Iago on the Couch

Iago on the Couch

1. Othello's Marriage

   • Hands-Othello and Iago 'have clearly been together for a very long time: he's been 'honest Iago' to Othello and pretty much everybody else'.
     • It's only once the General is married that Iago begins his campaign to 'pass on his own chaos to somebody else'.

2. Repressed Homosexuality

   • D.Bell attibutes Iago's sociopathy to his repressed homosexual feeling towards Othello.
   • Iago can so qucikly turn against a man, who he has been serving for years, because he is habouring unconscious turmoil as a result of repressing homosexual urges towards the Moor.
   • Not Iago's only motivation for doing what he does, but it is helpful whin it comes to understanding what makes him tick.

3. Sexual Jealousy

   • A fundamental theme.
   • Hands- 'pursue their jealousy to such extremes that it goes beyond irrationality to madness.'
     • Othello kills Desdemona.
   • Could be referred to as psychosexual Jealousy.
     • Otherwise known as 'Othello Syndrome'.
   • Iago recognises the potential for excessive sexual jealousy in Othello, and is skilful enough to exploit it.
     • Leads Othello to his downfall.

4. The Oedipus Complex

   • Bell suggests the Oedipus Complex as the source of Othello's tendancy towards sexual jealousy.
   • Bell's reading of the text sees Othello's realtionship to Desdemona as a re-enactment of the Oedpius Complex:
     • the General's notion if his bride as the perfect woman-the pre-oedipal mother figure-is contaminated by Iago's suggestion that she is a sexual being- the whore who 'betrays' her child.
       • It is not so much Iago's suggestion of Desdemona betraying him with Cassio that sparks Othello's jealousy, but the realisation that she is actively interested in sex (with him and only him, it should be noted) and is therefore not the virtuous girl hi wooed.

5. Terry Hands: One of the UK's directors of Shakespeare

6. David Bell: Psychoanalysts