Iago's Motives of Manipulation in Othello

In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Iago is a malicious manipulator who commits treacherous deeds without true motives. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a famous English Poet, describes Iago's actions as "the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity" because in the play Iago spitefully creates havoc and desperately seeks motives for his malice. Iago's scheme to depose Cassio, destroy Othello and defame Desdemona could be completely attributed to his natural malice and spite alone.

Coleridge describes Iago's malignity as motiveless because even though Iago provides reasons for his malice, Iago does not have true motives for his malicious acts. Othello selection of Cassio as his lieutenant and Iago's mere suspicions of Othello's affairs with Emilia are weak reasons and frail motives because they do not warrant the cruel destruction of several lives. A possible reason Coleridge thinks Iago's actions are motive-hunting is that Iago's spite is so great that he frantically needs some justifications, no matter how frail, to back his malice up. Iago's jealousy and suspicions are mere products of his desperate motive-seeking to justify his wicked actions. Thus, Iago's actions are stemmed from a motiveless desire for more destruction, more sufferings and more malignity for more and more people.

I agree with Coleridge that Iago's deeds are driven by motiveless malignity rather than true motivations. Throughout the play, Iago explicitly offers only two reasons for his plan to demolish Cassio, Othello and Desdemona's lives. These reasons are exceptionally weak not only because they are dubious but also because they do not justify any malicious acts. At the beginning of the play, Iago tells Roderigo that he is plotting against Othello and Cassio because Othello chooses Cassio over him as Othello's lieutenant. Iago's confessions to Roderigo, though seemingly plausible, should not be believed easily. Iago's true intention in his conversation with Roderigo is to manipulate Roderigo.

Throughout the play, Iago is manipulating people with his artfully crafted lies. The reason Iago gives Roderigo for hating Othello is used mainly to manipulate Roderigo to work for his deceitful plot. Iago's hatred for Othello is solely out of his own malice and spite. In the play, the only instances when Iago is truthfully speaking are in his soliloquies. However, Iago does not mention anything about his jealousy of Othello's selection of Cassio in his soliloquies. Rather, Iago expresses that it is the suspicion of Othello sleeping with Emilia that leads him to plot against Othello.

"Othello" Shakespeare, William Folger Shakespeare Library.