able to see the world in a manner unlike a child, this leads us to the conclusion that Iago is either trying to be extremely definitive or is a very smart, sharp individual. The use of the phrase “love” in this quote is important because it indicates selfish or self-indulgent qualities unlike phrases like “support” or even “like”. This tells us that Iago sees men as being this way, a cold and generalizing view.

He continues this speech by saying that “I would change my humanity […] ere […] I would drown myself for […] a guinea-hen”. Just to clear that phrase up, “I would become a baboon before I would drown myself for a woman”. (See? Not that confusing.) Iago mentions a baboon, something seen as quite comical, on purpose as it shows how much he is repulsed by the idea, both of the animal and the act of suicide over a woman. This adds weight and punch to this line because of his certainty. The phrase “guinea-hen” is used here as slang for a woman, but can also mean “domestic fowl”, or chickens. This has a striking resemblance to one of the first descriptions of Stanley by Tennessee Williams. He describes him as a chicken in a coop surrounded by hens. We can therefore suggest that Iago uses this term as a derogatory term towards women.

Iago then attacks the idea of “virtue”, something he swipes away with the phrase “A fig.” The sharp and quick way he dismisses the idea suggests he is completely against the idea. He then uses an extended metaphor to suggest that “our bodies are gardens […] our wills are gardeners”. He speaks of “plant[ing] nettles, sow[ing] lettuce, set[ting] hyssop (a herb) and weed[ing] up thyme (another herb)”. He mentions monogamy, “supply it with one gender of herbs”, and polygamy “or distract it with many”. Shakespeare uses the types of plants in the phrase to show Iago’s view of life. By planting nettles, something that is seen as a weed, he is showing that this negative plant, or way of living, is good. This is continued when he mentions weeding thyme, thyme is not a weed but a plant and getting rid of it would be considered negative, but obviously not to Iago.

Interestingly here he uses the verb of “supply” to indicate that men need at least one woman to provide them with some necessary requirement, while having many partners “distract[s]” a man, something which applies to Cassio, reminding us that Iago is unhappy with Othello’s choice of Lieutenant. This is further when he mentions being “sterile with idleness”, something shown as being negative, or being “manured with industry”, or being ‘well-sown’, garden-wise. The most prominent theme of this speech is that men are viewed higher than women by Iago, men are described as using women, who are described as ‘ingredients’, to grow as people.

He also says a rather long and confusing line in this speech, one which will definitely require a translation(!)

“If the beam 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.”

Confusing right?! Here’s the translation:

“If the balance beam of our lives didn’t have a weight of reason to counterbalance a different balance beam of sexual drive, our passions would take us to the most ridiculous endings.” Phew. Better? This is another metaphor and conjures up idea of balancing to make life seem like a delicate and uncertain game with rules demand careful and measured playing. He finishes by returning to his previous metaphor and describes love as a “sect or scion”, a ‘cutting’ or ‘offshoot’.

The third of his speeches to Roderigo begins with him saying “be a man […] Drown cats and blinds puppies.” These are rather harsh and shocking images of brutality and cruelty, something that suggests this is how Iago sees masculinity and being a man. He repeatedly tells him to “put money in thy purse”, we know that Iago has no intention of his conversation with Roderigo other than to trick and use him for his own fun. This repetition tells us that Iago is very demanding and is defiant when it comes to getting what he wants. He then makes predictions about Desdemona’s love which, under the surface are wild and unlikely, “it was a violent commencement […] the food that to him now is luscious […] shall be to him shortly […] bitter.” We are already aware that their meeting took place over some time and the length of Othello’s story suggests that it took a long time to get to the situation of them getting married. Immediately we can tell that Iago not being serious and is only trying to persuade Roderigo. He promises that she will be “sated with his body”, or bored with the sex. Again, they are married, something shown as having great substance and significance so this is easily debated. He proclaims that Othello is an “erring barbarian” and that Desdemona is a “supersubtle Venetian”. Each of these words is important, ‘erring’ or ‘mistaken’ shows he implied idiocy of Othello, while ‘barbarian’ uses his race to attack him. ‘Supersubtle’ or ‘sophisticated’ contrasts to the first description and makes her seem perfect, while ‘Venetian’ is used, again to contrast, and shows where her true loyalties lie, according to him. Iago ends this conversation by, rather disturbingly, suggesting that Roderigo should be prepared to die for his cause, “Seek […] to be hanged in compassing (obtaining) thy joy”. This is a shocking and worrying image as it shows sincerity and cruel brutality rather than success or ‘joy’ as Iago states. Again this contrast to typical thinking is used to make Iago’s perception of masculinity seem alien and something of gravity.