It is quite obvious that Othello has placed too much trust in Iago. Othello is easily convinced that of the possible infidelity of Desdemona. Iago has learned ways to play with his head and make fiction truly look like fact. The role of the handkerchief is quite significant and Iago uses this to his advantage. The way that Iago is able to play with Othello's head so easily is just fascinating to watch. It really makes on think that you can not always trust those that you think you know.
It is as though Iago is using Othello as a source of entertainment for his own pleasure. It is as though by watching Othello get so angry with the situation at hand he feels a sense of power. You can't help but feel bad for Othello knowing that what is being told to him is just to get him worked up.
The handkerchief plays a large role in Othello's life and his relationship with Desdemona. Igao takes advantage of this and manipulates the handkerchief in such a way that Othello is lead to believe that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him. It is funny that Othello would believe that a handkerchief would keep his to wife faithful. This is another example that Othello can be gullible when it comes to love and his relationship with his wife. As discussed in class it only took one word , "lie" for Othello to start to jump to the conclusion about his wife and her infidelity according to Iago's observations.
During this time it is also apparent that another side of Othello is beginning to surface. A more barbaric side of him. It is as though Othello is treating the situation that has been created by Iago as if it were another war he was to fight. This situation that has been created raises many questions about Iago and Othello which can only be answered by the audience.
4 comments:
I agree with you that Othello has placed too much trust in Iago , and I think if I was Othello I would do the same thing because Iago is very convincing and really gives Othello no reason for there not to be trust, at least is Othello’s eyes. It is true that the handkerchief is very significant and Iago does a good job and using it to his advantage because Othello believes the handkerchief would keep his wife faithful, and your are completely right it is funny that Othello believes a piece of cloth over the word of his wife, and that has to do with his trust in Iago. This completely backs up what you said about not always trusting those that you think you know. The side of Othello that we see begin to surface I think is exactly what Iago wanted to happen. The barbaric side of Othello begins to surface, for example he hits his wife, and as the reader you just want to tell him that Iago is a manipulator and deceiver.
I find Othello's transformation to be absolutely fascinating. Throughout my reading of the play I've always compared him to Hero from MAAN: they are both acted upon by others, but Othello uses the labels people apply to him in order to carve out a position for himself in Venetian society; they both have physical reactions to language--Hero faints when Claudio calls her "impious" and Othello "fall[s] into epilepsy" when he thinks Desdemona has been cheating on him; and both have enormous transformations in character. While Hero is resurrected and is able to bring the play into the realm of comedy, Othello degenerates into self-doubt and jealousy. At the end of MAAN Hero is no longer acted upon: she is a blank slate and is able to assert what she could not before ("as I live I am a maid"). Othello, however, never finds the ability to construct his own identity, with no input from others. At the end of his story, he remains divided, fractured, & wounded, and his Venetian-self kills his Moor-self. While in MAAN Hero's death was perpetrated by others, in Othello his death is self-inflicted, which makes me think that perhaps he has internalized the racism of his society while Hero never accepted that she was a whore. Interestingly, Desdemona never accepts that she is a whore, either, but according to her own words, her death is self-inflicted as well.
In class we seemed to come to the conclusion that Othello being a murderer was something that had always resided in him and we attributed it to his exoticism and his military career. I can't accept this, though. Killing a man from an opposing military on the battlefield is nothing like smothering a woman to death in a bedchamber. Loomba pointed out that even Iago doesn't think Othello has it in him to kill his wife. Also, if Othello has always been murderous, then we would have to say that Roderigo has always been murderous, and we would be detracting from Iago's culpability. I don't think he's treating the situation as a war: The text suggests that he's a pretty good war strategist, and if this situation were to be placed in the arena of war he would probably immediately deduce that something was not right. He's not thinking clearly, which reminds me of Descarte's first meditation and what he aks about recognizing wax in its various forms: if Othello changes so drastically over he course of the play, then how are we able to recognize his various manifestations as the same person, especially since seeing is so unreliable in this play?
Liz--Nice point connecting the belief and views of the audience with Othello and his apparent gullibility. Are we to think that Shakespeare positions *us* in the same way as Othello? There may be something to this, although we also are always aware of Iago's machinations. I wonder if we would view Othello differently if Shakespeare didn't give us Iago's perspective?
Therese--Your development of an interpretation of Othello's violence around this issue is interesting. There is a difference between war and murder, it is true, but isn't there a way in which Shakespeare (really in all his plays--think Lear) shows us the depths of human depravity, and that there isn't such a gap between "civil" and "animal" behavior as we might think?
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