Thinking Makes It So: "Partly Racist Warning"

Monday, February 7, 2011

"Partly Racist Warning"

As I was just diving right into this play, I decided to stop flailing about, and start swimming around and start looking. I don't want to bash my head on the bottom of the pool.

So instead of hurting myself...

I stopped reading and went to Sparknotes, which is one of the best things that ever happened to high school English students/English majors everywhere, and searched Othello. I found this video a helpful go over of the play, even if the man has a dreadfully dull voice.

Wikipedia, one of the two sources of all information, gave me background information and the source history in brief. This play was written around 1604. Turns out Shakespeare mooched this play off of an Italian play called "Un Capitano Moro", or "A Moorish Captain," by Cinthio. The plays are pretty darn similar. Shakespeare does depart from it, however, in a few different ways. For example,

Desdemona is the only character named in the Cinthio. Everyone else just has cool titles, like Moor, or Engisn, or Captain. Cool, huh?
In Cinthio, Iago wanted to get with Desdemona, and was driven by revenge when she refused him.
In Cinthio, Othello and Iago tag team to kill Desdemona and then cover the murder by making it look like an accident. Othello is caught later and tortured and killed. Iago is caught for other crimes and meets the same fate. Emilia is the only character that isn't dead at the end, and she tells the story. THIS is the most striking departure from the original text.
Shakespeare adds characters.
FUN FACT: The notes in some editions of Cinthio's play include a "partly-racist warning."

I hearkened to our dear teacher, and turned to the textbook and found some fascinating information. Like that though Shakespeare's main tragedies focus around "the deadly sins of the spirit" like "ambitious pride, ingratitude, wrath, jealousy, and vengeful hate," Othello is focused on sexual jealousy (Bevington 605). It's not just about the cosmos and the huge scheme of life and the universe, but about "the destruction of love through jealousy" (605). A list of differences between this and the other major tragedies is provided, including:

Protagonist not a king or prince
No supernatural visitions
Social order not taken as seriously
Not a widespread condemnation of humanity
Focuses on ideas of divine justice
Battles of good and evil for favor of the protagonist

I did a little background check on a character I'm interested in studying. Did you know that Iago is one of the few Shakespeare villains who do evil for the sake of being an evil jerk? He isn't driven entirely by ambitious pride or anything else like that. There are elements of that, but he really just wants to be mean sometimes.

And now that I have done all of that, I feel more prepared to jump back into reading. I have found some interesting themes that I want to see if I can pull out and examine more in detail. I'm wondering what literary application I should take with this. Hmmmm.....

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Brandonleep 38p · 740 weeks ago

Thanks for highlighting all of the places where you got your information. You have used a lot of cites I had not thought of. Keep up the good work!

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Sarahjane03 42p · 740 weeks ago

I am reading King Lear and have noticed some similarities between the bastard son Edmund and Iago. Both of them are pretty dang good at smiling and smiling while being a villain. Their methods of deception really remind me of each other. They both pretend to be loyal to the one they are trying to bring down and they pretend to be reluctant to speak badly or in a incriminatory way of anyone. Which makes them all the more believable and likely to be brought into just the kind of private confidences that just get them even more of the kind of ammunition they need to further their evil plots. It's disgustingly well organized evil. I keep thinking of how Iago mutters words under his breath that he pretends he didn't want Othello to hear and then "reluctantly" repeats them to Othello. Edmund does the same thing by pretending to try and hide a letter from his father that "supposedly" was written by Edgar in which he insinuates that he wants their father dead. Edmund, just like Iago, pretends to finally give up the letter and then acts like he doesn't really believe that his half brother could ever really mean something like that! No! Father, don't believe it! Ha. I'd like to see Iago and Edmund go up against each other. I'd like to see ALL of Shakespeare's villains together. Now THAT would be drama. I wonder who would come out on top? Knowing Shakespeare, they would probably all manage to die somehow. Anyway. I digress. Sorry to comment so longly. I'm interested to see what you come up with about Iago. There's a lot of people who argue the whole play is really about him you know :)

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Brooketha 23p · 740 weeks ago

I'm reading Othello as well, and I really enjoyed reading your insights. I had read the introduction in the textbook, and I looked at sparknotes, and they really are great sources! But I really like how you put them into list form, and made it a little easier to break down. Also, really fascinating about the Cinthio play! Makes me want to look a little deeper into things too :)

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susanwood192 37p · 738 weeks ago

This is great. I wonder, we talk so much about people copying Shakespeare and not being original, but how much did he copy himself? In a sense, we're all "copycats," I suppose.

Something that some theorists have hypothesized about Iago is that he actually had a motive, because of his lack of promotion in his ranks. But there could be plenty of room to add justification in performances of Othello. I'm sure every man who's played Iago has had to find some justification for why he's so evil. Shakespeare must have had one too.

Very good close reading of this text.!

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Monday, February 7, 2011

"Partly Racist Warning"

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