Transforming text: Iago's infection In Welles' Othello

Abstract

Iago is a thief and an artist; he steals the show of Othello and creates scenes in which the characters become his players. A malicious Prospera, he devilishly engenders the action of the play, unfolding the drama from his pointed words and phrases. He is infectious, seeping into every corner of Othello's mind. This infection, so much the center of the dramatic action, has immense visual potential which has always been recognized in the theatre community. Critics still refer to Quin's performance of Othello and the famous 'spodighted peeling of a very white glove from a very black hand.1 This scene portrays, through a sheerly visual medium, Othello's contagion by Iago's blackness. Perhaps because of its visual propensity, Othello has been incorporated into the film canon, with Orson Welles' 1952 production being the most famous and critically acclaimed rendition. Welles cinematically displays lago's manipulative and damaging influence as he steals over Othello's personality. Iago encloses Othello in the web of his persuasion, restricting Othello's moral judgment until he is entrapped in the tomb of his own misperceptions. A master of the silver screen, Welles does not just present this central dramatic conflict, he displays it, forging visual effects with Shakespeare's words. He reimagines and reconstructs Shakespeare's text in the language of the cinema, creating a new textual artifact.