Josselyn Sorto
Ms. Campagna
Psychological Case Study
29 April 2013
Iago’s Narcissistic Personality
Othello the Moore of Venice, by Shakespeare is an outstanding piece of literature that
creates a fascinating villain, Iago. Iago being a man of grandiosity and having the thirst of
admiration with little to no empathy is a subject of having a narcissistic personality disorder.
The disorder occurs when a person typically has lack of empathy and has a sense of
grandiosity. The patient usually exploits others to achieve personal goals and has little to no
empathy towards others. The patient is jealous and resents easily due to their need of admiration
from others. Iago as the story progresses perfectly fits the characteristics of a Narcissistic
personality disorder.
Iago a twenty- eight year old Caucasian man that is married to Emilia, Desdemona’s
minder possesses the characteristics of being Narcissistic. He is also a Christian soldier for the
Venetian army. He is viewed as humble, honest, a good friend and pleasant to the public. People
refer to him as “honest Iago” which lead people to trust him. His real personality is scrupulous, a
liar, manipulator and cruel. Iago plans to destroy Othello with Desdemona by convincing him
that she was unfaithful to him Cassio, the promoted lieutenant which obtain the position Iago
wanted, although that is a complete lie; Othello ends up believing him. He uses his ability to talk
to people in order to accomplish his plan of destroying Othello because he wasn’t granted the
position of the Venice army.
Iago the master villain possesses several defining characteristics of the Narcissistic
disorder. Iago has a grandiose sense of self importance which means that the patient exaggerates
his own abilities and accomplishments. For example, when Othello does not give him the
position; Iago gets furious and decides to take revenge on him and his wife. Iago thinks he
deserved the position because he has the ability and felt the sense of grandiosity leading him to
plot against Othello because of an “unfair” decision. “And what was he? Forsooth, a great
arithmetician. One Michael Cassio, a Florentine. A fellow almost damned in a fair wife” (Ii1822). When Iago said that it shows how he is jealous and how he thinks he deserved being
promoted.
Also, he has the preoccupation with fantasies of beauty, brilliance, ideal love, power or
limitless success, another one of the characteristics of this personality disorder. The reader can
see that at the beginning of the play when Iago feels the need to have more power and in order to
obtain it he plots a brilliant plan to destroy Othello. Iago’s resentment and jealousy lead to a
tragic ending.
Iago apart from being resentful, jealous and having a grandiose sense of himself, also has
a sense of entitlement, unreasonably expects favorable treatment or automatic granting of own
wishes. Iago has a good ability to use his words wisely. He manipulates bribes and lies in order
to use people and lead to believe that they are helping themselves when reality is that all they are
doing is to help Iago pursue his malicious plan. The reader is able to see that when Iago tells his
wife Emilia how much he wants Desdemona’s handkerchief. Emilia gets it from him not
knowing that Iago has a much bigger plan with it. His particular actions lead to another difining
characteristic of this disorder. He exploits others to achieve personal goals. He uses Cassion,
Roderigo and Emilia in order to fake Desdemona’s infidelity with Othello.
Finally, Iago lacks empathy; he is unable to recognize or identify with he feelings and
needs of others. He does not feel nor care about the outcome of his evil plan. He does not care if
anyone gets hurt in the way as long as he obtains what he so longs for he is completely satisfied
with that.
Iago’s manipulations and lies lead him to believe that he deserved the promotion even
more. He is a complete liar, he uses people for his own benefit. He believes that he is grandeur
and that he was worthy of the position. The evidence in the text proves and reassures the reader
that Iago has all if not most of the characteristics of a Narcissistic Personality Disorder.