Today I wanted to examine Othello as a leader, with the help of an article by a man named Mark Stein that appeared in the journal Organization Studies. In this post I will reflect on Stein's thesis, and then do my own close reading of a scene to find textual support for his thesis. You might wonder why I'm performing a close reading when Stein has obviously already done so. Since I agree with Stein's thesis, I thought the best way to agree with him would be to go to the text and find my own support for it. In fact, I haven't read his entire article--I read enough to understand his position, but I ignored his textual evidence so that I could find my own without being influenced by what he had found.
Stein's basic thesis is that Iago "represents an inner character within Othello’s mind, as well as an external character." By analyzing the text with Iago as an inner character of Othello's mind, we can see both the outward actions and "inner workings of the mind" of the leader, Othello. I selected a short section of Act 3, Scene 3, which is known for the cunning, devilish dialogue that Iago employs, and I performed a close analysis. (You can view my complete analysis here.)
Here are the key takeaways from my analysis:
1) Confidence is a strength; overconfidence is a flaw.
Othello is a successful soldier and has managed to carve a unique, important role for himself in society. Although he is a minority, the government has special need for his talents. He would not have this success, or respect from others, if he weren't confident in himself. However, close analysis of the dialogue reveals that Othello may have become overconfident in his own abilities, particularly his judgment. "I know that thou art full of love and honesty, and weighest thy words before thou givest them breath." The dialogue with the "inner mind" would prove that Othello, in his zeal for judging Cassio, has overestimated his own abilities.
2) Hearsay is irrelevant; evidence needs to come from the source.
Throughout the play, one of Othello's weaknesses is his inability to approach Cassio personally about the conflict. In the analysis I conducted, Othello places particular emphasis on the word "seems" when describing Cassio's situation, which strongly appeals to hearsay. This small conflict, and ultimately the tragic ending of the play, could be avoided if Othello took responsibility as a leader to speak with the person that is being accused.
3) Self-deprecation does not excuse deprecation of others.
One of Othello's critical errors is that he believes that by acknowledging his own weaknesses he is thereby free to point out Cassio's weaknesses. "Oft my jealousy shapes thoughts that are not..." He leads himself to believe that he's only being fair in his treatment of Cassio. This seems to be a common error found in leaders--they believe that by recognizing a flaw of their own, they are then qualified to criticize others. In this case, Othello is completely unjustified because he is the one casting judgment both on himself and on Cassio. For an accurate evaluation he should be appealing to others, not just himself (and Iago).
These points, of course, are Othello's failures as a leader. The text certainly supports Stein's thesis that if you analyze the play with Iago as the inner mind of Othello, you can arrive at unique observations of the mind of a leader.
