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Article SHAKSPERE'S OTHELLO. ← Page 5 of 7 →
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Shakspere's Othello.
the deed is perpetrated , in the startled horror , the ghastly despair of his soul , when the portentous and damning doubt —that if—is forced on his mind , by the opening proofs of lago ' s villany and falsehood : " 0 , I were damned beneath all depth of hell , But that I did proceed upon just grounds To this extremity . " And again : " Sad she been true ,
If Heaven would make me such another world Of one entire and perfect chrysolite , I'd not have sold her for it . " The same inevitable law of consequence , we may observe , which dominates the thoughts and conduct of Othello , conducts equally , by the most consummate art , the whole machinery of the playshaping the lotdetermining the actions
, p , , overruling the wills , and leading on to a necessitated conclusion . The characters of the Ensign and Iago are very similar ; but whilst the former is a deep-dyed villain by habit , the latter is an unmitigated fiend by nature . Iago is one of the greatest impersonations of the Evil Sirit that has ever been
p suggested to an artist ' s mind . In the novel , the Ensign ' s revenge is prompted solely by the resistance of Desdemona ' s virtue to his licentious arts , ancl is directed against her alone . She is his victim . But in the tragedy , the motives of lago ' s
hatred of Othello and Cassio are of a different nature , and his vengeance sweeping , universal , black , and terrible : he uses every one in turn as a tool to effect his purpose , and all are in turn his victims ; his is a pure lust of villany and revenge , for which , it is true , the motives appear at first inadequate , —perhaps unnatural , as some critics have
remarked ; but a little consideration surely removes this objection . Had there been sufficient cause , however atrocious , for Iago to have been actuated by personal revenge , his guilt would have been simply the excess of wicked and unbridled passion ; but by affixing to his conduct less natural motives , its malignity is rendered in proportion fiendlike , passionless ,
and instinct with guilt in its most unmixed form of " motiveless malignity . " At the same time , lago ' s revenge is not so entirely " inadequate and vague " as it has been represented . In the opening scene of the play we see one chief cause of his hatred both of the Moor and Cassio ; but he afterwards avows another , which may help to supply motives to those critics who require them .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shakspere's Othello.
the deed is perpetrated , in the startled horror , the ghastly despair of his soul , when the portentous and damning doubt —that if—is forced on his mind , by the opening proofs of lago ' s villany and falsehood : " 0 , I were damned beneath all depth of hell , But that I did proceed upon just grounds To this extremity . " And again : " Sad she been true ,
If Heaven would make me such another world Of one entire and perfect chrysolite , I'd not have sold her for it . " The same inevitable law of consequence , we may observe , which dominates the thoughts and conduct of Othello , conducts equally , by the most consummate art , the whole machinery of the playshaping the lotdetermining the actions
, p , , overruling the wills , and leading on to a necessitated conclusion . The characters of the Ensign and Iago are very similar ; but whilst the former is a deep-dyed villain by habit , the latter is an unmitigated fiend by nature . Iago is one of the greatest impersonations of the Evil Sirit that has ever been
p suggested to an artist ' s mind . In the novel , the Ensign ' s revenge is prompted solely by the resistance of Desdemona ' s virtue to his licentious arts , ancl is directed against her alone . She is his victim . But in the tragedy , the motives of lago ' s
hatred of Othello and Cassio are of a different nature , and his vengeance sweeping , universal , black , and terrible : he uses every one in turn as a tool to effect his purpose , and all are in turn his victims ; his is a pure lust of villany and revenge , for which , it is true , the motives appear at first inadequate , —perhaps unnatural , as some critics have
remarked ; but a little consideration surely removes this objection . Had there been sufficient cause , however atrocious , for Iago to have been actuated by personal revenge , his guilt would have been simply the excess of wicked and unbridled passion ; but by affixing to his conduct less natural motives , its malignity is rendered in proportion fiendlike , passionless ,
and instinct with guilt in its most unmixed form of " motiveless malignity . " At the same time , lago ' s revenge is not so entirely " inadequate and vague " as it has been represented . In the opening scene of the play we see one chief cause of his hatred both of the Moor and Cassio ; but he afterwards avows another , which may help to supply motives to those critics who require them .