the individualization of shakespeare's characters through imagery

More documents

Recommendations

Info

SHAKESPEARE SURVEY have seen, in Othello's speeches, forming the second theme (goats, monkeys, toads) in the latter's world of images. Iago does indeed succeed in poisoning Othello's soul for a time. Other low images fit in with the 'menagerie'. "The food", says Iago, "that to him now is as luscious as locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida" (i, iii, 354). Iago compares Cassio's slender fingers to 'clysterpipes' (n, i, 179). When Roderigo speaks of Desdemona's "blest condition", Iago mocks him, saying "blest fig's end" (n, i, 260). He calls Roderigo a "young quat" he has rubbed "almost to the sense" (v, i, 11). His images are generally concrete and substantial. He compares the human body with a garden, will with gardeners: what we plant in this garden depends upon ourselves. Idleness he compares with sterility, industry with manure, love is the scion of lust (1, iii, 324 f). "My invention", he says of himself, "comes from my pate as birdlime does from frize" (n,i, 126). He calls Cassio, the military theoretician, a 'counter-caster' (1, i, 31). In his opinion Cassio understands no "more than a spinster" in the tactics of battle (1, i, 24). He ironically calls his slander 'medicine': "Work on, my medicine, work!" (iv, i, 46). The suspicion that Othello has lived with Emilia gnaws his vitals "like a poisonous mineral" (n, i, 309). "Dangerous conceits", he reflects, "are, in their natures, poisons" (m, iii, 326). Iago frequently repeats the word 'devil'. Usually he employs it merely as a swear word. He calls black Othello a 'devil' (1, i, 91). "You are one of those", he tells Brabantio, "that will not serve God, if the devil bid you" (1, i, 109). Offended women, Iago says, are 'devils' in their anger (n, i, in). However, besides this form of swearing, Iago's imagery also contains demonic motifs. "Hell and night", he says, "must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light" (1, iii, 409). "I do hate him [Othello] as I do hell-pains", says Iago (1, i, 155). "There are many events", he declares, "in the womb of time, which will be deliver'd" (1, iii, 378). The following image also has a suggestion of the demonic. In the scene before Brabantio's house Iago tells Roderigo to shout "with like timorous accent and dire yell as when by night and negligence, the fire is spied in populous cities" (1, i, 76). The demonic motif in Iago's role receives its most striking expression in the image of jealousy as a monster, an image we have already met in Othello's role. Iago, however, gives fuller expression to this image. He calls jealousy "the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on" (m, iii, 166). Lofty-poetic images, which, as we have seen, constitute the dominant theme in Othello's imagery, are totally lacking in Iago's role. True, in a dialogue with Othello, he calls a good name "the immediate jewel" of the soul (m, iii, 156), but he is here obviously imitating Othello's 'style'. He also says that Desdemona has been "framed as fruitful as the free elements" (n, iii, 350), and terms the soldiers of Cyprus "the very elements of this warlike isle" (n, iii, 60). If these are exceptions, they prove the rule. It is much more likely that we are here dealing with exclusions. We introduce this term to denote those passages in Shakespeare where a character seems to exclude himself (switch over) from his proper role and assume the function of a chorus, explaining the events taking place, describing other characters, etc., quite regardless of his own individuality. It is common knowledge that such passages are to be found quite frequently in Shakespeare. In any case, whether this is exception or 'exclusion', we have, on the whole, every right to say that Iago's role is devoid of lofty-poetic imagery. We do find a few classical images in his speeches. He swears by Janus (1, ii, 33). It is character- 88 Shakespeare Survey Online © Cambridge University Press, 2007
INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S CHARACTERS istic, by the way, that he swears by a two-faced God! He says that Cassio's military abilities are such as make him fit to stand with Caesar (n, iii, 128). He tells Cassio that Desdemona would have been "sport for Jove" (n, iii, 17). In contrast to the peaceful classical images in Othello's role (Cupid, Diana) Iago's are of a warlike nature (Janus, the god of war, and Caesar). Iago is a professional soldier, a soldier by trade, and it is therefore not to be wondered at that he himself speaks of "the trade of War" (1, ii, 1). There is one other group of images in Iago's role which is evidently not accidental, for it is quite a large and distinct group. These are typically naval images. Iago says that Cassio "be-lee'd and calm'd" him, i.e. won promotion over his head (1, i, 30). Instead of saying that the Senate had no other man of such abilities as Othello, as we would say to-day, Iago says that "another of his fathom they have none" (1, i, 153). Iago says that he must put out "a flag and sign of love, which is indeed but sign" (1, i, 157). Brabantio, in Iago's words, will pursue Othello, in so far as "the law.. .will give him cable" (1, ii, 17). Iago assures Roderigo that he is knit to him with "cables of perdurable toughness" (1, iii, 343). Iago expresses it that in marrying Desdemona Othello "hath boarded a land carack" (1, ii, 50), which in sailor's slang of that time meant a prostitute. Iago doubts whether it will prove a "lawful prize", an expression typical of freebooters. "My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream", says Iago (n, iii, 66). All this seems to indicate that Iago was probably once a sailor. In any case, he had been in England (11, iii, 79), and had also observed Danes, Germans and Hollanders drinking themselves drunk. DESDEMONA Desdemona's role is poor in imagery, but whatever there is of it is characteristic. First there are poetic motifs: Desdemona accompanies her husband to the wars because she does not want to sit at home and be "a moth of peace" (1, iii, 258). She sings about the willow tree (iv, iii, 41), privately comparing herself to it, for the willow used to be the symbol of a girl or woman abandoned by her lover (Ophelia drowns under a weeping willow). "Her salt tears fell from her", sings Desdemona, "and soften'd the stones" (iv, iii, 47)—an image echoing the image of the stony heart which occurs twice in Othello's role. Desdemona cannot understand why Othello should have changed toward her and says that evidently something "hath puddled his clear spirit" (m, iv, 142), and this, too, echoes Othello's expression, cited above, that Desdemona is his 'fountain'. Desdemona's statement that "I'll watch him tame" (m, iii, 23) implies a comparison of Othello to a hawk, and these words again echo Othello, who, as we have seen, likens Desdemona to a hawk. Thus, many of the images used by Desdemona echo Othello's images. Desdemona's role also includes images of everyday domestic things. She says that she will tirelessly persuade Othello to reinstate Cassio: "His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift" (m, iii, 24). She says that her request to reinstate Cassio is as if she were asking Othello to "wear gloves, or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm" (m, iii, 77). The following is closely related to the same group of domestic, intimate images: when a finger aches all the other members of the body seem to share the pain (m, iv, 145). There is also a militant-heroic note in Desdemona's imagery. *' That I did love the Moor to live 89 Shakespeare Survey Online © Cambridge University Press, 2007
Page 1 and 2: THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SHAKESPEAR
Page 3 and 4: INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S
Page 5: INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S

the individualization of shakespeare's characters through imagery

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?