Can't we talk it out?

Two things struck me while reading the fourth act of Othello. The first was regarding our discussion of Iago in class on Friday in regards to how difficult he is to read as a character. The second being how fast Othello jumps to a conclusion when Iago tells him Cassio has been fooling around with his wife.

When I first started reading the play I pictured Othello as a great and noble general, looking out for the interests of his community, friends, family and most importantly for his wife. Judging from reading the play and watching the clip in class, Othello and Desdemona seemed very in love with each other. I took it as kind of a shock at how quickly he blew up and lost his faith in his wife. Right in the very beginning of the act we see Othello "losing his temper" and around 4.1.34 is when he hits a breaking point. He says to Iago "Lie with her? Lie on her? We say 'lie on her' when they belie her. Lie with her? 'Swounds, that's fulsome!" He is disgusted at the thought of what Cassio has done with her. He then starts to go off about the handkerchief, and says he wouldn't feel all these feeling "unless there was some cause for it." At this point Iago has worked his trickery and got into the head of Othello sending him into a trance like state which Iago says is a case of epilepsy. After he comes to and Desdemona shows up he is blatantly rude to her, calling her names and he goes so far as to strike her. This even upsets Lodovico who asks Othello to apologize and reconcile with her but Othello remains stubborn and refuses. I know this is a Shakespeare play and its all crucial to the story but it really irritates me that Othello completely trusted Iago and blew up on his wife. Wouldnt he want to talk to her about it, hear it from her, they are married after all. It seems to be a continuing thing among the plays we have read of characters jumping to conclusions and people getting married way to early for their own good. But they're only stories, a very frustrating stories.

Onto Iago. The character is extremely difficult to pin-point! I am having a difficult time really understanding what this guy is trying to do. The one thing that did confuse me was his dialogue with Roderigo at the end of the act. Roderigo seems pretty upset with him, I read it as he was done being one of Iago's pawns, but then it seems like he agrees to go along with Iago's plan to kill Cassio. In 4.3.242 he says "I will hear further reason for this" and Iago responds by saying "and you shall be satisfied." How did Iago so easily convince Roderigo to help him kill Cassio? Iago is very talented in the department of evil, he should be a car salesman or something of that nature. Either Roderigo is morally weak or Iago is a force not to be reckoned with. I have a feeling its the latter.