A Fury in the Words: Love and Embarrassment in Shakespeare's Venice

26. Dark Triangles in 3.3

dark triangles ‡ 129 its territory. They belong to its structure. The triangle has a will of its own. Until the disclosure in 3.3, Iago thinks he created the triangle. But it preexisted his wicked deeds and gave him his power well before he began to think of using it. How infuriating and humiliating it would be for him to discover the way his victims have used him! 26. dark triangles in 3.3 The idea that Cassio should appeal for help to Desdemona (2.3.309–20) was first suggested by Iago. It was he who planned to make Emilia “move for Cassio to her mistress” and to arrange for Othello to find Cassio “Soliciting” Desdemona (2.3.378, 382–83).1 Act 3 opens with Cassio asking Othello’s Clown to notify Emilia he’d like an interview and then reporting this to his honest friend, her husband. Iago obligingly offers “to draw the Moor/Out of the way” (3.1.37–38). Up to now, he has comfortably managed the campaign in which attempts at reparation will lead to tragic consequences. But this balance of power begins to change immediately. After Iago leaves, Emilia enters and assures Cassio “all will . . . be well” because “The general and his wife” are already “talking of it,/And she speaks for you stoutly; the Moor replies” that although Cassio’s offense was serious and can’t be ignored, “he protests he loves you/And needs no other suitor but his likings” to find the opportunity to reinstate him (3.1.42–52).2 Desdemona need not take on herself the role of Cassio’s suitor: Othello loves him enough for both of them. The (still undisclosed) shadow of triangulated desire falls across Emilia’s report. The importance of this critical moment in the play has been vividly illuminated by Graham Bradshaw: one “effect of Emilia’s report is to make Desdemona’s subsequent appeals in 3.3 redundant, and even offensive .” Another “is to suggest how, at this crucial moment, Othello is to be the victim not only of his ensign’s brilliantly malignant improvi1 . That Iago carried this plan out is indicated by Emilia’s remark at 3.3.3– 4: Cassio’s plight “grieves my husband/As if the cause were his.” 2. In view of subsequent developments centered on the handkerchief, it’s worth noting that Emilia’s complicity with Iago and distance from Othello are suggested here when she follows Iago in referring to Othello as “the Moor.” 130 ‡ contaminated intimacy in othello sations but also of the two people he most ‘loves’ and trusts.” Had Cassio abandoned “his (or Iago’s) plan of involving Desdemona as soon as he had heard Emilia’s report . . . the play, or the play Iago is now staging, would stop.”3 As Bradshaw notes, Emilia’s use of the present progressive tense indicates that the discussion she reports occurs as she speaks.4 This means that Desdemona must just have come from her talk with Othello when she opens 3.3 by greeting Cassio with the promise that “I will do/All my abilities in thy behalf.” Bradshaw’s analysis makes what follows even stranger. In spite of the good news Cassio hears from Emilia, and in spite of “Othello’s insistence that . . . [Desdemona’s] role as ‘Suitor’ is . . . inappropriate,” both Cassio and Desdemona persist.5 First, Cassio implores Emilia to set up an interview “with Desdemon alone” (3.1.53–54). The interview takes place after the brief interval of a six-line scene (3.2) guarantees it will be undisturbed by showing Othello on his way to work. Desdemona vows to make Othello’s life miserable until he agrees to reinstate Cassio: “thy solicitor shall rather die/Than give thy cause away” (3.3.27–28). As Bradshaw notes, these requests and assertions seem gratuitous and even perverse. Having been advised by Othello to butt out, Desdemona “encourages Cassio to believe that she is the general’s general” and that his reinstatement depends on her success in “overcoming Othello’s resistance with her own eager and relentless suit.”6 From this moment on, the trouble the trio make for themselves facilitates and exceeds the trouble Iago makes for them. No sooner does Desdemona promise lifelong solicitation than Othello enters with Iago. Cassio therefore turns down her invitation to “stay and hear me speak” (3.3.31) and skitters nervously away. Noticing this, Iago begins his direct assault with a...