Is Iago the most evil character ever created?

Question

A friend of mine who recently read Othello believes that Iago is the most evil character ever created in literature or drama,is he right?

Answer 1

Actually, I would have to agree with that. Iago, compared to most characters that I have read about in famous pices of literature, is the most evil and vindictive person I have ever read about. I mean, come on, who is jealous of their friend, cause psychological damage on their captain, and gets away with it until the very end of the story? Iago. The guy technically turns everyone against each other and thrives on their anguish and despair in order to get what he wants.

Tell me how he isn't the most evil character after reading that.

Lavina

Answer 2

I believe I can shed light on this question. Iago is from Othello and Shakespeare has A LOT of supporters. Shakespeare is the best poet and playwright of ALL time which is why we are still studying his plays after several hundred years. Iago has to be the most vindictive and evil character because he is written by the best playwright in history. The reason why it is not voldemort or whoever is because although they are evil as well, Rowling and the other authors did not describe them with such eloquence and beauty than Shakespeare did to Iago. That's why Iago is the most regarded evil character in literature.

Answer 3

OOOH. Yin and Yang come in to play with everything you know. Shakespeare ofcourse wanted us to intensely dislike Iago and as a consequence he only shows us this aspect of him as a person.

However, as a professional actor who missed out age wise on playing him, I would most certainly have done masses of research on his past and current inner life. Without doing this level of in depth exploration of a character, then the performance will be flat and uninteresting. In short, untruthful.

Ask any actor who has played Iago or any other great villain and they will tell you the same. Nothing and no one is wholly bad or good and as a consequence an actor playing these parts has to find all of the elements in order that the physicality of the portrayal is believable.

Is Iago literature's greatest villain? Maybe, Lady Macbeth was an A grade cow too though. The key to it for me is yes literature's greatest villain probably, but this is literature that's meant for performance so be guided by the thrust of my argument above.

Everyone who met Hitler and I have an old friend who did, will tell you what a charming polite kind and thoughtful man he was who adored being around children.....
Bear

Answer 4

There are several characters in english drama a lot more "evil" than Iago. Even in Shakespeare
there are more evil characters.

For example:In "Titus Andronicus" pretty much the whole cast of charcters is pretty nasty. There are about 14 murders, lots of severed arms & legs and 1 tongue, people goes crazy & a couple of guys are killed & baked in a pie and served to their mom. Yummy!!

Other contenders may be Hieronimo in Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy," and most of the characters in John Websters "The Duchess of Malfi" and "The White Devil" If your taste runs to lots of blood & guts then these are your plays.

Incidently; the blood & guts of these and other plays were one of the reason the theaters in England were closed in 1642.

Answer 5

Well, to begin with, what your friend has expressed is a subjective opinion which can, therefore, not be classified as 'right' or 'wrong'. Also, Iago is a fictional character and cannot be classified as more or less evil than others as his motives cannot be speculated on. He actions are thus because Shakespeare decided they should be so to further the structure of his story. Can this really be defined as evil, therefore? Consequently it's a difficult question to answer.

But I think Moriarty is, like waaayyy more evil.

Answer 6

My boyfriend is scared of The Daleks in an historic drama show called Dr Who. I have seen a DVD of this . They do not look scary to me at all.
English literature is full of evil characters. Dr Hyde is one of my "favourites" and so is Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost. Charles Dickens is full of strange & nasty people.
The character type of Iago is actually very common in Elizabethan & Jacobean drama.The power of Shakespeare's play I feel is in the claustraphobic domestic setting and not in the character of Iago.

Answer 7

I don't know about most evil ever, but he certainly is the most evil Shakespearian character ever. If I remember correctly, he lied to Othello for his own gains which resulted in an innocent victim, Desdemona, getting killed. I can't think of a Shakespeare character that did something worse than that.

Answer 8

I would have to say that Richard the III is far more evil than Iago. While I think that Iago is one of the greatest villians every written, Richard is rancid. He seduces Anne over the body of her dead husband...the husband who is dead because Richard killed him.

As far as Mephostapholes from The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus...I actually find him quite sympathetic. I don't think he is entirely evil. He laments being bannished to Hell and realizes what a torture it is. If he were truly evil, I think he would find Hell a reward, and not a torture. Meph shows remorse...something neither Iago or Richard ever do. Just my opinion of course.

Answer 9

I'd have to say Lord Voldermort is fae worse than Iago.... However, if you consider Devil a literary character than he takes the top prize

Answer 10

Surely Mephistopheles (from Goethe's Faust)... unless the Devil (even in Literature) is not counted as a character.