the trouble with gender in othello - Auburn University Electronic ...

Othello. Further, the only incidence in which Iago offers the explanation of
being passed over for a deserved promotion to another man. If adultery, even the
possibility of adultery, serves as an emasculation, then it stands to reason that a
man, particularly a “man’s man” such as the soldier Iago, would not reveal that
possibility to another man, especially one he holds in such contempt as Iago
holds Roderigo. Further, the possibility of Othello’s having slept with Emilia is
mentioned not once, but twice, and both in soliloquy when Iago is presumably
alone.
Iago: I hate the Moor;
And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets
‘has done my office. I know not if’t be true;
Yet I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do for surety. (I.ii.404-408)
Iago: But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lust Moor
Hath leaped into my seat; the thought whereof
Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards;
And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife; (II.i.322-327)
Iago is so invested in his performance as a man that the mere thought of
cuckoldry is enough to drive him to one of the most memorable and horrific
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