"Rethinking Iago's Jests in Othello II.i: Honestas, Imports and Laughable Deformity"

 

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

"'O Blood, Blood, Blood': Violence and Identity in Shakespeare's Othello"

Feather, Jennifer. “‘O Blood, Blood, Blood’: Violence and Identity in Shakespeare's Othello.” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 26, 2013, pp. 240–263. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24322748. Accessed 15 July 2021.

Jennifer Feather claims that, based on early modern understandings of “blood” being both a fixed indicator of biological lineage and “the fluid nature of humoral physiology” (241), Othello’s cry of “O blood, blood, blood” when he believes Desdemona’s “infidelity” would not be understood as a reaction of barbarism/savagery but rather it would be understood as the early modern notions of chivalry connected with violence that would restore honor to both him and Desdemona. Blood, Feather establishes, would form one’s concept of identity in body, soul, and environment, in which Othello establishes a heroic and chivalric understanding of the self. When his identity of self is threatened and destabilized by Desdemona’s alleged infidelity, he makes “essence and performance one in the same” (244) in order to address this unbalance. Brabantio evokes Desdemona’s betrayal as “a treason of the blood” (1.1.166), Desdemona’s will and “nature” betraying itself and in doing so, him, an understanding Iago capitalizes on when decimating the understanding of love to “merely a lust of the blood and permission of the will” (1.3.332). To “set right” the instability of Desdemona’s “lust of blood” and lack of will, Othello keeps her corporeally intact, “Yet I’ll not shed her blood” (5.2.3), while ensuring she cannot wreak havoc upon others. He stabilizes himself again when the truth is discovered through recognizing Desdemona’s sacrifice and committing his own, using chivalric violence as a way to connect and navigate the corporeal, divine and social understandings of identity.

--Hannah Nagy

The Humiliation of Iago

 Zender, Karl. F. "The Humiliation of Iago." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 34, no. 2, 1994, pp. 323-39, www.jstor.org/stable/450904. 

The author's argument focuses on the power of language, specifically affection and affectionate fluency. In Othello, characters such as Othello and Desdemona would constantly elicit lines of affection despite being mired in despair. For Iago, lines of endearment were antithetical to him and his plans; lines of affection come from the heart and are authentic. Iago communicates(ed) to control and manipulate, almost nothing about him was warm, affectionate, or authentic. 

The humiliation of Iago arises from Desdemona inadvertently speaking affectionately to him about women. 

Desdemona: What wouldst write of me, if thou shouldst / praise me?

Iago: O, gentle lady, do not put me to't, / For I am nothing if not critical. (2.1.117-119)

Again, Desdemona coyly challenges Iago with being affectionate. 

Desdemona: Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

Iago: I am about it, but indeed my invention / Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze: It plucks out brains and all. (2.1.124-7)

The one thing Iago struggled with was intimacy and affection and Desdemona stymied him. The author asserts that Iago's humiliation derived from his inability to counter affection, with his own "affectionate dialogue" (it wasn't in Iago), specifically from Desdemona, and to "silence" others through his own tongue and manipulation. "Desdemona's request that Iago praise women thus exposes a limit on his capacity to simulate love…" (Zender 331).  Zender further argues that that was why Iago took a more aggressive and upfront position with Othello when discussing the manner of Desdemona's murder. 

Othello: Get me some poison, Iago, this night. I'll not / expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide / my mind again. This night, Iago. 

Iago: Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, / even the bed she hath contaminated. (4.1.198-202)

Zender intimates that part of the reason Iago suggests Desdemona should be "strangled" is to shut her up entirely in a symbolic act of silencing Desdemona's voice--and her ability to effect affectionate fluency,--in order for the effect of his (Iago's) voice to remain the dominant, controlling one

--David Kase

“Analyzing Iago's Speech in Shakespeare's Othello”

    Nimer Abuzahra and Rami Salahat from Hebron University, Palestine, share an analysis of Iago’s speech: his words choices and metaphors throughout the play specifically. The authors employ several methods of analysis in their study. Through these methods, the authors break down Iago’s use of animal metaphors, how his words connect to gender, identity, and race, and his use of rhetorical questions and manipulative language. In short, the authors claim that the purpose of Iago’s dramatic use of animal metaphors throughout the play is to degrade and even dehumanize several characters in the play in order to accomplish his plans. He also uses his words as weapons to create dissent among the characters regarding Othello’s race and heritage, sowing discord and doubt wherever he goes. The authors also analyze Iago’s misogynistic views through looking at his words, metaphors, and assertions of the other sex which are backed up in his actions. One example is Iago’s assertion, “Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors, bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens" (Shakespeare 2.1.108-109). The authors assert, “Sanders (2003) points out that Iago's statement is a proverb which means that women are in church saints, abroad angels, and at home devils. This suggests that Iago has a bad view of women in general, that they don’t seem what they really are” (Abuzahra & Salahat 191). Finally, the author’s discuss Iago’s uses of rhetorical questions and other speaking techniques to persuade and misguide many characters, showing how words have power to manipulate with negative impacts.

Abuzahra, Nimer, and Rami Salahat. “Analyzing Iago’s Speech in Shakespeare’s Othello.” Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, vol. 2, no. 2, April 2018. SemanticScholar, pdfs.semanticscholar.org/79ca/1d951902872db1ece17094a01a8bf70fc606.pdf. 

- Mathew Stephens 

"Music and the Crisis of Meaning in Othello"

"Music and the Crisis of Meaning in Othello"

Minear, Erin. “Music and the Crisis of Meaning in Othello.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 49, no. 2, 2009, pp. 355–370. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40467493. Accessed 29 June 2021.

Minear centralizes her claim around the many "different and even contradictory" criticisms of Othello and its musical presentation (both textual and performative)(355). In her analysis, she addresses actual, stylistic, and symbolic music in the play, and notes that Othello's language, both literal and figurative, creates an "interpretative crisis" for audiences. 

Minear begins her exploration by defining "earthly music" and "true music" (356). These terms serve as the entrance point for Minear's analysis on the dualities of "sound and sign" identified throughout the play (361). The term discordant is used often in describing the sounds of the play's poetry. This examination later evolves into the philosophical pondering of what "noise" can be defined as, and if the characters in Othello are simply (and noisily) babbling or if Shakespeare intended for their noises to evolve from "obscene and violent...into melody and lyricism" (363). In her conclusion, Minear states that Othello's musical presence contains both lyrical qualities and tones of mockery, both of which exist to overpower and undermine one another simultaneously. 

-- Emily Tushar