Othello Act II, Scene iii

"Two things are to be done:  My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress, I'll set her on, myself the while to draw the Moor apart and bring him jump when he may Cassio find soliciting his wife.  Aye, that's the way.  Dull not device by coldness and delay." - Iago.


For this blog, I am going to answer a question found on p. 1119 of my text book

How is dramatic suspense created?  Contrast the amount of information possessed by the audience as the play proceeds with the knowledge that various individual characters have: what is the effect of such a contrast?

Dramatic suspense is created when Iago speaks alone on the stage and reveals his motivations and his plans for destroying Othello.  The audience knows very well that Iago is evil and is going to betray Othello.  The suspense comes because Othello has no idea what is happening and believes Iago is a very trustworthy person.  The other characters even call Iago "honest Iago."  This helps to reinforce the huge contrast between what the audience knows and what individual characters know.  The audience can't help but get nervous every time Iago is on stage because we know that he is probably devising or putting into effect his evil plans.  The effect of this contrast is that it keeps the audience captivated in what is going on.  The audience is just waiting for some drastic event to happen as a cause of Iago's devious plans.