Faustus' Sins

Monday, February 14, 2011

Doctor Faustus is an intelligent person in the field of Law, Divinity, Logic, and Medicine but still he does not satisfied with what he already got and wants to gain knowledge beyond the human limitations. One of the major themes in Doctor Faustus is the battle of good and evil which it being depicted in the early of the play. The existence of good and evil angels play give a big impact towards Faustus’ decisions either to stay and serve for God or choose the opposite which deals with Lucifer, the Prince of the Devils. The good angel urges him to repent his pact with Lucifer and return back to God when he still have time, meanwhile, the evil angel urges him to not repent his pact with Lucifer and resembled as what he desired most to satisfied his life and needs. He knows how to differentiate between good and evil, right or wrong, but because of his eagerness to gain knowledge more than a merely human should be, he decide to choose the wrong way which make the pact with Lucifer that leads to his life in doomed. In Act 1, scene 1, both the angels try to urge him. The good angel said,
O Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul,
And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head:
Read, read the Scriptures; that is blasphemy’ (line 69-72).

But the bad angel convince him,

Go forward Faustus in that famous art,
Wherein all nature’s treasury is contained:
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements. (Line 73-76)

We can see that the persuasion by the bad angel more convincing and attractive for Faustus to choose. So, he chooses to give away his soul to the Devil and lead to his life in doom eternally. The theme that Marlowe centralized in this play is the Seven Deadly Sins which consist of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. When we went through the play, we could see that Faustus is a man with full of pride. Pride is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and it leads Faustus to commit other sins.

“Within the Christian framework, pride is a lethal motivation because it makes the sinner forget his fallen state. For Christians, men are fallen since birth, because they carry with them the taint of original sin. A men made haughty with pride forgets that he shares Eve’s sin, and must therefore be saved by the gift of grace. Only God, through Christ, can dispense this grace, and the man who forgets that fact deprives himself of the path to salvation.” (Q.I. Janjuar, n.d).
Faustus’ pride is not the only sin he commit but as reflected by Christian view, pride is the source that led to commit other sins and it happens to Faustus who is in the end become a fallen man without soul. Faustus dares to make pact with Lucifer even though Mephostophilis urges him to forget about the deal.

Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
O Faustus, leave these frivolous demands,
Which strike a terror to my fainting soul. (Act 1, Scene 3, Line 76-82)

But because of his pride as men who seeks for knowledge and feels superior than Mephostophilis, he continues and command Mephostophilis to proposed his offer to Lucifer as his soul can be taken away. His desire or lust become another sins he already commit His pride continues and led him to another sin which is his greediness on gaining what he really desire most which are power, wealth and knowledge. For him, as a human he feels not enough with what he already got and what he had learned. Faustus wants to know beyond the limitation of human knowledge and decide on involving with magic and deals with the devil, Mephostophilis.

I’ll have them fly to India for gold;
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found-world
For pleasant fruits, and princely delicates.
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine, circle fair Wittenberg:
I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk, (line 81-89)

Here shows Faustus’ thought of what he will do with the spirits and most of them are related to wealth, ambitions and power. The gold, pearl and silk resemble his identity as a materialistic person. In Act 2, scene 1, Faustus has second thought on his decision either he need to continue to deal with the devil or not. Because of seduction by the Bad Angel and his desire, he claims ‘Wealth!’ in line 22. Here, his identity changes differently and turns to someone who thirst of power and wealth.
Then, when Faustus had make pact with Lucifer using his own blood, the theme of Power comes as a main theme in the scene. Mephostophilis serves him really obediently and all of the things that actually impossible for a mere human as Faustus want become reality. With his unlimited power, it led him with terrible consequences and this is one thing that Faustus does not realize and drown with power. Only for 24 years agreement of unlimited power, he lost in his own power but in the end, he begging Lucifer to let him go but once a man have make agreement with the devil, he already place himself in hell eternally. Those who have great power demands great sacrifice and that the value that Faustus forgot before choose for it. And power itself leads Faustus’ life to damnation.
Marlowe put sins as the core of the play. Since from the beginning of the play, Faustus commits sins one by one and continues until the last day of 24years of agreement with the devil ends. He ends his life with regrets as a fallen man who his soul been taken away by the fallen angel. Limitation for something comes with its own reason.



References:

Gill R. (1971) Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe, London. Ernest Benn Limited.

Novel Analysis Doctor Faustus (2011). Retrieved February 14, 2011 from http://www.novelguide.com/doctorfaustus/themeanalysis.html

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. A Critical Analysis by Qaisar Iqbal Janjua (n.d). Retrieved February 14, 2011 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/24940547/Christopher Marlowe-s-Dr-Faustus-A- Critical-Analysis-by-Qaisar-Iqbal-Janjua


Theme ~Sin~ ( 1000 Words)

The are inextricably related themes between 'Doctor Fausturs' by Christopher Marlowe and 'Othello' by William Shakespeare in this Elizabethan Literature. Specifically, the analysis of the comparison in 'Othello' and 'Doctor Fausturs' depicts significant connections between the themes and the existence of the motifs of villains which is depicted as the notorious and awfully evil characters who's purpose to live in the world is to ruin others people lives. Furthermore there is an obvious presence of the idea of Sin in both Plays. Iago is considered as the green eyed monster who take its toll on Othello, Iago lies mess up Othello’s mind and makes him apprehensive, worried and woolgather. Iago has managed to so successfully manipulate Othello’s perceptions of reality, mostly through the use of language, that Othello is floundering with reality and can only cling to the false notions of reality that are constructed for him by Iago. Othello started to convince that Desdemona has done an irrevocable mistake and therefore turn her cold shoulders to him and camouflage herself with mask and pretending in love with him and therefore chose Cassio who is an well mannered and attractive young man as her lover. Othello refused to be culkolded because it may disgrace him and loose his honour as he has made every hardest effort and all out in his life and bear many affliction of dangers, slavery and battles. Othello afraid to loose Desdemona’s love as he won her love at the first place. The sense of insecurity of Othello could be viewed as a sin that comes to light when Iago starts to place the idea of a surreptitious affair between Desdemona and Cassio into Othello’s mind. As soon as Othello’s mind has been intoxicated and poisoned by Iago he starts pondering about his mistakes his skin colour and weaknesses as a root course of Desdemona is unfaithful to him. he begins to treat his wife with an increasing amount of suspicion. In the monologue he murmurs ‘Haply for I am black And have not these soft parts of conversation That chamberers have, or for I am declined Into the vale of years – yet that’s not much – 5 She’s gone, I am abused, and my relieve Must be to loath her.’ He start to feel with guilty and suppress by his self inferiority complex as he is a black man and then thinking that he lacks of ‘ soft parts of conversation’. The Sin that Iago has make is he manage to instigate Othello and successfully manipulates the other people’s mind and obtain their trust and his cruel machinations to destroy Othello in silence owing to his jealousy. This is resembles the satanic or evil figure which is the dark side of human beings. The idea of evil and sin is intertwined and seldom separated in the era of elizabethan literature.
Doctor Fausturs by Christopher Marlowe is pertaining a man who regards study in the fields of logic, law, divinity and medicine and he abandoned all those field of study and chose to practice black magic. Although he has mastered the critical disciplines but owing to his wild ambition he is seeking a further and more beneficial and challenge so he turns to black magic. Dr Fausturs is famous for his accomplishments but he felt that the limitation of human knowledge which is leading him to his downfall.
He finally deals with the Satan through Mephastophilis and paves his way for his own doom by signing a contract with the Satan whereas he will get what he yearns for and he has t relinquish his sould for 288 Months to the Satan. Doctor Faustus teeming with significant theme i.e Sin which is interrelated to the play Othello. After being accepted by the Satan Fausturs begins his years brimming with sinful nature. Faustus yearns for power, complimentary and attached himself with trickery. Dr Faustus’s intense curiosity drives him to pay the price for the attainment of his goal. As the saying goes, ‘ curiosity kills the cat’. When he starts writing the contract his blood clots which is the symbol of forbidden from his inner self .
Furthermore one of the obvious themes in Doctor Faustus is pertaining good and evil. From the beginning of the play we could comprehend that Dr Fausturs realise that he himself is stuck between good and evil, knowing the difference and aftermath of the two, but he takes a beating and oppressed by his ambition and thirst for worldly pleasures. Faustus yearns for mortal gratification is personified through the seven deadly sins who all talk to him and trying to delude him. Faustus’s sin lead him to his own damnation can be detected in the following excerpt : “Faustus’ indulgence in sensual diversions, for, once being committed to the pact with Satan, Faustus partakes of the sop of sensuality to blot out his fears of impending damnation”. Besides he also strunggle between good and evil which is depicted through the good and evil angels whose trying to affect his decision and attitude. We could sense that the Good angels is the depiction of the symbol of virtue and the Evil angels portrayal of symbol of vice.
Although Dr Faustus fathoms the aftermath of his decision to listen to the evil angel than the good angel finally he is unable to resist the temptations of the worldly and mortal pleasures. In the long run Dr Faustus is still indecisive whether he should regret and return to the path of God or follow his usually contract with the Satan. He faces his internal struggle and he is vascillating between two options. Moreover, In the Othello’s Play Iago’s battle against Othello and Cassio certainly is portrayed in theme. Iago and his evil battle to orrupt. Iagoeventually has to face the music and neither he has obtained what he wants, as both of Desdemona and Emilia are dead. Finally he is unable to escpae from the full circle and he is punished for what he has done.

Work Cited :
1 .Mabillard, Amanda. Othello Plot Summary. Shakespeare Online. Retrieved: 13.February.2010 From http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plots/othellops.html
2. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello. Ed G. Lyman Kitteridge.Toronto, Blaisdell Publishing, 1966.
3. Marlowe, Christopher. "Doctor Faustus". The Complete Plays and Poems London: Everyman, 1976
4. The Tagical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. A Critical Analysis by Qaisar Iqbal Janjua. Retrieved : 14 February 2010 from : http://www.scribd.com/doc/24940547/Christopher-Marlowe-s-Dr-Faustus-A-Critical-Analysis-by-Qaisar-Iqbal-Janjua

Othello : The Sexual Jealousy

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The English literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages is one of the great phenomena of European culture. The period was one of the immense and concentrated literary activity. It was the age of comparative religious and tolerance, which was due largely to the queen’s influence. The age of Elizabethan was a time of intellectual liberty, of growing intelligence and comfort among all classes. For a parallel we must go back to the age of Pericles in Athens, or of Augustus in Rome, or go forward a little to the magnificent court of Louis XIV, when Corneille, Racine and Moliere brought the drama in France to the point where Marlowe, Shakespeare , and Johnson had left it in England half a century earlier.[1]

In Othello, Shakespeare creates a powerful drama of a marriage that begins with fascination between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona. [2] Othello is the most painfully extreme and the most terrible. I personally believe that issue of sexual jealousy is one of the strongest themes in Othello. There is no subject more exciting than sexual jealousy. Jealousy, and especially sexual jealous, brings it a sense of shame and humiliation. Such jealousy as Othello’s converts human nature into chaos, liberates the beast in man. The key event of Othello, on which the entire action turning points , is the murder of Desdemona, and this takes place at the end of the play.

Othello ( the Moor) falls in love and he marries Desdemona. During the war against the Turks,Othello is fooled by devious Iago about his wife is having an affair and being unfaithful as Desdemona having relationship with the lieutenant named Cassio. Inflamed and swollen with jealousy, Othello suffocates his wife, Desdemona in her bed. Only then he realizes on his own sin that he has killed his faithful wife. The Moor kills himself after that. It is interesting that Iago uses jealousy against Othello, yet jealousy is likely the source of Iago's hatred in the first place. In Othello, jealousy takes many forms, from sexual suspicion to professional competition, but it is, in all cases, destructive.[3]

When it comes to jealousy, it is inevitable to touch on human emotion. Based on John MacMurray’s Reason and Emotion ; the emotional life is not simply a part or an aspect of human life. It is not,as we often think, subordinate, or subsidiary to the mind. It is the core and essence of human life.[4] Then when we associate jealousy with emotion, we must know that there is always reason that lies behind jealousy and emotion. Reason is just thinking, and emotion is about feeling. The feel of jealousy ignites by emotion which is governs by reason. Reason reveals itself in emotion by its objectivity and it determines our behavior. Reason is the capacity to behave consciously , to behave objectively. John also emphasis on Love, which is fundamental positive emotion characteristic of human being can be subjective and irrational or objective and rational.[5]


OTHELLO : Why, why is this?
Think'st thou I'ld make a life of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt
Is once to be resolved: exchange me for a goat,
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such ex sufflicate and blown surmises,
Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous
To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well;
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous:
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt;
For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago;
I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
And on the proof, there is no more but this,—
Away at once with love or jealousy! [6]

( Act 3, scene 3)

Here, The Moor declares that he won't be destroyed by enviness, jealousy ( I believe it as one of man’s egos ). He explains that “Desdemona For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago,” ( act 3, scene 3, Lines 220 )[7]. Even Desdemona accepts that the fact that Othello is black. But, then, Othello thinks that he may in fact be a bit more jealous and suspicious of his wife than he lets on. Then he claims he wants some evidences of Desdemona's unfaithfulness . Looks like Iago's wicked plots of his master plan started to work out.

OTHELLO :Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplex'd in the extreme.

( Act 5, scene 2)[8]

Othello pleads as he believe that he is innocent that he accused and murdered Desdemona due to her infidelity and unfaithfulness. The Moor assumes that he is not sinful as everything fall under Iago’s immoral plans. I in person deem that he does not want people misunderstood that he is a guy that easily jealous and narrow-minded.

Last but not least, Shakespeare’s Othello heralds us about reality of life when emotion can’t be control by human. Jealousy is not healthy if the reason is irrational. Emotion must be accompanied with rational and reasonable reason in life. Or else, human will unable to control emotion and leads to worse situations.



[1] William J. Long, English Literature ( Enlarged edition ) / India / A.I.T.B.S Publishers India /2007.

[2] Barbara A. Mowat & Paul Westine , Othello by William Shakespeare FOLGER Shakespeare LIBRARY/ New York / Simon & Schuster Paperbacks/ 2009

[3] http://www.shmoop.com/othello/jealousy-theme.html retrieved at 10 February 2011 at 5.34 pm.

[4] John MacMurray, Reason And Emotion/ London / Faber & Faber Limited/ 1972/ pg

[5] John MacMurray, Reason And Emotion/ London / Faber & Faber Limited/ 1972/ Pg 31

[6] Barbara A. Mowat & Paul Westine , Othello by William Shakespeare FOLGER Shakespeare LIBRARY/ New York / Simon & Schuster Paperbacks/ 2009/ Pg 129-130

[7] Barbara A. Mowat & Paul Westine , Othello by William Shakespeare FOLGER Shakespeare LIBRARY/ New York / Simon & Schuster Paperbacks/ 2009/ Pg 130

[8] Barbara A. Mowat & Paul Westine , Othello by William Shakespeare FOLGER Shakespeare LIBRARY/ New York / Simon & Schuster Paperbacks/ 2009/ Pg 263

Othello's theme - prejudice

Shakespeare is considered as the most influential writer in the world throughout years, regions, and generations, his name can still be heard. His works are still widely covered, discussed, and used by many of literarian and art lovers. Learning Shakespeare however is not that easy. Although at this age, myriad of researches had been done about his works, still it is not that simple to reach the glory of understanding his works. Many of his plays, I must say most of his plays are made into films and being staged for thousands infinite of times during his era, 16th century and till now. The famous love tragedy like Romeo and Juliet is interpreted and adapted globally including the Oriental countries as well.

Shakespeare’s four major tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Tragedy by definition means a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror, (Merriam Webster). In Othello, the tragedy is between the protagonists, Othello, who is depicted battling with the prejudice that is planted by his ancient, Iago. The conflict can be seen as power struggle between Othello, Iago, and Cassio, in which resulting the murder of Desdemona, Othello’s wife, and this is due to insecurity and jealousy. The main theme that I will touch on is prejudice.

From the very beginning of the play, Iago has crossed his heart by telling readers how he hates Othello. Realizing that his dream position was taking away by Cassio, Iago started to implant revenge and hatred to Othello by using other characters like Roderigo and Brabantio as decoys. Iago aggravates Othello’s mind, setting a fire in Othello’s heart by whispering the rumour of Desdemona infidelity with Cassio. The prejudice in the play can be further divided into racial prejudice and gender prejudice. As in racial prejudice, the fact that Othello is a moor and black has led many accusations by the Venetian about his true nature. Meanwhile, the gender prejudice can be seen in way of how the women in Venice being objectified by the men. Hence, these two underlings that lie under the theme of prejudice will be discussed further in this essay.

Othello, being a black and an outsider of Venice is thought as a threat to the Venetian. Although he is able to establish the trust of the senators and being a great successor in war, in the end he is consumed by the evil thoughts planted by Iago and followed the rage. As he is definitely not a Venetian he had drawn himself apart from the society and in order to raise respect among the Venetians he becomes self-conscious of his status and honour. Othello, as Iago has described in the very first act is described as animal, ‘black ram’, ‘Barbary horse’ and insulted his appearance, ‘thick lips’, ‘black’.

you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;
you'll have your nephews neigh to you

Not just that, Iago is able to convince Brabantio in blaming Othello of robbing his daughter, by accusing Othello has used the ‘foul charm and magic trick’ to Desdemona. In the play, the character of Othello is more likely to be thought as contagious disease that one should not be touching it. According to G. K. Hunter (1967), he reviews the notions Elizabethans held about foreigners in general and blacks in particular, finding that there existed a widespread association of blacks with sin, wickedness, and the devil. Even though, Othello is depicted differently than the other blacks, having power and knowledge, he at the end is ruined by the evil slander made by Iago. And his act of killing his wife acts like a proof how beastly he can turn to be, like many other blacks.

The gender prejudice in Othello is the depiction of women is thought as the sole property of father and husband. The Venetian women are expected to be obedience and lawful to the father and once they got married they will be under control of the husband. The most pertinent lines that support this view is when Roderigo and Iago make a chaos in front of Brabantio house by screaming out ‘robb’d’ and the robbery here refers to the thought of Desdemona is Brabantio’s belonging.

Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father, and may thee. (1.3.10)

The excerpt above is said by Brabantio when they all had heard the long story of Othello. The very important line ‘she has deceived her father, and may thee’, can be deciphered as a warning to Othello that is to be caution of Desdemona. This line suggests that the Venetian women cannot be trusted, especially after they made some flaws. Hence, this can be linked to the notion that women are described as promiscuous in this play.

Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
Wear your eye thus, not jealous nor secure:
I would not have your free and noble nature,
Out of self-bounty, be abused; look to't:
I know our country disposition well;
In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience
Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown. (3.3.17)

Iago implant the notion that women in Venice cannot all be trusted, as in ‘I know our country disposition well; In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks’ and by saying so, Iago has led Othello to think of Desdemona is being secretive and promiscuous. Besides that, Iago has also made a remark of condemning women in general which can be further looked in the excerpt below,;

Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors,
Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
Players in your huswifery, and huswives in your beds. (2.1.109-112)

To Iago, women are "pictures" because they paint make-up all over their faces. They are "bells" because their tongues ring constantly. They are saints in their injuries because when they do someone an injury they pretend they're doing it for a saintly reason, but they never give anyone else the benefit of the doubt, so they are devils when they are offended and finally, they only pretend to be housewives, but are really hussies, (Weller P.). Notice the words huswifery and huswives, both are the combination of hussy which means promiscuous.

Hence, it is best to say that the prejudice is actually the primary kill tool that has killed Desdemona. By implanting prejudice to Othello, Iago able to celebrate the excellency of his evil plan and therefore in the simplest view of prejudice, it is a contagious disease that can affect anyone and is easily spread through slanders and rumours.

References:

Weller, P. (n.d.). Summary of Act 2, Scene1. In Othello Navigator. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://www.clicknotes.com/othello/S21.html.

Zott, M., L. (2002). Shakespearean Criticism. Othello (Vol. 68)- Introduction. Retrieved February 11, 2011 from http://www.enotes.com/shakespearean-criticism/othello-vol-68

Play Construction and the Suffering and Murder of Desdemona

There is practically no doubt that Othello was the tragedy written next after Hamlet. Such external evidence as we possess points to this conclusion, and it is confirmed by similarities of style, diction and versification, and also by the fact that ideas and phrases of the earlier play are echoed in the later.1 There is, further (not to speak of one curious point, to be considered when we come to Iago), a certain resemblance in the subjects. The heroes of the two plays are doubtless extremely unlike, so unlike that each could have dealt without much difficulty with the situation which proved fatal to the other; but still each is a man exceptionally noble and trustful, and each endures the shock of a terrible disillusionment. This theme is treated by Shakespeare for the first time in Hamlet, for the second in Hamlet. It recurs with modifications in King Lear, and it probably formed the attraction which drew Shakespeare to refashion in part another writer's tragedy of Timon. These four dramas may so far be grouped together in distinction from the remaining tragedies.

But in point of substance, and, in certain respects, in point of style, the unlikeness of Othello to Hamlet is much greater than the likeness, and the later play belongs decidedly to one group with its successors. We have seen that, like them, it is a tragedy of passion, a description inapplicable to Julius Caesar or Hamlet. And with this change goes another, an enlargement in the stature of the hero. There is in most of the later heroes something colossal, something which reminds us of Michael Angelo's figures. They are not merely exceptional men, they are huge men; as it were, survivors of the heroic age living in a later and smaller world. We do not receive this impression from Romeo or Brutus or Hamlet, nor did it lie in Shakespeare's design to allow more than touches of this trait to Julius Caesar himself; but it is strongly marked in Lear and Coriolanus, and quite distinct in Macbeth and even in Antony. Othello is the first of these men, a being essentially large and grand, towering above his fellows, holding a volume of force which in repose ensures preeminence without an effort, and in commotion reminds us rather of the fury of the elements than of the tumult of common human passion.

1

What is the peculiarity of Othello? What is the distinctive impression that it leaves? Of all Shakespeare's tragedies, I would answer, not even excepting King Lear, Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader's heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and dreadful expectation. Evil is displayed before him, not indeed with the profusion found in King Lear, but forming, as it were, the soul of a single character, and united with an intellectual superiority so great that he watches its advance fascinated and appalled. He sees it, in itself almost irresistible, aided at every step by fortunate accidents and the innocent mistakes of its victims. He seems to breathe an atmosphere as fateful as that of King Lear, but more confined and oppressive, the darkness not of night but of a close-shut murderous room. His imagination is excited to intense activity, but it is the activity of concentration rather than dilation.

I will not dwell now on aspects of the play which modify this impression, and I reserve for later discussion one of its principal sources, the character of Iago. But if we glance at some of its other sources, we shall find at the same time certain distinguishing characteristics of Othello.

(1) One of these has been already mentioned in our discussion of Shakespeare's technique. Othello is not only the most masterly of the tragedies in point of construction, but its method of construction is unusual. And this method, by which the conflict begins late, and advances without appreciable pause and with accelerating speed to the catastrophe, is a main cause of the painful tension just described. To this may be added that, after the conflict has begun, there is very little relief by way of the ridiculous. Henceforward at any rate Iago's humour never raises a smile. The clown is a poor one; we hardly attend to him and quickly forget him; I believe most readers of Shakespeare, if asked whether there is a clown in Othello, would answer No.

(2) In the second place, there is no subject more exciting than sexual jealousy rising to the pitch of passion; and there can hardly be any spectacle at once so engrossing and so painful as that of a great nature suffering the torment of this passion, and driven by it to a crime which is also a hideous blunder. Such a passion as ambition, however terrible its results, is not itself ignoble; if we separate it in thought from the conditions which make it guilty, it does not appear despicable; it is not a kind of suffering, its nature is active; and therefore we can watch its course without shrinking. But jealousy, and especially sexual jealousy, brings with it a sense of shame and humiliation. For this reason it is generally hidden; if we perceive it we ourselves are ashamed and turn our eyes away; and when it is not hidden it commonly stirs contempt as well as pity. Nor is this all. Such jealousy as Othello's converts human nature into chaos, and liberates the beast in man; and it does this in relation to one of the most intense and also the most ideal of human feelings. What spectacle can be more painful than that of this feeling turned into a tortured mixture of longing and loathing, the 'golden purity' of passion split by poison into fragments, the animal in man forcing itself into his consciousness in naked grossness, and he writhing before it but powerless to deny it entrance, gasping inarticulate images of pollution, and finding relief only in a bestial thirst for blood? This is what we have to witness in one who was indeed 'great of heart' and no less pure and tender than he was great. And this, with what it leads to, the blow to Desdemona, and the scene where she is treated as the inmate of a brothel, a scene far more painful than the murder scene, is another cause of the special effect of this tragedy.2

(3) The mere mention of these scenes will remind us painfully of a third cause; and perhaps it is the most potent of all. I mean the suffering of Desdemona. This is, unless I mistake, the most nearly intolerable spectacle that Shakespeare offers us. For one thing, it is mere suffering; and, ceteris paribus, that is much worse to witness than suffering that issues in action. Desdemona is helplessly passive. She can do nothing whatever. She cannot retaliate even in speech; no, not even in silent feeling. And the chief reason of her helplessness only makes the sight of her suffering more exquisitely painful. She is helpless because her nature is infinitely sweet and her love absolute. I would not challenge Mr. Swinburne's statement that we pity Othello even more than Desdemona; but we watch Desdemona with more unmitigated distress. We are never wholly uninfluenced by the feeling that Othello is a man contending with another man; but Desdemona's suffering is like that of the most loving of dumb creatures tortured without cause by the being he adores.

(4) Turning from the hero and heroine to the third principal character, we observe (what has often been pointed out) that the action and catastrophe of Othello depend largely on intrigue. We must not say more than this. We must not call the play a tragedy of intrigue as distinguished from a tragedy of character. Iago's plot is Iago's character in action; and it is built on his knowledge of Othello's character, and could not otherwise have succeeded. Still it remains true that an elaborate plot was necessary to elicit the catastrophe; for Othello was no Leontes, and his was the last nature to engender such jealousy from itself. Accordingly Iago's intrigue occupies a position in the drama for which no parallel can be found in the other tragedies; the only approach, and that a distant one, being the intrigue of Edmund in the secondary plot of King Lear. Now in any novel or play, even if the persons rouse little interest and are never in serious danger, a skilfully-worked intrigue will excite eager attention and suspense. And where, as in Othello, the persons inspire the keenest sympathy and antipathy, and life and death depend on the intrigue, it becomes the source of a tension in which pain almost overpowers pleasure. Nowhere else in Shakespeare do we hold our breath in such anxiety and for so long a time as in the later acts of Othello.

(5) One result of the prominence of the element of intrigue is that Othello is less unlike a story of private life than any other of the great tragedies. And this impression is strengthened in further ways. In the other great tragedies the action is placed in a distant period, so that its general significance is perceived through a thin veil which separates the persons from ourselves and our own world. But Othello is a drama of modern life; when it first appeared it was a drama almost of contemporary life, for the date of the Turkish attack on Cyprus is 1570.

The characters come close to us, and the application of the drama to ourselves (if the phrase may be pardoned) is more immediate than it can be in Hamlet or Lear. Besides this, their fortunes affect us as those of private individuals more than is possible in any of the later tragedies with the exception of Timon. I have not forgotten the Senate, nor Othello's position, nor his service to the State;3 but his deed and his death have not that influence on the interests of a nation or an empire which serves to idealise, and to remove far from our own sphere, the stories of Hamlet and Macbeth, of Coriolanus and Antony. Indeed he is already superseded at Cyprus when his fate is consummated, and as we leave him no vision rises on us, as in other tragedies, of peace descending on a distracted land.

(6) The peculiarities so far considered combine with others to produce those feelings of oppression, of confinement to a comparatively narrow world, and of dark fatality, which haunt us in reading Othello. In Macbeth the fate which works itself out alike in the external conflict and in the hero's soul, is obviously hostile to evil; and the imagination is dilated both by the consciousness of its presence and by the appearance of supernatural agencies. These, as we have seen, produce in Hamlet a somewhat similar effect, which is increased by the hero's acceptance of the accidents as a providential shaping of his end. King Lear is undoubtedly the tragedy which comes nearest to Othello in the impression of darkness and fatefulness, and in the absence of direct indications of any guiding power.4 But in King Lear, apart from other differences to be considered later, the conflict assumes proportions so vast that the imagination seems, as in Paradise Lost, to traverse spaces wider than the earth. In reading Othello the mind is not thus distended. It is more bound down to the spectacle of noble beings caught in toils from which there is no escape; while the prominence of the intrigue diminishes the sense of the dependence of the catastrophe on character, and the part played by accident5 in this catastrophe accentuates the feeling of fate. This influence of accident is keenly felt in King Lear only once, and at the very end of the play. In Othello, after the temptation has begun, it is incessant and terrible. The skill of Iago was extraordinary, but so was his good fortune. Again and again a chance word from Desdemona, a chance meeting of Othello and Cassio, a question which starts to our lips and which anyone but Othello would have asked, would have destroyed Iago's plot and ended his life. In their stead, Desdemona drops her handkerchief at the moment most favourable to him,6 Cassio blunders into the presence of Othello only to find him in a swoon, Bianca arrives precisely when she is wanted to complete Othello's deception and incense his anger into fury. All this and much more seems to us quite natural, so potent is the art of the dramatist; but it confounds us with a feeling, such as we experience in the Oedipus Tyrannus, that for these star-crossed mortals--both [Greek: dysdaimones]--there is no escape from fate, and even with a feeling, absent from that play, that fate has taken sides with villainy.7 It is not surprising, therefore, that Othello should affect us as Hamlet and Macbeth never do, and as King Lear does only in slighter measure. On the contrary, it is marvellous that, before the tragedy is over, Shakespeare should have succeeded in toning down this impression into harmony with others more solemn and serene.

But has he wholly succeeded? Or is there a justification for the fact--a fact it certainly is--that some readers, while acknowledging, of course, the immense power of Othello, and even admitting that it is dramatically perhaps Shakespeare's greatest triumph, still regard it with a certain distaste, or, at any rate, hardly allow it a place in their minds beside Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth?

The distaste to which I refer is due chiefly to two causes. First, to many readers in our time, men as well as women, the subject of sexual jealousy, treated with Elizabethan fulness and frankness, is not merely painful but so repulsive that not even the intense tragic emotions which the story generates can overcome this repulsion. But, while it is easy to understand a dislike of Othello thus caused, it does not seem necessary to discuss it, for it may fairly be called personal or subjective. It would become more than this, and would amount to a criticism of the play, only if those who feel it maintained that the fulness and frankness which are disagreeable to them are also needless from a dramatic point of view, or betray a design of appealing to unpoetic feelings in the audience. But I do not think that this is maintained, or that such a view would be plausible.

To some readers, again, parts of Othello appear shocking or even horrible. They think--if I may formulate their objection--that in these parts Shakespeare has sinned against the canons of art, by representing on the stage a violence or brutality the effect of which is unnecessarily painful and rather sensational than tragic. The passages which thus give offence are probably those already referred to,--that where Othello strikes Desdemona (IV. i. 251), that where he affects to treat her as an inmate of a house of ill-fame (IV. ii.), and finally the scene of her death.

The issues thus raised ought not to be ignored or impatiently dismissed, but they cannot be decided, it seems to me, by argument. All we can profitably do is to consider narrowly our experience, and to ask ourselves this question: If we feel these objections, do we feel them when we are reading the play with all our force, or only when we are reading it in a half-hearted manner? For, however matters may stand in the former case, in the latter case evidently the fault is ours and not Shakespeare's. And if we try the question thus, I believe we shall find that on the whole the fault is ours. The first, and least important, of the three passages--that of the blow--seems to me the most doubtful. I confess that, do what I will, I cannot reconcile myself with it. It seems certain that the blow is by no means a tap on the shoulder with a roll of paper, as some actors, feeling the repulsiveness of the passage, have made it. It must occur, too, on the open stage. And there is not, I think, a sufficiently overwhelming tragic feeling in the passage to make it bearable. But in the other two scenes the case is different. There, it seems to me, if we fully imagine the inward tragedy in the souls of the persons as we read, the more obvious and almost physical sensations of pain or horror do not appear in their own likeness, and only serve to intensify the tragic feelings in which they are absorbed. Whether this would be so in the murder-scene if Desdemona had to be imagined as dragged about the open stage (as in some modern performances) may be doubtful; but there is absolutely no warrant in the text for imagining this, and it is also quite clear that the bed where she is stifled was within the curtains,8 and so, presumably, in part concealed.

Here, then, Othello does not appear to be, unless perhaps at one point,9 open to criticism, though it has more passages than the other three tragedies where, if imagination is not fully exerted, it is shocked or else sensationally excited. If nevertheless we feel it to occupy a place in our minds a little lower than the other three (and I believe this feeling, though not general, is not rare), the reason lies not here but in another characteristic, to which I have already referred,--the comparative confinement of the imaginative atmosphere. Othello has not equally with the other three the power of dilating the imagination by vague suggestions of huge universal powers working in the world of individual fate and passion. It is, in a sense, less 'symbolic.' We seem to be aware in it of a certain limitation, a partial suppression of that element in Shakespeare's mind which unites him with the mystical poets and with the great musicians and philosophers. In one or two of his plays, notably in Troilus and Cressida, we are almost painfully conscious of this suppression; we feel an intense intellectual activity, but at the same time a certain coldness and hardness, as though some power in his soul, at once the highest and the sweetest, were for a time in abeyance. In other plays, notably in the Tempest, we are constantly aware of the presence of this power; and in such cases we seem to be peculiarly near to Shakespeare himself. Now this is so in Hamlet and King Lear, and, in a slighter degree, in Macbeth; but it is much less so in Othello. I do not mean that in Othello the suppression is marked, or that, as in Troilus and Cressida, it strikes us as due to some unpleasant mood; it seems rather to follow simply from the design of a play on a contemporary and wholly mundane subject. Still it makes a difference of the kind I have attempted to indicate, and it leaves an impression that in Othello we are not in contact with the whole of Shakespeare. And it is perhaps significant in this respect that the hero himself strikes us as having, probably, less of the poet's personality in him than many characters far inferior both as dramatic creations and as men.

Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy.London: MacMillan and Co,1919. Shakespeare Online. 14.February 2011 Retrieved: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/othello/othellobradley1.html

Christopher Marlowe

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Christopher Marlowe--the name is also spelled Marly and Marlin in the records--was born in 1564, the son of a well-to-do shoemaker and a clergyman's daughter. He was educated at King's School in his native Canterbury and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1584 and M.A. in 1587. The privy council intervened to see that his employment on some confidential mission for the government, in which he had proved "orderly and discreet," should not put him at a disadvantage in the matter of his M.A. degree.

For the remaining six years of his life there is evidence of exceptional activity. Apparently he continued to serve as a confidential agent for the government; he engaged in the philosophical or theological speculation of a circle centering around Raleigh; he achieved distinction by his non-dramatic verse, of which the unfinishedHero and Leander is the most important example and he became the outstanding dramatist of London, in association chiefly with the Admiral's Company of players. Many details of his life were a source of scandal to some of his contemporaries, and for us are still shrouded in mystery.

In May, 1593, a manuscript was discovered in Kyd's possession which he declared to be Marlowe's left' with Kyd in 1591 when he was in the service of a noble lord for whose players Marlowe was writing. The document--merely a copy of part of a theological treatise already published--though unitarian in nature, was atheistic in the eyes of the orthodox. Testimony as to blasphemous conversations on Marlowe's part was also produced. Before the privy council took definite action about the charges, Marlowe was killed.

Puritan disapproval of his connection with the stage and of his free-thinking perhaps influenced Meres' statement that he was stabbed "by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love." Records discovered by Hotson merely show that he was stabbed in a tavern in Deptford by Friser, one of three companions who also were, or had been, in the service of the government. The procedure of the coroner's inquest by which Friser was exonerated is regarded by some modern students as regular, by others as an attempt to cover official secrets or even a political assassination. Marlowe was buried on June 1, 1593.


This portrait is believed to be of Christopher Marlowe. It was discovered at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1953 and required extensive restoration work.

The age of the sitter and date of the portrait as inscribed in the top-left corner match Marlowe, who was born in February 1564, and who attended the College between 1580 to 1587. The inscription readsANNO DNI AETATIS SVAE 21 1585 -"Aged 21 in 1585".

Beneath this is inscribed the motto, QVOD ME NVTRIT ME DESTRVIT, which translates from the Latin as "that which nourishes me destroys me".

Sources from here and here

Characters in The Winter's Tale

Leontes, King of Sicilia

Husband of Hermione, father of Perdita. Leontes' delusional conviction that his wife and best friend have become lovers causes all of the problems of the play. He abuses his authority as king, bringing ruin and eventual death on his blameless wife and son, as well as the loss of his infant daughter. He grieves for sixteen years, until his wife and daughter are miraculously restored to him.

Hermione, Queen of Sicilia

Blameless queen and loving mother, Hermione is a model of passive virtue and forgiveness. Obedient to her husband's wishes and ultimately loyal to him despite his treatment of her, she bears his outrageous tyranny with dignity and strength. She dies of grief and shock after her son dies, but at the end of the play she is miraculously restored by Paulina.

Perdita, Princess of Sicilia

A foundling abandoned in the wilds of Bohemia by the tyrannous order of her father, Perdita grows to strength and beauty under the roof of the kindly Shepherd who finds her. She is unaware of her royal parentage, and lives happily in an idyllic world of sheep tending and rural festivals. Her romance with Bohemia's prince threatens her safety, and she is forced to flee with him to Sicilia.

Mamillius, Prince of Sicilia

Praised by all at court as a boy of great promise, Mamillius is the charming and beloved heir of the Sicilian throne. Still a young child, he dies from worry during his mother's trial.

Polixenes, King of Bohemia

Polixenes, best friend of Leontes since boyhood, is targeted for assassination by Sicilia's king in the first act. Leontes believes that Polixenes has become Hermione's lover. Later, Polixenes' son Florizell falls in love with Perdita. Polixenes becomes furious that his son is planning to marry a commoner, and he threatens the girl with execution.

Florizell, Prince of Bohemia

Florizell is willing to abandon his throne to marry Perdita. A wholesome, loyal youth, his devotion for Perdita is beyond question.

Paulina

Wife of Antigonus and lady at the Sicilian court, Paulina becomes Leontes' most important advisor after the king becomes penitent for his previous tyrannous behavior. Fearless and sharp-tongued, she confronts the king fiercely when he is caught in his delusions about Hermione. At the end of the play, her magic restores the queen.

Camillo

Competent administrator and trusted friend, Camillo is a lord first in the service of Leontes and then in the service of Polixenes. When Leontes orders him to poison Bohemia's king, Camillo chooses the dictates of his conscience over obedience.

Antigonus

Husband of Paulina, Antigonus is a decent man who tries ineffectively to bring Leontes back to reason. Under oath to obey his king, Antigonus carries the infant Perdita to the wilds of Bohemia and abandons her. The gods punish him for his part in the unjust act, and he is eaten by a bear.

Shepherd

This kindly old man finds the infant Perdita and raises her as his own child. For his kindness, he is richly rewarded by King Leontes.

Shepherd's Son

Called "Clown" in some editions, the Shepherd's Son is a rustic and naïve man whose bumbling, rural ways provide comic relief. He is duped by Autolycus.

Autolycus

Formerly in the service of Florizell, Autolycus is now a rogue who cons innocents out of their money. Yet he, too, proves loyal to his prince. Because of his actions, Perdita's true identity is uncovered.

Mopsa and Dorcas

Two country girls involved with the Shepherd's Son.

Emilia

Lady-in-waiting to Hermione.

Cleomenes and Dion

Lords in the Sicilian court, Cleomenes and Dion are sent by Leontes to consult the oracle of Apollo.

Jailer

Hermione's jailer. He allows Paulina to speak with Emilia, and he also allows Paulina to take the baby to Leontes.

Officer at the Court

Officer who works at Hermione's trial.

Archidamus

Bohemian courtier staying as a guest in Sicilia.

Mariner

Sailor on the ship that carries Antigonus and Perdita to Bohemia.

Various Lords, Ladies, Gentlemen, and Servants at the Sicilian Court

Various Shepherds, Shepherdesses, and Men Dressed as Satyrs

Source

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