Homosexuality in Shakespeare\'s Tragedies Elements of Sexuality

Homosexuality in Shakespeare's Tragedies

Elements of sexuality and lust are very openly present in the works of Shakespeare's tragedies. No matter if one is reading Othello, Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, one can't deny the frequent allusions to concepts such as love and lust, hatred and desire, want and self-absorption, even violence as they relate to relationships and sexuality. This common theme pervaded much of the work that was written during the time of Shakespeare, and is evident even of great works today. Has the work of Shakespeare, especially as written and revealed in the tragedies however, been adequately explored? Has society achieved ultimate understanding of all the deep seated desires of Shakespeare's work, or are there hidden themes related to sexuality that have yet to be uncovered?

Shakespeare's tragedies undoubtedly reveal the emotions involved when portraying characters filled with love and lust, desire and feeling toward one another in typical love hate relationships. There is another side of Shakespeare's tragedies however, one involved intimately with sexuality, that has cause to be considered further. The theme of homosexuality as portrayed in the tragedies warrants a great deal of exploration, as it has warranted fervent discussion amongst interpreters, literary scholars and psychoanalysts not to mention the avid reader.

There are many that would say that Shakespeare's work exhibits many elements of male friendship as commonly portrayed in the Renaissance era. However, upon closer examination it is highly reasonable to assume that many of Shakespeare's male tragic figures in fact displayed outright homoerotic and homosexual tendencies. Some even argue that William Shakespeare himself may have lived a secretly gay lifestyle. Many have discussed and pondered over the prevalence of homosexual innuendo's in the Sonnet's that Shakespeare wrote. Sonnet Twenty is a prime example of a work completed by William Shakespeare that openly expresses his desire for another male figure. What of Shakespeare's tragedies?

Homosexual tendencies can also be attributed to many of Shakespeare's tragedies including Othello and Hamlet. The relationships between the male parties in his works is often ambivalent, indicating a leaning toward female sexual desire at one moment and males sexual desire the next. Perhaps a more correct synopsis would be to suppose that Shakespeare's work often takes on bisexual tendencies.

Close examination of the wording in Shakespeare's work reveals many hidden implications that openly express sexuality, lust and desire. The real question is, are these tendencies always heterosexual in nature or can they in fact be considered homosexual?

Many have written on the idea of the prevalence of homosexual emotions in Shakespeare's works, and commented openly about their considerations. "If there is veritas in vino, there is surely veritas in coitu," says Wendy Doniger in her 1996 article entitled Sex, Lies, and Tall Tales" (Doniger 1). Michael Foucault put it slightly differently, "At the bottom of sex, there is truth," he said. "It is in the area of sex that we must search for the most secret and profound truths about the individual, that it is there that we can best discover what he is and what determines him" (Doninger, 1). Thus it is that we might solve a pervasive mystery present in Shakespeare's texts. It is through an exploration of sexual lies and fiction that we might discover the truth about Iago, the villain of Othello, the Moor of Venice, who participates in the one explicit act of homosexuality that occurs in any of Shakespeare's tragedies (Partridge 13). That is not to say that Shakespeare's tragic texts, which are rife with sexual innuendo, do not contain other references to homosexuality. However, Partridge notes that, "Shakespeare alludes to homosexuality very seldom and most cursorily" (Patridge 13). In fact, Iago is the only one of Shakespeare's characters who willingly admits to having engaged in sexual activity with another man. Therefore, the tale of Othello, the Moor of Venice is the most logical starting place for an examination of homosexuality in Shakespeare's works. And, if indeed Iago is meant to be read as a homosexual character, much of his jealousy and hatred for both Desdemona and Othello may be explained in that way. As Foucault says, "we now know that it is sex itself which hides the most secret parts of the individual; the structure of his fantasies, the roots of his ego, the forms of his relationship to reality," (Doniger 1). What Coleridge, trying to shed some light on why Iago behaves as he does, calls the "motive hunting of a motive-less malignity," may be explained by Iago's latent sexual desire for Othello. (Bevington, 1123) After all, the play focuses on the motif of sexual jealousy and the subsequent destruction of love that such jealousy engenders. It is not untenable to assume that there are several sexual jealousies at work in the play, not just Othello's jealousy of Desdemona.

Throughout the text, Iago expresses his hatred for Othello again and again. It is almost as if he is trying to convince himself even as he tries to convince others. In the opening scene, Roderigo pushes Iago to explain why he continues to serve Othello when he professes such a determined hatred for the man. And, while Iago presents a moderately plausible explanation, it is not necessarily an explanation that is couched in veritas. There are many who argue that Iago's very expressive comments and focused attention on Othello are enough in and of themselves to prove his homoerotic tendencies.

Iago further explains that he has been passed up by Othello for a military preferment that was awarded to Cassio instead. The explanation rings true in a certain sense. Iago is a "junior field officer who hates being outranked by a theoretician or staff officer," in the form of Cassio (Bevington, 1123).

Iago tells Roderigo that there is no remedy for the situation. "Tis the curse of service;" he explains, "Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation" (Othello I, i, 35-37). Iago appears to feel a reasonable chagrin at the whimsical nature of senior officers who award advancement based on friendship rather than years of loyal service. It soon becomes apparent, however, that what Iago actually feels is a deep and pervasive anger - an anger that will lead him to seek the absolute destruction of Othello, Cassio, Desdemona, and even himself. It is a kind of anger that seems out of proportion to a lost promotion and more in keeping with a spurned lover's desire for retribution. It also becomes apparent throughout the play that Iago does not necessarily want Othello dead, but he certainly wants Cassio and Desdemona in that condition. "In following him," Iago says of Othello, " I follow but myself," which indicates that he sees himself inextricably intertwined with Othello and his fortunes (Othello I, i, 58). It seems fair to argue that someone so inextricably intertwined in the life of another would ultimately have some sort of love, some deep felt bond with this person, whether outwardly expressed or not.

Further, Iago is not taking the whole matter as lightly as it first appears. Essentially, he is a man with a plan. He tells Roderigo that he will appear to be Othello's friend. He will outwardly profess love and duty, "but seeming so, for my peculiar end" (Othello, I, i, 60.)

Tis not long after but I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at. I am not what I am." (Othello I, i, 64-66).

During this conversation, Iago and Roderigo are proceeding to Brabantio's house to tell him that his daughter has eloped with Othello. When they arrive, Iago describes their union in spectacularly vile terms. "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!," he calls out to Brabantio. (I, I 89-90) When Roderigo attempts to mitigate his crudeness, Iago goes even farther. "I am one sire, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moore are now making the beast with two backs," he informs Brabantio (I, i, 117-119)

Thus, in the very first scene of the play, Iago chooses to describe Desdemona's and Othello's sexual activity in determinedly inflammatory terms. It would not seem to be the lack of military promotion that has aroused such deep passion in Iago and driven him near to madness, but rather Othello's coupling with Desdemona that has him bothered. And, with the words, "I am not what I am" Iago has interjected an air of mystery and menace into the plot. The reader can only conclude that there is another layer beyond the obvious; another dimension to Iago that is driving him in tragic directions.

Iago's preoccupation with Desdemona presents yet another troubling factor in the play. Bevington notes that while Iago may have reason to be peeved with both Cassio and Othello, Desdemona has not done him any harm.

Yet, he seems to reserve a special hatred for her in particular and plots to destroy her reputation and even her life as well.

Iago's "jealous paranoia," of Desdemona, as Bevington terms it, may actually be the key to all that is driving him in the first place. He may hate her most of all because she has stolen his fancied lovers, Cassio, and particularly Othello.

Later on, in Act III, comes the famous (or infamous) homosexual scene in which Iago purports to have engaged in sexual behavior with Cassio. His ostensible purpose is to convince Othello that Cassio was talking about Desdemona in his sleep and convince Othello that Desdemona is cuckolding him.

I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;

And, being troubled with a raging tooth, could not sleep. There are a kind of men

So loose of soul that in their sleeps will mutter

Their Affairs. One of this kind is Cassio.

In sleep I heard him say, "Sweet Desdemona,

Let us be wary, let us hide our loves!"

And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,

Cry, "O sweet creature!" And then kiss me hard,

As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots

That grew upon my lips; then laid his leg

Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd, and then Cried, "Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!"

Iago does not seem upset or bothered by having participated in sexual acts with Cassio. He does not relate that he leaped from the bed and stabbed Cassio with his sword on the spot, for making advances toward him, but seems to view the whole fictitious scene as nothing out of the ordinary. And, so does Othello. He does not question why Iago would have been sleeping in Cassio's bed or how Iago should have reacted when Cassio began to kiss and fondle him. They both, apparently, view a sexual encounter between Iago and Cassio as a perfectly ordinary event, which could indicate that Othello is well aware of Iago's sexual proclivities and is completely undaunted by them.

To be entirely fair to Othello, he has, in this particular moment, been manipulated by Iago to be focused only upon Desdemona's supposed wrongdoings, and that may be his fatal error.

It is quite possible that Iago is also conveying a more subtle message; one that cannot be acknowledged on the surface. If Iago has not rejected Cassio's kisses and embraces, it might be assumed that he also would not reject Othello's, should they be offered. In Freudian terms, the sexual act may be "the ultimate key" to Iago's concealed identity (Doniger, 1). Perhaps Iago deliberately focuses Othello's attention on Desdemona in an effort to convince himself that he really is who he is. Sexual duplicity, according to Doniger, is really an effort to deceive ourselves.

It is "the need to hide the truth from other people in the hope that we will cease to recognize it ourselves." (Doniger 2). In other words, Iago feels an attraction for Cassio, and more importantly for Othello, but can't admit it even to himself. Therefore, it comes out in the form of a dark and terrible rage directed at all the other participants, a rage so powerful that it leads him to destroy them all, and in the end, it precipitates his own destruction as well. "The sexual act is simultaneously the most deceptive and the most truth-revealing of human acts." Doniger, 4). Even though Iago's sexual acts with Cassio are fictional, they ultimately reveal the truth about his sexual nature. If homosexual sex with Cassio were abhorrent to Iago, it is unlikely that he would attribute it to himself, even in a lie. Yet, he has not hesitated to use a homosexual liaison as the setting for his learning about Desdemona's duplicity, perhaps with good reason. He may have already fantasized just such a liaison before hatching a plot against Desdemona ever occurred to him, And, in that case, it did not seem like an unfamiliar or untoward event, but a natural setting in which he might hear what he claimed to have heard - Cassio's purported pillow talk with Desdemona.

While the other characters in the play are not reticent about their sexual conquests, Iago doesn't seem to share their enjoyment of bawdiness.

When it comes to the wine and women whose virtues other men extoll, Iago is the odd man out. It could be said that he exercises rigorous self-control.

Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness or manur'd with industry - why the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most prepost'rous conclusions. But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to be sect or scion."

I, iii, 322-323)

Here again, Iago may be obliquely speaking of the differences between heterosexual and homosexual sex. He indicates that passion must be strictly controlled since it may be attracted to either one gender of herbs or many. And, even though lust may be ignited in ways that would lead to preposterous conclusions (i.e., homosexual attraction), reason can bring it all under control. He goes on to say that "it is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will," (I, iii, 337-338).

While Iago is rigorously in control of his passions, or thinks he is, his need for Othello's affections occasionally creep undetected into his speech. What Iago expects to accomplish for himself in the end is not entirely clear, but at least a part of it seems to be gaining Othello's affections for himself.

We get some inkling of this in Act II, Scene 1, when Iago says "make the moor thank me, love me, and reward me." He also pledges his love to Othello on other occasions. In Act III, Scene 3, when Othello is attempting to put away his jealousy for Desdemona, Iago declares "I am glad of this, for now I shall have reason, To show the love and duty that I bear you."

Although he has consistently professed to hate Othello, Iago's speeches to Othello give the lie to those professions. Ultimately, when he realizes that Othello will never make him an object of affection, when his manipulations are revealed and Othello reviles him, Iago refuses to ever speak again. He understands that it is through speech that his real feelings, his attraction to Othello, has been revealed and, rigorous self-disciplinarian that he is, he vows to end the speech that has betrayed him.

Critics have not viewed Othello as a man scorned in love or an individual conflicted between the herbs in his garden scenario. He has more often been portrayed as a malignant, malicious spirit, creating trouble simply to see how it plays out. In that interpretation, his hatred for Desdemona creates questions. After all, as Bevington says, Desdemona has done Iago no harm and, in fact, is the only really good person in the play. "She is too good to be struck down through some inner flaw," and that is why Iago is determined to see her suffer (Bevington 1123). He perceives of Iago as a devil-like figure and says that Othello regards Iago as a demi-devil, "a hellish villain." Iago, Bevington claims, "belongs to a select group of villains in Shakespeare, who while plausibly motivated in human terms, also take delight in evil for its own sake" (Bevington 1122). Iago, he maintains, is "conscienceless, sinister, and amused at his own cunning."

It is more likely that Iago is a sexually conflicted male who feels a homosexual attraction to Othello, but cannot admit it even to himself. His professed hatred for Othello bears a strong resemblance to frustrated love and sexuality masquerading as hatred. So, on the occasions when Iago professes his love, he is expressing his true self, even if he is completely unaware of it. To be conscious of these desires and feelings, of this tendency and nature or homosexuality would be unthinkable, and therefore it must be repressed.

Because of this, Iago's lust must manifest itself in his disdain for Desdemona, his disregard for Cassio, and his anger toward Othello. But, as Foucault maintains "at the bottom of sex there is truth." And it is at the bottom of Iago's imaginary sex with Cassio that the real truth of his character lies. One can easily discern his passion for Othello throughout the body of work, most evident as indicated by his passionate anger and outrage toward Othello.

One interesting note to consider about the time that Shakespeare's work was written that leads credence to the idea that homosexuality and bisexuality were deeply entwined in his works. Some have referred to the Renaissance time frame as a time frame where it was not ok for men to walk about openly as homosexuals, but acknowledged that men often went on what was termed as "buggering" expeditions. "Buggering" was a term used to describe homosexual relations a male might have with another male, without giving credence to this act as a type of lifestyle or frequent act. Rather, it was seen as something that everyone randomly did, something that shouldn't be taken too seriously or out of context. (Kirkland). If nothing else, it is evident that sexuality is very voraciously explored in Othello's and Iago's interactions.

John Lord Hall explores the world of homosexuality as relevant to Shakespeare's tragedies in his work, "Othello, A Guide to the Play." He asks outright, "Where do Iago's sexual proclivities lie?" (Hall, 80). He goes on to acknowledge that many as we have pointed out previously have viewed Iago as having repressed homosexual tendencies, attracted not just to Othello as is made known through his fervent emotions toward the Moore but possibly also to Cassio, again in the form of a love-hate struggle between emotions (Hall, 81). Many argue however that Iago's homosexual tendencies, as expressed by hall exist only in his subconscious mind, and therefore might not be so important as to bring to the forefront. Laurence Olivier took up a suggestion from a Freudian critic Hall points out, that portrayed Iago as sexually attracted to Othello. However he also felt that this did not do justice to the character necessarily (Hall, 81). Still it is difficult to argue against homosexual tendencies considering the following as pointed out by Iago's language.

Another author, much like many critics of Shakespeare's tragedy highlights aspects of Iago's sexuality as homosexual in nature. Rosenberg points out in his commentary on the interpretations by Laurence Olivier of Hamlet and Othello from a Freudian perspective. He quotes about Iago:

ideas were startlingly unconventional and as such appealed to both of them...to his mind the clue to the play was not Iago's hatred for Othello, but his deep affection for him. His jealousy was not because he envied Othello's position, not because he was in love with Desdemona, but because he himself possessed a subconscious affection for the Moor, the monosexual foundation of which he did not understand." (Rosenberg, 158).

Rosenberg goes on to state the following of Iago's homosexual subconscious, "The great climax in Act III, when Iago and Othello kneel together planning the death of Cassio, became virtually a love scene with Othello's "Now art though my lieutenant' and Igo's reply, 'I am your own forever' taking on a new significance." (Rosenberg, 158). This has become the most frequently referred to statement (I am your own forever) when referring to Iago's homosexuality, whether he was overtly conscious of it or not. Some would go so far Rosenberg argues, to claim that Iago had a "perverse sexual make-up." Perhaps as mentioned earlier, this was merely reflective of the repressed sexuality of the time in which the play and Shakespeare's subsequent tragedies were presented to the public. Iago's motive in all of his actions, based on Rosenberg's interpretation and as the result of discussions with many other psychoanalysts and philosophers, can only be described as the result of complex emotions and motivations. The anger and hatred that swells up in him may not necessarily be the result of an evil residing deep within the man, but rather of a confusing cornucopia of feelings that include the repressed desires of a man in love with another man.

It seems that the only means Iago had to release these deeply seated feelings was to divert his emotions into lust and desire for more appropriate characters, and to act out on all of the pent up rage that possibly existed from his own jealousy of the Moore's interaction, the lack of time and intimacy he might share with him, fear, perhaps even as Rosenberg mentions self-contempt and shame, even hate (Rosenberg, 181). Also pointed out in this synopsis of Iago's character is the fact that he tries to "deceive the outer world about his inner life, as he himself is obviously deceived about his power to subdue his own emotions." (Rosenberg).