" 'Honest Iago hath ta'en order for 't.' " V. ii. v 72.
I literally want to beat my head against the wall. Othello refuses to stop calling Iago "honest". Now I realize that he can't see all that I can or hear the exposition of Iago's plans to the audience, but seriously. If he was truly so in love with Desdemona, why can't he stop for just a second to listen to her? Why is death the only option in Shakespeare's plays? Wife cheated? Kill her! Friend betrayed you? Kill him! Don't like somebody? Kill them! It's ridiculous. But then again, this is a tragedy written by Shakespeare. Somebody has to die. In the mean time, let's drive the audience nuts with suspense created through dramatic irony.
The dramatic irony comes from all the exposition Iago has with the audience. We understand his plan and can see how all the characters accidentally interact without knowing it, but they cannot. So Othello, however rash, doesn't have that much reason to mistrust Iago and take action on his advice. The suspense happens while the audience is sitting on the edge of seats, waiting for Othello to figure out how stupid he has been. Especially in the fifth act, when everything is coming to light, it seems to take a year for Othello to realize that he has been the victim of dramatic irony this whole time. The suspense climaxes and ends in a stab battle which leaves three dead bodies lying on bed with Iago smiling evilly on top of them (in the movie that is). Yup, this is a tragedy.
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