kenneth branagh - GAY????!?!?!?!?!?!? !?!?!?!
was he gay????????????????????????!
shareI just recently saw this movie for an English project, and Branagh's Iago was certainly the most unique and original portrayal I've ever seen. Iago seemed almost flirtatious with the other characters, and his sudden bouts of villainous soliloquies caught me off guard compared to his not-so-evil public face. As for whether he was gay, hmmm, it's a good question, hard to say. Shakespeare was supposedly gay too.
Went a bit overboard on the query marks there, didn't you Annie?
yeah, i was joking with the question marks. oh my god it's lauren!
shareIn his autobiography Olivier (who filmed the play in 1964) discusses famous
psychiatrist Ernest Jones' belief that Iago's love/hate for Othello was
homoerotic. Notice how whenever Branagh pretends to be sympathetic to another
character he turns and gives the camera, meaning us, a knowing leer or smirk
to let us know he's only faking? But when he and Othello make their fatal
pact he passionately declares,"I am your own forever!" and clasps him close.
And this time, no ironic 'look' to the camera.
Whether Iago is gay or straight or bisexual in my opinion is really a moot point. His sexuality really has nothing to do with his character and drive. More important to explaining his character is his Narcissism. Narcissists do not experience deep sexual pleasure. It is more about ego. Ego~Iago (coincidence?) He is in love with himself. He has no remorse. He mentions that his meddling is for "sport and profit." He derives more sexual pleasure from being the wicked puppeteer than the act of sex itself. e.g. He only becomes sexually aroused when Emilia tells him she has the handkerchief. He then takes her from behind, not in a show of preference for homosexual intercourse, but in an act of DOMINANCE. He is a Narcissus. In mythology, Narcissus was a bisexual. As for Iago? In Shakespeare's mind? Who can know? I'm sure the director of this film added homosexual undertones just to keep the fires burning. Interesting topic though.
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I think this guy cdubs come the closest to the best interpretation of Parker's handling of the Shakespeare text. The narcissism is apt. The screenplay writer (Parker?) uses about 1/2 of Shakespeare's complete text and shapes it, apparently, with the aim of showing the love-hate (see Fatal Attraction for some monomaniacal vengeance) that Iago bears Othello. I think this is pretty obvious in the "pact" scene when (upon learning that Othello is willing to make him his lieutenant) he clasps him passionately saying "I am yours forever." (Some other perceptive Imdb commentator has pointed out that this is the only time Iago does not give an ironic glance to the audience/camera.) His lascivious homoerotic imaginings of Cassio's groping him as he would Desdemona is another hint. He can only get aroused enough by his wife to "reward" Emilia with a thrusty boink in the rear ("thank you, ma'am") when he she brings him the handkerchief. I am also thinking of how in the final death scene the wounded (not dying, for lengthy torture lies before him) Iago laboriously drags himself up onto the "tragically loaded bed" between Othello's legs. I was wondering how far he was going to get before fade-out!
share"Ego~Iago (coincidence?)"
Yes it is a coincidence given that Freud's ego came many hundreds of years after Shakespeare wrote the play. Iago, or Jago (an alternative spelling) is the Spanish form of the name James.
"People always sing 'Part of Your World' at auditions... that's why I only know one lyric."
shakespeare wasn't "supposedly" gay, he only wrote sonnets to men.
however, looking at the text, the character of iago does seem to portray a homosexual desire for othello, and seems to hate women in general. therefore, it is not illogicall see iago as gay.
my teacher told us he was only gay in this particular film adaption and not in the original playscript...? heres to skipping the reading 21st century yus!!
shareActually many critics have interrupted Iago’s character to be gay long before this film ever came out. But hey, I’m sure your teacher knows it all. Here’s to not thinking for ourselves!
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i hv recently read 'the tragedy of othello' Iago wasnt gay. i guess shakespeare jz tried to put emphasis on his negative character bt the director of the movie exxagerrated it to the extent where Iago was potrayed as gay. so i totally agree with your teacher.
share"Iago wasnt gay"
Good thing to know you've answered the question of so many scholars who've studied Othello, in one easy sentence. May I ask where you gained this insightful knowledge? Also, could you please answer using correct spelling and punctuation so I will be able to appreciate your point?
How Brannaugh portayed the character has nothing to do with his own sexuality, which I'm not going to address. Iago's sexuality, on the other hand...
The character of Iago, by definition, wasn't gay. He WAS married. He would have been bi-sexual, which would not have been AT ALL unusual for that time period. Women were for creating heirs and satisfying a man's basic needs (food & sex, mostly). For any 'higher' conversation or bonding, men looked to other men--women were considered to be basically helpless and unintelligent in the time period, remember.
He also believed himself betrayed not just by his wife, but by his leige lord and friend. To understand just how that would be, think about finding out that the man who is responsible not only for paying &/or promoting you but also for creating the duty rosters/strategies that keep you ALIVE, was boinking your wife, and then promoted your friend instead of you before going off and making a LOVE match.
So, hating women because his wife betrayed him with his boss and friend, whom he loved (sexually or not, up to your interpretation) makes his love/hate relationships with the men seems a lot more... understandable, doesn't it?
well..i agree with you to some extent. as i have also mentioned before Iago wasnt gay because in anyway i dont think he ever loved othello..he was just mad at him because he thought Othello had cuckolded him n also appointed cassio as his liuetnent rather than Iago..so he wanted to get back at othello in order to take revenge. he dint trick othello to kill Desdemona because he loved him. it was because of his hatred for othello.
so it doesnt leave me with any reason to think that Iago was GAY!!!
Whether or not Iago is gay is completely up to the reader’s own interpretation. I have not come to a definite conclusion but I buy the reasoning. For one thing, every time he describes a sexual act he uses animalistic phrases EXCEPT when he is describing the scene between himself and Cassio he uses beautiful description. His reasoning for hating Othello is inconsistent and all over the place. Sometimes when describing a reason he doesn’t even seem interested in it. This makes me think that perhaps none of the reasons he gives are actual reasons, that there is something more. If he is so mad that Cassio has the position he wants, wouldn’t he have satisfied when he gets Cassio fired? No, he doesn’t even care! He keeps going. Yes, Iago is plain and simply evil but perhaps it is stemmed from a sick obsession with Othello, if he can’t have Othello, no one can. I’m not saying that Iago is gay, but frankly I think the concept is definitely applicable.
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I never noticed that before! I knew of course about him using vulgar
and bestial terms about women and sex, but you're absolutely right,
his description on Cassio's nightmare is very uncharacteristically
lyrical. Plus, his speech is a fantasy, it didn't happen, even though
he told Othello it had.
Very interesting, thanks.
Many of the relationships of Shakespeare's male characters have been brought into question.... one such example is Mercutio's friendship with Romeo (long before the Luhrmann interpretation). Some have suggested that he had deep feelings for Romeo which is one of the reasons that he fought for him. OF course this is just one example in this particular case.
This is one of the fun things about reading, not just Shakespeare, but all works. Read, make an opinion and then find the textual evidence to back it up, just make sure you explain your evidence well.
As I was watching this version of othello, it crossed my mind that the men in this film talk 'oddly' to one another. But remembering that men have talked that way to each other until the 18th or 19th century, that thought quickly went away. If you read some of the letters and writings of our founding fathers and others of that time period, and even up to the civil war, you will see that they used the same sweet, chivarous endearments to each other, the same affectations, just like Iago and Othello did. So, it never crossed my mind that anyone in that film was being portrayed as gay. I also believe that anyone who gives it much thought, espiecially in relation to what it says about shakespere's sexuality, has far too much time on their hands.
"meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with mustard"
This film left out the most important soliloquy by Iago in the entire play... he says ""for I do suspect the lusty Moor hath leapt into my seat, the thought whereof doth, like a poisonous mineral gnaw my innards"..."and nothing can or shall content my soul til I am evened with him wife for wife!"...later he says "for I fear Cassio with my nightcap too"... So Iago's reasons for doing what he does (to Othello and Cassio) are totally based on jealousy because he believes both men have cuckolded him.
share"he only wrote sonnets to men"
Er, no. Dark lady, anyone ?