Othello: IAGO

- Iago is arguably one of the greatest villains of all time. Through manipulation, he destroys five people's lives (not including his own) and for what? Because Othello made Cassio his Leutinant and not him? Doubtful. Like the rest of the play, I think what drives Iago is jealousy. He is jealous of Othello's military success and social status, of Cassio's looks, and that Desdemona is more beautiful than his own wife.

- In the very first scene, Iago has already begun to set his plans into motion by enlisting Roderigo as his partner by making him believe that he can have Desdemona if his plans work out. Iago explains that he hates Othello and Cassio and wants to bring them down because Othello promoted Cassio. He tells Roderigo to tell Desdemona's father about her relationship with Othello.

- By scene 3 we know that Iago has already manipulated Othello's trust when Othello refers to him as "Honest Iago" (pg 826) and leaves Desdemona in his care. This allows Iago to use his wife, Emilia, in his plans since she is Desdemona's maidservant. Eventually, Iago betrays three key relationships: friend and friend, husband and wife, commander and soldier.

- The strength of Iago's manipulation comes from the private conversations he has with each of the main players. For example, to Roderigo Iago says that Desdemona only lusts after Othello and once "the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be again to inflame it, and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in favour, sympathy in years, manners, and beauties, all which the Moor is defective in" (pg 829). This gives Roderigo further hope that with Othello out of the way, he can be with Desdemona.

- With each character, Iago finds what they want, sees it as a weakness, and exploits it. Othello and Roderigo want Desdemona. Cassio wants to be Lieutenant again. Desdemona wants Othello. Emilia wants Iago. And because he has built up this
persona of being "Honest Iago" and has made them distrustful of each other, they all believe him.

- I have read Othello a few times now and every time I read it I wonder what was Shakespeare trying to say with Iago? Besides the power of jealous what is it that Iago exposes? And I would say that although he is a great actor and manipulator, the bonds between the other characters were not as strong as they believed them to be. There were so many places and times for Iago's plans to go wrong. If any of these characters just talked to each other honestly then they should have realized what Iago was doing. Iago exposes the insecurities in ourselves and the jealousy that comes out of these insecurities.

MERLIN

In the literary medium, the themes of villainy of Lancelot, Guenevere, and Mordred are Greed and Betrayal. I kept my previous post in mind while watching the 1998 miniseries, "Merlin." From the start I knew that there would be some major differences since the main character of "Merlin" is not Arthur like in Le Morte D'Arthur. But I was surprised to find how different the perspective of Lancelot, Guenevere, and Mordred were different because this story was written so many years later. The following are points of differences between the two mediums and how those changes make the characters a different kind of villain.

- The main villain of Merlin is Queen Mab. It is the battle between Merlin and Mab that drives the story. Arthur, Mordred, Guenevere, Lancelot, etc are all just accessories to this greater battle between "the old ways" and what is just. Mab represents the fear of change, of hanging onto the past and tradition even if it isn't what is "good." To show that she is a villain, her voice is raspy, she wears lots of black, and moves in a quick twitchy like manner. All of the villains in this miniseries besides Uther and Vortigern have similar makeup.

- Mordred is a pawn of Mab. Her greatest and most dear pawn - her last hope - but a pawn nonetheless. In the film, he is shown as being "bad" from the start with his incestuous birth and attitude even as a little boy. He is raised with the purpose of destroying Merlin and Arthur. He reveals Lancelot and Guenevere's relationship to Arthur at the same time that he meets him, while in "Le Morte D'Arthur" he was a member of the round table. This makes his villainous actions more about vengeance rather than betrayal. The film version of Mordred was a lot less interesting to me than Mallory's because of this. The idea that he is raised by "villains" so he becomes a villain and just carries on his role is very one dimensional. Most of the time he is overshadowed by his mother, Morgan Le Fay, because she is more sympathetic and has a love story with Frik. Her hatred of Merlin is also much more understandable.

-Lancelot and Guenevere's relationship was also changed in the film. In the film, Arthur leaves for years in the search of the Holy Grail and Lancelot is entrusted with Camelot. He and Guenevere have an affair but Merlin knows about it. This seems less about the idea that "Adultery is bad" and more about "The consequences if this relationship is found out will be bad." Merlin even admits he might have been too hard on the lovers when puts the sole blame upon Lancelot for his (Lancelot's) wife's death. In the film, no one else suspects the two until Mordred, who has been told by Mab, shows up and reveals their relationship the moment Arthur returns from his search of the grail. Their relationship is seen in a sympathetic, relate-able light. Arthur and Guenevere did not marry for love, she was alone for years, and she fell in love with Lancelot. Guenevere even defends the affair by pointing out how long Arthur left her alone. In Mallory's tale, however, Arthur merely goes on a fake hunting trip and the two lovers are discovered by the knights of the round table. Because not even Arthur wants to condemn Guenevere neither do we. It is Mordred's manipulation about equality that forced Arthur to put Guenevere in the line of fire. Like in "Le Morte D'Arthur," Lancelot comes to her rescue but in the film that is the end of it. We do not know if they just stay together or if they both do commit themselves to God in repentance.

- Mordred and Arthur's deaths are also seen in a totally different light. In the film, Arthur hesitates when Mordred points how that by killing him he will be committing another sin because he will be killing his son. In Mallory, Arthur delivers the fatal blow and then Mordred, knowing he is going to die, pushes himself further on the spear to get close enough to also kill Arthur.

Le Morte d'Arthur

I think it would be difficult to have grown up in the West and not know some basic details of the Arthurian Legend. At the very least, most people have seen the Disney movie. There even was just recently a mini series called, Merlin. But I don't know how many people have actually read the legends. I wasn't one of them and I still haven't read them all. For this independent study I only focused on the death of Arthur, the end of the tale. Because of this, I came into it with my own ideas of what happened and of who the bad guy was. But as I read the story I realized there wasn't just one clear cut villain in "Le Morte d'Arthur," but that there were villainous themes that characters, including the famed Lancelot, followed. The two main villainous themes of this particular story are greed and betrayal (which usual comes out of greed).

The three characters that represent these themes the most are Lancelot, Guenevere, and Mordred. The betrayal of Lancelot and Guenevere is obvious and a well known tell. Lancelot is the supposed best knight of the round table and "the Kynge loved hym passyngly well" (pg. 647). Guenevere was the Queen. It was the most forbidden union, the ultimate betrayal. It was also the perfect chance for Mordred's greed for the throne to strike. He and Agravaine tell Arthur his suspicions and with 12 knights they wait for Lancelot, who believes the other knights and the king to be out on a hunting party, to visit the Queen. Even when one of his men try to warn Lancelot not to visit the Queen and that Agravaine is up to something (pg. 648) he visits the Queen anyways. Lancelot escapes but only by killing some of the knights. The main difference between Guenevere and Lancelot is that they know that they have wronged Arthur. To go back to my opening about the general public's knowledge of Arthurian legend, most people know that Lancelot comes to rescue Guenevere. This is true but in the legend they do not end up together. Guenevere becomes a nun and Lancelot a monk to repent for their sins. It is the repentance that the legend portrays them in a sympathetic light and also puts them on a lesser level of villainy against the protagonist as Mordred, who receives a violent death. This is further shown when the legend states that "the nyne knyghtes put Syr Launcelot in the same hors-bere that Quene Guenevere was layed in tofore that she was buryed" (pg 696). The message the legend is trying to send is clear: Adultery, even by good people in love, will result in destruction. The round table is broken and many men died and the affair of Lancelot and Guenevere was the source. This is relevant to my study because it shows that a character, which had been seen as a hero for the majority of the story, can become a villain of the story.

Mordred is on another level than Lancelot and Guenevere because he uses their relationship to betray Arthur as well and start a war resulting in the death of Arthur. And although he is a knight of the round table, from his birth (he is the illegitimate child of Arthur and his half sister, Morgan Le Fay) it is foreshadowed that Mordred will be a villain. While Arthur goes after Lancelot, Mordred claimed that Arthur was dead and usurped the throne. This leads to an epic battle between father and son, king and traitor, and they kill each other:
"And Sir Mordred saw Kynge Arthur, he ran untyll hym and hys swerde drawyn in hys honde; and there Kyng Arthur smote Sir Mordred undir the shylde, with a foyne of hys speare, thoroqoute the body more than a fadom. And whan Sir Mordred felte that he had hys dethys wounde, he threste hymselff with the myght that he had upp to the burre of Kyng Arthur's speare; and ryght so he smote hys fadir, Kynge Arthure, with hys swerde holdynge in both hys hondys, uppon the syde of the hede, that the swerde perced the helmet and the tay of the brayne" (686).
To his last breath, Mordred is hateful and greedy. Unlike Lancelot and Guenevere, who repent and mourn, Mordred is murderous even while dying.