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| Character | Iago | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35), Adult (36-50) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Angry, Scolding, Inspirational, Descriptive, Mocking | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Renaissance | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Iago scolds Roderigo for wanting to drown himself because of his love for Desdemona | |
| Location | ACT I, Scene 3 | |
Summary
The story is set in Venice. The play starts with Roderigo, a rich and foolish gentleman, complaining to Iago, a high ranking soldier, about Desdemona's secret marriage to a Moorish general in the Venetian army, Othello. Desdemona is Roderigo's love interest and he has been paying Iago to help him seduce her. Iago tells him he hates Othello since he didn't give him a promotion that he thought he deserved and instead gave it to another man.
Iago suggests to wake Desdemona's father, Brabanzio, and tell him about Othello's affair with his daughter. Brabanzio at first is skeptical but then believes them. He calls his men and goes out to get Othello. When he finds him, at first he accuses him of having stolen his daughter and "abused her delicate youth" and then orders his men to subdue him. He decides to solve the matter before the Duke of Venice but the Duke dismisses Brabanzio's plea, since he considers Desdemona's love for him genuine and admires Othello as a valiant military man.
At the end of scene 3, Roderigo laments to Iago about the fact that now he doesn't have a chance anymore to win Desdemona's heart. When he tells him that wants to drown himself Iago mocks him and scolds him. He tells him that we can choose what we want to be and our "bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners". He urges him to continue his pursuit of Desdemona. Her love for Othello won't last, he argues, and he will help him in his pursuit.
Iago suggests to wake Desdemona's father, Brabanzio, and tell him about Othello's affair with his daughter. Brabanzio at first is skeptical but then believes them. He calls his men and goes out to get Othello. When he finds him, at first he accuses him of having stolen his daughter and "abused her delicate youth" and then orders his men to subdue him. He decides to solve the matter before the Duke of Venice but the Duke dismisses Brabanzio's plea, since he considers Desdemona's love for him genuine and admires Othello as a valiant military man.
At the end of scene 3, Roderigo laments to Iago about the fact that now he doesn't have a chance anymore to win Desdemona's heart. When he tells him that wants to drown himself Iago mocks him and scolds him. He tells him that we can choose what we want to be and our "bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners". He urges him to continue his pursuit of Desdemona. Her love for Othello won't last, he argues, and he will help him in his pursuit.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| IAGO Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. 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: but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect or scion. [RODERIGO It cannot be.] IAGO It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,-- put money in thy purse,--nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration:--put but money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in their wills: fill thy purse with money:--the food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice: she must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: if sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle Venetian not too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than to be drowned and go without her. |
