Honest Iago: Shakespeares Misunderstood Tragic Hero

`Exceeding Honesty

Investigating the Heroic trait in the Character of Iago in Shakespeare 's Othello

Talking about Iago in his introduction to the play `Othello , A .L . Rowse is of the opinion

He (Iago ) and Othello stand out as two protagonists in the simple and haunting tragedy , Desdemona their sacrificial victim (Rowse 271

In the four and half centuries since it appeared on the Elizabethan stage , the character of Iago has traversed the long route from being condemned as a inhuman devil like character - the contemptible `villaine ' of the First

Folio - to being appreciated as a complex study in psychotic behavior . From the very early days of his existence , Iago has divided opinions like few other characters in the Shakespearean oeuvre . He is also one of the most debated characters of the entire English literary canon . Iago was condemned by most throughout the course of critical history , from Coleridge to the more recent Bradley and Granville - Barker . At the same time , his apologists have also steadily grown in ranks . There have been apologists for Iago as early as in the eighteenth century (Rosenberg 167

At a certain level , there remains little to choose between Othello and Iago . In fact , a great number of modern psychological criticism that have consistently maintained Iago to be a representation of the baser side of Othello 's character , do in an inverted way certify this essential similarity between the two characters . Orson Welles also repeats the same view when he talks about his own cinematic...