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The hero of the drama Othello is a noble Moor who has rendered great services to the people of Venice. Desdemona, daughter of the Senator Brabantio, falls in love with him and the pair elopes. Othello's aide, Iago, angered by the fact that Cassio has been given preference over him, is overwhelmed with hatred for the two men, and thenceforth devotes his energies to destruction. Shakespearean criticism has always held the motivation for Iago's destructive hatred to be too weak. Critics of all lands have spoken of Iago's ‘motiveless malignity’. Some have called him ‘monster’; others, the proponent of evil. This takes us straight to the unanswerable question of Othello about Iago: ‘Why has he thus ensnared my soul and body?’ Generations of audiences, readers and critics have asked the same question. Envy? Jealousy? Revenge? Power? Othello's mounting anguish under the impact of Iago's scheming is very moving, and the irrationality of the Moor's jealousy is obvious to every spectator. Many clues are given in the play as to why Othello is so easily afflicted by such a consuming passion. He says of himself, ‘I am black … declined into the vale of years’; elsewhere he declares ‘the young affects’ are in him ‘defunct’. The Moor's jealousy and conflict fill the foreground of the tragedy; nevertheless it is always clear that Othello is only a victim and the tool of Iago's machinations. It is Iago who starts the action of the play, sets its pace, and keeps it moving. It should, therefore, be rewarding to seek the motives of Iago, who goads a man to murder his wife out of jealousy.