Iago

views updated

Iago in Shakespeare's Othello (1602–4), the Machiavellian villain who as an apparently loyal subordinate so poisons Othello's mind that he kills his innocent wife and attempts to have her supposed lover murdered. Allusions to Iago refer to his single-minded desire for negativism and destruction, as well as to the malice and innuendo with which he achieves his ends.

More From encyclopedia.com