character to whom Shakespeare gives the best speeches. Audiences are certainly far more interested and intrigued by Iago than they are by Othello. Yet Iago is the antagonist of the play, a devious and clever villain who dominates the play and manipulates the other characters in it. The character of Othello becomes, in a sense, Iago’s puppet. Iago tugs on a string, and Othello is forced to move whether he desires to do so or not. InMerchantthe villainousShylockalso intrigues the audiences and similarly manipulates the character of Antonio into taking action that runs contrary to his own beliefs. And just as Iago wishes to destroy Othello, Shylock desires to destroy Antonio.
But the second half ofMerchantbears more similarity toAs You Like It. In that comedy the wonderful female character namedRosalindtakes command of the play and of the other characters in it. By disguising herself as a man, she sorts out the problems for all of the characters in the play, including herself: she creates order out of chaos. Shakespeare had a great deal of respect for the abilities and intelligence of women, and he certainly reveals that respect through the character of Rosalind. Indeed, many noted Shakespeare critics often rank Rosalind as one of his greatest creations, right alongside his greatest male characters, notably Hamlet and Falstaff. And because Shakespeare is