William Rudolf Long and Dr. Bill Long and Insurrection and othello and Shakespeare and Book of job and Act IV

An earlier mini-essay showed how Othello's portrait in 3.3 to 4.2 is indebted to Shakespeare's description of Brutus in Julius Caesar 2.1. I focused especially on the time between the "acting of a dreadful thing" and the "first motion" when the internal forces of a person suffer "the nature of an insurrection (JC 2.1.63-69)." We see the internal stress in Othello, the "insurrection" that Brutus mentioned, when he speaks with Iago after Cassio and Iago have "acted out" Cassio's supposed love for Desdemona in 4.1. Othello thinks that Cassio's laughter mocked Desdemona; now he is ready for blood. In the 30 lines from 4.1.170-200 Othello experiences the insurrectionary force of inner turmoil in full measure. A careful consideration of these lines shows that under Iago's skillful "tutelage," Othello goes from wanting to exact revenge only on Cassio to a complete focus on Desdemona's destruction. Othello goes through five distinctive stages in his internal "insurrection."

First Thoughts (4.1.170-172)

At first Othello's sole focus is on revenge against Cassio. He is so incensed at the scene created by Iago that all he can do is blurt out, "How shall I murther him, Iago (4.1.170)?" Iago knows that it is fine for him to think this way about Cassio but he also needs to steer Othello's anger toward Desdemona. So he responds, "Did you perceive how he laugh'd at his vice (4.1.171)?" Still the focus is on Cassio but Iago has a plan to switch it to Desdemona.

Second Thoughts (4.1.173-179)

Then Iago turns the conversation to Desdemona. Iago asks Othello, "And did you see the handkerchief?" To which Othello responds, "Was that mine?" Iago says, "Yours, by this hand. And to see how he/ prizes the folish woman your wife! She gave it him,/ and he hath givn' it his whore (4.1.173-177)." Othello responds with anger toward Cassio but tenderness toward Desdemona: "I would have him nine years a-killing. A fine/ woman! a fair woman! a sweet woman (4.1.178-179)!" This focus on revenge against Cassio but praise to Desdemona reverses Othello's earlier desire for vengeance against both Cassio and Desdemona ("I'll tear her all to pieces"--3.3.341, and "O that the slave had forty thousand lives!/ One is too poor, too weak for my revenge"--3.3.442-443). This is the second "insurrectionary" movement: Cassio will be avenged but Desdemona is a sweet creature.

Third Thoughts (4.1.180-185)

Iago quickly sees that this is not the way he wants Othello to go. So he interjects, "Nay, you must forget that (4.1.180--i.e., forget the sweetness and fairness of Desdemona)." So, in his third thoughts, Othello puts all his attention on Desdemona but has mixed opinions about her: "Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damn'd to-/ night, for she shall not live. No, my heart is turne'd to/ stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand. Oh, the world/ hath not a sweeter creature! she might lie by an/ emperor's side and command him tasks (4.1.181-185)." At least Iago has succeeded in getting Othello to focus on Desdemona alone and to rearticulate his desire for her ruin, despite his continued positive thoughts toward her.

Fourth Thoughts (4.1.186-196)

The fourth set of thoughts is a continuation of the previous one. For ten lines Iago and Othello jockey for position as Othello keeps mentioning the virtues of Desdemona ("So deli-/ cate with a needle! an admirable musician"--4.1.187-188 and "And then/ of so gentle a condition!--4.1.192-193) while Iago gently tries to steer Othello into a negative appraisal of Desdemona. Iago says, "Nay, that's not your way (4.1.186--i.e., don't just focus on the positive)" and "She's worse for all this (4.1.191--her "plenteous wit and invention"), but he cannot budge Othello from his sympathy for Desdemona. Othello's memorable line: "But yet the pity of it,/ Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago (4.1.192-193)" recognizes his own inner tension, but still he is not ready to act.*

[*The apparent "relenting" of Othello from 3.3 to 4.1 with respect to Desdemona is perfectly explicable from a psychological perspective. What is at first a life-changing commitment in 3.3 becomes, upon further scrutiny, a problematic commitment. It needs to be rekindled, reinforced, reinvigorated. Iago is the "evangelist" who will enable this to happen in 4.1.]

Fifth Thoughts (4.1.197-200)

The tug of war is finally resolved by Iago's apparent yielding of the point to Othello, but it is precisely this yielding that evokes the most vociferous response of Othello against Desdemona. To Othello's constant praising of Desdemona's virtues Iago says in disgust, "If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her/ patent to offend, for if it touch not you, it comes near/ nobody (4.1.197-199)." That is, 'let her sin boldly without any intervention on your part if you are so gracious, since if her conduct doesn't affect you, it affects no one.' This picture of his wife freely living and giving herself away finally arouses Othello's ire again, and he bursts out, "I will chop her into messes. Cuckold me (4.1.200)!" Now Iago has Othello exactly where he wants him. The next few lines, before the entrance of Lodovico and the embassy from Venice, are devoted to Iago's stoking Othello's fury and getting him to think about a "just" killing of Desdemona: strangling her in her bed rather than cutting her to pieces. After all, it was the bed where her liasons supposedly took place; there is was that she returned Othello to his "chaos"; let her return to nothingness on that same bed.

Conclusion

Once Othello has rekindled his vengeful feeling toward Desdemona, he will be adamant. In the only two places where he subsequently entertains momentary doubts, it will be because Desdemona's smell is so overpowering to him that it penetrates right to his heart and makes it difficult for him to carry out the plan. But his heart will turn to stone until he has killed Desdemona, and then, after he has killed her, it will melt like a popsicle in the Arizona desert.