Virtue? A fig!…Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.
– William Shakespeare
Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. Iago is dismissive and disapproving of virtue. He doesn’t believe that the character qualities of a person are inherent. Using a garden metaphor, he explains that our will controls our emotions and behavior. He is giving advice to a lovelorn Roderigo, who thinks that suicide may be the solution to his unanswered love for Desdemona. In Iago’s speech on self-control, he is telling Roderigo that he has power over his emotions and not to let them get the better of him.