Othello--Question Four

In my opinion, Shakespeare creates dramatic suspense mainly through Iago. Throughout the entire novel, he reveals only bits and pieces of Iago's plan at a time. The overriding goal is apparent to the audience in the first scene of the first act when we learn that Iago is angry that Cassio was made lieutenant, and he was passed over. The audience gets a sense here that Iago wants to be higher up in command (I.1.1-60). As the play continues, we learn that Iago also wants to get back at Othello for supposedly sleeping with his wife (I.iii.322-325). We know that Iago has these plans, but Shakespeare takes time in allowing them to unfold; he saves the action packed part of the play for the final act. Additionally, the audience knows much, much more than the individual characters on stage. We are lucky enough to witness every single thing that occurs during the play, whereas characters such as Cassio do not know that the handkerchief was planted in his room. Aiding the audience's understanding are the amount of asides spoken by characters, mainly Iago. These allow us to look directly into Iago's true intentions and desires. The play is such a success because of this irony; there would be no plot if the characters knew all that the audience did.