Not the unjust suspicions of Othello, not Iago's treachery, place
Desdemona in a more amiable or interesting light than the casual
conversation (half earnest, half jest) between her and Aemilia on
the common behaviour of women to their husbands. This dialogue takes
place just before the last fatal scene. If Othello had overheard it,
it would have prevented the whole catastrophe; but then it would
have spoiled the play.
The character of Iago is one of the supererogations of Shakespeare's
genius. Some persons, more nice than wise, have thought this whole
character unnatural, because his villainy is WITHOUT A SUFFICIENT
MOTIVE. Shakespeare, who was as good a philosopher as he was a poet,
thought otherwise. He knew that the love of power, which is another
name for the love of mischief, is natural to man. He would know this
as well or better than if it had been demonstrated to him by a
logical diagram, merely from seeing children paddle in the dirt or
kill flies for sport. Iago in fact belongs to a class of characters
common to Shakespeare and at the same time peculiar to him; whose
heads are as acute and active as their hearts are hard and callous.
Iago is, to be sure, an extreme instance of the kind; that is to
say, of diseased intellectual activity, with an almost perfect
indifference to moral good or evil, or rather with a decided
preference of the latter, because it falls more readily in with his
favourite propensity, gives greater zest to his thoughts and scope
to his actions.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93