Derrin, Daniel. “Rethinking Iago’s
Jests in Othello II.i: Honestas, Imports and Laughable
Deformity.” Renaissance Studies. Vol. 31, Issue 3, June 2017, pp. 365-382.
Though it has often been discarded by directors who deem the
scene as “filler provided for an anxious Desdemona” (365), Daniel Derrin
asserts the importance of Othello’s Act II, Scene I as essential to
understanding a complex exchange of power between the two witty characters
through their negotiation of an ethos—honestas. Darrin argues the scene
offers “a serious dramatic exploration of Iago’s persuasiveness and Desdemona’s
cleverness” (365). He defines honestas as a reflection of the “moral goodness”
expected of civil conversation and explains how Iago uses a false sense of it
to bring down virtually all major characters in the play, though he claims this
fictionalization of honesty does not necessarily imply Iago is ethically “vacuous.”
Derrin asserts that jokes are funny because of certain shared value-laden
beliefs between the deliverer and recipient and expounds on Desdemona’s possible
interpretations of Iago’s misogynistic dialogue based on her responses to it.
He also touches on the delicacy required of the interaction between the two
characters of differing social standing.
--Leslie Leffers
