Play - Othello
Act 3 Scene 3 lines 258-277
Excerpt: "She's gone. I am abused, and my relief / Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, / That we can call these delicate creatures ours, / And not their appetites!"
Context: Othello believes that Desdemona has turned into an adultress. He convinces himself that the only way to get over her is "to loathe her." This speech signals his conversion.
Significance of conversions/transformations: Conversions say a lot about a character's anxieties about a specific situation. Figures who undergo conversions are figures of suspicion. In this scene, Othello converts from the noble Christian character to a "turk"ish figure. Conversion usually carries on religious undertones -it is somewhat ironic that Othello converts away from good, light, and religious aspects. He starts out as a character who is not jealous to being completely motivated by jealousy. Othello's transformed image is a primordial image in which he makes a sudden transformation towards disorder. This speech also highlights Desdemona's conversion from virgin to whore. Ultimately, it seems like Shakespeare incorporates subversive elements in to the idea behind conversion (especially that of the religious).
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3 comments:
What I've noticed about this particular passage is the extremity of it. Othello seems to always be on either end. He doesn't even think twice before believing Desdemona to be an adulteress. This is a bit odd for a military officer who needs to approach situations through logical means and whatnot. He goes from being madly in love with his wife to now having to "loath" her. What exactly is making him "have" to loath her? is it the situation and the fact that she may have cheated on him, or is there an underlying issue causing it?
Othello's transformation might also be a symptom of his enviornment that Shakespeare was well acquainted with. Shakespeare was writing to an audience that held the same ideas about female sexual "appetite" and female "delicacy". The unruly female is always a potential threat to the male who fears, above all esle, being made a cuckold. It is perhaps this fear of public shame that poses an especially strong threat to Othello, a military man whose respectability and social identity relies on rank.
I think this passage does highlight his conversion rather well, although I wouldn’t necessarily consider it to be a religious conversion. I like the idea that Othello can only find relief for his situation by loathing Desdemona. I like to view this as more of a power struggle within Othello’s own mind. He is after all a military man and because of this information he has received, he knows now that he is not in control or in power of his situation. Therefore, seeing no way to regain power in his situation he has no choice but to take up a whole new viewpoint and loathe Desdemona because there is no going back after that point. This passage also speaks about how much of a villainous mastermind that Iago actually is, he knows seemingly all the characters emotions and reactions to his set up schemes and he can therefore orchestrate a very calculated master plan. Iago knows how Othello will react and he works on the old adage, “If you can’t beat them, join them”. Iago knows Othello won’t take Desdemona back and will turn to hating her and therefore unknowingly to Othello, he has just joined Iago’s team and is falling right into Iago’s plans.
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