Precious Villainâ¦Honourable Murderer: The Betrayer as Scapegoat in Shakespeare

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Precious Villainâ¦Honourable Murderer: The Betrayer as Scapegoat in Shakespeare

äºGlobal Perspectives on Villains and Villainy Today

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Page Range:: 165â173

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848880528_019

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In several of his plays, Shakespeare creates Edenic worlds and then provides a devil/villain who exists to throw Eden into chaos and sin. Iago is one such villain. Sandra Clark describes Shakepeareâs Iago as âthe malignant villainâ whose âchief motive is the hatred of goodness and the desire to destroy happinessâ. The way Iago goes about his evil work, however, is what is significant. He spreads temptation all around, ensuring that those who are vulnerable will succumb to his evil and betray those closest to them. In this way, Iago echoes the biblical figure of Satan, father of lies, tempter, ur-antagonist. Iago is in fact identified as a devil, and indirectly compared to a serpent, specifically Satan in serpentine form who despoils the proto-marriage Eden of Adam and Eve with similar machinations. Othello is also called a devil, and it is he who defiles his own marriage bed with murder and suicide. However, this is where the comparison falls short. Othello is generally categorised as a tragic hero, not a malignant villain, who succumbs to villainy because of an internal flaw. This description seems, however, to ignore the role of the devil who leads the hero into sin, and why. Claudio and Brutus, for example, are each similarly talked into villainy by a devil figure â that is, the betrayal of the innocent. As Judas is led by Satan to betray Jesus for the sake of a world needing redemption, Shakespeare must also find unwitting scapegoats to don the name of villain and betray those whose deaths will bring about the renewal of Shakespeareâs worlds â[t]urnâd wild in natureâ by the influence of the devil. Othello, Brutus and others are betrayers, Judases, who are led into sin. Sin, as their sacrifice, allows the redemption of Eden to take place.

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Global Perspectives on Villains and Villainy Today

ISBN:: 9781848880528

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 08 May 2011

Subjects
- Social Sciences
  - Comparative Social Sciences
  - Cultural Studies

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Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Precious Villainâ¦Honourable Murderer: The Betrayer as Scapegoat in Shakespeare

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Precious Villainâ¦Honourable Murderer: The Betrayer as Scapegoat in Shakespeare

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