OTHELLO (IAGO - redeeming features?)

[studentc]

I have to do an essay on if Iago has any redeeming features or not. I know that some of my friends have come up with some but im pretty stuck cos he is the worst Shakespeare villian ever, pls help.

[Virgil]

Frankly the only one I can think of is that he's been a good soldier (prior to the play's action) for most of his life. Other than that...it's a tough one.

[Nightshade]

Well who was it Coleridge?, someone said Iago (his first main solilquesy) Is motivless malignant, ie evil looking for an outlet and thus without any redeemiong feature.
Also You can link I think all of the seven deadly sins to his character and seeing as christianity as a religon was very much a cultural norm and a basis for Elizabethan society, he could be linked with the Devil. This is reinforced in the end when Othello says "if thou be'st a devil I coul not kill thee" act 5 scene2 then wounds him but HE DOES NOT DIE. which in itself is I think an odd fact for a Shakespearean villan.

I dont seem to remeber any redeeming features, although I suppose .... but no.
Order? As in the importance of order in Shakespear plays as a whole and how Iago is very orderly in the way he goes about destroying Othello?

Although depending on what audiance your talking about I suppose you could say his redeeming fetaeure is he was white. (not that I agree) but for example the victorians either banned Othello or refused to belive he was white and said it was a misunderstanding because such a union as Othello and dsesdemona had would be a "sickneing pervesion of the senses" or sommthing like that.
:D