Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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I really enjoyed our class discussion on Othello so I decied to do my final post on Othello around a question that was brought up in class.
Q. Who's in Control Othello or Iago?
My answer:
I definitely have to say that I think Iago is in control throughout the entire play except maybe at the very end. Throughout the entire play Iago used and abuses people with this whole "honest Iago" cover-up. He is constantly working people to gain a better position for himself. It all starts with Roderigo and how he used his lust for Desdemona and got him to yell at Dedemonas father for him to try and get Othello in trouble. From then on he continues to use Roderigo as his little puppy throughout the entire play. At first I really liked Iago because I thought he was just trying to be nice and help his friend win his love. By the middle I was so sick of Iago I wanted to kill him myself. He constantly takes advantage of people's weaknesses and hits them when they are down. I felt like some of the characters were so stupid for believing Iago all the time I wanted to scream out don't listen to him he is using you. I guess that is just our human nature we want to believe the best in people and until we find out otherwise we believe everyone is good and wouldn't purposely try and hurt us. The most amazing thing about Shakesperes works are how he captures human emotions and beliefs. Like in Othello, how he captures the jealousy of Othello, the love of Dedemona, the greed of Iago, this is the very essence of human nature and he displays it through his charcaters so brilliantly.
There is no contest between Iago and Othello until the end as far as who was in control. Othello let Iago control his mind and therefore lost all control. At the beginning I kind of thought Othello had the control because he won the battle with the Senators and Desdamona's Dad and in the beginning he pretty much ruled over everyone and also because Iago was careful not to push Othello to far at first. Iago was always very careful with his choice of words for Othello. As the piece progressed though, Iago crepped into Othellos thoughts using his love for Desdomona and started to control his thoughts, as he daydreamed about her sleeping with Cassio, and his every waking move until pretty much he became incapacitated and broke down and had a seizure. Obviously Iago won the control battle if he got Othello to kill Desdemona and then kill himself. I think Iago finally loses control when he is captured at the end and the truth comes out I think then he realizes that his little game of control is over. I think that is kind of how life works, we sometimes try and fool ourselves and other people by cheating our way through things like homework and work etc. But in the end the truth prevails and those who work hard and are honest perservere and those who cheat and use others get caught. This was a hard lesson for me to accept. Fall quarter my roommates never studied and they got pretty good grades on there tests and it drove me nuts because I studied really hard and still didn't get the grades I wanted. Now things are starting to pay off though. As most classes are cumulative my roommates are flunking out and I am just starting to see how all things relate to each other and am doing alot better. I think we can learn a few major lessons from Othello. Seek the truth on your own. Don't take other peoples words for it. If Othello would of asked about Desdemonas alleged affair himself he would of found the answers he was looking for instead of the answers that Iago gave him. Second we can learn that the truth always prevails. Iago thought that the truth about the handkerchief would never come out but Emilia told the truth before she died.
Overall, I thought Othello was a great literary masterpiece and obviously one of the greatest works of all authors of that time and the present.
*Mary