Roderigo

Question 1

Iago calls Roderigo “my…..”

Answer 1

“My sick fool”

Question 2

Is Roderigo that stupid?

Answer 2

Roderigo isn’t all that stupid, he knows early on that Iago is playing him around.

Roderigo’s awareness of Iago’s predatory nature is exactly how the play begins. - tells Iago off for taking his money and giving him no result.

Question 3

Roderigo - a mirror of Othello

Answer 3

While to Moor does face racist treatment from the Venetians, he’s made a victim primarily by his own inner feelings of racial self-consciousness.

Likewise, while Roderigo is manipulated plenty by Iago, he ultimately becomes a victim of manipulation because he allows himself to be manipulated and this willingness to be a target for manipulation stems from a deep sense of self-consciousness, except in Roderigo’s case its not about race but about social standing and masculinity. Both of which he thinks he lacks.

Question 4

Roderigo’s insecurity about his social rank

Answer 4

We can infer Brabantio’s distaste for Roderigo stems from his lack of social standing, being both a white Venetian and a wealthy man, the only thing that would disqualify Roderigo for being a good suitor for Desdemona is his lower social rank. Roderigo is acutely aware of this.

Question 5

Iago’s manipulation of Roderigo’s insecurities

Answer 5

“As they say base men being in love have then a nobility in their natures”

Contrast of base and nobility

Iago is cruel but masterful with his exploitation of Roderigo’s self-consciousness here, because first he dangles the tantalising suggestion of Roderigo being valiant, noble and high-ranking with a hypothetical “if thou be’st valiant”. Within this statement, Iago envelopes a blunt insult of Roderigo really being a base low ranking man, who by virtue of being so desperately in love colours himself with a tint of nobility that he otherwise lacks. So by activating this insecurity about ranking in Roderigo, Iago successfully gets his dupe to want to prove his worth and to do so by stirring up the drunken brawl which leads to Cassio’s demotion but nothing more than a couple of bodily wounds for Roderigo.

Question 6

Roderigo’s insecurity about his masculinity “hand”

Answer 6

One word that reoccurs between Iago and Roderigo’s exchanges throughout the play is “hand”. This reference sheds some interesting light on how Iago exploits Roderigo’s insecurities about his manhood and sexuality.

Shakespeare was a sucker for puns. Iago uses sexual innuendoes to provoke both Othello and Roderigo’s unstable sense of masculinity and in Roderigo’s case, Iago achieves this with his frequent repetition of the word “hand” which actually is a reference to the male genitalia.

This begins from 2.1 when Iago asks if Roderigo has not seen Desdemona “paddle with the palm” of Cassio’s hand, and shortly after he makes a cryptic insinuation about “lechery, by this hand” - all hint at an illicit sexual affair between the lady and the lieutenant.

Despite not being logically convinced by Iago at this point protesting that Desdemona was just acting out of courtesy when he says “but that was just courtesy”, the onslaught of subliminal hand references leads Roderigo to subconsciously associate in his mind Cassio with make virility and the masculine drive. Immediately Roderigo’s disposition shifts from weak hesitation to resolute commitment.

Later when Roderigo is on the brink of losing faith in Iago’s plan, Iago once again invokes this hand reference with his imperative “give me thy hand Roderigo”. The sexual subtext here is for Roderigo to give more of his manliness, which he can only do if he continues to stay the course and not waver in purpose, courage and valour.