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Tarih Kültür ve Sanat Araştırmaları Dergisi (ISSN: 2147-0626)
Journal of History Culture and Art Research
Vol. 2, No. 2, June 2013
Revue des Recherches en Histoire Culture et Art
مجلة البحوث التاريخية والثقافية والفنية
Copyright © Karabuk University
http://kutaksam.karabuk.edu.tr/index.php
Özel Sayı/Special Issue
(English Studies)
DOI: 10.7596/taksad.v2i2.243
Racism in Othello
Kader MUTLU∗
Racism has been one of the most devastating matters of the human being from the
very beginning of the history, and it has been a topic of great debate and discussion since
then. This severe fact does not have a special time and place. Actually, every society that has
inhabited the earth has been virtually affected by this dispensable problem, racism. As all the
important affairs of human being, the issue of the race is also one of the most significant
themes that have a huge place in world- wide literature. Generally, most of the eras in the
literature world have got their share of pleasure from this subject but Elizabethan Era was one
of the most obvious times and Elizabethan Society was one of the most obvious places that
discrimination of race was felt. The fascinating play of Shakespeare, Othello, is one of the
plays that are shaped by the flaming effects of Racism. The unavoidable and destructive
effects of racism on people’s lives and how a society that has the prejudice of racism can
restrain love and what can be the limitation of the racist people at destroying the people’s
happiness are constructing the main purpose and progress of this research. It is to touch on the
bad development of a character that has the bad feeling of racism and shaping his life
according to it even dedicating himself to working under the devastating power of the racism.
Keywords: Racism, Othello, Blackness, Iago.
∗
Muş Alparslan University.
134
Introduction
The race is one of the important features that affect people’s lives. More than
affecting, the race can even lead and shape the fates because of the reality that the acceptance
of this race to a different society can be difficult, and as it has been one of the biggest
problems of human being from the very beginning of history, there have been insolvable
problems in the societies especially in which people from different races living together. In
his article, Howard states that from the beginning of the classical theoretical statements and
formalization of it, race has always been a considerable sociological subject hitherto (2000:
169). Humans have been defeated by the immodesty of exalting their races and make the
mistake of tyrannizing over other races. As a result of not accepting and looking down on
other races, racism has already taken place in societies. Miles and Brown assert that racism
deflects mankind and interpersonal connections, barbarizes and depersonalizes its object, as a
result of this barbarizes and depersonalizes people who pronounce this expression as well.
Racism is a rejection of mankind (supplanting, as it does, ‘races for ‘the human race’) and a
means of legalizing diversity (peculiarly a distinct diversity in social status). Whence, it is a
big issue and a threat to the community in which it is pronounced and the community which
favor ostracizing exercises (2003:10-11). Racism was a reality of Elizabethan Era and society.
As the percentage of going out the country and seeing different races and kind of people was
very rare during this period, a very big part of England’s population could not understand
different races and communities and had the result that “blacks -were- monsters, strange
creatures from outside the boundaries of the world” (Aubrey, 1999: 76)
Othello is among literary works that racism constitutes their origin. Robeson states:
“Othello is a tragedy of racial conflict, a tragedy of honor, rather than jealousy (qtd. in
Andreas, 39)”. Racial prejudice is a poisonous fruit of racism, and it turns the lives into hell.
Othello can be shown as one of the deplorable representative of racial prejudice. In Othello,
the protagonist, Othello is a successful soldier. Although he is a Moor, he dedicates himself to
serve to society’s goals. Unless he serves to his so-called country, he is the most hardworking
man and respected soldier in the army. However, when it comes to marriage, the prejudice of
his race puts up a wall in front of the eyes of others. The thought of discrimination and racial
prejudice cannot or should not always have to display itself as torturing or chafing physically
the one that is different or being alienated. Language may possess a cruel function and serve
the ones who are in want of emphasizing otherness and insulting the other mercilessly.
Derrida states, “There’s no racism without a language.” The thing here is not that actions of
racial violence comprise just words; however, rather than this they must have a word.
Although it gives the apology of ‘blood, color, birth’ or rather it makes use of ‘naturalist and
sometimes creationist discourse’ racism constantly unclothe the corruption of a man, the
135
“talking animal”. It does not ascertain; it ‘discriminates’ (1985: 39). He (1985: 41) adds that
from the very beginning of the Othello, ‘traditional racist sentiment and prejudice’ infuse the
language and break out as an anticipated ‘violence’ at the end of the play when “Chaos is
come again” (III.iii.92).
The play, Othello, has a harmony of racism. This harmony is provided by the tireless
verbalization of “otherness” in the words of “Moor” and “Black”. At the very beginning of
the Othello, instead of the name of the protagonist Othello, the words of “thick-lips” (I.i.66),
and “an old black ram” are articulated (I.i.87). It is surprising that before the name, comes the
bad definitions made by the people who are at Othello’s service. Adler emphasizes that in the
first scene prior to the meeting of the audience with Othello, several insulting attributions are
made, “the stereotyped lasciviousness” is emphasized by various brutal bindings and the
race’s black and devil’s black are incorporated (1974: 250- 251). The first articulation begins
with Iago, Othello’s malignant ‘ancient’ ensign. He voices his thoughts with the following
verses: “Now, sir, be judge yourself/Whether I in any just term am affined/To love the Moor.”
(I.i.37-39). His utterances continue until the end of the play. Likewise, the other characters
give voice to the otherness of Othello: Desdemona’s father Brabantio, Roderigo- a Venetian
gentleman, Duke of Venice, Gratiano- Desdemona’s uncle, Lodovico- Desdemona’s cousin,
Cassio, Emilia and finally Montano- the governer of Cyprus. Except for “Moor” and “Black”
there are other attributions like “an old black ram” (I.i.87); “ … the sooty bosom of such a
thing as thou – to fear, not to delight” (I.ii.70); “… what delight shall she have to look on the
devil” (II.i.220-221); “O murderous coxcomb”(V.ii.234). Adler (1974: 250- 251) asserts that
the devil’s blackness and Othello’s blackness, the abnormal integration of ‘evil with good and
of African with European’ are equated with each other through the replacement: “Or else the
devil will make a grandsire of you” (I. i. 91). She explains, “When the audience meets the
noble Moor, his blackness has been verbally linked with ugliness, the strange and unnatural,
gross animal sensuality, and the evil of the devil himself (1974: 251).
As the play progresses, the portrait of race and being black can be seen more
explicitly. Iago cannot bear Othello as he is black. He thinks that a black person cannot be
such a successful soldier and cannot marry a white woman. When he learns Desdemona,
daughter of the Brabantio, secretly marries Othello, he alarms Brabantio with a poisonous
racist language. In order to depict language of Othello’s being introduced to audience by Iago,
Adelman (1997: 125) states:
For the first long minutes of the play, we know only the Moor, “the thicklips” (I.i.66),
has done something that Roderigo -like the audience- feels he should have been told about
before hand; we find out what it is for the first time only through Iago’s violently eroticizing
and racializing report to Brabantino: “Even now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your
white ewe” (II.i. 88-89).
136
Indeed, the infidelity of a daughter to his father is unacceptable in Elizabethan age;
however, the reality of the fact that Othello is ‘Black’ and a ‘Moor’ aggravates the situation.
Brabantio verbalizes his feelings with the words: “With the Moor, say'st thou? (Who would
be a father!)” (I.i.163). As Othello steals his daughter from him, Brabantio is so furious that
he says to Roderigo, who has also wanted to marry beautiful Desdemona, “O, that you had
had her!” (I.i.174). Desdemona’s marriage to a man that he does not approve is more
acceptable than her marriage to a black Moor.
If Othello had not caused this, he would have stood a good soldier serving to them.
Especially at that night of defense Othello when warned by Iago for the things that Brabantio
can do to him, it comes out that even Othello is not in peace with his origin and being black.
Rather than defining himself as a Moor he desires to be accepted as a Venetian and
pronounces his place in society as:
Let him do his spite:
My services which I have done the signiory
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,-Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate--I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd: (I.ii.18-25)
Actually, even Othello is aware of the fact that if it was not for his being a good
soldier, he could not survive in Venetian society especially after this marriage. The obvious
reality shows itself when Duke does not punish Othello after he learns it is Othello who
elopes Desdemona although he promises Brabantio to do what is necessary before. The reason
of this behavior is unquestionably for the fact that they need Othello for the current situation
of Cyprus.
Through the defense night it comes out how barbarous an image Othello has in the
eyes of Brabantio. His being black and belonging to another race blocks all the good
happenings.To him, his skin color is such a dreadful phenomenon that the love and this fact of
being black cannot congregate. The extraordinary case is that more than Desdemona’s secret
marriage, her marriage with a black man is questioned. There exists nothing for Brabantio to
ground Desdemona’s preference on. He is so blind with the blackness of Othello that he
depends her daughter’s running on his bewitching her. He thinks that if there were no
bewitching, his daughter could not bear and stay with him because the blackness of Othello
would give horror to Desdemona:
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
137
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weaken motion: I'll have't disputed on;
'Tis probable and palpable to thinking. (I.ii.62-76)
Upon these accusations, Desdemona is given the right to speak, and by means of this
we learn what she thinks about Othello’s appearance. In spite of the fact that she loves
Othello and marries him without permission of Brabantio, even she accepts that she cannot be
impressed by his psychical appearance. When it comes to defend herself and her love to her
husband she justifies her feelings of Othello: “I saw Othello's visage in his mind” (I.iii.252).
The most irreversible fault of Othello is marrying beautiful and most importantly
white Desdemona. Indeed, it is not a fault when considering the love and affection between
them. However, the race of Othello should be taken into consideration. In the light of this, it
will be understood that in a society where exists great prejudice and inferiority against other
races significantly against blacks, international marriage cannot be accepted easily. Berry
indicates that the matter of Othello’s race has intentionally been neglected by critics. The
issue of race has continuously kept its being explosive especially when it includes
miscegenation, and brings about avoidance (1990: 315). This marriage is the sparkle that
starts the fire of racism. In addition to this, it causes seeds of hatred leaf out in the heart of
villain Iago who already hates Othello. As Iago is not chosen as lieutenant, he grounds his
reasons of revenge on Othello’s race. Iago’s jealousy having factor of race in the center leads
him up to preparing the end of Othello. From now on, his only aim is to destroy him. At that
point, what helps Iago to go through with his plan is the severe fact of Othello’s blackness and
so-called devil image. He believes that Desdemona will not bear her husband for a long time:
It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue
Her love to the Moor - put money in thy purse - nor he
His to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt
See an answerable sequestration - put but money in thy
Purse. These Moors are changeable in their wills - fill thy
138
Purse with money. The food that to him now is as
Luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as
Coloquintida. She must change for youth: when she is
Sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice:
She must have change, she must. Therefore put money
In thy purse. (I.iii.340-350)
When the devilish plans of Iago continue, in his speech to Roderigo he asserts that the
feelings of Desdemona will fade away in time and fed up with her husband. He supports his
theory with Desdemona’s search for beauty in Othello after getting bored with the stories of
the Moor. To him, she will not take pleasure from looking this devil’s face:
Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark
Me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for
Bragging and telling her fantastical lies. And will she
Love him still for prating? Let not thy discreet heart
Think it. Her eye must be fed; and what delight shall she
Have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull
With the act of sport, there should be, again to inflame
It and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in
Favour, sympathy in years, manners and beauties; all
Which the Moor is defective in. Now, for want of these
Required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find
Itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and
Abhor the Moor. Very nature will instruct her in it and
Compel her to some second choice. (II.i. 216-229)
The hatred of race fertilizes the seeds of devilish plans. Iago arouses Othello’s
suspicions of his wife. What feed his goal and the strong belief that he will succeed is the
feeling of inferiority complex of Othello. Not only he himself ostracizes Othello, but also
turns others against him and it represent his thoughts of being black, to some extend proving
natural possibility of being cheated. Othello’s origin results in his alienation and this
alienation intensifies his beliefs that Desdemona can cheat him. As Özen (2004: 3)
emphasizes Othello’s estrangement is connected to his ‘ethnicity and culture’, and the color of
his skin cause him feel alienated by the ‘white Venetian’ society as a result he does not thrust
Desdemona considering that he is not well enough for her. She adds:
“Othello’s blindness on love is due to his lack of self-knowledge as well as selfconfidence for he is a Moor,” that is to say as a beautiful Venetian woman’s appealing to a
139
Moor is not natural according to society, Othello more ‘strengthens his belief in his wife’s
infidelity’: “Haply, for I am black...She’s gone” (III.iii.263-9).
Although Othello is a good character except for his being a ‘Black and a Moor’, his
killing of Desdemona makes him bad even in the eyes of the people who think good of him.
Emilia, Iago’s wife also servant of Desdemona, never brings up the subject of Othello’s race;
however upon this murdering she burst into hatred of race: “O, the more angel she, And you
the blacker devil!” (V.ii. 129-31). Berry indicates:
“Her cynical attitude towards men has apparently masked a revulsion against Othello's
blackness. Having exposed his evil, Othello becomes for her a “blacker devil,” the phrase
revealing that in her imagination he has always been a black devil” (1990: 320).
Little expresses that Othello’s blackness, his marriage to the white Desdemona, and
murdering of her are important constitutional elements of the play. Indeed, these factors have
a relation. Othello’s killing Desdemona is related to their marriage and their marriage
contributes to Othello’s blackness. Every element is reiteration of the others and as the
starting point of the play’s suspense and disturbance Othello’s blackness is seen (1993: 306).
Consequently, the unavoidable and destructive effects of racism change lives of
Othello and Desdemona deeply. It is observed that a society having the prejudice of racism
can restrain love and sometimes there cannot be the limitation of racist people at destroying
the people’s happiness. Iago’s bad character development progressing on the way of
damaging Othello with feeling of racism and even dedicating himself to working under the
devastating power of the racism is experienced. Othello cannot spread the clouds in front of
his own eyes, and insist on being unaware of Iago’s step by step poisoning of him against his
wife. Essentially, Othello has resentment of his roots and Iago is already aware of this and it
provides him to ruin Othello’s life. Othello’s psychology is affected by his race and he has the
feeling of isolation. This is the most dependable arm that Iago has and the gun which triggers
the thought that as others threat him as inferior, his wife can also cheat him.He becomes so
blind with manipulations of villain Iago that he prepares the death of his faithful Desdemona
and his own destruction.
140
References
Adelman, Janet.(1997). “Iago's Alter Ego: Race as Projection in Othello.” Shakespeare
Quarterly 48.2: 125-144. Print.
Adler, Doris.(1974). “The Rhetoric of Black and White in Othello.” Shakespeare Quarterly
25.2: 248-257. Print.
Andreas, James R.(1992). “Othello’s African American Progeny.” South Atlantic Review
57.4: 39-57. Print.
Aubrey, James.(1999). “James R. Aubrey on Monster Imagery and Racism in
Othello.” Bloom’s Notes: Othello (1999): 76-79.
Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Holliston Public Library. 20 April 2009. Print.
Berry, Edward.(1990). “Othello’s Alienation.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 30.2:
315-333. Print.
Derrida, Jacques and Kamuf, Peggy,Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 1, “Race, Writing, and
Difference” The University of Chicago Press Stable (1985):.290-299. Print.
Little, Arthur L. (1993).“An Essence that's Not Seen: The Primal Scene of Racism in
Othello”. Shakespeare Quarterly 44.3: 304-324. Print
Miles, Robert, and Malcolm Brown.(2003). Racism. Routledge, Print.
Özen, Özlem.(2004). “Struggle for Meaning and Order in Hamlet and Othello”. Anadolu
University Journal of Social Sciences. 2: 41-48. Print.
Shakespeare, William.(2001). Othello. Ed. Cedric Watts. London.
141
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individual use.
IGNATIAN DISCERNMENT AND THE WORLD OF OTHELLO
The religious wisdom offered by the Spiritual Exercises throws fresh light on the inner and outer evil that
brings about Othello's fall from the grace that is Desdemona.
As a Jesuit, I am familiar with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and from time to time direct people in
Ignatian retreats. I also teach college-level Shakespeare classes. Several years ago I began to wonder
whether characters in Shakespeare might not be looked at in light of their consolations and desolations and
analyzed in terms of the Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits. After all, the spirit realm was not foreign to
Shakespeare. And if the theory of the humors (a psychological commonplace of his time) and psychoanalytic
theory (a commonplace of our time) have enhanced our understanding of the plays, might not a reading with
an eye to the discernment of good and evil spirits do the same? I decided to test out my hunch with a study
of Othello.
Many commentators have called attention to the psychomachic structure on which Shakespeare's artistry
has superimposed the tragedy of the Moor of Venice. For example, G. K. Hunter has noted that Othello has
"something of the structure of a morality play, with Othello caught between Desdemona and Iago, the good
angel and the evil angel" (157). And Arthur Kirsch has pointed to the same structural polarity, describing the
"extraordinary mixture of antithetical states of feeling and being" which comprise the play:
The extremes are literally as well as emblematically represented in Desdemona and Iago, but they are most
deeply incarnated in Othello himself, who moves from one to the other, from the transcendence and love
celebrated in the first half of the play to the nearly utter disintegration and hatred dramatized in the second
half. (10)
This movement from "one to the other," from Desdemona to Iago, together with the corresponding movement
in Othello from transcendence to disintegration, is the dramatic action represented in the tragedy. Because
the action focuses sharply and in detail on the movement from good to evil -- whose source is both within
and outside Othello -- and because the action occurs in a sacramental world where freedom and grace are
realities,( n1) the play permits analysis in light of the Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits: "rules for
understanding to some extent the different movements produced in the soul and for recognizing those that
are good, to admit them; and those that are bad, to reject them" (#313).(n2)
This description is from a sixteenth-century formulation by Ignatius Loyola, but the spirituality embedded in
the rules is the patrimony of Christianity from apostolic times down through the Middle Ages. It was the
genius of Ignatius in formulating the rules for discernment as part of his Spiritual Exercises to codify in very
usable form what had been the religious wisdom of the church for sixteen hundred years. It is not my
intention to suggest that Shakespeare was familiar with the Ignatian formulation of the rules for discernment
of spirits but rather that the spiritual wisdom which they contain was part of his medieval heritage and that a
knowledge of the rules can therefore enhance our understanding of the world of the play and the experience
it dramatizes.
Of course, the primary context of the rules for discernment is not literary criticism but spiritual direction. The
rules aim at helping those who follow them, usually under an experienced guide, to ascertain the direction
and source of interior movements or feelings in their lives in order to ratify or reject them. It is precisely these
movements or feelings which are envisioned by the discernment of "spirits."
David Fleming, editor and translator of A Contemporary Reading of the Spiritual Exercises, explains:
The descriptive words "good" and "evil" as applied to "spirits" are used to designate primarily the kind of
movement or feeling in terms of its direction or goal. Good spirits lead a person in a good direction toward a
good goal. Evil spirits make use of evil directions and even sometimes what are preliminarily good directions
to accomplish an evil end. (81)
This possibility of apparently good tendencies leading to an evil end (devils as angels of light, wolves in
sheep's clothing) means that it is an important part of the discernment of spirits to consider not only the
direction of interior movements and motivations, but also their source. As Fleming points out, in addition to
the complexities of human motivation studied by modern psychology, believers must also take account of
supernatural influences on the movements that arise in their souls influences that may come from the power
of God and the communion of saints as well as from Satan and his minions:
And so when we attempt to say something not only about the direction of these spirits but also about what
the sources of these good and evil spirits or motions are, we can still find helpful the traditional Ignatian
schema: good and evil spirits come from:
( 1) within ourselves
( 2) outside of us
(a) our fellow men
(b) power more than human (81)
This schema helps clarify the aptness of the Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits as a framework for
analyzing the spiritual disintegration -- the temptation and fall -- of Othello. Without reducing the tragedy to a
simple morality play, with Othello torn between Virtue and Vice as represented by Desdemona and Iago, the
hermeneutic provided by the rules for discernment respects the complexity of motivation which we
experience in the play; it encourages us to look both within and outside Othello for sources of the spirits that
move him; and it allows us to take at face value the play's very explicit suggestions of demonic power
operating in and through Iago, as well as the play's real but perhaps less explicit intimation of Desdemona as
an instrument of grace.
Ignatius proposes two sets of rules for discernment of spirits. The first set offers striking correspondences
with Othello's situation and will therefore be the focus of my discussion.(n3) Although it speaks to persons
who experience patent temptation, this first set of rules speaks also to those who, like Othello at the outset of
the play, are beginning to make progress in the interior life of grace. Rule 1.2 states:
In the case of those who go on earnestly striving to cleanse their souls from sin and who seek to rise in the
service of God our Lord to greater perfection, . . . it is characteristic of the evil spirit to harass with anxiety, to
afflict with sadness, to raise obstacles backed by fallacious reasonings that disturb the soul. Thus he seeks
to prevent the soul from advancing.
It is characteristic of the good spirit, however, to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations,
and peace. This he does by making all easy, by removing all obstacles so that the soul goes forward in doing
good. (#315)
It is not difficult to discover in this rule Othello's situation at the beginning of the play. Presumably only
recently baptized (Brabantio still thinks of him as a pagan [1.2.63]), Othello is now newly married. Othello
and Desdemona's marriage, as Kirsch has emphasized (10, 14 and throughout), resonates with the
scriptural and liturgical understanding of matrimony; and in Catholic Venice it must surely be seen as
sacramental, at least in the broad sense of suggesting a meeting point of nature and grace. It is a marriage
in which their human love -- the union of their minds and hearts and bodies -- becomes an effective symbol
of divine grace and in which their devotion to each other promises to be, in Ignatian terms, a means of rising
"in the service of God our Lord to greater perfection."
To persons thus growing in the interior life of grace, "it is characteristic of the good spirit . . . to give courage .
. . consolations . . . peace," exactly what we discover in Othello and Desdemona. The courage on both sides
in marrying outside their race and social class testifies to the mutual trust and love which lie behind their
marriage vows. So does Desdemona's remarkable determination to accompany Othello to the Cyprus wars,
and so does his willingness to have her there. "She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd, / And I loved her
that she did pity them," Othello had said earlier (1.3.167-68). And Desdemona is even more expansive:
My heart's subdu'd
Even to the very quality of my lord.
I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honors and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.(1.3.250-54)
If from its start the marriage of Othello and Desdemona is marked by courage, it is no less true that peace,
contentment, and happiness --further signs of the good spirit's work -- are also present, most poignantly in
the couple's reunion on Cyprus after the storm at sea. "O my soul's joy? Othello exclaims of Desdemona:
If it were now to die,
'Twere now to be most happy; for I fear
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate. (2.1.184; 189-93)
Kirsch uses the adjective "incandescent" to describe the near ecstasy of Othello and Desdemona's joy at this
point in the play (26). For Ignatius, the operative term for incandescence is consolation. In rule 1.3 he
describes the several different times when consolation occurs, concluding with what Piet Penning de Vries
calls the normal and usual "consolation of trust in God" (19):
Finally I call consolation every increase of faith, hope, and love, and all interior joy that invites and attracts to
what is heavenly and to the salvation of one's soul by filling it with quiet in its Creator and Lord. (#316)
Othello's faith and hope and love are focused on Desdemona, his pearl of great price (see 5.2.343-48),( n4)
and his joy in her presence during the first two acts of the play is the most palpable sign of consolation he
enjoys under this good spirit's influence.
But if Desdemona is at the heart and center of Othello's consolation, it is a consolation that radiates in his
other relationships as well, manifesting itself in the quiet peace with which he possesses his soul and in the
moral authority by which he takes charge of situations that drive others to consternation. We see this, for
example, in Othello's response to Iago's urging that he avoid direct confrontation with the armed guard which
they both suppose has come from Desdemona's father to apprehend him. "You were best go in," advises
Iago; to which Othello replies:
Not I. I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. (1.2.30-31)
And a few lines further on, with the actual arrival of the deputation from Brabantio, and of Brabantio himself,
there is the marvelously peaceful put-down of the officers approaching in torch-light with swords drawn.
"Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them" (1.2.59). And to Brabantio, by the simple admonition,
"Good signior, you shall more command with years / Than with your weapons" (1.2.60-61), Othello
demonstrates his directness and composure in face of the old man's frantic threats. Finally, Othello's
eloquence, nobility, and self-possession in addressing the Venetian senate have been remarked so often as
not to need citation.
William Barry, a recent commentator on the rules for discernment of spirits, has attempted to transpose into
a modern key the Ignatian concept of consolation. He points to the ability to live harmoniously with self and
others -- precisely the kind of inner and outer harmony Othello displays in acts 1 and 2 -- as a sign of
consolation, of being in touch with God's intention for the world. Barry suggests that consolation so
understood resonates with Erik Erikson's concept of identity and William James's notion of character. He
quotes the following passage from James; note the emphasis on trust:
A man's character is discernible in the mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt
himself most deeply and intensely active and alive . . . . [Such experience always includes] an element of
active tension, of holding my own, as it were, and trusting outward things to perform their part so as to make
it a full harmony, but without any guaranty that they will. Make it a guaranty . . . and the attitude immediately
becomes to my consciousness stagnant and stingless. (Barry 10)
As with character, identity, and inner and outer harmony, so with consolation: there is no guaranty that the
moment of creative tension will perdure in which one is most fully aware of being an integrated self. All
depends on trust that outward things and other persons will perform their part to make the harmony full. At
the beginning of the play Othello is indeed a trusting person -- too much so in the case of Iago but admirably
so in his dealings with the senate and, especially, in his marriage to Desdemona. The play dramatizes
Othello's loss of trust and his concomitant loss of faith, hope, and love -- his loss of consolation. It is to this
disintegration of Othello's trust, virtually complete in act 3, that we will now turn, looking from the perspective
of the rules for discernment at the evil spirits without and within who bring it about.
Rule 1.2, quoted above, tells us that "it is characteristic of the evil spirit to harass with anxiety, to afflict with
sadness, to raise obstacles backed by fallacious reasonings" in order to ensnare those who have begun to
make progress in the life of grace. This is an uncannily accurate description of Iago's methods, if not of his
motives, in the temptation scene (3.3). Already in his soliloquy at the end of act 1 Iago has begun to evolve
his general plan to calumniate Cassio and Desdemona and thus "to abuse Othello's [ear]" (1.3.395). "It is
engendered!" he exclaims. "Hell and night / Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light" (1.3.403-4).
Hell and night cooperating, Iago urges his plan along by the drunken brawl which he orchestrates in act 2
and which costs Cassio his lieutenancy. The stage is set for Iago's advice to Cassio that he implore
Desdemona to intercede with Othello on his behalf. "And what's he then that says I play the villain," Iago
asks rhetorically,
When this advice is free I give, and honest,
Probal to thinking, and indeed the course
To win the Moor again7 (2.3.336-39)
The speech which these lines introduce makes clear that Iago has indeed mastered the evil spirit's technique
of assuming the appearance of an angel of light. As in the classic Ignatian description,( n5) "he begins by
suggesting thoughts that are suited to a devout soul, and ends by suggesting his own . . . [thereby] drawing
the soul into his hidden snares and designs" (#332). There can be no doubt by this point in the play of Iago's
kinship with the father of lies:
Divinity of hell!
When devils will the blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
As I do now. For whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I'll pour this pestilence into his ear:
That she repeals him for her body's lust;
And by how much she strives to do him good,
She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all. (2.3.350-62)
By the end of act 2 Iago's avowed purpose is to destroy the trust not only between Othello and Desdemona
but also within the network of relationships surrounding them. From the standpoint of the rules for
discernment, the disintegration of trust dramatized in the temptation scene of act 3 must be seen as a
movement from the consolation that initially filled Othello's soul to the unremitting desolation that becomes
the spiritual ambience of the last three acts of the play. Rule 1.4 describes spiritual desolation; it is a state
entirely opposite from consolation, namely,
darkness of soul, turmoil of spirit, inclination to what is low and earthly, restlessness rising from many
disturbances and temptations which lead to want of faith, want of hope, want of love. The soul is wholly
slothful, tepid, sad, and separated, as it were, from its Creator and Lord. (#317)
According to Ignatius, desolation may at times be sent by God as a test,6 that is, as a means of purifying
motives, of helping people see their inherent weakness and the extent to which they stand in need of God's
grace for a continual deepening of their life of faith (#320, #322). The problematic, of course, is that while
desolation can be the occasion of spiritual growth, it is also fertile soil for the machinations of evil spirits;
indeed, it is the ordinary medium through which they speak. Thus rule 1.5 advises that during a time of
desolation one ought not to make any change or movement in the direction of the desolation but rather
remain firm and constant in prior decisions and resolutions:
For just as in consolation the good spirit guides and counsels us, so in desolation the evil spirit guides and
counsels. Following his counsels we can never find the way to a right decision. (#318)
Unfortunately Othello lacks the insight to recognize Iago for what he is and thus to reject his counsel as
inconsistent with all known facts and therefore as the deception of an evil spirit. Othello acts instead on
thoughts and feelings that accord with his desolation, allowing Iago's suggestion of impropriety between
Desdemona and Cassio to haunt him more and more. The result is a loss of faith, hope, and love that seems
almost total in the jealousy, hatred, and desire for revenge that overwhelm him by the end of the temptation
scene.
Early in that scene, following Desdemona's initial intervention with Othello on behalf of Cassio, and just after
her exit with Emilia, Othello exclaims to himself:
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love thee, and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again. (3.3.90-92)
The affectionate exclamation and mild oath of the first half of this brief speech testify to the tender love
Othello continues to feel for Desdemona; even so, the temporal condition ("when I love thee not")
grammatically framing the second half of the speech suggests the vulnerability of that love and underscores
the ominously prophetic note of the final line. It is as though Othello has felt in the past the emotional chaos
of being unloved and now has a premonition that the desolation of self-doubt and rejection can come again.
Had Othello been more knowledgeable about the ways of good and evil spirits, he might have been
forewarned by the advice that those in consolation should "store up a supply of strength" against the day of
desolation (#323) and be prepared to fall back on their "natural powers" (#320) -- memory (appropriation of
one's past), understanding, and will -- to ward it off. However, it is Iago, not Othello, who knows how to use
the rules for discernment of spirits to his (perverse) advantage. The final three rules of the first set propose a
series of similes about the evil spirit's manner of acting. The third of these similes compares the conduct of
"our enemy" to the tactics of a military commander who studies the fortifications and defenses of an
opposing army in order to find the weakest point at which to attack. "In the same way," according to the
Ignatian rule,
the enemy of our human nature investigates from every side all our virtues . . . . Where he finds the defenses
of eternal salvation weakest and most deficient, there he attacks and tries to take us by storm. (#327)
It would be hard to find a better paradigm for Iago's way of closing in on Othello in the temptation scene.
Beginning with the insinuation that Michael Cassio has stolen "guilty-like" away from Desdemona (3.3.39),
Iago proceeds in classic tempter fashion to induce anxiety in his victim -- "By heaven, I'll know thy thoughts?'
cries Othello (3.3.162) -- and then, by easy steps, to stretch him on the rack of jealous doubt.
Iago's first specific reference to jealousy is a warning: "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!" (3.3.165). Othello
responds by acknowledging the genuine misery of a man trapped in doubt as to whether his wife has made
him a cuckold but denies that such is his own case. He says he has nothing to fear from Desdemona's
beauty or social graces. "Nor," he adds,
from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt,
For she had eyes and chose me. (3.3.187-89)
This is Othello's final expression of unquestioning trust in Desdemona, significant for its recognition that she
did not fall blindly in love with him but knew all his features and qualities and therein found him attractive.
Too bad for Othello that he does not take a firm stand, in this balanced and reasonable expression of trust in
Desdemona's fidelity, against the contrary motions that are beginning to arise in his soul. But he has
betrayed himself in alluding to "mine own weak merits," and Iago, on the lookout for any weakness in
Othello's psyche, is quick to pounce on this slightest intimation. The fallacious reasoning he unfolds is
predicated on the supposition that he understands better than Othello the ways of Venetian women. He
argues that they do not scruple to commit adultery, but only to keep it unknown, and suggests that a match
with a young man like Michael Cassio would have been more natural for Desdemona than her marriage to
one from outside her social class, a black man, and a foreigner:
Ay, there's the point; as (to be bold with you)
Not to affect many proposed marriages
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends -Foh! one may smell in such, a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural. (3.3.228-33)
Iago has indeed opened an old wound of self-doubt in Othello -- the evil spirit without urging on the evil spirit
within -- as is clear from Othello's misgivings in his subsequent soliloquy:
Haply for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declin'd
Into the vale of years (yet that's not much)
She's gone. (3.3.263-67)
In finding himself vulnerable precisely on account of his color and his age, it is remarkable that Othello
zeroes in on two of the qualities that were part of his exotic attractiveness to Desdemona. She had been
captivated by his background and by the tales of his exploits, and he had loved her because "she did pity"
the dangers he had endured (1.3.168). Yet, as Kirsch explains, "the core of his vulnerability, as of his
romantic distinction, is his age and color." Othello "internalizes Iago's maleficent sexual vision and sees
himself with Iago's eyes rather than Desdemona's" (31). The fact that the couple's deeply spiritual
relationship had nothing in common with the cynical view of Venetian morality propounded by Iago becomes
irrelevant under the influence of his fallacious reasoning. Not only must Desdemona seem to Othello a
whore, but he must seem to himself -- no matter who his wife might have been -- doomed to emasculation as
a cuckold:
'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death.
Even then this forked plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. (3.3.275-77)
Thus does Othello discover that jealous doubt targets not only the sexual partner but the self as well. And as
the trust that was the ground of his love falters and fails, wave upon wave of desolation overwhelms him.
Finally and falsely convinced -- by the specious story of the handkerchief -- of Desdemona's adultery with
Cassio, he cries out his hatred in a series of vengeful apostrophes:
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
'Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from hollow hell!
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For `tis of aspics' tongues. (3.3.445-50)
The revenge pact follows in which Othello and Iago plot the deaths of the supposed adulterers. From this
point on, the play's falling action and tragic denouement simply unravel the dramatic implications of the
climactic temptation scene. Othello's psychic disintegration, already begun with his loss of faith in
Desdemona, continues in act 4 in the breakdown represented by his epileptic seizure and the incredible act
of physically striking Desdemona in the presence of the Venetian ambassador; it culminates in act 5 with his
suffocation of her, Emilia's subsequent proclamation of Desdemona's innocence, and, finally, his soulful,
despondent cry, "O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! / O, O!" (5.2.281-82).
Othello has been gulled and he knows it, his soul and body ensnared by a "demi-devil" (5.2.301) who
observed all the "rules" that govern Satan's minions. This fact, however, need not lead us to the view that
Othello takes place in a world devoid of grace and left entirely to human freedom. Implicit in the sacramental
worldview and the Ignatian schema of good and evil spirits that I have proposed as a framework for reading
the play is the idea of an ongoing struggle in the soul of Othello as a redeemed and baptized Christian -- the
struggle Paul describes, among other places, in the following passage from the Letter to the Galatians. It
contrasts deeds of the flesh, which have their source in a person's weakened, earthbound, purely physical
existence, with traits that flow characteristically from the Holy Spirit:
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these . . . . By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. There is no law against such things. (5:19-23 [NRSV]; emphasis added)
It is an easy reach to find this Pauline contrast between works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit lying behind
the Ignatian rules for discernment and the states of desolation and consolation which they analyze. That
Othello moves from a state of consolation in the first two acts of the play to pervasive desolation in the
remainder is all too evident. But that his initial love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control are graces of the Holy Spirit sacramentally mediated by Desdemona is perhaps
less obvious -- and therefore worthy of emphasis as a dimension of the world of the play. Othello is not
simply a tragedy of human freedom gone awry; rather, its dramatic action represents, in the theological
sense of the term, a fall from grace. It is indeed tragic that the noble Moor is seduced by his wily ensign. But,
even more than that, what evokes our pity in the revelations at the end of the play is Othello's realization that
Desdemona really did love him -- and that in not loving her "wisely" (5.2.344) in return, that is, with a
discerning love, he has thrown away his pearl of great price.
In my reading of Othello I have tried to demonstrate that the Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits
illuminate the world of the play as a sacramental world -- one in which both grace and freedom are operative
-- and thereby enhance our understanding of the tragedy of Othello and Desdemona. If the correspondence I
have suggested between the wisdom embodied in the rules for discernment and the psychological
experience mirrored in the drama is accurate, then the play serves to validate the rules even as the rules
shed light on the world of the play. The rules for discernment are not merely a quaint sixteenth-century
formulation of Christian ascetical wisdom but contain within themselves structures of psychological as well as
spiritual insight with the potential to illuminate other works of literature besides Othello. (I think, for example,
of the situations for discernment presented by the ghost in Hamlet and the weird sisters in Macbeth.) The full
promise of the rules for discernment as tools of literary criticism remains to be explored.
Notes
(n1.) In asserting that the action of the play occurs in a sacramental world, I am taking exception to the
reading of Robert G. Hunter in his Shakespeare and the Mystery of God's Judgments. For Hunter, "the
Othello world is one from which God appears to have withdrawn, leaving its disposition to the freed wills of
men" (128). Hunter concedes that the play "need not" be interpreted as occurring in such a Pelagian world
(129), but the only alternatives he suggests are on an Augustinian-Calvinist spectrum where God's grace
more or less manages everything. It is my contention that Hunter falsely dichotomizes and that a
commingling of nature and supernature, freedom and grace is closer to our experience of the play than he
would allow -- that there is, for example, something already grace-filled yet very human in the experience of
Desdemona and Othello's marriage early in the play -- something, in a word, sacramental. On Hunter's
Pelagian view, Othello's exaltation of Desdemona is "unintended idolatry" (149). To that extent, the tragedy
of their loss of love seems to me diminished; whereas, to the extent that their love occurs in a
sacramental/incarnational world and is seen at least potentially as an expression of and a means to the love
of God, the tragedy of its loss becomes all the more poignant. My paper, from its own unique perspective,
explores that poignancy.
(n2.) The rules for discernment of spirits are found in The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, first
published at Rome in 1548. I have used the English translation, based on studies in the Spanish autograph,
by Louis Puhl, S.J. Quotations are cited by paragraph numbers standard in all modern editions. Besides the
commentaries on The Spiritual Exercises referenced in my text, I have consulted Jules J. Toner, S.J., A
Commentary on Saint Ignatius' Rules for Discernment of Spirits (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1982),
and Michael J. Buckley, S.J., "The Structure of the Rules for Discernment of Spirits," The Way Supplement
20 (1973): 19-37.
(n3.) The second, more nuanced set of rules (##328-36) is appropriate for persons somewhat advanced in
the spiritual life -- persons for whom temptation is apt to come in the form of deception by an apparent good.
(n4.) For the scriptural significance of the pearl image, see John E. Seaman, "Othello's Pearl," Shakespeare
Quarterly 19 (1968): 81-85.
(n5.) Found in the second set of rules for discernment of spirits.
(n6.) The Old Testament story of Job is a classic example.
Works Cited
Barry, William A., S.J. "Ignatius of Loyola's Discernment of Spirits." Human Development 11.3 (1990): 5-11.
Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
Fleming, David L., S.J. A Contemporary Reading of the Spiritual Exercises: A Companion to St. Ignatius'
Text. Experimental Edition. St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1976.
Hunter, G. K. "Othello and Colour Prejudice." Proceedings of the British Academy 53 (1967): 139-63.
Hunter, Robert G. Shakespeare and the Mystery of God's Judgments. Athens: University of Georgia Press,
1976.
Kirsch, Arthur. Shakespeare and the Experience of Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
[Loyola, Ignatius.] The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Trans. Louis J. Puhl, S.J. Westminster, Md.: The
Newman Press, 1951.
Penning de Vries, Piet, S.J. Discernment of Spirits according to the Life and Teachings of St. Ignatius
Loyola. Trans. W. Dudok van Heel. New York: Exposition Press, 1973.
~~~~~~~~
By Robert V. Caro
ROBERT V. CARO, S.J., is professor of English at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His study of
G. M. Hopkins's "Carrion Comfort" will appear in the forthcoming Hopkins Annual.
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