I think I have been spoiled. I really enjoyed the Soul bearing soliloquies in Hamlet and Richard the III and found myself earnestly craving a peak into the mind of Iago. He certainly steals the stage through the first 2 acts, but when I drew close to the end of the first act my hopes were diminishing. To my great exultation, just as the 1st act reached its end all other characters walked off the stage and Iago began to bear his soul! I wanted to jump up and down with fiendish laughter! (I guess that was my way of preparing to enter the mind of the madman)
When I thought about why I wanted to read a Soliloquy so much I remembered my earlier post about self-reflective characters and how they are more easily accessible. This in turn lead me to review Iago’s dialogue up to that point to see what was making his character so complicated that I yearned for easier access. I discovered that he employs several striking maxims that at once draw my attention, and obscure my understanding. For instance:
When I thought about why I wanted to read a Soliloquy so much I remembered my earlier post about self-reflective characters and how they are more easily accessible. This in turn lead me to review Iago’s dialogue up to that point to see what was making his character so complicated that I yearned for easier access. I discovered that he employs several striking maxims that at once draw my attention, and obscure my understanding. For instance:
- “We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed.”
- “I am not what I am.”
- “If the beam of our lives had not
One scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the
Blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us
To most preposterous conclusions.”
These awesome lines were some of my favorites up to this point. I think that I enjoy them so much because they contain many characteristics similar to those found in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. For instance compare the two phrases:
- “We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly followed” – Iago
- “My glass shall not persuade me I am old
So long as youth and thou are of one date” – Sonnet 22
Both sections attempt to define abstract ideas through concrete examples. Both contain an argument, and a rebuttal. I am certain that there are many more similarities that can be drawn, but the singularity of this mode of expression really drew me in. As I continue to review the plays I’ll make certain to investigate this bleeding over of Sonnet form within the play.
