The play Othello is a story of jealousy, revenge and deception. Iago, a disgruntled military officer, seeking revenge against Othello, lies, cheats, and bullies everyone to get what he wants. He uses Roderigo, Brabantio, and almost every other character in the play to achieve his goal of ruining Othello. This summary is what the piece may look like to the unseeing eye, but to the in-depth and experienced reader there is more to the story than what appears at first glance. To truly understand Othello, or any other play for that matter, you need to think about what happened. before the piece that caused the situations you are reading about. You have to think about the relationships that existed between all the characters. We must imagine Roderigo's passion for Desdemona, imagine Brabantio's contempt for Othello, imagine the jealousy and distrust that existed between Desdemona and Othello before Iago arrived on the scene. All of these factors were present before Iago put his plan into action, but it did not create the natural tension between everyone involved. He simply made all these already dangerous relationships fatal. I'm not saying Iago wasn't at fault in Othello, I'm just saying he didn't create the scenario, he just set it in motion. One of the main factors in Othello is Roderigo, Iago's idiotic right-hand man. Roderigo is the person who provides Iago with money, and he is also the person who, at the end of the book, attempts to murder Cassio. The reason he attempts to murder Cassio is because Iago convinces him that Cassio is Desdemona's adulterous lover. The reason this makes Roderigo angry to the point of killing him is because he is in love with Desdemona. His desperate, imagined passion for Othello's wife is what ultimately drives him to kill another human being. It may seem at first that Iago made him act as he did, but his motivation was actually his love for Desdemona. Iago did not create Roderigo's love for Desdemona, he merely channeled it. You learn of Roderigo's love for Desdemona in the first act of the first scene, when Brabantio (Desdemona's father) sees Roderigo outside his window. The worst welcome. do not haunt my doors. In all honesty, you heard me say my girl isn't for you.