Othello/YMMV

"Othello: *kneels* In the due reverence of a sacred vow
 * Alternative Character Interpretation (Some critics believe the reason for Iago's plot against Othello is not because he was denied a promotion, but instead because he has homosexual feelings for Othello and thus is jealous of Desdemona.)
 * The aforementioned is just one of a number of proposed motives for Iago, since he offers several different ones in the course of the play; theories go so far as to suggest that he is Satan himself.
 * There's also Desdemona herself - an innocent, young woman straying into Purity Sue territory or just Obfuscating Stupidity? Remember that she did manage to "seel her father's eyes" and elope with Othello amongst other not so innocent acts.
 * Hell, critics can't even agree on Othello's colour.
 * Complete Monster: How many view Iago. It's plausible, seeing as he manipulates the others towards their disgrace/doom without a shred of remors, and confesses he does so for no real reason.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Modern productions tend to be more sympathetic towards Iago, perhaps overly so. The fact that he was once played by Kenneth Branagh--and more recently by Ewan McGregor--doesn't help.
 * In O, the modern update set in High School, Iago is played by Josh Harnett. Hmmm.
 * And in a modern update not set in high school, he's played by Christopher Eccleston, who already had an unsettling tendency to make even a Complete Monster at least a bit sympathetic.
 * Fair for Its Day: In the original story on which Othello is based, the Moorish character doesn't even have a name, and it ends with Desdemona lecturing the audience on why interracial marriage is evil. In his adaptation, Shakespeare gives the Moor a name and fully fleshes out his character into a sympathetic war hero. Shakespeare also adds the character of Iago to serve as the play's villain, a white man who manipulates Othello into a jealous rage For the Evulz. In fact, the only overtly racist elements of the play are spoken by unsympathetic characters.
 * Ho Yay: Some scholars -- and many a high school English teacher -- have proposed that Iago's true motivation is unrequited love for Othello. You can find evidence for this in his dialogue.
 * Then again, you can find evidence for at least a dozen, often conflicting, motivations in his dialog. He also says he has no reason at all. See also For the Evulz.
 * Might be a case of a deliberate Multiple Choice Past, to emphasize that Iago is an unrepentant liar..
 * For some Iago's description of Cassio in bed with him and (as my friend put it) "sleep humping" might fit this.
 * An oft-cited piece of evidence for this possible motivation is the scene wherein Iago and Othello initiate a pseudo-wedding ceremony. To each other.

I here engage my words.

Iago: Do not rise yet. *kneels*

Witness, you ever-burning lights above,

You elements that clip us round about,

Witness that here Iago doth give up

The execution of his wit, hands, heart,

To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command,

And to obey shall be in me remorse,

What bloody business ever.


 * they rise*

Othello: I greet thy love,

Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous,

And will upon the instant put thee to't:

Within these three days let me hear thee say

That Cassio's not alive.

. ..

Iago: I am your own for ever."

"John Quincy Adams: "Who can feel sympathy for Desdemona? A woman who, born and educated to a splendid and lofty station in the community, betrays her race, her sex, her duty and her country, and makes a runaway match with a blackamoor.""
 * Magnificent Bastard: Iago. Among the most magnificent in literary/theatrical history.
 * Mary Sue: Desdemona, depending on character interpretation. She's as pure as the driven snow, and every bad thing that happens to her is someone else's fault. She's a total martyr. Of course, that's the whole point.
 * She could qualify as a deconstruction as well, given how all her Sueness does is serve to screw her over. After all, would Iago have wanted to bring her down if she was any less as such?
 * Misaimed Fandom: Like The Merchant of Venice, racist interpretations of this play have been offered, such as this one from John Quincy Adams:


 * Values Dissonance: Now you have to understand - Elizabethan-era morality was different from modern morality. Iago says in the play "I am not what I am," and to a modern reader this means "I'm not what I act like." To an Elizabethan, it means something completely different: Iago is the absence of existence, which makes him the ultimate villain: evil in Elizabethan days wasn't considered to be a thing, it was considered to be the absence of God. Iago is the absence of God, making him even more evil than other Shakespearean villains.
 * It's also worth mentioning that some readers won't understand that when Othello gives up Christianity, he super-damns himself to Hell; that's even worse than just being a pagan.
 * This phrase has been taken by some scholars as a subversion of St John's "By the grace of God, I am what I am".
 * Or God's "I am who am" answer to Moses in Exodus 3:14.
 * More obviously: these days, a black man marrying a white woman would not raise many eyebrows. Back then, not so much.
 * Vindicated By History: Even more than usual for Shakespeare - he subverted a lot of Forgotten Tropes at a time when a Cliché Storm was expected. Thomas Rymer's Short View of Tragedy in 1693 summed up the response to, for instance, a soldier as a villain rather than an honest man, and a dropped handkerchief leading to multiple murders rather than a comical misunderstanding.