Good afternoon,
Today's class was rather interesting. I always knew that Othello would produce controversial conversations of race, gender, and power, however, I never anticipated that current politics would become one of today's main topics! Because of the heated debate about Iago, Othello and their hatred, I thought that it would be most appropriate to continue to discuss my thoughts on how Shakespeare may have wanted this piece to be interpreted.
Although Shakespeare is indeed dead and has been for many years, I feel that it is our duty as students and readers of Shakespeare's masterpieces to give our own personal interpretations of his works and compare. From what I have read in this class and previous classes as well as viewed and played in a production of Othello, I can honestly say that Shakespeare wrote this tragedy to illustrate his utter disgust with his current world, whether politics and / or the public itself. He seemed to want to show how one small inkling of hatred can start of war.
In relation to the subject of racism, I am not sure how much racism occurred in Shakespeare's time, however, generally speaking, Shakespeare's time had many different categories of class. This could be our modern day battle with race. Shakespeare adds many different forms of discriminatory language that helps to support his disgust with his world as well as deepening the plot of his tragedy. I do not believe that his wording and racial innuendo is out of line nor inappropriate, but rather appropriate for this play. As pointed out in class, ALL OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS ARE OVER THE TOP. The language and extreme acts of hatred towards Othello and other characters is no more inappropriate than Romeo and Juliet killing themselves because the could not be together, Titus killing his offspring because they were "out of line", or even Aaron's personal goal in life to be evil.
I am very interested to complete the Parker film and compare it to our modern day Othello, "O". I have been searching for a good intertextual connection from the cinematic world and I think Josh Hartnett and Julie Stiles will help us all understand Shakespeare and his work better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Nice post, Emily. The Loomba essay should help illuminate the fraught study of racism in Shakespeare's day. She takes a New Historicist perspective to help sort out this matter.
Essentially you're saying that the text comes out very strongly against human stupidity, especially in war and, perhaps, in racism. This play does seem more social than Hamlet.
Please bring up your ideas in class.
Post a Comment