OCR Text |
Show William Bayard Hale Pajrs a. Tribute to the Pro-) Pro-) gressivc Leader as a Senior La Follette as ' lago Remarkable Study of a Personification of the Evil Principle. IAGO. By R. M. La I'olletto of WIscoiiein State University. Abstr-act of Argument. 1 Mentnl analysis of lago. Has but two of the three constituents constitu-ents of the mind. J.ops of emotional nature has cost him his moral parts. What ho lacks in feeling he has gained in knowledge he knows everything, every-thing, feels .nothing. 2. Originality of his methods of meanness, as shown in his relations to tho other characters of the tragedy. Display of his Intellectual acuteness his power of dissimulation, his manner man-ner and his means. 3. Ho is a being without Conscience, Con-science, but his acute mind redeems him to us as a subject. His questioning his "reasons' the result of his mental mechanism, not the protest of conscience 4. Contrasted with Richard III, lago is more perfect as a devil, Richard more perfect as a villain. Richard's consclenco finally asserts itself; lago has none, hence. Is his superior in pure hollisb consistency. 5. lago, Shakespeare's conception of the "Evil Principle-'; henco the vagueness of his fate, which can bo ( explained Jn no other way. It Is con-1 slstent w!th. n devil not with tho villain of a tragod. Shakespeare's lago porsonlfica two constituents of mind, intellect and will These alone arf the springs of his action, the source of his will power. pow-er. What he lacks In omotlon he has gained In Intellectual aciucncss. but i the result is deformity. Tho char- actor is not unnatural; It Is fiendishly i natural. His reasoning power Is abnormally ab-normally developed, 'but he has no feeling, no sympathy, no affection, no fear. His is the cold passion of Intellect In-tellect .whose icy touch chills tho warm life In all it reaches. He if an Intellectual athlete, and Is unccaslns in his mental gymnastics. His contempt con-tempt for all good Is supreme; his greatest crlmo is his greatest pleas-use, pleas-use, and his own hypocrisy gladdens a,nd intoxicates him. Whatever Is most mean, whatever is most hard, whatever is vilely atrocious and dangerously dan-gerously difPcult he seizes with greedy glee. Sceptical of all virtue, to him love is lecherj-. truth telling stupid goodness, and lying a daring to be Ingenious. In-genious. The emotions aro the native soil of moral life. From the feelings are grown great ethical truths one by pne, forming at last the grand body of moral law. But lago Is emotionally a cipher, and Ills poverty of sentiment, and wealth of Intellect render ' him doubly dangerous. Hero wo have the key tl his character, he is ,KsscPiicd of an luflcxiblp will, of an intellect pungent, subtle, supersensual. He' not only knows' moreajhan he feels; he knows everything, feels nothing. The other characters of the tragedy of "Othello," a tragedy which Mac-aulay Mac-aulay pronouueed Shakespeare's greatest, are but puppotB, moving at the will of this master. Ho reads them at a glance, by a flash of instinct. in-stinct. Ho wastes no words on Rod-erigo Rod-erigo other than to make the "fool hla purse." But upon Othello he plays with most subtlety and Indef-inltej. Indef-inltej. greater zest. Upon him he exercises ex-ercises his crafty ingenuity: and the "double knavery," tbe "how? how?" whets him keen. 'Now flashes forth the invisible lightning of his malignant malig-nant mind, and woo to all virtue within its reach. Now we see his cnaracier in an iih hiuui uuiiuiub, u Its devilish cruelty. With what marvelous mar-velous skill he makes his first attack! He does nothing in the common way. His methods have the merit of originality. orig-inality. Ho does not assail Desdc-mona's Desdc-mona's virtue with a well conned story, but Is scemincly surprised into an exclamation, appearing to utter his suspicions by the merest accident. And when he has eugaged Othello's ear note his matchless cunning: he comes and goes, and comes and goes against, with his Ingenious Inuendoes. changiuk like the chameleon, quick to take his cue from the Moor, yet craftily craft-ily giving direction to the other's thoughts; cursing Casslo with his protestations pro-testations of love and damning Dce-demona Dce-demona while joining in a benediction to her honesty. The "constant, lovinc, noble nature ' of the Moor changes j quickly under the "almost sudot-human sudot-human art" of lago; but too well he I "knows the human mind to gorge U with suspicion, and with every dose of poison gives just' a little antidote. With pious self-accusation he says, " 'Tis mv nature's plague to spy Into abuses,"' and "oft my jealousy shapes faults that arc not, but carefully adds: "It were nt for jour quiet nor jour good to let you know my thoughts." and Is equally careful to tell them, smothering with one hand ail suspicion of his perfidy and kindling kind-ling with the other the consuming fires ot the Moor's jealousy. logo's manner of practising on Othello Is only matched by the means he employs. Like the genuine devil, "ho destroys the entire household, not through some unguarded vice but through Its very virtues. He sets all goodnosb by the cars. The strenth of tho Moor's affection is made a fatal weakness: and more than this, the very mqilium of ail their misery is she Of spirit so still and gentle that her motion Blushed at herself, lago and Desdemona! Strange, un-Bpeakablo. un-Bpeakablo. union of opposites'. Weird harmony of discords! Sombre mingling ming-ling of a smile and a sneor! O the poet whose gonlus could compound these elements Without an explosion! O this "unequal contrast between the powers of grosancsa and purity"! Thai Desdemona, whoso child Ilko nature na-ture is a" Divine fislon of innocence and chastity, should bo played off against a moral outlaw, a being whoso Hycry is "heavenly shows" and whose logic 1a the "divinity of hell," is a juxtaposition appalling, fascinating! 'TIb Dlna In the tulous of a harpy. That virtue should be "turned Into pitch," that "out of goodness" should be marie tho "net to enmesh them all," that Innocence should become tho In-ptruinent In-ptruinent of tho Infernal Is a "moral anUtheBlR" that precludes the oncom ing of chaos. And it comes like tho quick night and consummates tho tragedy, while over all In sullen silence si-lence gloats the imp ot darnness. Somewhere Thomas Carlyle lias said, "There are depths in man that eo to tho length of the lowest hell, as there are heights that reach highest high-est heaven": but lago is a magnet with only one pole, which evqr jiolnts toward tho infernal. Why is it, then, that this character does not disgust us? Why do we follow his intricate windings with such Intense lulercst-Wliy lulercst-Wliy do we tolerate him? We find the'answer in his great intellect. This Is the core of his character abstract intellectually united to volitional force, devoid of all morality, divorced Trom all feeling. He is hardly human, yet he sounds humanity like a philosopher phi-losopher He is wanting in ethical parts, yet he makes the nicest moral distinction. Ho Is a fraction, yet greater than a unlti a part, yet more than the -whole. He la a paradox. In his deep schemes we nearly forget the villain. His triumph over all obstacles ob-stacles pins the attention to his intellectual in-tellectual powers. He Is "instinct with thought." This redeems him to us as' a subject and yields another explanation ex-planation for what has been termed his 'little trace of conscience." His self-questionings, his subtle sophisms, soph-isms, his cataclysms of reasons, aro not tho weak protest, of a moral part but the logical outcome of a sleepless intellect. He js emphatically a being of reasons. He will do nothing except he furnish to himself tho "why." It is not that ho requires these reasons rea-sons as a "whetstone for his revenge,'' it Is not that his "resolution Is too much for his conscience," but rather that he revels in reasons, that his hungry mind will have Its food. Ho "suspects the lusty Moor," and fears "Cassio with his nlchtcap. loo," on occasion; not that ho dreads to destroy de-stroy cither without some motive, but because' his mental constitution demands de-mands a reason for all th'ngs. Schle-gel Schle-gel defines wickedness as "nothing but selfishness designedly unconscientious"; unconsci-entious"; but lago makes no effort to deceive himself, for ho says: Wlrcn devils will their blackest put on, i They do suggest at first with heavenly hea-venly shows, As I do now. He does not care to justify himself except as an .intellectual satisfaction. He desires 'no moral vindication. In fact he commits crime merely for crimo's sake, and there Is no sin that he will not claim as his own. Think of It! A being, who clutches at wickedness wick-edness with aj'l the greed of a miser. Thoroughly passionless, coldly Intellectual, Intel-lectual, he is forced into the self-confession self-confession that he is no libertine; yet fearful lest the admission has cost him one belllslL-LraiLhe quickly adds that he" -stands "accdimUiTC1 fpr as great -a sin." This is a moral defiance defi-ance sublimely hideous, but hardly jcconcllable In a being with oven a "littlo trace of conscience." Were thnro a single golden thread of moral sense to knit him to tho good ot hu manlty It woud shine forth when Desdemona, Des-demona, whoi0 only offense against him Is that she Is pure, sinks under his cursed cunning. But It is a quality qual-ity he feels not, knows not, and what Coleridge calls "the motive hunting of a motiveless malignity": this constant combing of his wits for reasons is simply a service performed at the mandate of hi? craving intellect. There arc the premises from which as a conclusion we deduce lago, a character without a conscience. Mark the "steep Inequality' between him and Richard III.: The Duke of Gloster, born; with teeth, a twisted body and a majestic mind, cut his way through those of, his own flesh to a throne. Malignant and artful, hypocritical hy-pocritical and heartless; ho "seems a saint when most he plays the devil." Monster, he standB apart from men. ho is "like himself alone," and he stalks along his bloody course a solitary sol-itary creation. Brave, he has the audacity au-dacity to defy destiny, thp lm-pudent confidence to enter the lists against the Unknown. But hidden away (Continued on Page Fivc.l H LAFOLLETTE'S ORATION. ' "1 m y l (Continued from Page Three.) H somewhere in his black soul is a germ jfl of conscience, disguised as a super-UM super-UM Sj'ous fear a germ of conscience a ghich starts forth when that towering S ;will is off guard, coming in the thin I substance of a dream, et so terrible gj (hat the remorseful "drops hang on 9 tiiB trembling flesh." Here is his hu-9 hu-9 inanity, his mortal weakness, and H through this (he "all-powerful and jRiver watchful Nemesis" hurls her lance, barbed to the shnft with rctri-M rctri-M button. Pursued by cloaking phan-,tpms, phan-,tpms, scourged by "the Invisible lash ))of violated conscience, he flings hlm-jMKelf hlm-jMKelf into the conflict, and with a royal gtlllourish. In perfect keeping with his fSfJharacter, closes tho tragedx. His SBBpath satisf'es the equation of right. mQt'Hlchard and Iago possess some qual-plltles qual-plltles in common, both have mighty in-Syfcllects, in-Syfcllects, both are wily, cunning, Mrafty; both dissimulators; both actors fflBut further than this they are pro-Goundly pro-Goundly unlike Richard III is more fllBunianly terrible iago more devil -'36hly perfect. Richard loves noth'ng Qifnman: Iago hates everything good, jfj Richard Is nnogant, passionate, pow-fful, pow-fful, violent Ingo egotistical, cold, jigfyhical. sly, Richard Is fire. Tago, Smp; Richard III. la more objective. dfflfcRgo, more subjective. Richard would ?fulveri7.e the universe. Iago would rvfllko to reverse the oider of things. t)l'! point of satanlcal finish Iago is pilchard and more . Richard III. mur-jSers mur-jSers many and sweats with horror; lfygo, few and forgets remorse. Rlch-jid Rlch-jid III. mounts the throne of Kng-nand Kng-nand on a score of dead bodies; Iago t3vlns the throne of hell in three .Strides. The conscience of Richard I '.1 (fakes fiom its throue, Iago has no kjonscience. Richard III. is a mon-!fosIty; mon-!fosIty; Iago, a psychological contra-, contra-, faction. QfKVe offer Iago then as Shakes- lujflefire't" conception of the "Evil Prin- Wlple." And how perfect tho creation! jSgVthc whole course of his crime he fvr'ray8 never n weakness, never a JJkcck of conscience, nothing to mar ,ie elegant symmetry of his flendlsh- Aljiss. From the time that ho lays t-Vwn the postulate that "I nm not irtlfeat am" ll11 nc attains Ills infernal llfljRJorlty he Is the samo refined, plti- IIJw8' sarcastic devil. He is often sur- ' !ed, bt.t he is never disconcerted. plans, but it Is because he likes mental exercise. It has been said t deep rogues take all their vil- ly a priori; that they do not con- lCt )lans In anticipation. Iago's efully perfected schemes would j m to rebuke this philosophy were . not tb.it they appear rather meat k hie mind than directions for his bollsms. Indeed it is In those un- J mined scenes where the occasion s to fit his plan,?, whcie all the Is are arrayed against him, that iachlovet the grcatost triumph This notblnc short of Stygian skill, and --ys just bore thut hc attains tho dig-1 ttv of a devil. That dignity would irSfS'e !)Cen sacr,flcc'1 In ns death. 'MuK a'l the principles of dramatic ;'Jfeedy Othello Is his fit executioner. 'QJjTfrnlNcnnt fact! We are only prom-J!ta prom-J!ta that his "punishment shall tor- , Wnt him much and hold him lQng." Ig&gKis Ib to apjicnsc tho moral demand, r -' 1 " ' -pi. -11 .. . ... ...1 1 1. 1 and In Its vagueness the poet seeks to avoid a decline In tragic Intensity. This we offer as the ethical and aesthetlcal reason lor the lndeflnltc-"neSB lndeflnltc-"neSB thrown about Iago's fate by tho dramatist. Hc had pushed his creation cre-ation to the verge of the finite; punishment pun-ishment was demanded, none could be devised which would requite him. I The full course, of tragedy, the mighty ovolutlbn of Its events, must yield nn apt sequence, a sublime completeness, else it fails in its aim. Schiller says, "Life is great only as a means of accomplishing the moral law, and nothing is sublimcr than a criminal yielding his life because of the morality he has violated.'1 With the single exception of Iago, Shakespeare Shakes-peare has availed himself of Uiis principle. prin-ciple. The Thane of Cawdor tops all his murderers with hfs own head. Lady Macbeth bleaches in death tho "damned spot" from her unclean hand; Richard III seals with his own blood on Bosworth field tho subllmo in his career, but Iago Is Just beyond tho reach of death, and wo can fancy him disappearing In tho darkness of which ho Is a part. Theie are two fitnesses in a villain's vil-lain's death, the moral fitness and the tragic fitness. The one, the ethical satisfaction at the inevitable recoil of tho broken moral law; the other, the grandeur of a finale. To condense into one moment the whole of life, to put a fiat on existence, to engulf a soul intlie .nwful lmmenslyt of Its own acts, this is sublime; but to have, conceived and bi ought forth a being so suporphyslcal, so positively devilish, so Intensely Infernal that his death would be pathos, Uiis Is genius. And this Ingo. Tho polished, affable af-fable ateiidant, the boon companion, the supple sophist, tho nimble logician, the philosopher, tho moralist, the scoffing demon, the goblin whoso smile is a stab and whose laugh Is an infernal sneer, who has sworn eternal vengeance on virtue every wheie, who would turn cosmos Into chaos. This compound of wickedness and reason, this incarnation of Intellect, this tar-tarean tar-tarean basilisk is the logical conclusion conclu-sion In a syllogism whose premises aro "Hell and Night " He is a criminal crimin-al climax; endow him with a single supernatural quality and he stands among tho devils of fiction alone. |