What with a couple other time consuming projects occupying my time, I finally made a breakthrough on this paper but it is still very much a work in progress. Here is a little more than half, I will post the rest tomorrow hopefully...
Lauren Remington
Dr. Burton
English 382
22 March 2013
Following the
Profits
Although
all of Shakespeare’s plays are unique in their own way, and brilliant in style
and ability to cater to the masses both then and now, he does seem to have a frame
or mold which has worked effectively and which also makes it possible to relate
between the plays characters and ideas, particularly his use of disguises. In his play Othello, Shakespeare, contrary to using disguises, uses the
character Iago, who easily transforms himself with each character he talks to,
absorbing new identity after new persona in order to reach his dark and also
obscure ends. It is never made
completely plain why Iago is motivated to the deaths and despairs he causes and
his chameleon like nature make him seem like lass of a human character and more
like a series of personas adopted into one individual to serve a rhetorical
purpose and provide plot. Iago's change
in character and ability to appease everyone he talks to is directly relatable
to others of Shakespeare's characters who easily don disguises to fool their
peers because his own change in character has a similar effect on his fellows. Carl Jung, well-known personality theorist
and psychologist, was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and adopted some of
Freud’s ideas to develop a theory in which the parts and attitudes of the unconscious
identity, instead of battling each other to take control, are working to have
unity within the individual. Years
before Jung’s time, Shakespeare’s character Iago is a negative personification
of his theories and the battling that occurs between Jung’s unconscious and
contentious attitudes.
Jung’s
theories revolve around the idea that the different levels of the individual
battle each other in order to “reside” in an equilibrium, making up an individual’s
personality. As a personality theorist
and a contemporary of Freud, Jung’s theories constitute and important
contribution to the psychological community and the varied understandings of
the human psyche. Iago is a pivotal
character of Shakespeare’s Othello. As Jung’s theories are applied to the
interpretation of his character, an interesting dynamic arises revealing how these
varying factors of personality come together, but are revealed openly in his
figure. Iago is the character that
manufactures the tragedy for shady motivations.
Not shady in the figurative sense of dark, although they were dark, but
shady in that is altogether unclear what truly drive him in his actions. At one point, he cites Othello’s sleeping
with his wife and at another; he is driven by his jealousy of Othello’s rank
and position. Either way, he behaves
independent of any emphasis on his motivations and what drives him to his acts
of torment on Othello.
Iago
fits into Jung’s theory specifically in the archetypes that dominate the individual. These archetypes are less biological and more
“spiritual” in nature. Iago, as a
character, seems almost to get lost within layer upon layer of varying
motivations and characters that he absorbs as he turns from individual to
individual whom he needs to help him reach his own ends. These archetypes that Jung describes fit into
the role that Iago plays and Iago, among them, seems to get lost within the
layers of personas.
The
unconscious attitudes fighting for prominence are physically portrayed in
Iago’s interactions. Jung’s archetypes
or unconscious is “a universal thought form or predisposition to respond to the
world in certain ways,” (Engler 74).
Iago seems to have internalized a number of responses and personas which
Jung further refers to as “the social role that one assumes in society and
one’s understanding of it,” (74). Iago
is a selfish self-centered character who functions in society through the scope
of things that will best benefit him.
Iago’s persona is so varying that it is hard to pin down. At one point in speaking to Roderigo he
states, “Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago. / In following him I follow but
myself” (I.i.57-59). This exemplifies the twisted nature
of his character reflected in the cunning twists of his language. He openly seems to admit to his duplicity further
in this dialogue saying, "I am not what I am" and by being open about
this, is purposefully more cryptic in the way he communicates it (I.i.65). The first line in particular "Were I the
Moor I would not be Iago," says very little about him in all actuality
while appearing to be communicating much.
Iago openly declares that his persona is not true to the definition that
Jung describes. His “persona” is a
farce, deeply set up and layered by adopted archetypes in order to confuse and
dominate his peers.
Iago’s
behavior sets up a perplexing and troubling perspective on Jung’s theories on
personality. If assumptions are drawn
that Iago is a reflection of true human behavior, where is it that the character
can truly be defined? Iago is layer upon
layer twisted up on confused motivations and lacking in continuity. He is a villain, suited to the needs of
Shakespeare and his use of stock characters to fit the frame of his
tragedies. Iago in particular, however,
constitutes an interesting connection between reality and drama. In the midst of declaring openly his own
deception, Iago does assert that his actions are an illustration of who his
truly is by saying, “For when is my judge, not I for love and duty, / But
seeming so for my peculiar end” (I.i.59-60).
As far as this draft goes, I am working on incorporating the scholarly sources for my research on Jung as well as compiling a complete bibliography and totally bringing my idea all together.
