Othello

Iago sees reputation as a facade constructed by others, saying to Cassio: “Reputation is an idle and/ most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost/without deserving” (2.3 286-89). He values these facades as far as they allow him to manipulate others. With Cassio, that means using Roderigo to goad Cassio to a single drunken brawl that ruins his reputation in Othello’s eyes, as well as his own. In his desperation to repair his reputation, Cassio spends more time with Desdemona, a behavior that Iago frames as sexual and romantic.

As a woman, Desdemona’s reputation hinges on her sexual fidelity, and consequently is easy for Iago to ruin. Her intelligence, good-humor, and strong will, qualities that Othello loved, become irrelevant once Iago questions her chastity. In the case of Othello, ruining Desdemona’s reputation as a virtuous woman also threatens Othello’s masculine reputation as a “noble” (2.3 144) and valiant warrior. Othello is driven to murderous rage not only out of jealousy, but out of fear that he will look ridiculous if he doesn’t punish Desdemona. He says that a man who has been cheated on is not a man, but a “beast” (4.1 77). However, when Othello’s attitude towards Desdemona seems to be softening, Iago suggests that he just let her continue to cheat on him, if it doesn’t bother him. The prospect of being seen as permissive and weak in the eyes of other men drives Othello to violent ideations: “I will chop her into messes! Cuckold me?” (4.1 219).

The racial bigotry against Othello at the start of the play likely makes his reputation more vulnerable than a white man’s. As a Moor in a white society, Othello is at a disadvantage and has likely built his reputation as an asset to the Venetian state over many years. When he realizes that Iago has manipulated him into killing his wife, Othello tries to reclaim his former reputation, hearkening to his military feats and noble service record. He asks that Lodovico frame his murder of Desdemona as an act of ignorant wastefulness that shouldn’t overshadow his other deeds. In the moment before his suicide, even having just murdered a woman he claimed to love, Othello is still preoccupied with preserving his masculine reputation.

Iago, meanwhile, succeeds because of his reputation as an honest man. Although Othello briefly considers the possibility that Iago is deliberately torturing him, he casts this thought aside because of his trust in Iago’s “honest”-seeming behavior (3.3 299). The other characters, including Othello, act in accordance with their characters and motivations. In other words, their reputations are based on their true selves, whereas Iago’s is a false construction. By attributing his own deceitful behavior to Desdemona and Cassio, Iago destroys not only Othello’s love for Desdemona, but also his belief that people are what they seem to be. Othello is right to be disillusioned, but wrong in blaming the destruction of his worldview on Desdemona and Cassio, as Iago is the true culprit.