Shakespeare is a subtle writer when it comes to religion, and throughout Othello, Iago never directly addresses his religious beliefs. Yet one passage in particular, that of Iago's attempt to persuade Roderigo to control his passions, argues for Iago's true atheism. He says: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original Virtue essay! a fig! it is in us that we are this way or that way. Our bodies are our gardens, for which our wills are gardeners: so that if we plant nettles, or sow lettuce, plant hyssop, and weed thyme, provide it with some kind of herbs, or distract it with many, whether to have it is barren by idleness, or smoked by industry, well, the power and correctable authority of that lies in our will. If the balance of our lives did not have a scale of reason to balance another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our nature would lead us to the most absurd conclusions: but we have reasons to calm our wild movements, our carnal goads, our insensible lusts. , and I consider what you call love to be a sect or a descendant. Rich in biblical images, this passage is more than an attempt at manipulation. It reveals that Iago is a deep disbeliever in God who seeks to elevate himself and his creed of reason to the level of a deity. The most revealing diction in the entire passage is directly biblical, derived particularly from biblical stories and fables concerning nature. Iago inaugurates the trend toward biblical rhetoric early on with his announcement of “a fig!” The fig leaf was worn by Adam and Eve after becoming aware of their descent and deeply symbolizes human shame. Since the Renaissance, sculptors and painters used fig leaves to discreetly cover the genitals and thus hide the object of indignity. To assume virtue as both shame and mere leaf is to ridicule it in the extreme. The Bible often addresses the cardinal virtues of faith, hope, and love (all things abandoned by Iago). Thus, Iago's denigration of virtue amounts to equating Christian goodness (and chastity) with shame, and therefore rendering it worthless; for what is chaste virtue if it is shameful? Iago is the ultimate deconstructionist of myth and ideology, whether it be the mythology of Othello's prowess, the fidelity of Desdemona, or the sanctity of religious values. By denigrating virtue in this way, Iago clearly shows that he cares little for it. Furthermore, the passage itself deliberately ignores heroic virtues. Rather than heroic iambic pentameter, Iago delivers a speech in crude prose, contrasting with Othello's exaggerated language. For a play consumed by speech, to make it clear that Iago does not speak with the ennobled voice of virtuous rhetoric is simply to further emphasize that he cannot, or will not, aspire to the great virtues of nobility and heroic. His contempt for virtue cements Iago as the antithesis of good Christian virtues, but pride is actually the great link between Iago and atheistic qualities. Because Iago does more than just denigrate Christian values. He goes further to assert the absence of God and the need for man to be his own God, in an extraordinarily brazen act. Declaring that “our bodies are our gardens”, in reference to the free will of man, a few seconds after having mentioned the “fig tree” leaf, is to refer to the image of the Garden of Eden, a concept which will be confirmed by future references in the speech to plantsbiblical and rhetorical. The Garden of Eden may have had Adam and Eve, but it also had a creator who cared for it; namely God, who can thus be considered the “gardener” of Eden. For Iago to declare that there is no great gardener, only the rather egalitarian assertion of the universal "we" that all men are gardeners, that all men tend their own gardens and are responsible for their own fall, is a surprising and sacrilegious statement. pride by abandoning God's role in determination. Iago notes that "we have reason to calm our wild movements", and this is what differentiates us from animals. Yet, according to him, nothing separates man from the potential for divine power and absolute free will. Like Milton's Satan, Iago sees himself as deserving of as much power as God could ever possess. If Iago therefore affirms the absence of God in the face of human will, the series of biblical allusions which follow this affirmation reinforce his atheist point of view, as they show. be devoid of sympathy or respect for traditional Christian virtues. Iago suggests a wide range of moral options in life, but, significantly, he places the traditionally malevolent references first, only briefly mentioning "thyme" with its positive association. First, he addresses the choice to "plant nettles", mentioned in Isaiah 34:13, Job 30:7, Hosea 9:6 and others as a destructive plant that occupies barren land, even overtaking once fertile land . The “hyssop” mentioned was the branch which carried a sponge stained with vinegar and which was offered to Christ on the cross. In Elizabethan times it was considered "the last 'torture' of the living Jesus, an unnecessary and particularly disgusting humiliation of the dying man." This contrasts with the reference to "thyme", a decoration of Christ's childhood manger. The moral choice between these options of sterility, cruelty and kindness means nothing to Iago, he can easily navigate between negative ("hyssop" and "nettles") and positive ("thyme") biblical associations. He clearly shows that he cares little about the consequences of his actions; he claims that either “smoked by industry” or “sterile by idleness” will be his choice. To use this diction is to refer to fertility, and therefore to say that for Iago, the choice between fertility (and reproduction) or sterility (and death without offspring) does not matter. Indeed, throughout the play, despite the surprising amount of real, fake and implied sexual activity, the entire cast remains sterile and dies with a sterile line. There is no observation of consequences, no concern for inheritance of lineage and name, and apparent ignorance of any biblical commands to propagate. Iago is the first atheist, because not only does he subtly allude to his blasphemous views on religion (with his only speaking of each man as his own gardener, rather than as a divine presence), but his glaring lack of direct reference to God only cements Iago's view of the absence of God. It is striking that a passage so full of biblical allusions and rhetoric fails to mention God, and in fact this failure makes Iago's feelings regarding the absence of God all the more noticeable. Discussing absence is inherently difficult because it cannot truly be identified, but to refer to "corrigible power and authority" and yet declare that this same authority belongs only to humanity is completely avoid any concept of a powerful God, a commanding God, and elevate man to the level of God himself. Iago then rises above all men,..