Othello is and idealistic, chivalrous warrior who has been superseded by the times of the renaissance and Iago alike.  Through his romantic and absolute character, the eventual realisation that Othello is a means to and end is inevitable.

Sean McEvoy’s reading suggests that Othello lives according to a set of stories through which he interprets the world – an ideology – but it is a world that has been superseded.  Othello is deemed to be living in a world lagging the qualities o f Iago who strikes the responder as a sophisticated and wealth driven character that ultimately is an image of the renaissance.  “Put money in my purse.” (Iago, Act 1 Scene 3), is an example of a motif throughout the play.  Iago is hinting his objective, that he is a self interested man who is manipulating characters in the play for his own wealth.  Shakespeare conveys to the responder that it is these qualities in Iago that is the driving force behind his “trustworthy” façade.  Shakespeare also uses Iago to illustrate to the responder his idea that time has changed by using binary opposites in the play, (Othello and Iago).  By suggesting that both could possibly be living in worlds that oppose each other, Shakespeare can subtly hint, what he suggests is that times have changed.

The techniques in the text, Othello shape the responders understanding of the play particularly through Shakespeare’s use of soliloquies, Prose and Free/Poetic Verse.  In the text there are numerous soliloquies, particularly from Iago.  Because Iago can easily be summed up as the “villain” of the text, Shakespeare needs to communicate with the responder certain aspects that Iago wants to include in his desire for wealth and his quality of self interest.  “I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear” (Iago, Act 2 Scene 3), is an example of what Iago plans to do through a soliloquy.  The use of prose in the text is also evident to the responder in Shakespeare’s Othello particularly from Othello himself.  Othello speaks in poetry verse at the beginning of the play and makes the transition to prose towards the end of the play.  The reason for this change is because of Othello’s suspicion of Desdemona.  As his suspicion increases, so does the use of prose.

Not only is Othello completely oblivious to Iago’s intentions, but so are all the other characters in the play.  The constant reference to Iago as being an honest man creates moments of dramatic irony in the play on numerous accounts.  It’s the trust that Othello has with Iago that drives Othello into unjustly killing his wife, yet still doesn’t know of Iago’s deceit.  Then the responder is left to ask, why would Othello not discover flaws in Iago’s plan and why does he just go along with everything he says?  The reason for this is because of Othello’s ideology.  He is a chivalrous warrior who lives his life by a set of stories that shapes his understanding of the world; His ideology. 

McEvoy’s suggestion is that Othello is not up to date with the current world run by money and self interest is correct.  The cause of Othello’s downfall is because his ideology is based on battle and the trust an authority figure such as Othello would put in people on his side.  The downfall of Othello is the effect of trust in Iago.

For one to state that Othello has been superseded by what we are led to believe as the real world, one must understand that Iago truly shapes the responders understanding that there are these binary opposites and that Othello’s demise is purely dependant upon himself and his ideology, nobody else.  He is a means to an end and it’s the contradictions within his ideology that destroy him, not Iago.