W. H. Auden, “The Joker in the Pack,” in The Dyer’s Hand, 246–72

Excerpt:

If any consideration of the Tragedy of Othello must primarily be occupied not with its official hero but with its villain. I cannot think of any other play in which only one character performs all personal actions – all the deeds are Iago’s – and all the others without exception only exhibit behavior. In marrying each other, Othello and Desdemona have performed a deed, but this took place before the play begins. Nor can I think of another play in which the villain is so completely triumphant; everything Iago sets out to do, he accomplishes (among his goals, I include his self-destruction).

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