#hoogh yeah this is so well put
thinking about antigonus telling leontes “you are abused and by some putter-on / that will be damn’d for’t” like. it’s obviously not original to point out the parallels between othello and the winter’s tale but it’s such an interesting difference that even though the idea is brought up, there is no iago to blame in the winter’s tale, nothing at fault but the workings of leontes’ mind.
if the horror of othello is knowing that you could be manipulated into believing something that you would otherwise never believe, the horror of the winter’s tale is knowing that you could come to believe a terrible lie all on your own and still not be able to free yourself from it until it’s too late.
