Friday, January 28, 2011

Gilbert Gottfried: Yikes!

It's pretty hard to read this play without constantly thinking of Aladdin, not only because Iago's name appears so frequently on the page but also simply because it's an awesome movie.  Some people forget that on occasion...right.  Anyways, I suppose I'll answer #4 this time (I'm linear like that).

Dramatic suspense is created almost exclusively through Iago's character and his common asides and soliloquies reserved for the audience only to hear.  Because the audience so often knows more of Iago's motivations, true intentions, and diabolical plans than he lets other characters in the play see, they also can look to future potential actions by Iago and other characters in anticipation.  For instance, at the end of Act IV, I know that Iago has convinced Roderigo to try and kill Cassio and Othello to try and kill Desdemona; however, suspense builds as I know not whether these actions will be carried out or not and if so, how.  Because the audience has known Iago's plans all along, and because they have worked out flawlessly up until the end of Act IV, there is suspense in pondering how it all falls apart in Act V, the finale.  And because Othello is a tragedy, you know there are a ton of people who are going to go down.

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