Stage Villains and the Dramatization of Evil in Three Renaissance Plays: Othello, The Changeling and The Duchess of Malfi

Abstract

One of the major concerns of Renaissance drama is the continuing obsession with the problem of evil as can be seen in plays such as Othello, The Changeling, and The Duchess of Malfi which depicts a world dominated by evil and where every imaginable form of depravity seem to be the norm. And, I believe that one important tool by which major Renaissance dramatists anatomized and dramatized this probl m of evil in their plays is through the actions of villainous characters. Iago, De Flores and Bosola among others have long been recognized as forming a group of stage villains who like brothers share a common silhouette whose dominant features are distinctively evil and “individualistic.” And, the paper proposes to examine the dramatization of evil as it is manifested in villains such as Iago, De Flores, and Bosola.