Shakespearean Characters Research Articles

“GALATIFICATION” OF WOMAN: AN EXAMPLE OF LITERARY NEOLOGISM AS A PATRIARCHAL ATTITUDE TO WOMAN

Throughout the centuries of patriarchal society, women have been shaped, identified and educated from a male perspective under male domination. However, in the 20th century, women began to challenge this perspective and seek their own identities. New words were introduced into the literature to replace many discriminatory and degrading concepts and definitions of patriarchy against women. To introduce a new term to literature on gender, this study focuses on the derivation of a new word through neologism based on the unnamed female statue in “Pygmalion”, the well-known story of Ovid. Based on the name “Galatea” given to the female statue in the following centuries, the word “Galatification” was derived as a noun denoting the education, shaping and identification of a woman by her husband or father, making her acceptable to that man. The word was produced in accordance with the linguistic structure of English with suffixes, and was presented as a verb meaning “to Galatify” and as a noun meaning “Galatification”. Furthermore, this concept, developed upon Ovid's story, was explained practically in William Shakespeare's famous comedy The Taming of the Shrew, written in the 1590s, through the taming of the female character Katherine by the male character Petruchio. Shakespeare used the verb “tame” in the title as a demeaning expression to imply that a woman is made acceptable to a man through transformation from a wild animal into a domestic animal. Here, Shakespeare's character Petruchio replaces Pygmalion in Ovid, and both men sculpt and shape the woman who will enter their lives like a kind of statue, and this action can be expressed as the “Galatification of woman”.

Shakespeare Machine: New AI-Based Technologies for Textual Analysis

Abstract This article demonstrates a method using tools from the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to aid in analyzing theatrical texts and similar works. The method deploys pre-trained large language model neural networks to gather metadata for a text that is amenable to downstream statistical analyses surfacing patterns of interest in character dialogue. We specifically focus on Shakespeare’s works, collecting metadata in the form of sentiment and emotion scores for each line of his plays. In addition to sentiment and emotion scores produced by NLP models, we also directly gather metadata such as genre, line length, and character gender. We show how these metadata may be used to illuminate a number of interesting patterns in Shakespearean character which may be difficult to detect from a direct reading of the texts. We use these metadata to expose statistically significant relationships in Shakespeare between character gender and the emotional content of that character’s dialogue, controlling for genre. We also present here the publicly available dataset that we have compiled to perform these analyses. The data collects text from Shakespeare’s plays along with a variety of metadata useful for this and other forms of analysis of Shakespeare’s works. The methodology demonstrated here may be extended to other varieties of metadata provided by large NLP models.

How backstory and direct address reformulate the Shakespearean character on television: The case of the missing psychological motivation for House of Cards’ Frank Underwood

This article delves into narrative elements of direct address and backstory in television, focusing on House of Cards (2012–19), Shakespeare’s Richard III and Game of Thrones (2011–19). Comparing dramaturgical approaches in stage plays and TV series, the study highlights House of Cards’ unique incorporation of a pragmatic use of the direct address to create ‘world-view’ for character exploration. The analysis extends to Game of Thrones, emphasizing Tyrion Lannister’s self-descriptive addresses revealing a psychological struggle rooted in rejection and backstory. The article proposes a methodological framework linking first lines or direct addresses to character backstories, emphasizing the role of self-descriptive asides in character creation. It introduces the concept of a ‘psychological motivational arc’ within character arcs, exploring how direct addresses contribute to nonlinear character development. Concluding with an in-depth examination of House of Cards’ Frank Underwood, it scrutinizes Willimon’s ‘show, don’t tell’ approach, questioning its potential limitations on character depth and challenging traditional screenwriting advice. The analysis unravels the interplay between direct address, backstory, and character development in television series, offering insights into evolving narrative techniques and their implications for contemporary screenwriting.

“To the elements be free”: Carnivalising the legacy of Shakespeare in Margaret Atwood’s <i>Hag-Seed</i>

In her addition to the tradition of rewritings of The Tempest, Margaret Atwood makes Shakespeare travel through time, well beyond the confines of his desert island: Hag-Seed takes place inside a penitentiary in landlocked Ontario, Canada, thus prompting us to ponder how the Shakespearean text can yield new meanings for the contemporary postcolonial world. This essay shows how, in this intertextual novel, Atwood articulates a powerful reflection on freedom and imprisonment thanks to subversive Bakhtinian devices such as carnivalisation and dialogism. Indeed, the inmates of Fletcher Correctional, through their performance of a parodic version of The Tempest, subvert the authority of the Shakespearean text through a carnivalesque reversal of established rules of behaviour. The novel thus posits the importance of theatre as an educational and therapeutic tool. Further, Atwood enlists the help of popular culture as the prisoners reinterpret the Shakespearean model through a series of provocative rap numbers. Moreover, thanks to the imaginary scenarios Hag-Seed’s inmates write about the afterlives of the Shakespearean characters, the monologic authority of The Tempest is dialogised into a cacophony of unruly voices. Playful carnivalisation paradoxically enables a deeper emotional aspect of the novel: the ability of Atwood’s Prospero figure to come to terms with the trauma of the death of his daughter. In that sense, HagSeed can be seen as a long process of atonement and mourning. From an aesthetic point of view, the carnivalised performance of The Tempest illustrates Atwood’s use of metatheatricality and magical realism, the latter being rooted in a carnivalisation of the parameters of conventional realism. All in all, Hag-Seed can be construed as a novel at the crossroads between modernism and postmodernism: if it relies on a postmodern parodic gesture, it nevertheless foregrounds the epiphanic modernist agenda of achieving social justice and spiritual regeneration.

Unmasking the Psyche of Shakespeare’s Richard III and Lady Macbeth through Freud’s “The Uncanny”

Richard III and Lady Macbeth are often portrayed as complex and paradoxical Shakespearean characters, reflecting the human psyche’s complexity. This paper examines two Shakespearean characters, Richard III and Lady Macbeth, within a psychoanalytical framework centered around Freud’s concept of the uncanny. It addresses research questions about the interaction between cunning schemes and complex dynamics shaping characters’ psyches, such as how the idea of the uncanny aids in comprehending the similar roles that both Lady Macbeth and Richard III play in each play. How can we define Lady Macbeth’s role? And how can we interpret Richard III’s evil deeds? The analysis aims to understand Lady Macbeth’s role and interpret Richard III’s evil deeds in the play. Uncanny situations reveal low self-esteem and dissatisfaction, blurring the line between reality and deceit. The analysis reflects the way Shakespeare took advantage of the characters’ trauma and fear to create specific flaws in his characters that would make them relatable to the audience. The use of soliloquies and ghosts reveals the relationship between uncanny situations and the characters’ psyche. Both Richard III and Lady Macbeth grapple with guilt and conscience, which highlights the thematic parallels between the two characters.

Psychoanalytical perspective of shakespeare's characters in love

This paper delves into the intricate realm of Shakespearean characters in love, employing a psychoanalytical lens to unravel the depths of their emotions, desires, and conflicts. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories, particularly those of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, this paper aims to dissect the subconscious motivations and psychological intricacies of characters such as Romeo and Juliet, Orsino and Viola, and other iconic figures. Through this analysis, the paper seeks to offer a nuanced understanding of how Shakespeare masterfully crafted characters whose emotional journeys resonate with universal human experiences. In addition to exploring the psychoanalytical aspects of Shakespearean characters' love, this paper also investigates the socio-cultural influences shaping their romantic dynamics. By examining the historical context in which these plays were written and performed, it aims to illuminate the ways in which societal norms and expectations intersect with individual psychology to influence characters' behaviors and choices. Furthermore, it analyzes how Shakespeare's portrayal of love reflects broader themes of power, gender, and identity, shedding light on the complex interplay between personal desire and societal constraints in Renaissance England. Through this multidimensional approach, it endeavors to provide a comprehensive examination of Shakespearean love that resonates with contemporary audiences while honoring the timeless brilliance of the Bard's storytelling.

ИСТОРИЯ СОЗДАНИЯ ОПЕРЫ ДЖ. ВЕРДИ «ФАЛЬСТАФ» СКВОЗЬ ПРИЗМУ ЭПИСТОЛЯРИЯ (к 210-летию со дня рождения композитора)

The year 2023 marks the 210th anniversary of the birth of the opera reformer, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Through the prism of the composer's correspondence and the memoirs of his contemporaries, the article traces his work on the last opus, the opera “Falstaff ”. In this work, Verdi turns to the comic genre for the second time — his first comic opera “The King for a Day”, created during the most tragic period of the composer's life, was not a success. The libretto of “Falstaff ” was based on Shakespeare's comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and fragments from his chronicle “Henry IV”. The composer and librettist A. Boito did not intend to create a purely comic opera similar to opera buffa. Boito wrote for Verdi a lyrical comedy, unlike any other, where the protagonist was a Shakespearean character — a fat, good-natured and cowardly drunkard. Verdi did not seek to resurrect in “Falstaff ” the naive gaiety of the old comic opera. He went his own way, without rejecting the traditions laid down by his predecessors (especially Rossini), but also without imitating them, achieving greater psychological intensity. The composer's letters reveal his amazing character — his modesty and selfdoubt, his mercy and optimism, his thorough approach to all the details of the production and his incredible capacity for work.

‘I heard myself proclam’d:’ the transition in the critical and textual reception of Edgar in King Lear

The publication of Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623 marked the beginning of a period, lasting over three centuries, in which the critical reception of Edgar in King Lear was often unenthusiastic, judging by the opinions of subsequent theatre practitioners and literary critics. There were voices that questioned Edgar's relevance to the plot and considered him a superfluous character. Moreover, Edgar's heteroglossia was increasingly toned down in stage interpretations, removing the complex polyphony of Shakespeare's character by omitting lines given to the character in the Quarto version of the play. Since the mid-twentieth century, however, the critical (and textual) reception of Edgar has changed, as evidenced by the research of textual scholars who seek to preserve the ethical meaning of Edgar in the play. This has resulted in Edgar's text being revisited in stage performances. In addition, recent critics are paying more attention to Edgar's dexterity in the use of language and disguise, which they believe restores the character's role as crucial to the play's plot.

William Oldroyd’s “Lady Macbeth”: An Exercise in Storytelling and Boredom

William Oldroyd’s film Lady Macbeth (2016 release from the UK) is a dark and disturbing portrait of a young woman, Katherine Lester, set in the bleak context of nineteenth-century provincial Scotland. The film offers a transmedia re-reading of Nikolai Leskov’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (1865), a novella roughly appropriating and involving the eponymous Shakespearean character. Avoiding the poetics of period drama á la Belgravia (2020) or Downton Abbey (2010–2015), which offers global audiences shortbread-tin versions of British literature and culture as windswept and white, Oldroyd’s film introduces colour-blind casting to reveal the less-known facts of Britain’s provincial life—astounding numbers of Black people in nineteenth-century north-east England and a complex system of race, class, and gender oppression. The film’s poetics aligns itself with Leskov’s naturalism and thus with the post-heritage darker, dirtier, and more brutal images of the past defined by Andrew Higson as “dirty realism”. This article argues that Lady Macbeth is more interested in the experience of boredom that precedes storytelling than in the story’s well-constructed plot, employs slow cinema strategies, and is influenced by Vilhelm Hammershøi’s art. The film reproduces both Hammershøi’s aesthetics and atmosphere. Rather than consider Oldroyd’s work politically in terms of oppressive white privilege and patriarchy, this article tries to read the adaptation through the lens of a less-conspicuous undercurrent of storytelling, which foregrounds experience instead of scenarios focusing on narratives where moral judgment matters, and where the storyteller assumes responsibility for the life they are retelling.

Ophelia, more or less. Intersemiotic reinterpretations of a Shakespearean character

Abstract Ophelia, Shakespeare’s most tragic heroine, seems to be the character who has generated much more enthusiasm on the part of visual artists than on the part of literary critics. Consequently, there are a high number of artefacts, produced starting with the nineteenth century, which have been inspired by Hamlet’s unfortunate bride. Of this assortment of artefacts, we have picked some to deal with here. In analysing them, we survey through the history of the heroine’s representation in various visual media, comment on them from the point of view of intersemiotic translation, and verify, in broad lines, the hypothesis that they may be tributary to a number of factors ranging from some connected to the artist’s own identity and subjective interpretation of the original to factors connected to more general stereotypes, beliefs, attitudes, and socio-cultural trends.

Szekspir z kryminałem w tle (albo odwrotnie)

The author concentrates on two thrillers by Jennifer Lee Carrell: Interred with Their Bones (2007) and Haunt Me Still (2010). The protagonists, Katharine Stanley (theater director with a reputation as an expert in both Shakespeare and the Renaissance occult) and Benjamin Pearl (founder of an elite British security firm), are conducting a double investigation. They are trying to find the murderer who kills his victims in a manner resembling Shakespearean characters. The investigation leads them to literary riddles — in the first novel, they hunt for the lost play Cardenio, in the second — they try to find an unknown version of Macbeth. These are, of course, real murders and there are police officers who try find the killers. But only the people who are connected with Shakespeare (actors, scholars, etc.) can solve all the puzzles. The protagonists wander a maze of university libraries, dark museum rooms, theater scenes, and even caves with 17th- and 19th-century corpses. They visit a settlement named Shakespeare in the New Mexico desert, where an eccentric millionaire has built a replica of Elsynor.
 The author of the article pays attention to the pieces of Shakespearian puzzle which are not widely known, such as Macbeth as a famously cursed play and Shakespeare authorship theories.
 The most important element in both novels (in the author’s opinion) is that Shakespeare’s plays are still a value some people are ready to kill for or even die for.

Anna Frajlich: Departures, Returns, Memory

Anna Frajlich: Departures, Returns, Memory

Superhero Shakespeare in Golden Age Comics

Albert Lewis Kanter launched Classic Comics in 1941, a series of comic books that retold classic literature for a young audience. Five of Shakespeare’s celebrated plays appear in the collection. The popularity of Classics Illustrated encouraged Seaboard Publishing to issue a competitive brand, Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated (1949-51), which retold three Shakespearean dramas. Although both these enterprises aimed to reinforce a humanist perspective of education based on Western literature, the classic comics belie a Posthuman aesthetic by presenting Shakespearean characters in scenes and postures that recall Golden Age superheroes. By examining the Shakespearean covers of Classic Illustrated and Stories by Famous Authors, this essay explores how Shakespearean characters are reimagined as Superhuman in strength and power.

Shakespeare “Translated and Improved”: The Translational Politics of the American Yiddish Theater and Its Afterlife

Abstract This article explores the American Yiddish theater’s creative reworkings of William Shakespeare, a practice epitomized by the presumed parodic dictum “translated and improved” (fartaytsht un farbessert). It argues that this theater’s translational politics of chutzpah strives to breach fixed literary and familial lineages by treating the high-canonical Anglo text as a porous space, open to endless cultural attachments. Through revisionary acts of intercultural exchange, the Yiddish theater and its followers envision literary inheritance as something that is not bounded by familial descent and dissent but rather is open to alternative modes of kinship. Specifically, this late nineteenth-century strategy is carried forward by authors such as Anzia Yezierska and Grace Paley, who turn to the Yiddish theater’s proclaimed improvement of Shakespeare in their multilingual English works in order to envision a radical fluidity of the American self. Writing on the periphery of US literary production, the authors studied in this article Judaize, Yiddishize, and queer Shakespearean characters, insisting on both the semantic and semiotic ways in which translations can democratize the linguistic economy of Anglo-American literature.

Shakespeare and Asian Cultural Diversity: Encounters between East Asia and Southeast Asia on Shakespearean Stage

This study discusses the ways that Shakespeare’s stories have captured the imaginations of East Asians and Southeast Asians on stage. Encounters between East Asia and Southeast Asia on Shakespearean stage place an emphasis on relevance and inclusivity within the stories. Their encounters are designed to speak to the extraordinary moments that call for multicultural and multilingual Asian productions. This study presents as exemplary cases two productions: Desdemona (2000) and Lear Dreaming (2012). Their retellings of Othello and King Lear are suggestive of what human beings resort to in order to maintain power over others, but at the same time give prominence to psychological and humane themes. These two Asian versions spring from the interest in stories about powerful families in conflict who are driven by ambitions, loyalties, and vendettas, while making decisions that affect each other. Desdemona and Lear Dreaming reinvent Shakespearean stories being told with new Asian twists and turns. Their stage practice is bound up with the ultimate examination of how Asian performing artists and Shakespearean characters are intertwined. Encounters between East Asian and Southeast Asian art forms have a direct bearing on how Asian cultural diversity is depicted on stage. They value the traditional contents of Asian performance styles, but at the same time go beyond classical values by employing modern technology such as visual and graphic arts. The integration of traditional and modern staging modes is set to redefine what Shakespeare’s stories mean to our own time and how they are relevant to contemporary audiences.

Análisis del proceso creativo en el documental Looking for Richard: aproximación a las bases de la construcción de los personajes Shakesperianos desde el sistema Stanislavki y el método Strasberg

Analysis of the creative process in the documentary Looking for Richard: Approach to the bases of the construction of Shakespearean characters from the Stanislavki system and the Strasberg method.The American actor, Al Pacino, in 1996 approached Shakespeare with his documentary Looking For Richard. A 112-minute film in which Pacino reflects on Shakespeare, the public’s perception of his works and the way in which the actors approach the characters.In this article we propose a study of the film to analyze the acting methods used by Al Pacino and the rest of the cast to be able to play the roles of Ricardo III. The goal is to identify the bases of the Method through the work of Al Pacino and the rest of the North American actors opposite to the way of working of the English actors, as well as to establish the similarities with the Stanislavski System.Through the case study we can discover the work of each interpreter and we will build on the methodological contributions of Stanislavski, as creator of the System, Strasberg as initiator of the Method and finally we will include Peter Brook as renovator of the English theater.

The Golem Awakened

The Golem Awakened Małgorzata Stępnik (bio) I am a guest from afar;I forgot everything that happened to me earlier … (Lejwik [Leivick], 72)1 The text is home; each commentary a return….The seeming nomad in truthcarries the world within him, as does language itself. (Steiner, 102) In Josefov, the Jewish district of Prague, time seems to flow backward, just like the direction of Hebrew script. The golden hands of the clock on the tower of the Jewish town hall are moving from right to left, taking us back into the past, shrouded in a veil of parables and legends. The thoughts of Shylock, a Shakespearean character, travel in the same direction, reinterpreted and in a way appropriated by Roee Rosen in his latest book, The Blind Merchant (2016).2 The town hall is directly adjacent to the Gothic walls of the Old-New Synagogue (Czech: Staronová Synagoga), the oldest active synagogue in Europe. Inside its raw, Gothic interior, in the immediate vicinity of the bimah, there is a chair on which once the chief rabbi of Prague sat—the famous Yehuda Löw ben Bezalel, called the Maharal (c. 1520–1609). It is with the charismatic figure of the Maharal that the most widespread version of the legend of Golem is associated (Hebrew: גלֶֹם); the legend of a monster made of clay and brought to life with the word "truth" (Hebrew: emet, אֱמתֶ), a mute guard of the Prague ghetto. A monster that (and that is essential) rebelled against its creator. The interest in this mythical figure is reflected in literature: from the romantic narratives of Jakob Grimm or Mary Shelley (Frankenstein [End Page 26] or the Modern Prometheus, 1818), to the post-Holocaust literature publications—with the most notable examples being the famous novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Golem, 1969) and Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize–winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000), which combines the themes of demiurgic actions and escapism. The image of a rebellious android—and sometimes also a gynoid—has also impregnated the imagination of filmmakers for almost a hundred years. After all, the same genre also includes expressionist works by Paul Wegner (Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam, 1920),3 and Fritz Lang (Metropolis, 1927), some later adaptations, such as Julien Duvivier's Le Golem (1936), as well as numerous science fiction productions, including Rupert Sanders's Ghost in the Shell (2017)—a story of a female cyborg, inspired by a Japanese manga. Recalling further examples would obviously go far beyond the subject undertaken in this article. Yet I will take the liberty of mentioning two other emblematic works from the field of traditional plastic arts. The first one is an oil painting titled The Jewish School (Drawing a Golem), painted in 1980 by Ronald B. Kitaj, a cofounder of the School of London, and, above all, the author of two Diasporist Manifestos.4 The second one is a bronze statue representing the Golem, erected in 2010 by David Ćerny in Poznań to commemorate the birthplace of the great Maharal. It is significant that as many as 136 artworks drawing on the clay monster were gathered at the exhibition Golem! Avatars d'une légende d'argile, displayed at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris (March 8–July 26, 2017). As rightly pointed out by the organizers of the exhibition, where the works of, among others, Ronald B. Kitaj, Philippe Guston, and Christian Boltansky have been presented, "The legend of the Golem has always fascinated artists, who have seen it as a metaphor of their role as creators capable of bringing inert matter to life."5 It is worth adding that, at almost the same time, an exhibition devoted to the figure of Golem was also hosted at the Jüdishes Museum Berlin (September 23, 2016–January 29, 2017). Martina Lüdicke, in chapter 7 of a catalogue published on this occasion, associates this mythical creature with the figure of a doppelgänger, which, incidentally, fits the canon of the psychoanalytic theory perfectly (see Otto Rank's essay on the doppelgänger, 1925, written 1914). As Lüdicke asserts: [End Page...

Depictions of deception: A corpus-based analysis of five Shakespearean characters

Drawing on the Enhanced Shakespearean Corpus: First Folio Plus and using corpus-based methods, this article explores, quantitatively and qualitatively, Shakespeare’s depictions of five deceptive characters (Aaron, Tamora, Iago, Lady Macbeth and Falstaff). Our analysis adopts three strands: firstly, statistical keywords relating to each character are examined to determine what this tells us about their natures more generally. Secondly, the wordlists produced for each of the five characters are drawn upon to determine the extent to which they make use of linguistic features that have been correlated with, or linked to, acts of deliberate deception in real-world contexts. Thirdly, we make use of the results identified during the two aforementioned strands by using them to identify particular (sequences of) turns that are worthy of more detailed analysis. Here, we are primarily interested in (a) whether these keywords/deceptive indicators cluster or co-occur and (b) whether these interactions are the same as those identified by other scholars exploring depictions of deception in Shakespeare from a literary perspective. The findings indicate that deception-related features are indeed used collectively/in close proximity, by Shakespeare, at points where a character speaks to other characters disingenuously. They also suggest that Shakespeare’s deceptive depictions do change stylistically, from character to character, in line with those characters’ different characterisations and situations, that Shakespeare draws on atypical language features – such as self-oriented references – when it comes to some of his depictions of deception and that Shakespeare uses these various stylistic features to achieve a range of dramatic effect(s).

“A creature that did bear the shape of man”: hybridity and gender in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice,

Scylla, a mermaid and a Gorgon, three hybrids inherited from classical antiquity, are respectively associated with Shylock, Angelo and Antony in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Antony and Cleopatra and Measure for Measure. The association of these creatures with the three male characters is quite innovative since they were mostly depicted as female and often conjured up to draw a nightmarish portrait of femininity and of its dangers in the early modern period. This paper therefore aims to show how the metaphorical hybridity of the Shakespearean characters not only blurs the species divide but also the gender divide in order to lay bare the precariousness of the early modern male/female categories.

Soliciting Audience’s Ovation: The Antagonist’s Artifices and Acting Ingenuity in Shakespeare’s Othello

Rarely does Shakespeare assign the antagonists in his plays such dominant and pivotal roles as he does in Othello. Seldom, either, does a Shakespearean character exhibit such an obsession with playacting and theatricals as Iago does. The paper at hand explores the consequences of Shakespeare’s unusual decision to tip the traditional balance between protagonist and antagonist in favour of the latter in this great tragedy. The paper argues that Othello is more a play about the splendour of playacting and the charm of actors than it is about evil and evildoing. Arguably devised as suffering from ‘histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders,’ Iago is self-urged, by his latent desire for attention and approval, to parade his histrionic flairs and procure audience’s admiration and commendation. The paper, therefore, assesses the acting and theatrical potentials that Shakespeare invested in the character of Iago, with special attention given to the queer antagonist-audience rapport in the play. The paper concludes that the character of the antagonist is the central attraction in Othello and a major factor in its popular reception. Shakespeare makes Iago ‘the acting dramatist,’ who combines the roles of playwright, actor, stage-manager, and director, to extol the acting profession and emphasise the power of great actors in his day. The paper invites readers of Othello to view Iago not merely as a malefactor but also as a deft actor.