why did Shakespeare write that so much?

The amount of times I heard/read the word ‘villain’ or ‘villainy’ in Act V was insane. The word “villain” appears 36 times in the entirety of Othello. That stood out to me because there is normally one villain in a story, but in Othello it is difficult to tell whether Iago or Othello is the villain. Where Othello killed his wife, Iago manipulates Othello into doing it, so who is the villain? Is this an exception where there are multiple villains?

That question was marinating in my head as I watched Disenchanted with my mom yesterday for our “25 movies of Christmas.” Turns out, the whole plot of Disenchanted (sorta) is the battle between which “villain character” is the true, sole villain. 

‘Disenchanted’ and Othello both explore the idea of having more than one villain, or having two villainous characters– which goes against the typical storyline of only having one villain. 

In my opinion having multiple villains in a story is more accurate to real life. You aren’t going to go through life and turn down someone who is being ‘villainous’ to you by saying “oh sorry I actually already have one villain, please wait until the sequel.” Most likely, you are going to encounter both people like Othello and Iago. Othello, the one who you can blame for the things they have done outright, and Iago, the one you may not know is being villainous or backstabbing you until it is too late. Iago is the epitome of “gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.” Whereas Othello is being manipulated and gullible. 

But, does Othello being manipulated make him a villain? I mean he did kill his wife, but he was led into it. He is capable of villainous tendencies, yet in his mind he is conflicted on whether to commit them. This is what makes intricate character arcs difficult to explore because we can’t possibly know everything from this third person point of view. Does Othello realize he is being manipulated? What is Iago’s true motive?   

If a story had just one villain, it would be too fantastical. Sure, it is fun to find that villain and realize that you will live “happily ever after” once they are taken care of, but in ‘Disenchanted,’ it explores what happens after a “happily ever after” (spoiler alert: it is not truly happy after all). With multiple, it raises many questions like the ones above that makes the reading and analyzing all the more entertaining. 

So authors, create more stories with more than one villain, and make it difficult to decide who is really a villain, it’s a fun challenge to debate. 

P.S. I see how Shakespeare wrote villain so much, I used it 23 times in this blog post alone!