The green-eyed monster

What It Is

The image of jealousy as a monster. In scene 3 of Act III, Iago describes it as a green-eyed monster that mocks the flesh that feeds it, and the phrase has become the most quoted in the play. The same idea of monstrosity returns in other mouths and other scenes: the plan that is born a monster, jealousy that begets itself, the horned man who is a beast, the monstrous act at the end.

The monster is not a creature that appears on stage: it is a word the characters use to give form to what they cannot see. Whoever pronounces it hardly ever speaks of himself. Iago uses it as advice; Emilia, as diagnosis, when she says that jealousy feeds on itself; Othello, as the measure of the betrayed husband; and Cassio and Lodovico, at the end, as the name of Iago ("horrible and repulsive monster," "infernal monster"), while Montano calls the crime a "monstrous act." The symbol moves through the play changing its object, from the marriage in which Iago sees animals, in Act I, to Iago himself, in Act V.

The green-eyed monster links to the doctrine of the humors, in which jealousy would be an illness of the bile that turns the complexion green, and the green is in the eye because Othello's obsession is with seeing, with finding ocular proof.

Where It Appears

In scene 1 of Act I, Iago describes to Brabantio the union of Othello and Desdemona in images of animal mating, and the "eight-legged beast," an image of two bodies joined into a single animal, already announces the idea of monstrosity that runs through the play.

In scene 3 of Act I, when closing the plan, Iago says that night and hell will bring to light a monstrous birth: the monster appears here as something begotten.

In scene 3 of Act III, the monster receives a name and green eyes. Othello responds to the account of the dream with "Monstrous, monstrous!", and Iago, pretending to resign, speaks of a monstrous world in which being honest brings no safety.

In scene 4 of Act III, Emilia tells Desdemona that jealous souls need no motive: jealousy comes from jealousy, a monster that begets and breeds itself. Desdemona asks heaven to keep this monster away from Othello.

In scene 1 of Act IV, Othello states the yardstick by which he already condemns his wife, and Iago replies that in the great cities there are many civilized monsters.

In scene 2 of Act V, the word changes target: Montano calls the act monstrous, Cassio calls Iago a horrible and repulsive monster, and Lodovico hands Iago over to Cassio as that infernal monster.

What It Means

Jealousy is, in the play, a mental monstrosity that needs no cause and breeds itself, as Iago and Emilia say, and the idea of the monster appears "begotten," as in Iago's plan. The image also has a social side: the "civilized monsters" tie monstrosity to urban life, and the "honorable murderer," as Othello accepts being called at the end, would be the same civilized monster, a man of honor who kills.

The monster is never where each one points to it. Iago names it jealousy in the scene where he plants it, Emilia describes it as something without cause, Othello sees it in a deceived husband, and at the end the others point it at Iago and at the act. The image changes owner the way the handkerchief does.

Relationships

• Standard themes: Jealousy, Prejudice, Truth and lies.
• Characters: Iago, Othello, Emilia, Desdemona.
• Neighboring symbols: The handkerchief, the proof that feeds the monster.