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Oedipus Rex: Tragic Irony
The famous phrase, "The motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity," occurs in anote Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in his copy of Shakespeare, as he waspreparing a series of lectures delivered in the winter of 1818-1819. The noteconcerns the end of Act 1, Scene 3 of Othello in which Iago takes leave of Roderigo, saying,"Go to, farewell. Put money enough in your purse,"and then delivers the soliloquy beginning"Thus do I ever make my fool my purse."Here is Coleridge's note:The triumph! again, put money after the effect has been fully produced.--The lastSpeech, the motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity--how awful! In itself fiendish--while yet he was allowed to bear the divine image, too fiendish for his own steadyView.--A being next to Devil--only not quite Devil--& this Shakespeare hasattempted-- executed--without disgust, without Scandal!-- (Lectures 1808-1819On Literature 2: 315)
Coleridge's phrase is often taken to mean that Iago has no real motive and doesevil only because he is evil. This is not far from what Coleridge meant, but healmost certainly wasn't using the word “motive" in the same way as it's now used.We use it to mean “an emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse thatacts as an incitement to action" ("Motive"). This definition equates “motive" and“impulse"; Coleridge, however, thought the two quite different. He makes thisdistinction in an entry he wrote for Omniana, a collection of sayings assembledby his friend Robert Southey and published in 1812. Here is what Coleridgewrote:119. Motives and Impulses.“It is a matter of infinite difficulty, but fortunately of comparative indifference, todetermine what a man's motive may have been for this or that particular action.Rather seek to learn what his objects in general are!--What does he habituallywish? habitually pursue?--and thence deduce his impulses, which are commonlythe true efficient causes of men's conduct; and without which the motive itself would not have become a motive. Let a haunch of venison represent the motive,and the keen appetite of health and exercise the impulse: then place the same or some more favourite dish, before the same man, sick, dyspeptic, and stomach-worn, and we may then weigh the comparative influences of motives andimpulses. Without the perception of this truth, it is impossible to understand thecharacter of Iago, who is represented as now assigning one, and then another,and again a third, motive for his conduct, all alike the mere fictions of his ownrestless nature, distempered by a keen sense of his intellectual superiority, andhaunted by the love of exerting power, on those especially who are his superiorsin practical and moral excellence. Yet how many among our modern critics haveattributed to the profound author this, the appropriate inconsistency of thecharacter itself!” (Shorter Works and Fragments 1: 310)Thus Coleridge asserts that Iago's motives (in our sense) were his “keen senseof his intellectual superiority" and his “love of exerting power." And so Iago'smalignity is “motiveless" because his motives (in Coleridge's sense) -- beingpassed over for promotion, his suspicion that Othello is having an affair with hiswife, and the suspicion that Cassio is also having an affair with Emilia -- aremerely rationalizations
The famous phrase, "The motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity," occurs in anote Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in his copy of Shakespeare, as he waspreparing a series of lectures delivered in the winter of 1818-1819. The noteconcerns the end of Act 1, Scene 3 of Othello in which Iago takes leave of Roderigo, saying,"Go to, farewell. Put money enough in your purse,"and then delivers the soliloquy beginning"Thus do I ever make my fool my purse."Here is Coleridge's note:The triumph! again, put money after the effect has been fully produced.--The lastSpeech, the motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity--how awful! In itself fiendish--while yet he was allowed to bear the divine image, too fiendish for his own steadyView.--A being next to Devil--only not quite Devil--& this Shakespeare hasattempted-- executed--without disgust, without Scandal!-- (Lectures 1808-1819On Literature 2: 315)
Coleridge's phrase is often taken to mean that Iago has no real motive and doesevil only because he is evil. This is not far from what Coleridge meant, but healmost certainly wasn't using the word “motive" in the same way as it's now used.We use it to mean “an emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse thatacts as an incitement to action" ("Motive"). This definition equates “motive" and“impulse"; Coleridge, however, thought the two quite different. He makes thisdistinction in an entry he wrote for Omniana, a collection of sayings assembledby his friend Robert Southey and published in 1812. Here is what Coleridgewrote:119. Motives and Impulses.“It is a matter of infinite difficulty, but fortunately of comparative indifference, todetermine what a man's motive may have been for this or that particular action.Rather seek to learn what his objects in general are!--What does he habituallywish? habitually pursue?--and thence deduce his impulses, which are commonlythe true efficient causes of men's conduct; and without which the motive itself would not have become a motive. Let a haunch of venison represent the motive,and the keen appetite of health and exercise the impulse: then place the same or some more favourite dish, before the same man, sick, dyspeptic, and stomach-worn, and we may then weigh the comparative influences of motives andimpulses. Without the perception of this truth, it is impossible to understand thecharacter of Iago, who is represented as now assigning one, and then another,and again a third, motive for his conduct, all alike the mere fictions of his ownrestless nature, distempered by a keen sense of his intellectual superiority, andhaunted by the love of exerting power, on those especially who are his superiorsin practical and moral excellence. Yet how many among our modern critics haveattributed to the profound author this, the appropriate inconsistency of thecharacter itself!” (Shorter Works and Fragments 1: 310)Thus Coleridge asserts that Iago's motives (in our sense) were his “keen senseof his intellectual superiority" and his “love of exerting power." And so Iago'smalignity is “motiveless" because his motives (in Coleridge's sense) -- beingpassed over for promotion, his suspicion that Othello is having an affair with hiswife, and the suspicion that Cassio is also having an affair with Emilia -- aremerely rationalizations