Okay, I know I'm like a million years late but I wanted to wait to comment until I could read it a few times over and collect my reaction-type thoughts. Trying to be concise, but I will probably fail.
I feel that sex is probably the truly defining difference between Xander and Iago. Iago seems to have no interest in sex, despite being incredibly sensitive about having his masculinity/sexual dominance over his wife challenged. He doesn't want to, for instance, seduce Desdemona as revenge for Othello allegedly bedding his wife. He exhibits no interest in Emilia, sexual or otherwise, except insofar as she can further his plans for Othello. (Cordelia = Emilia, obviously. She has all the sass for it, and all the misplaced devotion.) All his actions are founded on sexuality, but not sex. Xander is all sex. The offense is sex, the goal is sex.
That said, both Xander and Iago are incredible cock-blockers. Iago effectively ensures that Othello never consumates his marriage by interrupting at every opportunity. Xander tries to do the same, but in a less dextrous manner, and, obviously, fails. (Interesting that not having sex with Desdemona probably contributed to Othello's increasing jealousy/craziness, whereas it was having sex that released the truly monstrous side of Angel.)
I can see how each being the other's lover turns Buffy and Angel alternately into Desdemona. I think there's a lot more to Desdemona, though, like her outright defiance of her father's and society's choices for her, which everyone seems to take for granted. She tells her dad to his face that she belongs to Othello, her husband. Then there's her absolute virtue, including a remarkable capacity to forgive. As she's dying, she refuses to implicate her husband as her killer. Which does, I suppose, lend itself more to Angel being Desdemona. He forgives Buffy for murdering him, even though she, very probably, never does.
I don't know if the writers are siding with Iago so much as being taken in by his charm. If he represents the "norm," then he also represents "us." Meaning we see his failings as our own, his imperfections are acceptable because he represents all of us, and we are imperfect. Moreover, we forgive those imperfections out of a desire to forgive ourselves of them as well.
Personally, I wanted Buffy to murder him when she found out, and I can't understand why it had never come up for them before, especially circa "The Yoko Factor."
This got incredibly long, I'm sorry! Needless to say I was absolutely absorbed by this essay. It makes me want to revisit the essay I wrote about Othello and magic. Or take another Shakespeare class, at least.
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Date: 2008-08-01 02:40 am (UTC)I feel that sex is probably the truly defining difference between Xander and Iago. Iago seems to have no interest in sex, despite being incredibly sensitive about having his masculinity/sexual dominance over his wife challenged. He doesn't want to, for instance, seduce Desdemona as revenge for Othello allegedly bedding his wife. He exhibits no interest in Emilia, sexual or otherwise, except insofar as she can further his plans for Othello. (Cordelia = Emilia, obviously. She has all the sass for it, and all the misplaced devotion.) All his actions are founded on sexuality, but not sex. Xander is all sex. The offense is sex, the goal is sex.
That said, both Xander and Iago are incredible cock-blockers. Iago effectively ensures that Othello never consumates his marriage by interrupting at every opportunity. Xander tries to do the same, but in a less dextrous manner, and, obviously, fails. (Interesting that not having sex with Desdemona probably contributed to Othello's increasing jealousy/craziness, whereas it was having sex that released the truly monstrous side of Angel.)
I can see how each being the other's lover turns Buffy and Angel alternately into Desdemona. I think there's a lot more to Desdemona, though, like her outright defiance of her father's and society's choices for her, which everyone seems to take for granted. She tells her dad to his face that she belongs to Othello, her husband. Then there's her absolute virtue, including a remarkable capacity to forgive. As she's dying, she refuses to implicate her husband as her killer. Which does, I suppose, lend itself more to Angel being Desdemona. He forgives Buffy for murdering him, even though she, very probably, never does.
I don't know if the writers are siding with Iago so much as being taken in by his charm. If he represents the "norm," then he also represents "us." Meaning we see his failings as our own, his imperfections are acceptable because he represents all of us, and we are imperfect. Moreover, we forgive those imperfections out of a desire to forgive ourselves of them as well.
Personally, I wanted Buffy to murder him when she found out, and I can't understand why it had never come up for them before, especially circa "The Yoko Factor."
This got incredibly long, I'm sorry! Needless to say I was absolutely absorbed by this essay. It makes me want to revisit the essay I wrote about Othello and magic. Or take another Shakespeare class, at least.