Iago's Motivations for Revenge

Iago, the representation of evil in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, has a devilish desire to seek revenge on numerous characters throughout the play. This desire for revenge, portrayed through his soliloquies and explored through the feminist and liberal humanist readings of the play, is motivated by Iago’s pestiferous and misogynistic nature, and the fact that he is consumed by jealousy.
Iago's soliloquies show what he is thinking and uncover his true side, the side that is diametrically opposite to the way he is viewed by the other characters involved in the tragedy. It is evident through these soliloquies that he has a very big hubris and uses his dishonest and manipulative ways to create chaos and tragedy, in a very subtle and innocent way.

Iago is a misogynistic man who treats women as possessions and refers to them as whores. To Iago, women are more of a responsibility: ‘…that ‘twixt my sheets He’s done my office…’   This metaphor refers to Othello sleeping with Iago’s wife, Emilia. ‘Office’ represents a place of work, inferring that seducing your wife is a job, which reduces Emilia to a commodity.   A feminist critique would be enraged by this reference to women, as Emilia has been subdued by Iago, which was a common occurrence in the patriarchal society.
In Iago's second soliloquy, his jealousy and dislike for women is further reinforced. Iago is jealous of the Moor, Othello, believing with no evidence that Othello slept with Iago’s wife Emilia: ‘I do suspect the lusty Moor/ Hath leaped into my seat …’ Iago has accused Othello of lust and making love with his wife. The metaphor has referred to Emilia as a belonging of Iago, as it his ‘his seat.’   The term ‘seat’ suggests Emilia is just something that is used rather than a human that is loved. A feminist reading of the simile infers that referring to Emilia as a seat portrays her as underneath Iago, with him being in control.   Iago continues to say ‘nothing can or shall content my soul/ till I am evened with...