If Iago is an artist of evil, then this scene is the finest canvas he paints. This is the crucial moment in the play, the scene where he, , deceives Othello and induces him to fall. He does so by expanding on the tactics used in prior scenes. Once the seed of doubt is planted in the Moor's mind with a quick "Ha! I like not that" (III.iii.35) (when they come upon Desdemona and Cassio) and a few probing questions about the ex-lieutenant's relationship to Othello's wife, Iago retreats into the guise he has adopted. He becomes "honest Iago," again, as in the brawl in Act II, scene ii--the reluctant truth-teller who must have unpleasant news dragged from him by a determined Othello.

All this talk of time should make us remember another aspect of this tragedy: prophecy. If tragedy happens when past is brought into present, then it is prefigured when future is brought into present. This has been the role of Tiresias in this play, and his replacement here by the messenger, another old man who has come with news from afar, has significance only in terms of this temporal theme that we have already established. The prophet and the messenger would seem to be in the same temporal region, for both arrive after the events and before the tragedy, but they arrive with a crucial difference. The messenger comes after the prophet, but from where he comes can see neither past nor future. He can only naively render both into the moment, and his language is thus not marked with the reluctance and iteration of Tiresias. Rather, he speaks freely, without the prophet's fatal awareness of how the difficulties of language are at once supplemental and central to the tragedies of time. The shepherd seems to sense this, but his resolve is broken. Where earlier Oedipus threatened punishment, here the guards come on-stage and begin to torture the shepherd. The way power and force here shatter the complex network of language and time

The seizure of the handkerchief is a great coup for Iago in his quest to destroy Othello, and he is aided by his wife, who apparently has no scruples about betraying her mistress in small matters. Shakespeare will eventually transform Emilia into a voice of moral outrage, and by the final scene the audience will applaud her role in Iago's destruction, but for now it is worth noticing that she is only Iago's accomplice. It will take a great shock to inspire outrage against him--a shock which comes too late.

The scene ends with Iago triumphant, named as lieutenant (the rank to which he aspired from the beginning) to a man bent on destruction, and ready to join in that destruction himself--because in killing Cassio and Desdemona, Othello is killing himself. And that, of course, has been Iago's goal from the beginning.

suggested by his reluctance

Some common words found in the essay are:
Othello Venetian, Cyprus Othello's, Othello Desdemona, Act II, Venice Shakespeare, Desdemona Desdemona, Shakespeare Desdemona's, Desdemona Othello, Moor Iago, William Shakespeare, easily jealous,
Approximate Word count = 1406
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)