Othello will later declare that he is "not easily jealous," and that assessment of his character seems to be shared by most of the figures around him in the play. The critical response is mixed--some critics insist that his claims to be innocent of jealousy are merely self-justifying, and certainly he slips easily into assuming his wife to be unfaithful. Other critics make the distinction between an inner, self-created jealousy, which he seems to lack, and a deep insecurity and "trusting nature," as Iago puts it, which allow a clever manipulator to plant seeds of doubt. Behind his insecurity lies a man uneasy with his place in Venetian society: he may have married a white woman, a daughter of a Senator, but can he keep her? The seizure of the handkerchief is a great coup for Iago in his quest to destroy Othello, and he is aided by his wife, who apparently has no scruples about betraying her mistress in small matters. Shakespeare will eventually transform Emilia into a voice of moral outrage, and by the final scene the audience will applaud her role in Iago's destruction, but for now it is worth noticing that she is only Iago's accomplice. It will take a great shock to inspire outrage against him--a shock which comes too late. The scene ends with Iago triumphant, named as lieutenant (the rank to which he aspired from the beginning) to a man bent on destruction, and ready to join in that destruction himself--because in killing Cassio and Desdemona, Othello is killing himself. And that, of course, has been Iago's goal from the beginning. Othello's wild, violent behavior in front of Lodovico, in which he strikes his wife and abuses her for no apparent reason, demonstrate the perversion of order that Iago has brought about. There is no one to halt Othello's lawlessness, because he himself is the law in Cyprus. Othello's accusations and refusal to accept Desdemona's denials are brutal and unfair, but his language recovers some of the nobility that it had lost in previous scenes.