Critics: Iago Flashcards
Leavis - dramatic mechanism
‘Iago is subordinate and merely ancillary [to Othello]. He is not much more than a necessary piece of dramatic mechanism.’
Despite disagreement about Iago (supreme manipulator vs accessory to Othello’s own downfall) John Wain:
‘they agree at least in finding him repulsive’
Coleridge
‘The motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity.’
A C Bradley
‘Shakespeare put a good deal of himself into Iago.’
Artistic creation
Honigmann - power
‘He enjoys a godlike sense of power.’
Honigmann - Emilia
‘Emilia’s love of Desdemona is Iago’s undoing.’
Honigmann - tactics
‘Iago excels in short term tactics, not in long term strategy.’
Honigmann clever
‘His humour makes him seem cleverer than his victims.’
‘Despite his cleverness, he has neither felt nor understood the spiritual impulses that bind ordinary human beings together.’
Anna Jameson
The horror of the play lies in ‘the clash between virtuous Desdemona and malevolent Iago.’
Bernard Spivack (quote from Scragg)
‘A descendent of the Vice, playing his traditionally motiveless role beneath a mask of motivated hostility.
A C Bradley - Cassio
Cassio object of envy to Iago (link Anthony jealous of Caesar)
Barbara Everett
Iago - patron saint of Spain - Santiago Matamoros (Moor Slayer)
Oliver Parker
homosexual desires Othello
K F Hall - white
‘white devil’
K F Hall - evil
‘He is the evil within who escapes notice by projecting sin onto others.’
Dr Johnson
‘he is from the first scene to the last hated and despised.’
Ryan - against Coleridge ‘motiveless’
Villiany comes from outrage at biracial marriage.
Against critics trying to assign a solve Iago - Hytner
Shakespeare has ‘pay(ed) his fellow actor the compliment of trusting him to complete Iago for himself’
‘The solution is the actor’.
Ribner
‘He is a dramatic symbol of evil whose function is to cause the downfall of Othello.’
W.H Auden
‘Everything Iago sets out do he accomplishes (I include his own destruction).’
Quale (famous Iago actor) - Iago’s redeeming streak
‘Absolutely fantastic courage.’
Quale
‘There is a tremendous bond between Iago and Othello… you only envy something you admire.’
Lord Wavell (top general 1940s) - soldier
‘I’ve never met any rage of jealousy to compare with a professional soldiers… if they are passed over for promotion.’
Scragg - Iago actually descendent of the Devil
‘far from being a basically motiveless, amoral figure, he is a motivated being, engaged in a pursuit of some kind of revenge.’
