Sunday, October 17, 2010

A disloyal subject

We learn about the characters of Othello in such a short period of time. Iago sticks out like a sore thumb! He is portrayed by Shakespeare to pretend to be loyal to those of them that know him, but reality is he is only loyal to himself. His loyalty does not in any way, shape or form, lie with Othello even though he's led Othello to believe so. Right from the start he's wronged Othello by using Roderigo to tell Brabanzio of his daughter's love for Othello in hope that Othello will lose his position. Branbanzio accuses Othello of stealing his daughter, "O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?" 1.2.63. Othello would not have been accused of this had it not been for the disloyalty of Iago.
Iago also comes up with a plan to have Cassio lose his position as lieutenant. Again he uses his so called loyalty toward Roderigo to carry out his plan. He makes sure that Cassio has enough to drink by convincing him that he should congregate with all his fellowmen, and unfortunately Cassio is not aware of Iago's disloyalty and has a few too many. Roderigo stirs up a fight with Cassio and Othello takes away his position. Iago still not being satisfied with his own position carries on pretending to be loyal to Othello and convinces him that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Oh the drama Iago causes!
We even learn from Shakespeare's way of how he makes Iago speak to those around him by telling bits of truth in what he says to make the other characters believe him. It makes it hard for Othello not to believe Iago, because Iago displays pure loyalty toward him on the outside. It's what's inside Iago's mind that makes him as disloyal as he is. The question is, Is he going to be able to get away with it? Hopefully someone will catch on to what he's been doing and tear him to pieces the way he has done to Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo, and Othello.

1 comment:

Cyrus Mulready said...

I agree that the compressed action of the play is an important detail to remember when we read. This comes across even more powerfully when we see the play performed, and as we discussed in class, it may either heighten the drama, or cause us to wonder how the character of Othello could so quickly transform. I'd be curious to hear more of what you have to say, Tiffany, about that point--are we skeptical of the transformation in Othello because of this quick turnaround?