Can I just... obsess over Cassio’s role in Othello for a second?
(Please excuse any stupidity you may find here- it’s currently 3am and I don’t know what I’m doing)
OK so Iago has this whole big fat evil plan for how he’s gonna take down Othello. And he’s doing this whole big fat evil plan with little to no motives. Yeah, he heard a rumor that his wife may have cheated on him with Othello, but ehhh the rumor doesn’t seem to be even remotely true. (His wife might have cheated on him with someone else- I’m not saying that would be completely impossible- but probably not with Othello. Othello’s pretty loyal to Desdemona.)
His only other complaint is against the fact that Othello gave Cassio the job that he was after. So logically speaking, shouldn’t Iago make his main mission to destroy Cassio rather than destroy Othello? Because if he gets rid of Cassio, he could possibly get the position he wanted. But if he gets rid of Othello, how would that solve anything? Anyway, if this were about anyone other than Iago, I’d say that he was just an idiot. But this is about Iago- the guy who knew how to manipulate everyone into doing everything he wanted. So Idk I don’t believe he’s all that stupid.
Now ya know how I promised this would be about Cassio? Well it is. Because the thing is I find Cassio’s whole part in the play to be really, really funny. Mainly because of how he reacts to Iago vs how everyone else reacts to Iago. He, along with Othello and Rodrigo, are the main three people Iago tries to manipulate. When it came to Othello and Rodrigo, he had to come up with ways to convince them of whatever he was trying to pass off as the truth. And they questioned him, but he was still able to prove that he totally has no ill intent towards them. BUT WITH CASSIO, HE HARDLY HAD TO SAY ANYTHING. It’s like it didn’t even matter what he said or did, Cassio was gonna do the thing Iago wanted done anyway. Iago didn’t even have to manipulate Cassio like he had to do with everyone else- and around halfway through the play Iago realizes this and stops trying to convince Cassio to do things he’s probably gonna do anyway.
Seriously, their conversations go like this-
Iago: Hey do you maybe wanna drink some more-
Cassio: OH MAN I THINK I’M GONNA REALLY PARTY TONIGHT AND DRINK SOME MORE
Iago: Hey you should maybe talk to Des-
Cassio: HEY I’M GONNA GO TALK TO DESDEMONA AND ALSO RUN AWAY WHENEVER I SEE OTHELLO COMING BECAUS THAT WOULD BE AWKWARD YA KNOW?
And then Iago realizes that hey, Cassio doesn’t need to be manipulated for his plot to work- he can just let Cassio be himself and everything would turn out just the way he planned.