The comparison of Snape to Shylock is interesting because both are physically repellant, mean-spirited, and self-serving, but both have clearly suffered undeserved humiliations that command our sympathy and compassion. Snape, too, has done something inexpressibly brave--he has left the Dark Side and betrayed it. It shouldn't surprise us that the experience hasn't made him friendlier and nicer. (And it shouldn't surprise us that Harry doesn't yet understand that.)
JKR isn't 100% in control of her characters, though she's getting better at it. Umbridge is a Mere Plot Device; her two-dimensionality is boring but has the advantage of making Snape look Complex.
I chose Iago rather than Shylock because I do think we are asked by Shakespeare to feel compassion and even guilt toward Shylock ("Hath not a Jew eyes?... If you prick us, do we not bleed?"). Iago, OTOH, is completely inexplicable. He arranges the destruction of several worthy and virtuous people out of--apparently--spite and boredom. And when asked what his motive was (not personal gain; he is going to die under torture), he refuses to answer.
So Iago, like Sauron, is a cipher, a marker of pure evil. That Shakespeare manages to make him interesting rather than a dead bore (Umbridge, Voldemort) is pretty impressive.
I think Tolkien had the right idea about Sauron--the less we know about him the more he works as a villain--or not even a villain, but a Presence.
no subject
JKR isn't 100% in control of her characters, though she's getting better at it. Umbridge is a Mere Plot Device; her two-dimensionality is boring but has the advantage of making Snape look Complex.
I chose Iago rather than Shylock because I do think we are asked by Shakespeare to feel compassion and even guilt toward Shylock ("Hath not a Jew eyes?... If you prick us, do we not bleed?"). Iago, OTOH, is completely inexplicable. He arranges the destruction of several worthy and virtuous people out of--apparently--spite and boredom. And when asked what his motive was (not personal gain; he is going to die under torture), he refuses to answer.
So Iago, like Sauron, is a cipher, a marker of pure evil. That Shakespeare manages to make him interesting rather than a dead bore (Umbridge, Voldemort) is pretty impressive.
I think Tolkien had the right idea about Sauron--the less we know about him the more he works as a villain--or not even a villain, but a Presence.