Hamlet is to Macbeth somewhat as the Ghost is to the Witches. Revenge, or ambition, in its inception may have a lofty, even a maje...stic countenance, but when it has "coupled hell" and become crime, it grows increasingly foul and sordid. We love and admire Hamlet so much at the beginning that we tend to forget that he is as hot-blooded as the earlier Macbeth when he kills Polonius and the King, cold-blooded as the later Macbeth or Iago when he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to death.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Think'st thou I'd make a life of jealousy, To follow still the changes of the moon... With fresh suspicions? No! To be once in doubt Is once to be resolv'd. Exchange me for a goat When I shall turn the business of my soul To such exsufflicate and blown surmises, Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well; Where virtue is, these are more virtuous. Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt, For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago, I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; And on the proof, there is no more but this-- Away at once with love or jealousy!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm? It is hypocrisy against the devil.... They that mean virtuously and yet do so, The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The word "jealousy" is often used as if it were synonymous with envy; but I think the distinction worth preserving. Jealousy is pr...edominantly concerned with the fear of loss of something one possesses, envy with the wish to own something another possesses. Othello suffers from the fear that he has lost Desdemona's love. Iago suffers from envy of the position held by Cassio, to which he feels entitled.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We become lovers when we see Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet makes us students. The blood of Duncan is upon our hands, with Timon we ...rage against the world, and when Lear wanders out upon the heath the terror of madness touches us. Ours is the white sinlessness of Desdemona, and ours, also, the sin of Iago.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »