Are Othello and Iago two sides of the same coin, or are they

antithetical characters?

“T’IS NEITHER HERE NOR THERE” is a dialogue uttered by Emilia, a subordinate

character from one of the most popular and critically acclaimed Shakespearean tragedies.
“Othello” was written by Shakespeare in the very early 1600’s, a period during which he
wrote a lot of other tragedies as well such as ‘Julius Cesar’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘King Lear’,
‘Macbeth’, ‘Antony Cleopatra’ and few others. Many critics attribute the creation of these
tragedies to the actual period of sadness and gloom in Shakespeare’s personal life. Whatever,
the reason may have been it is not up for debate that Shakespeare wrote some of the greatest
works of his life during this period.

Even though the above mentioned dialogue is spoken by one of the subordinate character in
the play, yet it stands true for two chief characters of the plays, who are Othello and Iago. Not
just for them, but the dialogue can implemented for most of the instances, circumstances,
characters and setting of the play. For instance; a black moor who is the general of the
Venetian army is sent to Cyprus to fight the Turks. The play is full of many other such
circumstances and instances which at times are almost too much to digest as an audience yet,
Shakespeare somehow binds all of them to formulate one of the classical tragedies of all time.
There have been much of discussion on whether Othello and Iago or as one may call them the
hero and the villain of the play, are two sides of the same coin or are they antithetical
characters? According to my personal analysis, they belong somewhere in between both the
sides or as some would say they belong neither here neither there.

Othello is a middle aged black man (Moor) serving as a general in the Venetian army who
has done enough to deserve his reputed rank in the army. He is also husband of Desdemona,
the daughter of Bribantio a senator is Duke’s court. Iago is a white middle aged man who has
a wife named Emilia, he holds a rank in the army under Othello and at the beginning of the
play possess a desire of becoming lieutenant in the army. Now, on the surface these two men
seem to have nothing in common except their ages. But if we analyse the character and
psychological traits of the two, we do find some similarities between the two and also some
distinctive differences.

If we discuss the similarities, then the very obvious one that most critics point out is the trait
of jealousy. Iago in the very first act presents his desire of replacing Cassio as the lieutenant
of the army hence, takes the very direct mode of presenting his envy and jealousy in front of
Rodrigo. Othello on the other hand conceals his sense of jealousy and acts as if he does not
even possess the trait until Iago manipulates him to reveal it. In the third act when Iago is
able to raise suspicions in Othello’s mind regarding an alleged affair between Desdemona
and Cassio, we get to know that even Othello possesses the trait of jealousy. Another
similarity between the two is the extent to which both the characters go to protect their
superficial male ego. Both of them sacrifice their wives without giving much thought in order
to protect or reinforce their male ego, also establishing that both of them did not had much
regard for women in their lives or in general. This is not the only psychological trait that both
of them share, they also share the sense of validation or at least the absence of it from their
lives. Othello being a Moor has obviously done much for himself in a white society. The
question however is: Is it enough to get him proper sense of acceptance in a white society?
The answer is fairly ambiguous, considering the fact that he is able to reach the rank of the
general in the Venetian army but on other hand his racial background is made clear to him by
Bribantio in front of the Duke. Time and again there are several references by various
characters that point clearly towards his specific, non-Catholic origin. Therefore, we can
safely presume his sense of identity and belongingness (un belonging) is clear in his
subconscious. Iago inspite of being a white male finds it’s hard to get acceptance as a
recognized gentleman in the society, he tries and make efforts through the play to somehow
get accepted as one but fails again and again.

Talking of psychological traits, it is hard to ignore the most distinctive difference between the
two characters which is as the most critics argue is the self-acceptance and ignorance. This in
turn gives birth to another debate which is ‘Whether Othello was a victim or a victimizer?’
Again, I personally feel that the answer to this question is also hidden in Emilia’s above
mentioned dialogue. The basic argument offered is that Iago owned what he was, he admitted
openly what he was whereas Othello did not. The argument according to me is only partially
true, as Iago does admits to being a man who is driven by his own interests but he does it in
front of Rodrigo, who is possibly the most gullible character of the play struggling to make
any impact what so ever on the conclusion of the play which I personally think he fails to do.
Thus, even though Iago admits his true self yet he is ought to be pretty certain that his secret
will never get out in front of the world. And as far as the argument of ‘knowing thy self’ is
concerned is, it falls short to explains actions committed by him through the play since he
never really admits that he was just a ‘sadist’ who was trying to feed of pains of others which
I think is the only possible way to describe his personality. As far as Othello is concerned, his
character is just driven by the necessity of creating a tragic hero in a certain tragedy, we
cannot provide his character with specificities as Hamartia is bound to happen.