Obviously, Shakespeare isn’t always the favorite topic of high school students. However, it is undeniable fact that Shakespeare’s plays are renowned as masterfully crafted tales of betrayal, love, and humor that present situations and events that touch readers and audiences because of their universal and timeless nature. The themes and the way they are presented in Shakespeare’s works are popular because audiences find their lines and soliloquies applicable to life hundreds of years later. In particular, Shakespeare’s “Othello” and the wicked manipulation, betrayal, love, and tragedy that the play bases itself on is an especially relevant work. In testimony to its universal nature, other, more modern, members of the creative community have also worked with the concepts that Othello touches on, specifically manipulation and how it affects a budding relationship like that of Othello and Desdemona.
The lies that Iago whispered in Othello’s ear were the scissors that cut short the marriage of Othello and Desdemona too soon. Some of these lies included the infamous and fatal one involving the hankercheif and Iago’s claim that Desdemona gave it to Cassio even though it was a gift from Othello to her, thus officially signifying her preference for Cassio over him. This lie was the last straw for Othello who soon afterward decided his wife had to die and their marriage along with her (“Othello”). Marge Piercy, a poet of the 1930’s, offered an analogous poem about a bonsai tree that “could have grown eighty feet tall”. However, there was a gardener that pruned it, keeping it short at nine inches. The particularly applicable line of the poem reads: “With living creatures one must begin very early to dwarf their growth: the bound feet, the crippled brain,” (“A Work of Artifice”). Othello and Desdemona’s marriage is the living creature, dwarfed, bound, and crippled by Iago’s artifice. It had the potential to become a great, long-lasting covenant, but it was doomed from the start by the shears of Iago the gardener. Here, two writers hundreds of years apart have depicted the same picture in completely different ways. The images of both the poem and the events of the play combined are a testimony of how artifice is an element of human nature, and therefore timeless and universal. Here is a link to "A Work of Artifice" in it's entirety: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-work-of-artifice/
Another, more diverse, form of artistic creation is music. A particularly prolific and popular band, Mumford and Sons, wrote “Lover’s Eye’s” in 2010 about a relationship gone sour due to doubts and uncertainties. This song definitely expresses some of the sentiments that Othello must have been feeling when Iago was feeding him suspicions about his beloved wife, Desdemona. The very first line of the song, “Love was kind, for a time, now just aches and it makes me blind” is an apt description of how Othello’s love for Desdemona combined with the belief that she was sleeping with another man turned his love into a curse rather than the blessing that it really was. The chorus is another great example of how the couple’s relationship was afflicted by Iago’s lies: “But do not ask the price I pay, I must live with my quiet rage. Tame the ghosts in my head, that run wild and wish me dead. Should you shake my ash to the wind, Lord, forget all of my sins. Oh, let me die where I lie ‘neath the curse of my lover's eyes,” (“Lover’s Eye’s”). Othello is feeling rage, experiencing the ghosts of suspicion that plague his marriage, plans on committing the sin of killing his wife, and eventually dies with his lover. This song expresses the results of the pruning of the bonsai tree that is an analogy of Iago’s manipulation and how it ultimately destroyed a young and potentially wonderful marriage. Here is a link to the full lyrics of "Lover's Eye's":http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mumfordsons/loverseyes.html
Artifice is a dangerous tool, but an unfortunate reality and occurrence of human life. Shakespeare wrote a play about it. Marge Piercy wrote a poem about it. Mumford and Sons wrote a song about how it destroys a relationship. All these artists are separated by at least seventy years, and in Shakespeare’s case, many more. Not only are the spread out across time, but all three works are enjoyed and examined by people all over the world. William Shakespeare knew lies have wicked consequences and “Othello” was only one of many creative products to relate these consequences in a memorable, universal, and timeless fashion.
Works Cited
Mumford, Marcus. "Lover's Eyes." Perf. Ben Lovett, Country Marshall, and Ted Dwane. Sigh
No More. Mumford and Sons. Markus Dravs, 2009. CD.
Perrine, Laurence. “Othello.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, Fort Worth.
Harcourt College. 2002. 1361-462. Print.
Perrine, Laurence. “A Work of Artifice.” Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, Fort
Worth. Harcourt College. 2002. 1077. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment