Othello's Disenchanted Eye

By George F. Held

Two essays on Shakespeare's Othello. The first argues that Cassio’s and Othello’s losses of reputation and honor form a tripartite climactic progression: a loss of reputation through little fault of one’s own (Cassio’s), a loss of honor through no fault of one’s own (Othello’s through another’s infidelity), and a loss of honor through one’s own fault (Othello’s through his murder of Desdemona). The play’s grand irony is that Othello’s mistaken belief that he has lost his honor through another’s fault leads him so to act that he loses his honor through his own fault. The second essay centers on Kermode's words: the marriage is "founded upon her just understanding of his virtue." I show that her “understanding of his virtue” is no different from that of the others. The marriage is also “founded upon” his understanding of her virtue, and this proves to be fragile. Iago is able to destroy the marriage by undoing Othello’s fragile belief in Desdemona’s virtue. Othello like Brabantio thinks the marriage unnatural.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304376015

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Othello's Disenchanted Eye

Othello’s Disenchanted Eye

By

George F. Held

Othello’s Disenchanted Eye

First Edition

Copyright © 2012 George F. Held

All rights reserved.

Preface

This book contains two essays on Shakespeare’s Othello. The first discusses the role in the play of loss of reputation and honor. The plot is structured around a series of such losses, incurred through either one’s own fault or that of others. Iago’s perceived slight by Othello and his desire to avenge it is what sets the play’s action in motion. His perceived loss of reputation and honor leads him to induce others to do things which cost them their reputation and honor. In Cyprus he instigates a series of losses of reputation and honor by Cassio and Othello. Their losses form a tripartite climactic progression: 1. a loss of reputation through little fault of one’s own: Cassio’s loss of his reputation and job because of his drunken misconduct, 2. a loss of honor through no fault of one’s own: Othello’s loss of honor and occupation (III.iii.357) because of Desdemona’s alleged infidelity, and 3. a loss of honor through one’s own fault: Othello’s loss of honor and valor (I am not valiant neither: V.ii.243) because of his murder of Desdemona. In all three cases the loss of reputation or honor entails a concomitant loss of the right and/or ability to participate in military affairs; in the third case it also renders one unfit to live any longer. This view of the nature of Cassio’s and Othello’s losses is their view of them, but their view of them is not beyond scrutiny and criticism. The play invites us to scrutinize their views, most obviously by Iago’s criticism of Cassio’s view on the nature of his loss. But it is Othello’s views about his losses which are most deserving of scrutiny. His belief that he has lost honor through Desdemona’s infidelity is false, for in Western ethics (= his ethics) one cannot lose one’s honor through the fault of another; one can do so only through one’s own fault, one’s own choice. Othello makes such a choice in the play; he rejects the socially acceptable punishment for an unfaithful wife: divorcement, and chooses rather murder. It is ironic that Othello’s mistaken belief that he has lost his honor through the fault of another leads him so to act that he loses his honor through his own fault. The play underscores this irony by having Othello play a double role when revealing to us what he thinks his wife’s infidelity has cost him. Othello’s six-fold Farewell (III.iii.345-57) addressed to the things which he has lost (e.g. the big wars) corresponds to the witches’ five-fold Hail addressed to Macbeth along with the titles which he will acquire. Othello here—in Shakespeare’s dramaturgy—is working not only as his own spiritual advisor but also as his own prophetic witch, and his prophecy, like those of the witches, will prove true. In the subsequent action he loses his honor, his job, and even his valor. The rationale by which Othello explains to himself his loss of valor (But why should honor [= valor] outlive honesty [= honor]?: V.ii.245) explains also to us his peculiar idea that through his wife’s infidelity he has lost his occupation. For Othello the possession of honor is an essential precondition to the possession of valor and of the right and ability to participate in the military profession. His wife’s infidelity, by costing him his honor, costs him also, in his eyes, the right and ability to participate in his occupation.

The first essay also demonstrates that the pattern described in my book: The Good That Lives After Them: A Pattern in Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 1995 is found in full form in Othello, not (as I previously argued) in just Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth.

In the second essay I dispute Frank Kermode’s politically correct interpretation of Othello. The discussion centers on his statement: His marriage to Desdemona, founded upon her just understanding of his virtue, is a triumph over appearances. . . . It is precisely because such a union must appear to the disenchanted worldly eye perverse or absurd that Iago can destroy it. Kermode implies that Desdemona’s understanding of Othello’s virtue is factually and morally superior to that of the other characters in the play. I show that her understanding of his virtue is no different from that of the others and that these others, apart from Iago, are in no way responsible for the destruction of the marriage. The marriage is founded upon a number of things, including his understanding of her virtue, and this proves to be fragile. Iago is able to destroy the marriage by undoing that fragile understanding. Othello, despite all that he may say and however eager he may be to make Desdemona his wife, is to some extent disenchanted with her behavior in marrying him, for he, like Brabantio, views it as unnatural. It is precisely because his union with Desdemona appears to his disenchanted worldly eye perverse or absurd that Iago can destroy it.

I am the author of several other books at Lulu, and am the translator of one book available at Lulu in both paper and electronic form: Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof’s 1939 – The War That Had Many Fathers: The Long Run-Up to the Second World War. I plan to incorporate the essays in this book into an updated version of The Good That Lives After Them. The planned title for it is: A Christian Pattern in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.

Loss of Reputation and Honor in Shakespeare’s Othello

If a young boy began