Ch. Bala Swamy, Assistant. Prof. Dr. V. Sri Rama Murthy, Sr. Associate. Prof of English have authored a paper and published in "International Journal of Contemporary Research In India"

Abstract:

Linda Woodbridge, in the essay "Tragedies", says, "Tragedy is one of many human efforts to explore the problem of evil." Yes, it is true. Shakespeare's Othello explores various shapes of problems of evil and villainy in the person Iago. Iago is such a 'Hellish villain' and 'Spartan dog' that he exceeds Satan in his villainy. To achieve his end, he uses everyone either good or bad in his web of malicious actions and soon has them slaves of his designs. Being the master of double knavery, he manages to make everyone in the play believe that he is honest and trustworthy. He wears his heart upon his sleeve and he is not what he is. People like Iago are direct descendents of Satan. In the later part of her essay, Linda opines, "Figures of evil in tragedies are sometimes influenced by the vice figure in medieval morality plays- a wicked tempter who was originally an allegorical representative of Evil. Characters such as Richard III and Iago show signs of descent from the Vice, and they also owe something to the influence of the Italian Renaissance writer Machiavelli, who advocated an amoral will to power, seen in England not so much as politically expedient as downright demonic."