Saturday, February 8, 2020

Othello January MOR


For January’s MOR, Rachel Samson and I are reading Othello by William Shakespeare! So far Othello is really interesting to me. I was honestly expecting it to be super boring because it’s just another play, but I think the premise is actually pretty interesting. I kind of think that Iago has a right to be mad that Othello promoted Cassio since he pointed out that Cassio doesn’t really have any experience. I don’t think Iago should really be like super duper mad, but he does have a fair point. One thing that I noticed throughout the beginning portion of the play was that even though we don’t meet Othello right away, you still side with Othello even though you don’t know him. Like, right from the beginning I knew Iago and Roderigo were bad guys and that Othello was probably good, even though the only picture that we get of Othello in the beginning is the negative one painted by Iago and Roderigo. Roderigo says to Brabantio, “(As partly I find it is) that your fair daughter / At this odd-even and dull watch o' th' night… To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor” (I.I.119-123). Roderigo and Iago speak so badly about Othello amongst themselves and to Brabantio that Othello should seem like not a nice guy, but to me it just makes Iago and Roderigo look bad. What do you think? Did you think that Othello seemed like a bad guy from Iago and Roderigo’s descriptions of him, or did you think that the way Iago and Roderigo talked about Othello just made them seem like the bad ones? Anyways, I’m excited to see how this little adventure that they’re going on overseas will play out. It seems like Iago has some sort of plan to make Othello think that Cassio will be flirting too much with Desdemona, which I’m sad about because I honestly really like Desdemona. I think Othello and Desdemona’s relationship will suffer and I am sad about that because I think Desdemona is a really strong and loving character and I want her and Othello to stay together. But it is a tragedy so I feel like things will not end with them together. 

7 comments:

  1. To answer your question about Othello, I pretty much agree with what you said. He does not seem like a bad guy but I think he will end up in bad circumstances because people, like Iago and Roderigo, stir up drama over nothing. I had my doubts at the beginning though, when Iago accuses Othello of sleeping with his wife, but after I realized the amount of jealousy Iago has for him, I quickly realized he will do anything to put Othello in a bad spot. Iago and Roderigo most definitely take the roles as the bad guys in the story. For example, Iago decides to create a rumor that Desdemona and Cassio have feelings for one another. He tells Roderigo “First, I must tell thee this: Desdemona / is directly in love with him [Cassio]” (II.I.220-221). Iago knew that Cassio was only trying to be a friend to Desdemona as she is very nervous for her husband being out at sea. Iago creates this rumor not only to hurt Othello but to hurt Cassio and Desdemona as well. He even admits that he THINKS they love each other, he does not actually KNOW. “That Cassio loves her, I do well believe‘t / That she loves him…” (II.I.287-289). This also makes me realize how Iago contradicts himself. Iago wants this revenge on Othello but he still seems to like him? “The Moor… / Is a constant, loving, noble nature… / A most dear husband” (II.I.289-292). Why would Iago be saying all these nice things about someone who he considers an enemy? This just gives me a better idea of who Iago is: a fake. He puts on a mask, but he really is someone so unpredictable. I think this is how he acts with all the characters, even Roderigo. If you think about it, even if he is helping Roderigo getting together with Desdemona, he is probably only doing it for himself and his revenge on Othello. Do you think that Iago is a fake? Do you think his plans will actually work?

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    1. Iago is totally a fake just like you said. He is just two-faced and shows a different side of himself to every single person that he interacts with. It makes me wonder which part of him is the real him. I honestly think that like some of his plans will work and some won’t, but the plans that do work will set off a chain of events that will end in a lot of people dying. Or maybe his plan will come to pass entirely. It could go any way I suppose. Honestly, at the beginning I really hated Roderigo along with Iago, but now I just feel bad for the guy. Roderigo payed Iago to help him get Desdemona to love him, but he is not getting his money’s worth. Desdemona is literally married now, so I feel bad that Roderigo literally payed for help wooing a girl and the girl he wanted ended up marrying someone else. Another thing that I’ve changed my mind about would also be Desdemona. At first I liked her because she was so outspoken and confident and it seemed like she loved Othello a lot, but now I just feel like she’s a bit of a flirt. She entertained Iago way too much while they were waiting for Othello to arrive and he was insulting his wife. I also feel like she just fell right into Iago’s trap and flirted with Cassio too much. Emilia tells Iago and Cassio that “The general and his wife are talking of it, / And she speaks for you stoutly” (III.I.31-32). I just find it a bit weird that she apparently was defending Cassio super fiercely. Maybe I’m thinking too hard about it, but it seems like maybe Desdemona’s affections are not as strong as I originally thought they were. Although, I do think Othello was a bit stupid for automatically believing Iago and jumping to conclusions about Desdemona so quickly. Perhaps Othello also felt like Desdemona’s affections weren’t that strong either. Do you think that Desdemona made it too easy on Iago to set his plan into motion? Do you think that Desdemona didn’t really love Othello that much, or do you think she is actually loyal?

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    2. I think that Desdemona loves Othello but I think she allows herself to be flirtatious with other guys. She gives other men attention and to her it might seem unproblematic but with the people around her, they’ll definitely make it an issue. I feel like she is not aware of what she is doing that can jeopardize the relationship with her husband. Desdemona tells Cassio “Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do / All my abilities in thy behalf” (III.III.1-2). She definitely puts herself in a rough spot by just being there for a man that her husband just fired. You would think she would be hesitant to do so; and with her being there for Cassio, it of course gives Iago the chance to cause more problems. Because of Iago, Othello is now convinced that Desdemona and Cassie are having an affair. “Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio” (III.III.211). This ends up causing Othello to seek revenge which makes me wonder, could some parts of Othello and Iago be similar? Iago is wanting revenge on Othello only because he assumes that Othello slept with his wife. Othello is now wanting to seek revenge on Cassio because he assumes that Cassio slept with his wife. I mean, that similarity is a given but the way they both treated the news was quite the same. When Iago first heard the rumor of Othello and his wife, why did he not ask Othello or his wife if it was true? They would be in the wrong if they lied, but he is in the wrong for assuming without any evidence. This the same with Othello. He should be asking his wife and Cassio, one of his dearest friends, if the rumor is true. It’s his fault for believing in the rumor because Iago even admits that what he is saying isn’t actually a fact! “Though I perchance am vicious in my guess” (III.III.58). At the beginning, we put Othello in the good guy spot and Iago in the bad guy spot, but do you think that they are actually similar some ways? Could Othello end up like Iago at the end?

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    3. I never really noticed the similarities between Othello and Iago, but now that you mention it, it makes a lot of sense! That’s a really good point. I think it would actually be super interesting if Iago ended up being like the only one left alive at the end or like just ended up being the one that we all start rooting for. I’m still a bit confused about how technically Iago is getting revenge, though, as well as who exactly he is trying to get revenge on. He tells Othello to kill his wife by strangling her, but why does Iago want Desdemona dead? I can understand Iago wanting revenge on Othello for promoting Cassio and revenge on Cassio for being the one promoted over him, but I don’t get why Iago goads Othello into killing Desdemona. One thing that also had me surprised was how Othello has pretty much just started going crazy. Like, he all of a sudden starts having these weird trances and he even lashed out at Desdemona and hit her. At the beginning he seemed so composed and calm, even when Roderigo and Brabantio were accusing him early on in the play. However, now, he just gets so mad at every little thing and can’t focus enough to realize that he should be talking out his suspicions of Desdemona and Cassio rather than jumping to conclusions. The messenger Lodovico perfectly captured my reaction to Othello in act IV: “Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate / Call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature / Whom passion could not shake? Whose solid virtue / The shot of accident nor dart of chance / Could neither graze nor pierce?” (IV.I.215-218). Lodovico is like ‘uh is this the same guy that used to be like the best general ever because he does not seem like the same guy’ and I feel the exact same way. It’s hard to believe that the Othello that we see in act IV is the same Othello that we met at the beginning of the play. Did you foresee this turn of events? Did you suspect that Othello would kind of start to go crazy or did it surprise you like it surprised me?

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    4. No, I would have never guessed that Othello would turn out this way! Since the play is a tragedy, I kind of assumed that Othello would die, I still feel like he will, but I thought he would be innocent throughout the story and that the people around him will be at fault for his death; but now I think that his actions will also be at fault for his death. You definitely see the change in Othello when he now wants revenge but also the way he speaks to Desdemona. Emilia says how “my lord hath so bewhored her, / Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her” (IV.II.121-122). It’s crazy to think that in the previous act, Othello treats Desdemona as a queen but now he calls her a whore. It is shocking how Othello trusts her in everything and when she now tells the truth, he decides to suddenly not trust her. As I kept reading and finished Act 4, Emilia and Desdemona were talking about adultery. Emilia was confirming how she would be okay with sleeping with another man which made me wonder if she maybe did sleep with Othello or at least slept with someone else and Iago thought it was Othello. I feel like this conversation could be foreshadowing an event that is about to occur. Could Desdemona become so heartbroken to the point where she’ll sleep with another man? Their conversation also gave me a thought about innocence, somewhat similar to what we were saying about Othello. All these characters at the beginning that we think are good and are innocent, do you think they will change? Othello has already changed but especially Emilia and Desdemona. At the beginning, you have the sense that they are blameless but I feel like they will end up being guilty. Do you think that at the end of the play, there won’t be an innocent person and that every character will be at fault for something?

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    5. I totally also thought that everybody would be guilty by the end of the play. It just seemed like nobody in this play was willing to just sit down and think things through before acting. However, I would argue that Emilia, Desdemona, and Cassio end up dying innocent at the end of the play. I mean, Desdemona did seem to be a bit too close to Cassio, but she apparently never did anything with him. I have to say, though, that I kind of thought that Iago’s plan would get out of hand to the point where even Iago himself would not be able to control the chain of events, but it seems that Iago prevails in the end. I have to say I was SO surprised when Iago turned his back on Roderigo. I feel like somehow I should have seen it coming, but I really just didn’t. I found it so surprising because Iago and Roderigo were on the same team for the entire play, and then at the end Iago just stabbed him without even thinking twice. I feel so bad for Roderigo and I would argue that this play was the worst for him, because Iago just kept giving him false hope. Iago kept convincing him to do bad things in the name of winning over Desdemona, but really just Roderigo just kept serving Iago’s plan for revenge. In the end, Roderigo gave up everything that he had because he truly believed that Iago would help him, and Iago just stabbed him without a second thought. Iago even admits to the audience that Roderigo didn’t really mean anything to him, saying, “Now, whether he kill Cassio / Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, / Every way makes my gain” (V.I.12-14). Iago reveals that he never cared about Roderigo, and he didn’t care whether Roderigo lived or died. Honestly, I just thought the ending was very sudden and interesting. It seems like in the end I couldn’t decide if I really liked Othello as a character or not, which seems to be thematically consistent, as Othello is characterized throughout the play as both an insider and an outsider. Did you still root for Othello until the end? Or do you think it’s a bit confusing to try and decide whether to like Othello or not?

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    6. It is confusing to like Othello or not. Honestly, I just feel bad for the guy. He wasn’t that bad before but when given false information, he makes stupid decisions. I honestly think that he is a good man who is in love with a woman and when hearing that she is cheating, he acted the way he acted because he is hurt. I can’t say that Othello’s actions are entirely his fault though. Everything that has happened is because of Iago. Iago is the main villain who uses everyone and makes them into the worst. I was hoping that Iago would not be able to change Othello, that Othello would be able to figure out that Desdemona and Cassio are sleeping together is only a rumor, but I guess not. Othello lets Iago take over him to the point where he isn’t himself anymore. Just like Lodovico said, “O thou Othello, thou was once so good, / Fall’n in the practice of a cursed slave” (V.II.237-238). It sucks that Othello turns out this way. I predicted that he would be good and that someone would kill him because of jealously, but I guess there was guilt that also caused his death.
      I thought this play was pretty good. I figured Othello would die but I didn’t expect a bunch of other people would too, especially Roderigo! I thought Rodrigo and Iago, the evil dynamic duo, would stick together till the end. Rodrigo would be Iago’s sidekick and that Iago was a least loyal to Rodrigo. Welp, I guess that wasn’t the case. Iago is a true villain who looks out for himself before others and only cares about his revenge. I would think he cares for his wife since he becomes so vengeful when thinking that she slept with Othello. Iago’s character is the biggest shock to me at the end of the book but everything else seems somewhat expected because, well, this play is a tragedy.

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