William Rudolf Long and Dr. Bill Long and William R. Long and Bill Long and Life-lines and Commend me to my kind lord and Iago hurt him and I will speak as liberal as the north and Shakespeare and Othello

Act V not only concludes the action of the play and ties up loose ends so that the audience and characters realize the details of Iago's machinations, but it also is the occasion for the five leading people to speak lines that give windows into the leading characters. This mini-essay will be devoted to the way those individual lines limn character of four leading roles. I will devote a separate essay to Othello. I urge you to memorize the lines, and then use them as a window for reconstructing your own view of each of the characters.

Iago

Iago is the only one of the five whose character is described by another. Near the end of the play once it is clear that Iago is behind the complex plot that netted them all, Cassio says: "Iago hurt him [i.e., Roderigo],/ Iago set him on (5.2.328-329)." Iago hurts people and incites them. That is his identity. He not only hurt and incited Roderigo, but did so to everyone. He incited the Moor to jealousy, Cassio to sue for reinstatement, and Roderigo to give him money and twice "brave" Cassio on the watch. He could assume that his wife, Emilia, would keep quiet when he told her to do so; thus he didn't have to "set her on." He didn't calculate, however, that she would ultimately speak her mind when she saw the lifeless body of her mistress Desdemona. He hurt Desdemona in more subtle ways, principally by reinterpreting her feelings and questions in a way that was more conducive to his interests than her's (when, for example, he convinced Desdemona that Othello's irrationally jealous action in 3.4 was really an expression of Othello's preoccupation with state concerns--"something of moment then"--3.4.138).

Though scholars have had a field day divining Iago's motives--maybe he was driven to his actions solely because of being overlooked for a promotion; perhaps it was jealousy at Othello and Cassio for allegedly having an affair with Emilia; perhaps it was unspoken and ill-defined sexual desires for Othello himself--the ultimate truth of his life is that he hurt people. He set them on.

Emilia

The evolution of Emilia's character is one of the more striking aspects of the play, and I have noted this development in Emilia's Awakening I and II. One line that speaks of her as she is, that nothing extenuates nor sets down aught in malice (cf. 5.2.342-343), is one we have quoted already about her in other contexts: "I will speak as liberal as the north (5.2.220)." She will speak as unconstraindedly as the blustery north wind, which no one can recall or hinder. Though we see her "liberal" speaking in 4.3 where she and Desdemona talk, it comes to the fore even more in 5.2. Once Desdemona is dead she realizes she has nothing to lose. She is bound to Desdemona and bound to the truth. So, "'twill out, 'twill out." She will be the only one who asks Iago more than one question in a row in the play. Usually Iago is on the offensive, shaping peoples' thoughts before they can even ask him something. On one occasion, Desdemona asked Iago what she should do (4.2.149), but in 5.2. Emilia either asks three devastatingly precise questions or makes demands for information in 5.2.172-182 that functions to turn the tables on Iago. Then, when she gets the information she desires from Iago, she bores in on Othello to tell him the real story of the handkerchief (5.2.225-229). Once she has done these two important things, she has filled her dramatic need, and is killed by Iago. She dies speaking liberally.

Desdemona

Desdemona speaks many lines in the play of earnestness, confusion, sadness and devotion, but her "life line" also appears in the last scene: "Commend me to my kind lord (5.2.125)." This line captures her submissiveness, love and desire to be remembered as a faithful wife until the end. But this line, uttered by one who is thought dead (cf. Roderigo speaking through letters also "after long seeming dead"--5.2.328) is the culmination of three "post-strangulation" lines that themselves show an interesting progression. After Desdemona seems to have been killed (Othello says, "Hah, no more moving?/ Still as the grave"--5.2.93-94) and Othello and Emilia are talking, she utters a plaintive gasp, "O falsely, falsely murder'd (5.2.117)." The shock of her words is palpable. Then upon prodding by Emilia she utters a second brief sentence, "A guiltless death I die." While the first suggests someone's culpability in a "murder," the second suggests no blame. No one is morally at fault for her killing. But it is only the last words, "Commend me to my kind lord," that truly rehabilitate Othello for us. It is almost as if Desdemona is doing here what Othello does in his last speech of the play: set down what he/she wants us to understand as the "true" Othello. He is a "kind" lord. Earlier she recognized his possible unkindness when she said, "Unkindness may do much,/ And his unkindness may defeat my life,/ But never taint my love (4.2.159-161)," but here, where she is actually killed by his "unkindness," she can only be commended to her "kind" lord. Her life is completely now submerged by and into and under his life of "kindness."

Cassio

Cassio is a character who is seemingly the pure victim in the play. He gets the job as Othello's lieutenant and then is undermined from that day by Iago. He commends Desdemona's beauty, and later she in turn argues his case for reinstatement, though her plying Othello for a favor is interpreted by Othello as another sign of her amorous designs for Cassio. Finally, Iago sets Roderigo upon him as he leaves Bianca's home, though Roderigo botches the plan to kill him. At the end of the play, when all is clear to Cassio, he says his "life line" to Othello, "Dear general, I never gave you cause (5.2.299)." That captures his innocence throughout the play. Though Othello uses the word cause three times in the first three lines of 5.2 to convince himself to go through with murder, now Cassio uses it to undermine Othello's understanding. It was the "cause" that led to Desdemona's death. But, Cassio never gave him "cause" for any ill-tempered action. Othello knows this is true and says, "I do believe it, and I ask your pardon (5.2.300)." Cassio is living proof that one who never gives another cause can still end up at the wrong end of the rapier, and be sliced in vengeance. At the end Cassio will receive a promotion ("Cassio rules in Cyprus"--5.2.332), yet his words of compassion but honest hurt, "dear general, I never gave you cause," reverberate in our minds.

Conclusion

Sometimes we think that there are not enough words to understand and express the ridges of inner complexity in our lives. Our stories are endless stories, creased with joy and grief. But other times maybe one line is enough. "Thou has misconstrued every thing." "Dear general, I never gave you cause." "Commend me to my kind lord." "I will speak as liberal as the north." "Iago hurt him; Iago set him on." Each speaks with a clarity, authority and precision, and leads us to answer the question of ourselves, 'Do we have a life-line?'

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