Dwight Longenecker
The same dynamic on display in Shakespeare’s “Othello” plays out within the human heart. There is an inner Iago who lies to us, and we want to believe that liar and believe that he is honest and loves us. Do we swallow his lies, or challenge his deception with the astringent face-splash of truth?
The direction of my own writing at this time is towards fiction and drama, and so as to better enhance my own efforts I am re-reading the master—the Bard of Stratford. Delving again into the Tragedy of Othello, I am both mystified and intrigued by Iago. What are the motivations for his villainy? Why does he care? Why should we care?
Viewing the recent film version featuring Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh did not assist me in solving the puzzle. As he did in Hamlet, Branagh produced a film that is sumptuous to look at and pleasing to the ear, but his portrayal of Iago does little to reveal the inner dynamics of betrayal and deceit.
It was in re-reading the text that Shakespeare’s intentions become clearer. Othello is a study of the dynamics of deceit. To be sure, Iago is a villain—a lying, duplicitous, Machiavellian monster—but Othello is the main character, and it is Othello’s interactions with Iago that help us see the complicated dynamic of deceit; this realization is what makes the play a universal classic because the dynamics of deceit are forever percolating below the surface of all of our lives: in politics, in personal relationships, in business, and most of all in our own self-perception.
What comes clear as we re-read Othello is that Iago’s villainy is a dangerous dance. Othello is not only compliant. He is complicit. Iago instinctively knows Othello’s weak point. He knows what Othello wants to hear and what Othello (despite his protestations otherwise) wants to believe. » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/09/othello-dynamics-deceit-dwight-longenecker.html