‘By Janus’ : Othello and Roman Comedy

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  • 「ヤヌス神にかけて誓って」 : 『オセロー』と古代ローマ喜劇
  • ヤヌスシン ニ カケテ チカッテ : 『 オセロー 』 ト コダイ ローマ キゲキ

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Abstract

The paper is intended as an investigation of the Janus-like phantasmagoria in Shakespeare’s Othello, especially referring to the Plautus’s Miles gloriosus. In Miles gloriosus, Palaestrio the slave, in order to deceive Pyrgopolinices the braggart soldier, manages to fashion the doubles out of the female characters. Under the influence of this Roman comedy, “two-faced” Iago, who is the ectype of Palaestrio, conjures up the Janus-like phantasmagoria in which leading characters are led to meet their other selves: Desdemona faces a “whore” named Desdemona; Othello is obliged to acknowledge himself as “the green-eyed monster.” In the denouement of this play, however, both Othello and Desdemona put up their final resistance against Iago’s conjuration by fashioning and acting out their own double roles.

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