Cefalu, Paul. “The Burdens of Mind Reading in Shakespeare's Othello: A Cognitive and Psychoanalytic Approach to Iago's Theory of Mind.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 3, 2013, pp. 265–294. www.jstor.org/stable/24778472. Accessed 22 June 2021.
Summary of the article:
In the article by Paul Cefalu for Shakespeare Quarterly, Cefalu argues that Iago’s motivations are not so hard to define as many critics have made them out to be. Instead, he argues that, through cognitive and psychoanalytic literary criticism, we can see that the main motivator for Iago and Othello can be seen through their theory of mind, with Iago being so mindful that he can read all minds but his own, and Othello having mindblindness so deep that he may even seem metacognitively deficient. And though Iago has the ability to read all minds, this may not be the advantage that many claim, but rather a handicap. As Cefalu argues, “Iago’s outsider status derives from thinking too much about what others are thinking, from never being in the moment” (269). Iago’s main reason for hating Othello, then, is because Othello has the contentment that he himself can never attain. Cefalu ends his discussion by arguing that Othello is discontented only once he has to “leave the comforts of his relative mindblindness” (277). This is, of course, once Iago opens his mind to interpreting the actions of others, something that Othello seems to do only upon prompting.
-- Wes Wingert
