English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
OTHELLO by William Shakespeare
His subordinate Iago is one of Shakespeare's most disgusted and disgusting characters - though he disguises this from Othello. Iago is disgusted both by women and by sex, especially by the idea that Othello, a black man, should make love to a Venetian beauty. Iago is foulmouthed: the Senator's daughter is "cover'd by a Barbary horse" and is "making the beast with two backs". Iago also resents that Othello has promoted Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of himself". He begins by veiled hints to Othello to infer that Desdemona might be unfaithful with Cassio, to begin to stir Othello's suspicion. He is a master of manipulation. He goes farther:
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
Iago plots to drive Othello mad with jealousy. Othello has given a distinctive handkerchief, "spotted with strawberries", to Desdemona as a token of his love. By foul means Iago obtains it and then manipulates Othello into believing Desdemona that has given it to Cassio.
At the end of the play, after the scene in which Othello strangles Desdemona, Othello compares himself to Judas (who betrayed Christ with a kiss).
He:
Threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe.
Othello pleads for a merciful interpretation of his crime of jealousy. He does not receive it in Shakespeare's play; but here instead in "The Healing Arts" Le Duy Hanh, the Vietnamese playwright, offers mercy and the possibility of redemption to Othello.