‘In Othello, Roderigo is an innocent victim.’ To what extent do you agree?
Right from the beginning of the play, the audience is made aware of Roderigo’s status
as a victim of Iago’s duplicity, as he laments that the Machiavellian villain has controlled
Roderigo’s ‘purse as if the strings were thine.’ Thus, while Shakespeare certainly frames
Roderigo as a comically naive ‘sick fool’, his status as a tragic victim is undeniable, as
his trust in the insidious ‘honest Iago’ is weaponised against him, yet another ‘virtue’
and tragic flaw that Iago exploits to create ‘the net’ that ‘[enmeshes]’ the tragic victims of
the play, ultimately leading to Roderigo’s murder at the hands of Iago in Act 5, Scene 1;
a tragically inevitable fate that not even his upper class status as a Venetian ‘gentleman’
can shield him from.
Shakespeare consolidates on his initial portrayal of Roderigo as a hapless, lovesick fool
in Act 1, Scene 3, where the audience witnesses Iago skillfully manipulate Roderigo into
‘[selling] all [his] land’ and following the cast to Cyprus, where roderigo will be used as
an unwitting co-conspirator in Iago’s plot to ‘serve his turn’ upon ‘the Moor.’ Here,
Shakespeare establishes Roderigo’s isolation, in that his conversations with Iago take
place in private, with no other characters onstage, leaving him completely at the mercy
of Iago. Arguably, in this way, Roderigo can be seen as a mirror of the tragic hero,
othello, who too becomes increasingly isolated over the course of the play, as Iago
‘pours pestilence into his ear’; while Iago preys on Othello’s insecurities about his race
and status as an outsider, Iago identifies in Roderigo a tragic flaw in his insecurity about
his perception of his masculinity, which proves instrumental in goading Roderigo into
being complicity in Iago’s increasingly sinister plans. This can be seen clearly in Act 1,
Scene 3, where Roderigo openly expresses his psychological ‘torment’ and suicidal
thoughts, declaring that he will ‘incontinently drown’ - yet, this is met with Iago’s brusque
and callous reply, as he derisively tells Roderigo to ‘be a man. Drown cats and blind
puppies’, describing his ‘virtue’ as ‘a fig.’ This zoomorphic imagery serves to trivialise
and undermine Roderigo’s emotions, and the repeated reference to animals such as
‘guinea hen’ and ‘baboon’ emphasises Roderigo’s victimisation, as his vulnerability is
mocked by Iago as mere folly and seemingly ‘bestial’ and inhuman. This reflects the
toxic values of the Venetian society that Shakespeare crafts, where men like Roderigo
are not defined by their own identities, but by what society can extract from them;
perhaps most tragically for Roderigo, all he can seem to offer to society - and Iago - is
his ‘money.’ Iago’s domination of this scene, where in his long monologue he repeatedly
uses the refrain of ‘put money in thy purse’ not only adds to the dehumanisation of
Roderigo by underscoring the transactional nature of his superficial friendship with Iago,
but also becomes a symbolic erasure of his identity and loss of agency, which is
heightened by his confident assertion that he will ‘sell all [his] land’, completing his
transition from a man beset by the grief of unrequited love to a pawn in Iago’s plot, and
© Humanities Unlocked. | AQA A-Level English Literature 2025 | For personal use only. Redistribution is
prohibited.
Right from the beginning of the play, the audience is made aware of Roderigo’s status
as a victim of Iago’s duplicity, as he laments that the Machiavellian villain has controlled
Roderigo’s ‘purse as if the strings were thine.’ Thus, while Shakespeare certainly frames
Roderigo as a comically naive ‘sick fool’, his status as a tragic victim is undeniable, as
his trust in the insidious ‘honest Iago’ is weaponised against him, yet another ‘virtue’
and tragic flaw that Iago exploits to create ‘the net’ that ‘[enmeshes]’ the tragic victims of
the play, ultimately leading to Roderigo’s murder at the hands of Iago in Act 5, Scene 1;
a tragically inevitable fate that not even his upper class status as a Venetian ‘gentleman’
can shield him from.
Shakespeare consolidates on his initial portrayal of Roderigo as a hapless, lovesick fool
in Act 1, Scene 3, where the audience witnesses Iago skillfully manipulate Roderigo into
‘[selling] all [his] land’ and following the cast to Cyprus, where roderigo will be used as
an unwitting co-conspirator in Iago’s plot to ‘serve his turn’ upon ‘the Moor.’ Here,
Shakespeare establishes Roderigo’s isolation, in that his conversations with Iago take
place in private, with no other characters onstage, leaving him completely at the mercy
of Iago. Arguably, in this way, Roderigo can be seen as a mirror of the tragic hero,
othello, who too becomes increasingly isolated over the course of the play, as Iago
‘pours pestilence into his ear’; while Iago preys on Othello’s insecurities about his race
and status as an outsider, Iago identifies in Roderigo a tragic flaw in his insecurity about
his perception of his masculinity, which proves instrumental in goading Roderigo into
being complicity in Iago’s increasingly sinister plans. This can be seen clearly in Act 1,
Scene 3, where Roderigo openly expresses his psychological ‘torment’ and suicidal
thoughts, declaring that he will ‘incontinently drown’ - yet, this is met with Iago’s brusque
and callous reply, as he derisively tells Roderigo to ‘be a man. Drown cats and blind
puppies’, describing his ‘virtue’ as ‘a fig.’ This zoomorphic imagery serves to trivialise
and undermine Roderigo’s emotions, and the repeated reference to animals such as
‘guinea hen’ and ‘baboon’ emphasises Roderigo’s victimisation, as his vulnerability is
mocked by Iago as mere folly and seemingly ‘bestial’ and inhuman. This reflects the
toxic values of the Venetian society that Shakespeare crafts, where men like Roderigo
are not defined by their own identities, but by what society can extract from them;
perhaps most tragically for Roderigo, all he can seem to offer to society - and Iago - is
his ‘money.’ Iago’s domination of this scene, where in his long monologue he repeatedly
uses the refrain of ‘put money in thy purse’ not only adds to the dehumanisation of
Roderigo by underscoring the transactional nature of his superficial friendship with Iago,
but also becomes a symbolic erasure of his identity and loss of agency, which is
heightened by his confident assertion that he will ‘sell all [his] land’, completing his
transition from a man beset by the grief of unrequited love to a pawn in Iago’s plot, and
© Humanities Unlocked. | AQA A-Level English Literature 2025 | For personal use only. Redistribution is
prohibited.
