James Earl Jones won an Obie award for his portrayal of Othello in a production in Central Park, New York in 1964. He went on to play the Moor a further six times and has been hailed as the greatest American Othello.
Read Jones' study of the role below and see if you agree with his understanding of the character. It is worth comparing his study of Iago to that of A. C. Bradley's. Note that he never once calls Iago evil.
'I contend that Iago is the most complex character that Shakespeare ever created. He has also been called vengeful and nihilistic, a man of 'diseased intellectual activity, with an almost perfect indifference to moral good or evil.'
Iago is dangerous to those who love and trust him because he convinced them over time that he loves them in return, and that he can be trusted absolutely.
The tragedies that happen to Othello and Desdemona are grand, classical tragedies. There is a much more modern tragedy in the character of Iago. His is a very contemporary tragedy that should not be thrown away. To view Iago as a jokester and a clown - just a Machiavellian gangster - is to demean and distort the characters of Iago and Othello, as well as to diminish the tragedy of the whole play; but it takes a strong director and a strong vision of the play to lead the actor playing Iago into the tragic and mysterious depths of Iago's true nature.
I am looking for a model for Iago. To understand him we have to understand Iago's fall from grace. So who is a role model? Darth Vader?
Consider Lucifer, who fell because he failed to 'play the game' with God. Iago feels that he has lost to Cassio, who plays the game better. He certainly works for a boss who is solitary and secretive so as not to assure Iago of his real value. This causes Iago anguish, as he tells us at the outset of the play, when he is denied the office of a lieutenant to Othello: '... by the faith of man,/ I know my price, I am worth no worse a place (Act 1, scene i). And Iago's real value comes from his sinister side. He is the Goebbels to Hitler, the Beria to Stalin. Othello, while no Hitler or Stalin, was secretive and solitary, and he did not get the word out to people very well. He could have had a discussion with Iago about the appointment; he could have had a discussion with Brabantio about the marriage. Othello's failure to do so contributes mightily to the estrangement of Brabantio, his beloved friend, and to the animosity of Iago, his trusted ensign.
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The key factor of money establishes Iago's relation to the whole play. He is a common man who lacks the social wherewithal that Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and even Roderigo possess. He occupies a rung further down the social ladder, and where he is, he is not going to be successful. He was counting on being elevated to Othello's lieutenant. Was this delusion? Casting is important here: Iago has to appear to qualify as the general's lieutenant, at least on the battlefield, even if he lacks Cassio's social finesse, and, like, Lucifer, he should be gorgeous to look at. The reason for his fall is engimatic to him. He was not passed over because he lacked social appeal. He lacks the formal social graces of a higher station, but he is very personable and very smart.
When Iago perceives that he has been crossed, he becomes quite dangerous to the whole society and he will take it all down with him. Now everything tastes like shit in his mouth, including his own marriage. He has not found a Desdemona to fulfil his life. He believes his station, his wealth, his chance at having a life - all have been ruined when Othello has passed over him for a promotion.
Iago is extremely clever. This makes Iago's life even more tragic. Such a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and it doesn't have a shot in the world. Iago evokes Janus - the two-faced God (Act 1, scene ii). He says to Roderigo, 'Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago ... I am not what I am' (Act 1, scene i).
When Iago says, 'I am not what I am,' he seems to me full of regret, as if to suggest, 'The "I am" is what I could have been and should have been.' There is a universal complaint here: I am nobody. I know I have a soul; but nothing else confirms that. I am not what I am.
Consider him as a Janus figure. Each of Iago's Janus 'faces' is genuine, they just look out in opposite directions, as the faces of Janus do. When Iago is with those he loves, he loves them. When he is not, we have a quite different Iago. When he says to Othello, 'You know I love you,' he does love Othello, believe it or not. As much as Iago says to Roderigo, 'I hate the Moor,' he loves him. I don't mean homosexually, either, but soul to soul. Othello and Iago have shared a military life together; they have built that trust between them. Ironically, Iago has a great deal of fear-based respect for Othello, yet he tries to convinces Roderigo that he hates the Moor.
We need to see Iago as a human being. Ultimately, this makes his tragedy all the more terrifying.'
Excerpts taken from Actors on Shakespeare, Othello, James Earl Jones.
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself ...
For when my outward action does demonstrate
The native act, and figure of my heart,
In complement extern, 'tis not long after,
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve,
For doves to peck at: I am not what I am.
Iago to Roderigo (Act 1, scene i)
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