Othello's End II
Bill Long
Becoming the Turk He Killed (5.2.351-356)
One of the greatest Shakespeare interpreters of the 20th century, A.C. Bradley, is fully supportive of Othello's rehabilitative effort in his final words. He accepts at face value the claim that Othello was "not easily jealous;" he portrays the Moor as a noble, larger-than-life figure who is brought down by the wiles of a malicious foe (Iago); and he has this to say about Othello's last speech:
"As he speaks those final words in which all the glory and agony of his life--long ago in India and Arabia and Aleppo, and afterwards in Venice, and now in Cyprus seem to pass before us, like the pictures that flash before the eyes of a drowning man, a triumphant scorn for the fetters of the flesh and the littleness of all lives that must survive him sweeeps our grief away, and when he dies upon a kiss the most painful of all tragedies leaves us for the moment free from pain, and exulting in the power of 'love and man's unconquerable mind.'" (Shakespearean Tragedy, p. 198).
My thesis here, in brief, is that Bradley's beautifully-expressed romanticism has triumphed over a more critical reading of the final speech. Othello has tried to minimize his "fault" by claming that he made some bad choices and that he loved too much. Though Othello's attempt at self-rehabilitation might not put Richard Nixon to shame, nevertheless I showed how the first ten or fifteen lines of his last speech are an attempt to rewrite his personal history in a dramatic way. This essay explores the last several lines of his speech, which function almost as a colophon to a book or a codicil to a will. He wants his hearers not just to "set you down" what he has said, but he also wants to "say besides" one other thing. That one other thing is how he had killed a Turk.
Killing the Turk/ Killing Himself
Othello the Moor had at some time past converted to Christianity. When the Venetians were celebrating in Cyprus after the Turkish fleet foundered in the Mediterranean, and their partying got out of hand, Othello arose and admonished the people: "Why, how now ho? from whence ariseth this?/ Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that/ Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?/ For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl (2.3.169-172)." He is more Christian than those who bore that name from their birth.
Thus, when Othello speaks his final words, about how he killed a "turban'd Turk" in Aleppo who had "traduc'd the state," he wants to be understood as a Christian killing a heathen, an unbeliever, a Turk. But he doesn't stop there. Othello becomes a part of his story, an integral actor in the killing. Hear the lines:
"And say besides, that in Aleppo once,/ Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk/ Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,/ I took by th' throat the circumcised dog,/ And smote him--thus. [He stabs himself.] (5.2.352-356)."
By killing the Turkish "dog" he was defending the state. By killing himself he is becoming that same "dog" whom he had once killed. By killing himself, he beomes the Turk he has killed. But how does he kill himself and what is the meaning of his suicide? Two explanations of his suicide are credible. The issue is whether his suicide is a result of the return of raging guilt and self-loathing of his "Behold, I have a weapon" speech (5.2.259) or whether when he commits suicide he does so out of a sense that he has acted at the high "tide" in human affairs, to use Brutus's word (JC 4.3.218), and that he wants to go out at the "top of his game."
Explaining Othello's Death
Arguing for the former (the return of his guilt) is that it would comport with the structure of the earlier speech. There we saw first his bravado and then his collapse, first his defiant pugilistic words and then his words of utter despair and self-loathing. If the same form was followed here, we would also have the attempt at self-justification followed by a new confession. In this reading, Othello is overwhelmed anew by his guilt. He sees the utter hopelessness of any possibility for a new life, and he has to kill himself. He had killed himself in killing Desdemona; now he finishes that act of violence.
Yet a second explanation is also plausible. He has just finished his speech in which he tried to rehabilitate himself. It is a skillful effort, not denying of course the fact that something terrible happened, but trying to place it in the context of his foolishness or personal vulnerability rather than outright malice or premeditation. What more can be said or done? The Venetian embassy will depart with Othello's explanation and their own report; Othello is to be held in prison; no good can come of this "mangled matter (cf. 1.3.173)." If an investigation is to follow, there will be enough evidence with Cassio's testimony and the letters found in Roderigo's garment (5.2.308ff.) to convict both Iago and Othello of malicious action. There is no reason to live when this is the probable outcome.
Dying on a Kiss
Othello's last words, spoken in a chiastic construction, add one further dimension to the tragedy:
"I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee. No way but this/ Killing myself, to die upon a kiss (5.2.358-359)."
The kiss is the first and last word; killing is only the intermediate thought. Both she and he are killed, but kissing endures. Kissing envelops the killing as Othello must have enveloped Desdemona in his arms. By making kissing the inclusive category, Othello wants to show that the final word of his life is one of union with Desdemona, of finally finding love in death. He who tried to stave off his return to chaos by "freezing" Desdemona in her state as smooth as "monumental alablaster" now will complete that act of "freezing" by killing himself.
Conclusion
Emilia died in music and Othello dies upon a kiss. There was an "alas" as she died, for she had only just learned how to combine truth and thinking and speech, but no alas escapes Othello's lips. All that he needs or wants, or ever really needed or wanted, was a kiss.
Copyright © 2004-2007 William R. Long |