Literary Villains: Iago and Krogstad
Literary Villains: Iago and Krogstad
In “Othello” and “A Doll House”, the two plays resulted in destruction of two families due to one’s jealousy and revenge. The antagonist in “Othello” is Iago who served as Othello ancient in the play was against him from the start. Iago had several motives for plotting against Othello, because they did not give him the rank of Lieutenant and he did not approve of the marriage between Othello and Desdemona. In “A Doll House”, Krogstad was an employee of Mr.
Helmer and he knew that he was going to lose his job. These two characters had motives, which resulted in them to develop plots that were not similar, but they both had the same life-altering outcome and were successful. In the play, “Othello” Iago provided clues that he was going to destroy Othello. In Act I, Scene 1, Iago and Rodrigo (a gulled gentle man) were talking about the promotion of Michael Cassio (Othello’s Lieutenant) and he (Iago) should have been the one to receive the promotion.
Iago states “One Michael Cassio, a Florentine (A fellow almost damned in a fair wife) that never set a squadron in the field, nor the division of a battle knows more than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric, wherein the togged consuls can propose as masterly as he”. He means that Cassio is not married and that he has no experience of leading troops into the battlefield, because Cassio has not gone into war. Iago is jealous that he was did not receive that promotion and he his disloyalty towards Othello.
Othello were reference as him, Moor (black) and thick-lips according to the definition in the play it means “An Elizabethan epithet for blacks, including Moors”. Iago did not approve of Othello and Desdemona’s elopement. Iago informed Brabantino (Desdemona’s Father) of her daughter’s marriage to Othello, he states, “I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs”. Iago is also an instigator; he wanted to get Brabantino angry over his daughter’s marriage.
In Act I, Scene II, Brabantino states “O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter? Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her! ” Everyone was against Othello with the assistance from Iago. In “A Doll House” Nils Krogstad knew that his employment at the bank was ending and that Nora’s husband (Torvald Helmer) is now in charge of the bank. Nora took out a loan from Mr. Krogstad without Mr. Helmer (Nora’s husband) knowledge and he threatens that he will tell her husband about the loan. Mr. Krogstad is also aware that there are forged signatures on the loan documents.
Nora tried to convince her husband not to fire Mr. Krogstad, but Mr. Helmer is appalled at his wife for taking Mr. Krogstad’s side. The conversation between Nora and Helmer resulted in him sending Mr. Krogstad’s notice immediately. Iago and Krogstad were successful in their plans. In “Othello”, Iago used numerous schemes to turn everyone against each other. The first one was to turn Othello against Cassio; the second was to make Othello believe that Desdemona and Cassio were having an affair and thirdly his plan for the death of Cassio with hopes of them killing each other.
The outcome of Iago’s plan was the death of Rodrigo (who was set up to kill Cassio), Othello killing Desdemona, the death of Emilia (wife to Iago and Desdemona’s friend) and the death of Othello (suicide). In “A Doll House”, Ms. Linde (Nora’s friend and ex friend of Krogstad) convinced Krogstad that they should belong together and he no longer wanted to blackmail Nora. Ms. Linde was going to convince Krogstad to take his letter back, but she decided that it is best for Nora to be honest to her husband.
Mr. Helmer read the letter and was furious. He stated that “Oh what an awful awakening! In all these eight years- she who was my pride and joy- a hypocrite, a liar- worse, worse- a criminal! ” Mr. Helmer reconsiders when he reads the apology letter from Krogstad, but Nora declines. The two plays were similar in the plots to ruin lives, but they do not share the same outcome, because Krogstad apologized for threatening Nora but this revelation opened a door for Nora to end her marriage with Mr. Helmer.