A Comparison of the Iago Characters in Shakespeare’s Othello and Knowles’ A Separate Peace
December 15th, 2011 by LauraShakespeare’s Othello and John Knowles’ A Separate Peace both contain a character who is treacherous and deceitful, who convinces a gullible, trusting character to become jealous of one whom they love and ultimately cause them harm. In Othello this character is Iago, Othello’s standard bearer. Jealous and angry that Othello promoted Michael Cassio to lieutenant, Iago tricks Othello into thinking his wife Desdemona is cheating on him, as an attempt at revenge. His treachery leads Othello to kill his wife. In A Separate Peace, Gene’s “inner darkness”, what his friend Leper calls the “savage underneath” (p. 137), convinces him that his best friend Phineas is working against him. It is this inner Iago, so to speak, that leads him to make Phineas fall out of a tree and break his leg, which ultimately leads to Phineas’ death. In Othello, the Iago character is tangible, a real person, Iago himself. In A Separate Peace, the Iago character is more abstract, a part of the main character. However, the Iagos serve the same purpose. They both make their respective host wrongfully jealous of an innocent person and do harmful things to said innocent person. Both Iagos achieve this by taking advantage of their respective hosts’ insecurities. Both Iagos, in the end, are abandoned when their hosts learn the truth.
Though the two Iagos are different in form – one tangible and one abstract – they both prey on the insecurities of their host. In Othello, Othello is insecure because he is a foreigner. Because he is a Moor, he is not completely certain his wife loves him. His insecurities are the chink in his armor; Iago manages to use that part of his mind to plant the idea that his wife is cheating on him. In A Separate Peace, Gene is, like Othello, a stranger. While many of the other boys come from places relatively close to Devon school where the book takes place, Gene is from the southern United States. Not being from the same area as the other boys, he has different mannerisms, such as his “West Point stride” (p. 11). Likewise, the other boys at school have some habits that are strange to Gene, such as their way of speaking. “ ‘Aey-uh,’ he said. This weird New England affirmative – maybe it is spelled ‘aie-huh’ – always made me laugh, as Finny knew…” (p. 7). So one reason for Gene’s insecurities is that he is not accustomed to the area in which the book takes place. Another reason is that Gene is already jealous of Phineas. “I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little” (p. 18). He is insecure about his own abilities because Phineas never seems to have to work for anything. For example, he beat the school swim record without practicing: “I looked at the watch; he had broken A. Hopkins Parker’s record by .7 second” (p. 35). Gene is also insecure because Phineas is not self conscious and so he is more at ease with himself. Gene is conscious of how other people view him, which makes him jealous of Phineas. For example, after Phineas breaks the school swim record, he refuses to let Gene tell anyone, preferring that it be kept secret. He only attempted it to prove to himself that he could do it. “’No, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Now I know. But I don’t want to do it in public’” (p. 35). Gene resents that Phineas is so comfortable with himself whereas Gene is not. These insecurities allow Gene’s inner Iago to convince him that Phineas is trying to keep him down. “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained the insistence that I share all his diversions. The way I believed that you’re-my-best-friend blabber!” (p. 45). Gene sees false connections between these events and jumps to the conclusion that Phineas is secretly trying to hold him back. The feelings that Gene’s Iago brings up are jealousy, though stronger than before, as evidenced by Gene’s desire to get ahead of him; hatred, of the sort that comes along with strong jealousy; and suspicion of Phineas’ honesty. Othello’s Iago also brings up these emotions. He is jealous because he believes his wife is cheating on him; he begins to hate her as well, as evidenced by his vow to kill her, “I will withdraw / To furnish me with some swift means of death / For the fair devil” (3.3.534-536); and he is suspicious of his wife’s fidelity. Othello and Gene, from Othello and A Separate Peace respectively, are both insecure and already a little jealous. The Iagos notice this and use it to cause harm to the objects of the jealousy. This seems to express that when one is not sure of oneself, it leaves one susceptible to one’s own Iago, no matter how upstanding one is. Othello is a respected general, yet Iago manages to take advantage of his insecurities. Each Iago, the real Iago and Gene’s “savage underneath,” takes advantage of these insecurities to cause Othello and Gene to suspect an innocent person is not completely faithful.
After the Iagos have their hosts under their control, they both manage to bring harm to their hosts’ loved ones. Desdemona from Othello and Phineas from A Separate Peace are both innocent – Desdemona is not really cheating on Othello and Phineas is not really working against Gene – but are accused by the Iago in each work. In Othello’s case, Iago convinces him to kill Desdemona. After Iago has tricked Othello into thinking Desdemona is unfaithful, Othello says, “Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned tonight, for she shall not live” (4.1.196-197). He is vowing to kill her, showing that, because of the false evidence put forth by Iago, he is jumping to conclusions. He later succeeds in killing her, before he realizes that Iago was lying. In A Separate Peace, Gene’s Iago is less plotting, but still manages to cause harm to Phineas. When Gene climbs up in the tree with Phineas, “I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny … tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud” (p. 52). He had not thought of doing this earlier, which suggests this action was spontaneous, unlike Othello’s Iago’s planned revenge. Phineas and Gene agree by the end that it was “some crazy ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was” (p. 183). This suggests that it was not Gene himself that meant to hurt Phineas, to make him fall from the tree, but the part of him that was jealous and hateful and suspicious; in other words, his inner Iago. It is described appropriately by Leper, Gene’s friend, who says, “Like a savage underneath. Like … that time you knocked Finny out of the tree” (p. 137). Gene and Othello’s Iagos bring harm to Desdemona and Phineas.
Once the whole debacle is over and both hosts learn the truth, but too late, both Iagos are abandoned. In Othello, Othello learns that Desdemona was innocent after he kills her. Then he turns against Iago and allows him to be taken away to be tortured. He then kills himself and, in a way, frees himself from the insecurities and jealousy that had let Iago manipulate him. In A Separate Peace, Gene reconciles with Phineas and they manage to gain an understanding of each other like they could never have had while Gene was withholding the truth of the accident and while Phineas was denying it. It is, like Othello had when he learned the truth about his wife, and understanding without secrets. In chapter eleven, Phineas breaks his leg again while trying to escape the truth of the accident. Later, in the infirmary, Gene admits that he caused Phineas’ fall from the tree and says, “ ‘It was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was’” (p. 183). Phineas says, “ ‘I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and I believe you. You’ve already shown me and I believe you’” (p. 183). That Gene is able to admit that, in a way, he caused the accident and that Phineas believes that it was the inner Iago shows an understanding that allows them to reconcile. However, it is too late because Phineas dies from complications with his broken leg. The reconciliation and Phineas’ death let Gene abandon his Iago, now that the object of his jealousy is gone. “I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape the feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (p. 186). This suggests that his inner Iago, which had been a part of him throughout the book, is gone as well. In both Othello’s and Gene’s cases, once the object of their jealousy is gone, they are able to let go of their Iagos. “Phineas had absorbed it and taken it with him, and I was rid of it forever” (p. 195). This supports the idea of Gene’s Iago being jealousy, all of which he had poured into Phineas, evidenced by his constantly comparing himself to Phineas. Once Phineas is gone, Gene has no more jealousy to spend and so he is rid of his Iago. “…My war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (p. 196). In this case his enemy is his Iago because it is comprised of his jealousy and suspicion that leads to Phineas’ fall, just as in Othello Iago is Othello’s enemy because he brings out the jealousy and suspicion that lead to Othello murdering Desdemona. By Gene killing his Iago, he is freeing himself of the jealousy he had felt before. “My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the source, withered and lifeless” (p. 195). This “source” could be interpreted as Phineas, on whom Gene had spent his jealousy. This line suggests that Gene had no more fury to spend, since the object of his fury was gone. He, like Othello, frees himself of his jealousy by ridding himself of his Iago.
Though the Iagos are similar in purpose, they do differentiate. Othello’s Iago’s goal is to cause harm to Othello himself, not necessarily to Desdemona. However, to harm Othello, Iago also indirectly harms Desdemona. Gene’s Iago, his “savage underneath,” is not meant to bring harm to the part of Gene that admires Phineas; it is meant to bring harm directly to Phineas, the object of Gene’s hatred.
Othello and A Separate Peace both have a treacherous character who bring out the main character’s jealousy and suspicion toward an innocent person. In Othello this character is Iago, who takes advantage of Othello’s insecurities to lead him to kill his wife. In A Separate Peace, the character is a part of Gene that, because of preexisting jealousy of Phineas, cause Gene to believe Phineas is working against him, and lead him to cause Phineas’ fall from the tree. Though Othello’s Iago is a real person and Gene’s Iago is an abstraction, both are a representation of a person’s tendency to jump to conclusions when they are insecure. They also serve the same purpose: to take advantage of their hosts’ insecurities and lead their host to cause harm to someone they love. Both Iagos seem to suggest as well, if a moral is to be picked out from them, that if a person is insecure or jealous of another, they leave room for their inner Iago, or “savage underneath,” to bring harm.
