Villains, Sin and Sex in Shakespeare's Othello and King Lear Many of Shakespeare's plays are full of crude and explicit sexual references, jokes and insults. But there is one type of character present in all of Shakespeare's plays that twists sexual imagery and jokes, and that is the villain. There is a deeply rooted combination of sex and evil. This essay will develop this idea in depth by focusing on Iago from Othello and Edmund from King Lear. Iago is probably considered one of Shakespeare's greatest villains. He is calm, cool, collected and simply put: brilliant. He manipulates Othello, Cassio, the Moor's lieutenant, Roderigo, Desdemona's scorned suitor, his father Brabantio, and his wife Emilia with such masterful skill and ease, that there is no stopping him until it is too late. But what is this great skill that he exercises on his victims? What horrible power could Iago possess to pull the great puppeteer's strings? It's sex. Even if Iago is not a sexual being, he certainly wields a sexual blade when he begins to attack his victims. In the grand scheme of things, he's angry that Othello passed him over for the rank of lieutenant, and Iago wants his revenge. To complete his revenge against the moor, he uses a sexually charged scheme that carefully involves others to unwittingly aid him in his goal. In the very first scene of the play, Iago enlists the abandoned suitor Roderigo to begin his revenge. The Moor has secretly married Desdemona, and now Iago intends to begin his downfall by informing his father. Roderigo is forced into this plot by his own lust for the senator's daughter, which Iago exploits to the fullest of his abilities. As I tried to awaken Br...... middle of paper ......akespeare s Philosophical Patterns. London: Mass Peter Smith, 1968.Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Slaves of the Passion. Gloucester: Peter Smith Publisher Inc., 1973.Schlegel, August Wilhelm. Criticism of Shakespeare's tragedies. A series of lessons on dramatic art and literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Eric A., McCann, ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovick, Canada Inc., Canada. 1998 Snyder, Susan. "Beyond comedy: Othello" Modern critical interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (page 23-37)Norman Sanders, ed. Othello. Cambridge: New York, 1995: 12.J. Adelman. “Iago's Alter Ego: Race as Projection in Othello,” Shakespeare Quarterly v48 Summer 1997: 130.Kott, Jan. Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1994.

Topic > Villains, Sin and Sex in Shakespeare's Othello and King Lear Many of Shakespeare's plays are full of crude and explicit sexual references, jokes and insults. But there is one type of character present in all of Shakespeare's plays that twists sexual imagery and jokes, and that is the villain. There is a deeply rooted combination of sex and evil. This essay will develop this idea in depth by focusing on Iago from Othello and Edmund from King Lear. Iago is probably considered one of Shakespeare's greatest villains. He is calm, cool, collected and simply put: brilliant. He manipulates Othello, Cassio, the Moor's lieutenant, Roderigo, Desdemona's scorned suitor, his father Brabantio, and his wife Emilia with such masterful skill and ease, that there is no stopping him until it is too late. But what is this great skill that he exercises on his victims? What horrible power could Iago possess to pull the great puppeteer's strings? It's sex. Even if Iago is not a sexual being, he certainly wields a sexual blade when he begins to attack his victims. In the grand scheme of things, he's angry that Othello passed him over for the rank of lieutenant, and Iago wants his revenge. To complete his revenge against the moor, he uses a sexually charged scheme that carefully involves others to unwittingly aid him in his goal. In the very first scene of the play, Iago enlists the abandoned suitor Roderigo to begin his revenge. The Moor has secretly married Desdemona, and now Iago intends to begin his downfall by informing his father. Roderigo is forced into this plot by his own lust for the senator's daughter, which Iago exploits to the fullest of his abilities. As I tried to awaken Br...... middle of paper ......akespeare s Philosophical Patterns. London: Mass Peter Smith, 1968.Campbell, Lily B. Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Slaves of the Passion. Gloucester: Peter Smith Publisher Inc., 1973.Schlegel, August Wilhelm. Criticism of Shakespeare's tragedies. A series of lessons on dramatic art and literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Eric A., McCann, ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovick, Canada Inc., Canada. 1998 Snyder, Susan. "Beyond comedy: Othello" Modern critical interpretations, Othello Ed. Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (page 23-37)Norman Sanders, ed. Othello. Cambridge: New York, 1995: 12.J. Adelman. “Iago's Alter Ego: Race as Projection in Othello,” Shakespeare Quarterly v48 Summer 1997: 130.Kott, Jan. Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1994.