The Language of Villainy

In this lesson, we had to analyse Shakespeare's presentation of Iago as a villain.

To begin with, we looked at 3 movie villains. Buddy from The Incredibles, Darth Vader from Star Wars and The Joker from Batman. We had to find out what the difference between them was. We realised that the difference was in their LANGUAGE.

While Buddy seemed to talk a lot, he didn't really have the language or even tone of voice which suggested that he was the villain. Darth Vader on the other had sounded really scary. Although he didn't talk much, the weird breathing noises he made were enough. Overall, the Joker was the most villainous villain. He had the tone of voice which showed that he was the villain but he also used different types of language to get his point across. Therefore, Joker is the villain who is most similar to Iago.

Because we were learning about the language of villainy, we were split up into four different groups who had to analyse four different types of language which were used by Iago.

These were:

Prose

Soliloquy

Antithesis

Imagery

Afterwards, we had a sort of Farmer's Market trading sort of thing. This enabled people from each group to move around the class and understand the types of language which other groups were doing.

Prose:

Iago used this when talking to someone of a lower status/topic.

Represents 'protean' nature.

Iago manipulates Roderigo using prose and verse.

Disrupts adjacency pairs.

Uses imperatives.

Has an affect on the audience by involving them.

Antithesis:

Opposition of phrases or words against each other.

Janus - shows Iago as two faced.

Iago is not who he is thought to be.

Soliloquy:

When a character represents his thought or feelings.

Therefore connects with the audience.

Different sides to Iago.

Has a 'protean' nature.

Sinister outlook.

Linguistically clever.

Imagery:

Establishes dramatic atmosphere.

Informative understanding of characters and events.

Poisoning: method of manipulation. Iago is deadly, swift, insidious.

Hell and the devil: evil intentions. Iago is evil and deceptive.

Enjoy :)