'And what's he then that says I play the villain?' is one of a number of major soliloquies spoken by Iago, the villain and chief builder of William Shakespeare's Othello. We've previously analysed Othello hither, but now let's take a closer look at the oral communication which begins 'And what'due south he then that says I play the villain?', which is found virtually the end of Act 2 Scene 3.

Equally is our habit here at IL, perhaps the best way to offer an analysis of Iago's soliloquy is to go through information technology department by section, summarising its meaning as we go.

A quick plot recap: in Republic of cyprus on a military campaign, Iago got Cassio drunkard and bundled a brawl, which he fabricated sure Othello witnesses; Othello had to strip the recently promoted Cassio of his commission. Iago's next plot is to convince Othello that Cassio is having an matter with Desdemona, Othello's wife. He tells Cassio to enquire Desdemona to put in a good word for him with Othello then he might get his commission back (but with the upshot that Othello will question why his wife would want to plead for Cassio).

And what'due south he then that says I play the villain?
When this advice is complimentary I give and honest,
Probal to thinking and indeed the course
To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
The inclining Desdemona to subdue
In whatsoever honest suit: she'southward framed as fruitful

At the point in the play where Iago makes his 'And what'south he and so that says I play the villain?' speech, Cassio has just left. Iago muses, on his ain: who would phone call him, Iago, a villain for advising Cassio to do what he has suggested (enquire Desdemona to put in a good give-and-take for him with Othello)? Afterwards all, it's the best fashion for Cassio to win back his favour with Othello. What's more, it's easy to win Desdemona round to such an honest request. (Probalmeans the same aslikelyhere.)

Note how the word 'honest' has already appeared twice in Iago's soliloquy. As William Empson showed in his assay of the word 'honest' in Othello (in his The Structure of Circuitous Words (Hogarth critics)), the word 'honest' was undergoing a curious journeying when Shakespeare wrote the play in the early seventeenth century, as it came to be associated with selfish libertinism and independence, and even rogue behaviour. The word 'honest', and so, is often deployed ironically in Othello, and we should be on our guard when the king of rogues, Iago, uses it repeatedly here.

As the free elements. So for her
To win the Moor – were't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
His soul is and so enfetter'd to her love,
That she may make, unmake, exercise what she list,

Desdemona, Iago reflects, is as 'fruitful' (i.e., generous or benevolent) every bit the 'gratis elements' (traditionally: earth, air, burn down, and water, all 'free' for human to employ as he see fits).

And one time Cassio has convinced Desdemona to put in a good word for him and win Othello round – well, he loves her so much, that he would renounce his Christianity (and thus endanger his immortal soul because his sins would no longer be redeemed) in order to proceed her happy. He is so enthralled to her, by his love for her, that she can persuade him to do annihilation (or dissuade him from doing annihilation) that she chooses.

Even every bit her ambition shall play the god
With his weak part. How am I and then a villain
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!

It'southward non clear what Iago means past 'her appetite' here. In the splendid Arden edition of the play, Othello: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series), E. A. J. Honigmann glosses this as potentially meaning Desdemona's inclination or fancy; alternatively, withal, critics take interpreted 'her appetite' equally meaning, in condensed course, Othello'due south ambition or desire for her. Either is tenable, though mayhap it makes more sense her to cull the more syntactically likely reading and gloss Iago's lines here as 'fifty-fifty every bit her want to practise something will lord it over Othello's natural instincts, which are weakened because he is enslaved by honey'.

How, so, Iago asks himself – and us, his uneasy confidants in this scene – is he a villain, when he is giving good communication to Cassio? The 'parallel course' acknowledges that, of grade, Iago intends to bring nigh Cassio'due south devastation through advising him thus; but it's true that fifty-fifty if he did have Cassio's best interests at middle, he would advise him to do exactly the aforementioned. 'Divinity of hell!' appears to exist an assertion of frustration (compare Iago'due south 'O god of hell!' earlier in the play), but cleverly, like that earlier burst, fuses God and the Devil, which is fitting given Iago'southward plan to announced benevolent and kind even as he plots Cassio'due south farther downfall.

When devils volition the blackest sins put on
They do suggest at outset with heavenly shows,
As I practise now: for whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,
That she repeals him for her trunk's lust;

When devils commit their darkest and most awful sins, they kickoff put on a testify of heavenly and good, much equally Iago is doing now. And while Cassio, this honest fool (notation that word again!), entreats Desdemona to assistance him recover his reputation and career, and while she pleads his example for him with her hubby, Iago decides he will poison Othello against his own married woman with wicked rumours to sully her good name, suggesting to Othello that his wife is only helping Cassio's considering she lusts after him.

And past how much she strives to do him skilful,
She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
Then will I turn her virtue into pitch,
And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all.

This fashion, Iago reasons, the more than she tries to help Cassio, the more she'll undermine Othello's trust in her fidelity. So, by doing this, Iago will plough her good intentions into black and foul ones ('pitch' is a black resin that used to exist applied to woods to preserve and protect it), and he will utilise Desdemona's ain virtue to ensnare all of them: Cassio, Desdemona, Othello.