is not particularly eager to get on, wounds his pride. Goodness therefore annoys him. He is always ready to scoff at it, and would like to strike at it. In ordinary circumstances these feelings of irritation are not vivid in Iago—no feeling is so—but they are constantly present.
4
Our task of analysis is not finished; but we are now in a position to consider the rise of Iago’s tragedy. Why did he act as we see him acting in the play? What is the answer-to that appeal of Othello’s:
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?
This questio is Why? is the question about Iago, just as the question Why did Hamlet delay? is the the question about Hamlet. Iago refused to answer it; but I will venture to say that he could not have answered it, any more than Hamlet could tell why he delayed. But Shakespeare knew the answer, and if these characters are great creations and not blunders we ought to be able to find it too.
Is it possible to elicit it from Iago himself against his will? He makes various statements to Roderigo, and he has several soliloquies. From these sources, and especially from the latter, we should learn something. For with Shakespeare soliloquy generally gives information regarding the secret springs as well as the outward course of the plot; and, moreover, it is a curious point of technique with him that the soliloquies of his villains sometimes read almost like explanations offered to the audience.[1] Now, Iago repeatedly offers explanations either to
- ↑ See, for instance, Aaron in Titus Andronicus, II. iii.; Richard in 3 Henry VI., III. ii. and V. vi., and in Richard III., I. i. (twice), I. ii.; Edmund in King Lear, I. ii. (twice), III. iii. and v., V. i.
