"O, you are well tuned now, But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, as honest as I am." ( 2.1.220) Iago uses a reference to music, which in The Merchant of Venice, symbolizes the existence of a soul so when Iago says that he wants to take away the music, he is resembled as being soulless. When he mentions himself as "honest" the reader knows that Iago is well aware of who he is and everything he is doing and doing it for a purpose; he isn't just an innocent guy whose at the wrong place at the wrong time.