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Charles Groom

Professor Adam Williams

English 100

13 December 2019

Queer Theory and Post-Colonialism in Othello

There are many different ways of getting someone to do what you want them to do. Most

people attempt to do this by completely tricking someone that what they want is what the other

person wants. Sometimes, someone will convince someone else that while they will not like

doing this task or like the outcome of the task, it is for the greater good. Examples of this kind of

manipulation occur quite often throughout literature. It is fascinating to contemplate the way one

might try to manipulate someone else. By looking at this particular type of interaction between

two people, one can ascertain a lot about both people. Throughout William Shakespeare’s

Othello,​ Iago, the main villain, uses a variety of different ways to manipulate the people around

him. For most of his peers, his manipulation can be seen through the lens of Queer Theory. Iago

has the ability to notice everything that is going on around him, which lets him use the

expectations that have been placed on the people around him to manipulate them. However, there

is one character throughout the play that Iago cannot manipulate in the same way as everyone

else. Iago’s manipulation of Othello is best viewed from the perspective of post-colonialism. In

this essay, I intend to prove that the transmogrify of Iago’s manipulation while engaging with

Othello not only proves that Iago is aware of the post-colonial relationship between him and

Othello, but also that he is aware of the consequences that continuing this trend could have on

future generations.
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Iago recognizes that he can use the expectations that society has for people around him to

manipulate them into doing his bidding. This is evident throughout a scene between Iago and

Cassio. While Iago and Cassio are on watch, Iago invites Cassio to drink some wine with him

and some other soldiers. Cassio, knowing that he should not get drunk while on duty, says: “Not

to-night, good Iago. I have poor and unhappy brains for/ drinking; I could well wish courtesy

would invent some other custom of/ entertainment” (Shakespeare 2.3.27-29). Cassio respectfully

declines Iago’s offer and counteroffers another activity that would not include drinking so that he

could still hang out with his coworker. In this situation, Cassio has done nothing wrong and acts

in a perfectly acceptable way according to society; however, Iago needs Cassio to get drunk for

his plan to work. From this interaction, it is possible that Iago notices that Cassio upholds

societal norms. If this is the case, then Iago purposefully uses what Cassio thinks is normal

behavior for a man in his position to get him drunk. This can be seen when Iago says, “o, they

are our friends. But one cup! I’ll drink for you” (Shakespeare 2.3.30). Iago is essentially trying to

use peer pressure to get Cassio to drink. After this, Cassio reveals that he has already had a drink

that night and that another would be too much for him.

One of the reasons that Iago’s first attempt at peer pressuring Cassio does not work could

be because their interaction is between just Iago and Cassio and there is not as much pressure

from a societal figure. It is very possible that Iago, being one of the most observant characters in

the play, could have realized this. This claim is backed up by the fact that once more people

arrive with Cassio, he tries again and succeeds in getting Cassio drunk enough to manipulate to

the point where Iago’s plan can proceed smoothly. Once Cassio and the others arrive, Iago says,

“Some wine, ho!

[Sings.] and let me the canakin clink, clink;

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And let me the canakin clink

A soldier’s a man;
A Life’s but a span,
Why then, let a soldier drink” (Shakespeare 2.3.56-61).
Iago uses drinking songs to get the group of men to drink. This isolates Cassio as the only one

who is drinking. Iago can use this feeling of isolation, peer pressure, and the fact that Cassio has

already had a drink which will impair his decision making to get Cassio to drink wine. The last

three lines of the song are specifically meant to apply to Cassio. Cassio takes the bait and follows

up with more questions about the song. This leads to Cassio getting drunk with his friends

because that is what is socially acceptable for him to do with his ‘boys.’ Iago makes Cassio feel

like he is different and then sings a song that tells him that he is just the same as everyone else

and that he is expected to drink. All of this pressure builds up on Cassio and makes him feel like

he needs to drink to fit in. After all, most people do not like to be the outsider, especially when it

is in a group of their friends. The motivation for Cassio falling for Iago’s trap comes from the

group atmosphere. This is seen because Cassio does not fall for Iago’s artifice when there is no

one else to help create pressure for Cassio. All of this evidence shows that Iago is aware of social

trends and how society expects people to behave and uses that against people. This is how Iago

manipulates everyone in the play except for Othello.

Additionally, while trying to manipulate Othello into thinking that Desdemona has slept

with Cassio, Iago convinces Cassio to go to Desdemona and ask if she can endorse him to

Othello. This is evident when Iago says, “Our general’s wife is now the general. [...] Confess

yourself freely to her; importune her to help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so

kind, so blessed a disposition she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is

requested” (Shakespeare 2.3.277-280). Iago is able to convince Cassio that asking for
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Desdemona’s help with not only help him but almost insure him that his position will be

restored. Iago does this by mentioning that Desdemona finds it bad not to do more than she is

requested to do. Cassio, of course, takes Iago’s advice and asks Desdemona for help.

Desdemona, seeing this as a way that she can help out a friend, says, “Be thou assured, good

Cassio, I will do/ All my abilities in thy behalf/ [...]/ Do not doubt, Cassio/ But I will have my

lord and you again/ As friendly as you were” (Shakespeare 3.3.1-7). As Robert Matz points out

in his essay about the male to male relations in ​Othello,​ Desdemona seems to be unaware of the

connections between being one’s bedfellow in the sense of political ties and actually sharing a

bed in a sexual manner. Matz specifically states that “Desdemona’s invocation of friendship

suggests that the potentially fraught relationship between erotic and political favor in the play is

not merely a ‘female’ problem” (Matz, 264). Simply put, Desdemona is unaware that politics are

supposedly a ‘man’s game’ and sees that she can help one of her friends by mentioning Cassio as

someone who deserves a second chance to Othello. Iago, having already planted a tiny seed of

doubt in Othello’s mind, recognizes that he can use this grow the seed of doubt into an

overwhelming overgrowth of weeds. When Othello passes by Cassio and Desdemona’s

conversation, Cassio leaves quickly, under the assumption that Othello does not want to see him

and that his best chance of regaining his position is to leave Desdemona to talk to Othello. Iago

is able to use the final interaction between Cassio and Desdemona before Cassio leaves as a way

to make Othello believe that Cassio is bedfellows with Desdemona. He does this by simply

saying, “Ha! I like not that” (Shakespeare 3.3.34). This is enough to make Othello question

himself until he is convinced that Cassio must have been running from him because he is

sleeping with Desdemona.

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As for the manipulation of Othello, Iago recognizes the fact that Othello, because of the

fact that he is a Moor and therefore not from Venice, does not know exactly what society expects

from him. Therefore, Iago needs a new find a new way to manipulate Othello; he chooses to

focus on the fact that Othello is different and that Othello knows that he does not quite fit in. I

will look at the interactions between Othello and Iago through the lense of post-colonialist

criticism to help demonstrate how Iago is aware of the post-colonial relationship between him

and Othello. Throughout the play, Othello constantly feels as if he needs to prove himself to

those around him in order to receive the same amount of respect as his peers. This is first evident

when Othello says, “She loved me for the dangers I had passed,/ And I loved her that she did pity

them” (Shakespeare 1.3.167-168). Othello is attached to his story. One of the first reasons he

gives for loving his wife is the fact that she likes his story. He cites this reason because he knows

that his story is great and that without it he has no chance of earning the amount of respect that

he has earned. His awareness of the extra work that he must put in to get to the same position as

his white counterparts can also be seen when in a conversation with Iago, Iago convinces Othello

that Cassio must be sleeping with Desdemona. In this conversation, Othello says, “Haply, for I

am black/ And have not those soft parts of conversation/ That chamberers have” (Shakespeare

3.3.263-265). Othello admits that he does not know how to speak as well as his white

counterparts and asks Iago to help him. Othello is aware of the fact that he lacks what most of his

Venician peers have. This claim is backed up by Thorell Tsomondo’s notion that “it is this

otherness that necessitates and gives impetus to his narrative "I am" and correspondingly to his

individuated expansive rhetoric” (Tsomondo 6). Othello feels like he has to prove himself to

everyone around. This is his embodiment of the ‘I am’ rhetoric. He must prove that ‘he is’
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worthy to be in the company and command the Venician Army, even though he is more than

qualified to do so. Iago notices this. To go off of another one of Tsomondo’s points, “Notably, in

Othello,​ instead of the Moor, it is Iago, his white ensign, who is given to self-communing and his

primary role is to diminish, though calculated psychic violence, Othello’s humanity” (Tsomondo

4). Iago not only uses psychic violence to reduce Othello’s position and humanity, but, as

Tsomondo remarks, it is a calculated violence. This means that Iago is aware of the type of

manipulation that he is using on Othello. Not only is Iago aware, but he has thought about how

effective it is and the implications that this would have on Othello’s future and his psyche. If

Iago has thought about and calculated how effective abusing the colonial relationship between

him and Othello to manipulate Othello, this would mean that Iago is aware of the colonial

relationship and how it can be used to reduce those “below” him. Iago’s manipulation of Othello,

especially when juxtaposed with his manipulation of other characters, proves that not only is he,

as a European man, aware of the colonial relationship between Europe and “others,” but also that

he is also aware of how to use it to benefit himself and therefore Europeans are aware of how to

manipulate “others” by using the colonial relationship that they created.

Iago’s manipulation of the different characters in Othello proves his awareness of the

colonial relationship between Europe and the rest of the world, but why does this matter? One

character in one play was aware of something that Europeans have used for centuries to oppress

people and commit atrocities. However, it is important to realize that this text was written in

1603 by an English man. The fact that Iago was able to write about the colonial relationship

proves that William Shakespeare was aware of the colonial relationship. This means that society

at the time was aware of the colonial relationship and therefore knows that many of the atrocities
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that they would commit for hundreds of years afterwards were wrong. For context, in the mid to

late 1800’s, King Leopold the second asked his soldiers to bring back rubber or hands from

native villages. There is no excuse for this. Europeans were clearly aware of the fact that this was

wrong because of their intentional use of the colonial relationship to keep others down.
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Work Cited

Matz, Robert. “Slander, Renaissance Discourses of Sodomy, and Othello.” ​ELH,​ vol. 66, no. 2,

1999, pp. 261–276. JSTOR, ​www.jstor.org/stable/30032073​.

Shakespeare, William. “Othello.”​ Arguing about Literature: A Guide and Reader.​ 2nd

ed., Edited by John Schlib and John Clifford, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017. pp 574-661.

Tsomondo, Thorell Porter. “Stage-Managing ‘Otherness’: The Function of Narrative

in ‘Othello.’”​ Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal,​ vol. 32, no. 2, 1999, pp.

1–25. JSTOR, ​www.jstor.org/stable/44029596​.