E X T E N S I O N THE VILLAIN AND HIS VICTIMS: WHO ARE THEY? Shakespeare s tragic hero is a strong, powerful and dignified Moor, a popular hero whose qualities have a good side and a bad one. Othello is a soldier with a strict moral code1, he believes in people s honesty and sincerity, so it is easy for a man like Iago to manipulate him. The stories the Moor tells his wife are rich and impressive, he has an intense poetic imagination. But this passionate and romantic aspect of his personality makes Othello vulnerable to Iago s tales about women s unfaithfulness.2 Othello is an outsider3, he is never completely at home, and he knows that the others consider him a foreigner. He is not jealous by nature. It is Iago that plays with his passions and makes him suspicious and violent. Iago writes the main plot and has a key role4 in the play because he provokes Othello s downfall5 and Desdemona s ruin. She, young and inexperienced, with no defence against his intrigues, represents the good that evil often destroys. 1. code: codice. 2. unfaithfulness: infedeltà. 3. outsider: estraneo. 4. key role: ruolo principale. 5. downfall: caduta. Roderigo and Iago, The BBC TV Shakespeare (1981). 63