Topic > Iago's Complexity in Othello - 704

He is also convinced that Desdemona is secretly in love with Cassio, and so the evil manipulations are driven by genuine sexual jealousy. Shakespeare removes this motif, mentions Othello's promotion of Cassio over Iago, and leaves only a few fleeting references to possible sexual jealousy. Iago twice alludes to his suspicions that both Othello and Cassio may have slept with his wife: "I suspect the lustful Moor / Hath sprung upon my seat" (2.1.295-6); and only parenthetically: "(For I too fear Cassius in my nightcap)" (2.1.307). When Iago first refers to the rumor about Othello and his wife, however, he strangely adds: "I know not whether it be true, / But I, for mere suspicion in this kind, / Will, as for safety" (1.3. 379-381). In an article entitled "Psychoanalysis after 9/11" (2002), Jonathan Lear refers to Iago as a representation of such unmotivated evil. Iago embodies, Lear argued, a hatred that cannot be rationalized, an evil not based on reasons. Lear made a distinction between jealousy and envy; while the jealous Othello attacks because he believes he has lost the good object or has been betrayed by it, the envy that Iago represents “attacks the good because it is good”. In these two different events, Iago expresses his suspicion of Othello's honesty when he previously detested Othello because of his honesty. Iago seems to come to the conclusion that it is impossible for Othello to deceive him because