Othello (Vol. 35) - Iago
IAGO
Daniel Stempel (essay date 1969)
SOURCE: "The Silence of Iago," in PMLA, Vol. 84, No. 2, March, 1969, pp. 252-63.
[In the essay below, Stempel examines Iago's motives and the irrationality of evil which, the critic argues, Shakespeare dramatized through Iago.]
In the final scene of Othello, Iago has been unmasked as the villain responsible for Othello's desperate act; there is no escape for him. Yet he spurns Othello's demand of an explanation, and, despite the threat of torture, maintains an obdurate silence. That silence, however, is not the mere bravado of a "Sparton Dogge"; it is the logical and ultimate fulfillment of Iago's boast to Roderigo in the opening scene:
For when my outward Action doth
demonstrate
The natiue act, and figure of my heart
In Complement externe, 'tis not long after
But I will weare my heart vpon my sleeue
For Dawes to pecke at; I am...
[The entire page is 14355 words long]
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