Iago's God-like Manipulation Abilities

The main conflicts within Othello are all the cause of false appearances and Iago’s manipulation of people’s limited view of the events of which they did not witness first-hand.  The beginning of Act II foreshadows this with the scene involving Montano and the “gentlemen” discussing the fact that the heavy storm out in the ocean makes it difficult for them to tell if Othello and his crew are going to arrive safely to Cyprus. “What from the cape can you discern at sea?” / “Nothing at all; it is a high-wrought flood.” (Act II, scene 1, 1-2). The “high-wrought flood” in this scenario is symbolic of the gigantic mess that Iago soon creates through his manipulation of Roderigo, Cassio, Othello, and basically every other character within the play (though while everyone makes it safely through the literal storm, not many characters end up making it through the metaphorical storm).

After his initial plan involving Brabanzio falls apart, Iago creates a new plan that includes taking down Michael Cassio as well. Iago convinces Cassio to get drunk and celebrate, then sends Roderigo to pester the drunken Cassio, causing Cassio to chase and threaten him. Iago then shows this scene to Montano who is then stabbed by Cassio when trying to intervene. Othello arrives and demands to know what happened, but nobody claims to have any idea of how the ordeal began. This whole scene greatly damages Cassio’s reputation and relationship with Othello, so Iago manipulates him by convincing him to get in good favor with Desdemona so that she can put in a good word in with Othello for him. Secretly, however, Iago plans to use the private moments between Cassio and Desdemona to make Othello believe that an affair is going on between them. 

Almost every scene in Othello is in some way constructed by Iago as part of his scheme to get rid of Othello. There are very few scenes so far that don’t include Iago in some way, and at times he seems to have so much influence over the actions of other characters that he comes off as omniscient.