Heaven

Heaven

“Heaven Is My Judge”: Literary Devices in Othello
William Shakespeare's classic drama Othello centers around the two conflicting characters of scheming, manipulative Iago and the honorable, but often times faithless Othello. Despite the fact that these men are completely opposite in character, Iago commands such persuasive powers that he literally starts to affect Othello’s thinking, altering the figures of speech he uses and his perceptions of those close to him. Both Othello and Iago use many of the same literary devices and much of the same figurative language to express not only their opinions of those around them, but also their general conceptions of the workings of the universe on a more spiritual level.
        Act I of Othello closes with Iago giving a soliloquy introducing his plan to make Othello lose faith in his wife. This speech reveals Iago to have an incredibly materialistic and conceited nature, as he reduces everyone mentioned to an object easily capable of manipulation. Roderigo becomes Iago's purse, Cassio is simply a handsome, noble man who can be used to make Othello jealous, and Othello himself is “As tenderly [led] by the nose/ As asses are” (1163). Even Iago's own wife, Emilia, is referred to as Iago's “office,” an item that he has earned, rather than a woman he has vowed to love. He concludes this speech by saying “Hell and night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light,” comparing Othello and Desdemona's marriage to a “monster birth,” while equating himself and his deceptions to Satan. Iago continuously makes comments about how hell is superior to heaven. In a later soliloquy near the end of Act II, Iago continues to relate the people he is manipulating to objects, this time also comparing the entire scenario to a game in which he plays the villain and Othello is a prize to be won. Iago mocks himself and his feigned innocence in this speech, exclaiming “Divinity of hell!/ When devils will the blackest sins put on/ They...

Similar Essays