BUFFY: Jealousy!

TEACHER: Buffy. Right. Very good.

NANCY: (V.O.) I knew that.

TEACHER: Jealousy clearly is the tool that Iago uses to undo Othello. But what's his motivation? What reason does Iago give for destroying his superior officer?

NANCY: (V.O.) Cassio has my place. Twix my sheets, he's done my office.

BUFFY: Well, he was passed over for promotion. Cassio was picked instead and people were saying that Othello slept with his wife.

WILLOW: (V.O.) Buffy did the reading? Buffy understood the reading?

XANDER: (V.O.) When did she study? Was I supposed to study? Ms. Murray's kinda hot.

NANCY: (V.O.) I was gonna say Cassio. Uh, I hate her.

TEACHER: Any other reason.

NANCY: (blurting out) Race!

TEACHER: Uh... good Nancy. Can't overlook that.

FREDDY: (V.O.) Look at them, scrambling for the teacher's praise like pigeons for thrown bread crust.

BUFFY: (whispering) Will, who's that guy.

WILLOW: That's Freddy Iverson. He writes those editorials for the school paper. He's sardonic.

FREDDY (V.O.) Bread crusts. That's deep. I should write that down.

TEACHER: There's something else at work here.

BUFFY: Well, he, um, he sort of admits himself that his motive are... spurious! He, um, he does things because he, he enjoys them. It's like he's not, he's not really a person. He's a, the dark half of Othello himself.

WILLOW: (V.O.) Huh...

XANDER: (V.O.) Woah!

TEACHER: Buffy. Really. Very astute. I said something quite like that in my dissertation.

BUFFY: I know. Uh, I mean... I agree. With that.

TEACHER: Yes, and doesn't that also explain Othello's readiness to believe Iago. Within seconds he turns on Desdomona. He believes that she's been unfaithful. And we're all like that. We all have our little internal Iagos, that tell us our husbands or our girlfriends or whatever, don't really love us. But you never really see what's in someone's heart.

• Academics

written by: Jane Espenson; . Full transcript at:
http://www.studiesinwords.de/52earshot.html