In the concepts of truth and deception, Descartes points out that our physical senses are untrustworthy (Rene

Descartes, 1641/1993, p. 13-15). Yet somehow, we do have perceptions of the world outside our minds. He attributes them to either the existence of God who doesnt lie or there exists a powerful Evil Demon who solely exists to delude us. This Evil Demon Descartes speaks of, deceives people by interfering with their perceptions, very much similar to Iago from Shakespeares Othello. Iago, in much sense, is the Evil Demon of the story Othello. Various aspects of Iago displayed during his attempt to assert revenge on Othello and the context of the story, have proved him to be an example of the Evil Demon. Through examinations of Iago, the reasons of this claim can be substantiated. To start things off, the actions of Iago has to be scrutinized. Iago in all his evil plans had made use of peoples senses to trick them into doubting others by what they see or hear. One good example was when Iago made Othello hide and eavesdrop while he and Cassio conversed about the prostitute Bianca. Consequently, Othello was deluded by the conversation into thinking that they were talking about Desdemona (William Shakespeare, 1622/2009, p. 177). More importantly, in this setup by Iago, never once did he explicitly say to Othello that Desdemona was having an affair with Cassio. He merely used subtleties to poison the mind of Othello, making Othello believe that he conceived the idea of the affair on his own. Iagos manipulation clouds the senses by staging what people sensed and thereafter, leaving verbal hints to let them assume the worst, whilst accomplishing all these without revealing his intentions. From the way Iago manipulates people, it portrays him as the Evil Demon. The Evil Demon is unknown to us as we process our senses and come up with thoughts that we believed are derived from our own cognitive abilities but actually, they are just deceptions. In the way Iago deceives others, just like the Evil Demon, they both make people unable to differentiate between what is true or what is made to be true. Thus in this aspect, Iago can be said to be the Evil Demon.

Considering the context of the whole story line, Iago can be said to be the Evil Demon. This can be reasoned out by the way the Evil Demon deceives. When the characters reached Cyprus (William Shakespeare, 1622/2009, p. 61) , they only interact among themselves It can be seen that the characters are very isolated and most of the time they only have exchanges with Iago. His role in this isolated world is to mediate the communication amongst every character. Having to communicate through him, this enabled Iago to manipulate and control what the characters think of each other. This way, he is the outer world that the characters receive all their perceptions from. Thus when it comes to the perceptions of the external world, they can only be as certain as Iago tell them to be. This advantage is fully capitalised by Iago as he managed to deceive every character and thus, affect all their perception of the outer world in the way he deems necessary. Hence, because of the context the characters are put into, Iago can be the Evil Demon. From another perspective, Iago is not the Evil Demon after all. When Iago deceives an individual character, he has to exert his persuasion and tricks upon everybody. On the contrary, Descartes Evil Demon merely has to deceive the individual. The difference here is in the approach used by them. The Evil Demon deceives the individual about the external world, causing them to only be able to be certain of their own existence (Rene Descartes, 1641/1993, p. 16-17) while Iago uses the external world to deceive the characters. This difference in methodology can be used to differentiate between Iago and the Evil Demon. Yet when we consider the effects of their deceptions, we could see some similarities between them. The deception played by Iago is very elaborate and complete. In Iagos ploys, the deception he plays fools everyone to be coherent with his lies. These lies become accepted as the truth because everyone is tuned to his frequency. This scenario he creates is similar to that of what the Evil Demon creates. Everything perceived seems to be in logical and coherent order but in reality, they are just lies so perfectly crafted which is why they made perfect

sense to the characters involved. Therefore, even though the methods deployed differ greatly, the effects caused through their methods are very similar. This is one way Iago can be considered the Evil Demon. Furthermore, knowing how Descartes put the Evil Demon and God on the same level, we realise that Iago might not be similar to the Evil Demon at all. In the story of Othello, Iagos plot seemed to have gone out of his control as the story moved along. This is evident when Iago had to intervene and kill Roderigo when the latter failed to kill Cassio (William Shakespeare, 1622/2009, p. 231-233). This flaw in plans would not be possible for a being that is said to be omnipotent. This means to say, Iago cannot be an example of the Evil Demon. However, this is arguable. Zooming in to concentrate solely on the world of Othello, Iago can be the evil demon as he exerts his schemes flawlessly over the rest of the characters. It is only because the author, Shakespeare, has to end his treachery to proceed with the story, only then did Iagos plans run out of his control. To interpret this, if we merely consider the world which Iago resides in, he can be deemed as the Evil Demon. But with considerations to the author of the play, Iagos influence would not be so significant after all. Hence it can still be said that Iago is to an extent, the Evil Demon. In conclusion, Iago is still an example of the Evil Demon to a greater extent. The way the story dictates allows Iago to be demonstrated as the Evil Demon with characters isolated and easily manipulated by him. Even though he was exposed in the end, it cannot be denied in any way that Iago had achieved his objective through deceit similar to the Evil Demon. Although he is just a mere mortal unlike the Evil Demon, it is remarkable that he was able to achieve a deception like the Evil Demons. Therefore, considering the world of Othello, Iago is a great example of the Evil Demon in Descartes hypothesis.

Works Cited
Descartes, R. (1993). Meditations on First Philosophy. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (original publishing 1641) Shakespeare, W. (2009). Othello. (B. A. Werstine, Ed.) Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. (original publishinh 1622)