Cadet Will Reeves
3/8/17
Help Received: See works cited
Short Assignment on Othello
Part 1
Early modern English writers differed in their perspectives of the nature of jealousy. Francis Bacon believed that jealousy was the result of one person loving another person to too great an extent. For Bacon, this was not a virtuous kind of love, but a twisted love characterized by extreme sexual passion (Hall 328). Benedetto Varchi and Robert Burton both view jealousy as an intense emotion, related to love, but not really the result of love (Hall 328). Furthermore, Varchi believes that some kinds and groups of people, such as women, Venetians, and Africans, are by nature more prone to feeling jealous (Hall 328).
Benedetto Varchi notes that people who perceive themselves as generally inferior to other men and women are often jealous. They are especially bitter that they are not esteemed or thought attractive by the women in their lives, and become jealous of the men and women who enjoy each other’s respect and approval (Varchi 333). Nevertheless, Varchi concludes that jealousy is in fact a natural emotion that is actually virtuous in the appropriate context and in the appropriate quantity. Feeling jealousy for one’s own reputation or the reputation of one’s wife are examples of circumstances where jealously is appropriate (Varchi 333-34).
Robert Burton describes the mind of a jealous man. The jealous man is in a frenzied state. He can never rest, but continuously views the actions of his mistress with suspicion, asking himself what may be the secret motives behind each of her seemingly insignificant words or actions (Burton 335-37). Furthermore, his suspicions of her manifest themselves in his own actions. He may one moment adore his mistress and speak lovingly and intimately to her, and then, after he has misinterpreted and blown out of proportion some small thing she has said or done, insult her, act violently toward her, and cast her out of his presence. His suspicions also extend even beyond his mistress alone, and may include anyone among his own friends and family whom he suspects of becoming romantically involved with his mistress (Burton 336-37). After discussing several options for curing this frenzied state that is jealousy, Burton concludes that a mistress’s only option is to exercise patience with her man until his jealousy subsides (Burton 337).
Francis Bacon points out that in order for a man to envy someone else, he must have someone to whom to compare himself. A man compares himself to others who are of similar status as himself, but whom he perceives as being slightly better than himself. For example, kings are not jealous of any one of their subjects, but instead kings are jealous of other kings. Therefore, a man who focuses mainly on his own affairs and is not continually looking at the achievements of others is less prone to jealousy (Bacon 339). Bacon also notes that, unlike other feelings, which arise from time to time when they are evoked by some situation, the feeling of jealousy exists constantly in man. Bacon ultimately condemns jealousy as the most heinous emotion, and the one that best characterizes the Devil himself (Bacon 340).
Part II
The final scene of the play reflects many of these writers’ perspectives. Othello’s unstable mental state is apparent throughout the play once he begins to buy in to Iago’s lies, but it is displayed most prominently through his interactions and conversation with Desdemona in the final scene. Othello’s actions with Desdemona at the beginning of the scene particularly reflect Robert Burton’s description of the frenzied mind of a man who is at one moment adoring of his mistress, and at the next moment filled with contempt for her. Even as Othello is preparing to strangle his wife to death, he cannot resist still loving her, as shown by his kisses. The fact that he is still kissing her at line 19 and then has strangled her by line 87 is telling of his mental state. Indeed, by the end of the scene, Othello has himself acknowledged that his own excess of love for Desdemona spurred on the feelings of jealousy that Iago kindled. He laments, “Then you must speak /Of one that loved not wisely but too well; /Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, /Perplexed in the extreme” (V. ii. 353-56). These lines reflect the views of Bacon that jealousy is the result of loving another person to too great an extent. Othello seems to believe that he loved Desdemona so much that when it was even suggested that she was being unfaithful to him, he lost his mind and thereby doomed her. He explains this further by claiming that he is not by nature prone to jealousy, but that someone else, that is, Iago, used his own intense love for Desdemona against him (V. ii. 355).
What makes the end of the play even more disturbing is the fact that the feelings of jealousy that Iago causes to arise in Othello were actually appropriate and justified according to most early modern English writers. (In fact, modern audiences would, in general, also view jealousy as an appropriate reaction to the suspicion that one’s spouse is being unfaithful.) Shakespeare’s portrayal of Othello makes clear that the jealousy Othello felt was not a wicked emotion. This portrayal of Othello is shown when Lodovico wonders aloud what he can even say to Othello, to which Othello replies, “Why, anything. /An honorable murderer, if you will, /For naught did I in hate, but all in honor” (V. ii. 301-03). Thus, Shakespeare affirms Varchi’s proposition that jealously, in the appropriate context, is natural and justified. It was right for Othello to be jealous when he believed that Desdemona had been unfaithful. Thus, Iago never really did corrupt Othello’s character; he merely convinced Othello of his lies about Desdemona and Cassio. Othello’s only fault was to believe Iago. At the end of the play, the audience is deeply disgusted and angered by way Iago manipulated Othello. On the other hand, the audience is actually sympathetic toward Othello, whose jealousy, which would have been justified had Iago’s rumors been true, ultimately destroys him and the lives of those he loves.
Works Cited
Bacon, Francis. The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 338-40. Print.
Burton, Robert. Anatomy of Melancholy. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 335-37. Print.
Hall, Kim F., ed. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.
Varchi, Benedetto. The Blazon of Jealousy. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 330-34. Print.