Act 1 Scene 1 Commentary
The play opens mid-conversation with Roderigo admonishing Iago for not telling him about Othello’s relationship with Desdemona. Roderigo is revealed as a gullible fool at whose expense Iago has been enriching himself: ‘That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse / As if the strings were thine’. Although Roderigo is disgruntled, Iago deals with his complaints by fooling him into believing that they are both united in their hatred of Othello.
Iago clearly hates Othello. He explains to Roderigo that this is because he was not given the position of Othello’s lieutenant in favour of Michael Cassio. Iago states that he was recommended to Othello by powerful Venetian gentlemen: ‘Three great ones of the city, / In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, / Off-capped to him’ but that this was ignored by Othello. If we take Iago at his word, this serves to explain his feelings towards Othello. However, this is the only time in the play that reference is made to Iago’s professional ambitions. For this reason, some critics believe that Iago has fabricated this story in an effort to win Roderigo’s trust.
Michael Cassio, Othello’s newly appointed lieutenant, is portrayed by Iago as inept and unsuited to the job. Iago says that Cassio ‘never set a squadron in the field’ and has only military theory (‘bookish theoric’) rather than experience on the battlefield: ‘Mere prattle, without practice, / Is all his soldiership.’ By his own admission Iago is a liar (‘I am not what I am’); the audience, therefore, would be right to be suspicious of Iago’s depiction of Cassio.
Iago reveals himself to the audience as underhand and false. He explains that he will mask his contempt for Othello and appear loyal:
‘Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains, Yet, for necessity of present life, I must show out a flag and sign of love, Which is indeed but sign.’
Iago pithily explains that his pretence of loyalty is only a way of serving his own purposes: ‘In following him, I follow but myself.’
Race relations are an important ingredient of the drama of Othello. The racist slurs that Iago and Roderigo use to vilify Othello add to the sense of hatred and distrust that contextualise the action. Othello is a Moor (a black man from North Africa). Roderigo hatefully refers to him as ‘the thicklips’ and a ‘lascivious Moor’. He stresses the idea of Othello as a foreigner by dubbing him a ‘wheeling stranger’.
Iago’s language is also prejudicial. He presents Othello as animal-like to Brabantio: ‘an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe’, ‘you’ll / have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; / you’ll have your nephews neigh to you; you’ll have / coursers for cousins and jennets for germans.’ Iago employs gross animalistic imagery to imagine Othello and Desdemona’s lovemaking: ‘your daughter / and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.’ Racism is sometimes offered as a motivation for Iago’s actions. However, it may simply be a convenient way for him to express his hatred.
Roderigo’s reasons for hating Othello are far simpler: he is a jilted suitor. Brabantio alludes to Roderigo’s frequent advances towards Desdemona: ‘I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors: / In honest plainness thou hast heard me say / My daughter is not for thee’. Roderigo’s feelings for Desdemona, later present an opportunity for Iago to exploit him.
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Othello
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