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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.1121.  Friday, 7 November 1997.

[1]     From:   Terence Martin <stsmart@umslvma.umsl.edu>
        Date:   Thursday, 6 Nov 1997 11:53:08 -0600 (CST)
        Subj:   Iago and Richard

[2]     From:   Parviz Nourpanah  <pnx@cic.aku.ac.ir>
        Date:   Friday, 7 Nov 1997 12:26:23 -0800 (PST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.1115  Re: R3/Iago


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Terence Martin <stsmart@umslvma.umsl.edu>
Date:           Thursday, 6 Nov 1997 11:53:08 -0600 (CST)
Subject:        Iago and Richard

One thing Richard has going for his villainy is power of the very real
kind which surely gives him an edge.  As for Iago being surrounded by
gullible people, I think our view of them is colored by the way Iago is
typically portrayed on stage.  In every production I have seen over many
years, he was clearly a character the average person would not trust
farther than the cliché suggests he/she could throw him.

[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Parviz Nourpanah  <pnx@cic.aku.ac.ir>
Date:           Friday, 7 Nov 1997 12:26:23 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 8.1115  Re: R3/Iago
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.1115  Re: R3/Iago

> It seems that every year at least one of my students has presented a
> defense of Gloucester on the grounds of imagined abuse in his childhood
> because of his shape. I have used the observation to lead into a
> discussion of the ways that we can realize a role in the play.  I do
> feel obliged to point out to the student that millions have suffered
> similar difference without justifying murder and melodrama, and that
> probably, on average, malice is no more extensive in that group than in
> the population as a whole. More interesting is the question of what
> Shakespeare would see as cause and effect in disfigured villains.

Of course. Point taken. Being crooked does not justify wickedness, but
it explains it up to a point. I think there is a line between
justification and explanation. What I mean is, you somehow RIII's
actions are *explicable* in a way Iago's are not. If I were a crooked,
cruel, wicked tyrant, I dare say I would act like RIII. Also he gets
something out of it; it is not mindless, motiveless cruelty, pleasure in
destruction for destruction's sake. Whereas Iago's is. Iago is the
personification of pure evil, with no explanation needed or even
possible.

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