Othello/YMMV: Difference between revisions
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** 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 - [[The Ingenue|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 ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130130075940/http://www.britaininprint.net/shakespeare/study_tools/race.html 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 [[It Amused Me|for no real reason.]]
* [[Draco in Leather Pants]]: Modern productions tend to be more sympathetic towards Iago, perhaps [[Misaimed Fandom|overly so]]. The fact that he was once played by Kenneth Branagh--and more recently by Ewan McGregor--doesn't help.
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*** 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.
{{quote|
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. }}
* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: Iago. Among the most magnificent in literary/theatrical history.
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** She could qualify as a deconstruction as well, given how all her Sueness does is serve to screw her over. After all, would [[For the Evulz|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:
{{quote|
* [[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.
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*** 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
{{reflist}}
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