[Susan McLean]

Iago's Jest

Motiveless? You're joking. So am I,
yet no one understands my sense of humor.
I play a little game called Find the Fear.
Note our leader: cannonballs can't shift him,
inured to battle since he was a child.
What does he fear? That he's unlovable.
His wife so loves him that if he mistreats her,
she fears she is to blame. His best friend Cassio,
carpet lieutenant, fears his men disdain
his courtly foppery. And my wife, who hates me,
fears the back of my hand—as well she should.
Observe this handkerchief, a flimsy trifle,
yet when I make it disappear, it turns
into a looking-glass where each perceives
their fear. Maybe you wonder what I see
in that same mirror? Nothing. No one's there.

Revisions:
L4 "cannonballs" was "cannon shot"
L13 was "yet I can make it disappear, or turn"

[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Susan—

Very haunting interpretation of Iago, whose malice is often described as motiveless. If his behavior is merely a joke or a game, it would seem to have as its object onto destroy love, or perhaps to test love to the point of destruction as Satan tested Job’s faith. The last line suggests not only that Iago is incapable of loving another person, but that he does not even love himself.

[Carl Copeland]

This is intriguing, Susan. I have just a nit or two:

As far as I can tell, a “cannon shot” is either a cannonball or a one-time shot or the range of a cannon (as in “within cannon shot”), so you probably want “cannon fire.”

I’m not sure the redundant “flimsy trifle” works even as magic-show patter. The magician isn’t going to emphasize the flimsiness of something and then say, “yet I can make it disappear.” I’d at least change “yet” to “and.”

At first, I thought you’d left an “it” off the end of L13, but I suppose you mean it’s Iago who’s an empty looking-glass. It’s an interesting twist on the psychopathic interpretation of Iago—that he may be toying with people for no good reason other than to relieve his inner emptiness.

[Mark McDonnell]

Hi Susan,

"Motiveless malignity" was Coleridge's phrase, wasn't it? I enjoyed this in as much as it made me think about Iago and what a brilliant character he is. Your main thesis seems to be that he takes pleasure in exploiting people's fears and insecurities, which you detail on L4-11. Beyond that, which is already implicit in the play, I'm not sure the poem adds much to the mystery and complex ambiguity of Iago's motives. Mainly though, I think a straight persona poem from the pov of a Shakespeare character is setting itself such a difficult job unless it does something radically different with either the language or the theme, because Shakespeare already has both of those things pretty well covered in the character's existing speeches and dialogue. I'm not sure this does anything different enough to feel necessary.

[W T Clark]

Versified literary criticism seems very pointless to me: and I am not sure why I would read this when I could read Othello. But maybe your students will find it good a memory aid.

Hope this helps.

[Jim Moonan]

.
The exact timing of this poem tempts me to thinking wild and unfounded metaphorical, politically-charged thoughts. There are Iago's everywhere these days. The word iniquitous rears its ugly evil head.

I'm not otherwise knowledgeable enough to comment on this poem.

.

[Susan McLean]

Glenn, I am glad you found the poem evocative. "Honest" Iago is brutally honest, but only to the audience. He is incredibly perceptive about all of the other characters' motives, while being opaque and contradictory about his own. It is hard to find any revelations that he doesn't make himself, but I tried to find a few. Freud had an interesting theory about humor, that it often contains an element of aggression. I have never seen Iago presented as a humorist before. If he is one, then the humor is as dark as humor gets. I did mean the last line to have a double resonance: that Iago fears nothing and fears that he is nothing.

Carl, I meant "cannon shot" in the sense of "cannonballs." I like the more old-fashioned term, but since you found it hard to parse, I have changed it. "Flimsy trifle" is not redundant. "Flimsy" implies insubstantial and easily damaged." "Trifle" implies "unimportant." The irony is that nothing is more important than that trifle in leading to catastrophe for everyone. I meant Iago to be not the mirror itself, but the person with no reflection in it. I see him as the void at the center of the hurricane.

Mark, yes, "motiveless malignity" was Coleridge's phrase. But I don't buy it. Iago's malice is more fascinating because we can't pin it down, but that keeps us thinking about it. You are right that one can't beat Shakespeare himself at delineating a character like Iago and doing so in memorable language. I don't see it as a contest, though, but as a conversation.

Cameron, I am retired, so I don't have students anymore, just readers. I hope that a poem like this might get someone who hasn't read Othello to want to read it, or watch it. I would recommend Kenneth Branagh's performance as Iago to anyone who hasn't seen it. Different performances can bring out different aspects of a text. With luck, so can poetic reinterpretations of it.

Susan

Jim, we cross-posted. This poem was actually inspired by a current contest at The Spectator (sees Drills and Amusements) for a poem from the point of view of a fictional villain. I had no political inspiration at all. But art imitates life, which imitates art.

[Paula Fernandez]

Susan--This is beautifully crafted (like all your work that I've read so far). I guess it does read a little cold and analytic since you don't bring yourself into it anywhere. But it made me think of the last time I saw Othello on stage, which was great, and so I enjoyed that pop of memory and your reflections on the character of Iago.

I'm afraid I don't know what a "carpet lieutenant" is. Should I?

[Susan McLean]

Paula, I invented "carpet lieutenant," but it is modeled on "carpet knight," which refers to someone who is knighted without ever having gone into battle.

Susan