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

fictive revenge schemes in the western canon. I do not wish to rehash much of
the of the discussion of the psychic emasculation caused by adultery covered in
the section dealing with Othello’s gender performance, but it bears repeating at
this point that as Othello says, “A horned man’s a monster and a beast” (IV.i. 74).
Iago, even less so than Othello (who at least demands some proof) can not bear
the disruption of his gender performance; the very suspicion of this “psycho-
social castration”(Kahn 132) 5 is enough to lead him to destroy the man he
suspects of cuckolding him.
It is logical to give more credence to Iago’s suspicion of adultery as a
possible motive. However, it would not do to completely discount the motive he
mentions first:
Three great ones of the city,
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capped to him; and by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades this with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
And, in conclusion,
Nonsuits my mediators. For, “Certes,” says he,
I have already chose my officer.” […]
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