Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at the back of my English class. Our teacher was blabbering on about his life story and how he sees the world in different spectacles from teenager’s today. Not having a clue what this old fragile man was talking about, I slammed my head on the desk, yelling for the bell to hurry up and ring. I slammed the solid skull of mine so hard it caused a small concussion. While in this world of non-existence, I questioned what this teacher was talking about. It made me wonder, how were outsiders treated through generations? Many thoughts rushed through my concussed brain, like how Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, has anything changed in relation to outsiders or has society been the same from then till now?
In the western world, Jesus is known as the centre of Christianity. He is worshipped by millions, throughout the world, and respected by more. Accounts were written about the torture and mockery that he endured, which led to His crucifixion at Calvary. But how was it, that His own people did not accept him? How was it that His society deemed him to be a somewhat visionary man? Society influences people’s behavior and their values, either consciously or unconsciously. The Jews didn’t accept him to be the Messiah because they were waiting for someone to come in full glory, not a carpenter’s son. During his time, society was narrow-minded and could not accept change or a different way of viewing life. Society believed that had everything that they needed, but he had come to disrupt the peace.
Evident through Shakespearean literature, the same theme of outsiders still occurs during this period. One of Shakespeare most well known plays, Othello, features a main character called Othello. He marries a rich, beautiful young lady against her father’s wishes, due to him being of a lower stature. Othello, who had come from a completely different society, did not understand the ways of the Venetians. Therefore he searched to find friends that could help him adjust and guide him through his journey. But instead this society had deceived and manipulated him. They too were narrow-minded and could not accept this new person into their society. Instead they took advantage of this “Moor” for their own personal gain. Othello was blind to see that a society full of good could turn on him. This made him confused and led him into the wrong path and at the end he sadly killed himself because of a selfish act of society.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” directed by Milos Forman, was released during the 1960’s. It reveals how outsiders were neglected and cast away by society. We see this when R.P McMurphy is taken into the mental institute, since they think he is crazy, after doing time in prison for statuary rape. Therefore, McMurphy acts crazy because what society implies of those taken to mental institutions. McMurphy influences the other patients by treating them like normal human beings. This arouses emotions and conflicts that lead into danger and serious consequences. We come to this conclusion when McMurphy and the boys break out of the institute and set off on a fishing trip. This was a warning for more danger to come. McMurphy sees these men as normal, everyday people while, on the other hand, Nurse Ratchet treats these men like how society desires them to be treated. By speaking politely, treating them with respect and lowering their vocabulary and brain power to meet society’s convention of treating mental patients. These boys disapproved of this orthodox method, so they take a stand on what they believe. It shows how society thinks negatively about special people and downgrading their belonging on the human scale. Everyone wants to be treated equally and not to have his or her status lowered by society
Ten years prior to the release of Milos Forman’s movie, 1000 kilometers across the world, James Baxter expressed his emotions about how Society treats outsiders, during the 1960s, in New Zealand. Baxter expressed his emotions through the use of poems. The Maori Jesus emphasizes how Society treats outsiders. He used metaphors, alluding to the original Jesus, to make you and I think of how we would react to this Maori Jesus. Eventually the Maori Jesus was lobotomized due to an arrogant society. This reenacts the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary. We see how Society has not changed, we would think after so many years we would learn from the past. Today nothing has gone into the thick skulls of society. We as a society are stubborn to accept change. We have to learn to accept different cultures, religions and sex to build a strong and unified society. We have to accept cultures that eat dogs, we have to accept Asians, even though they can’t drive, they will do your homework. If we love one another Baxter leaves us with a promise “…our sins as old as mountains will melt into the air”. When we accept everyone for who they are, instead of making everyone the same, we will make this society will be more prosper.
A fountain of water splashed across my face. I slowly open my eyes trying hard to gather my thoughts together. Once I recollected myself, I looked around; my peers were all laughing with amusement. I was right; nothing has changed through generation. So how could this man think he sees the world in different spectacles from us today? He saw how Jesus was treated and denied by society, how Othello faced his doom because of society and how Society were ashamed of outsiders so they cast them out of their communities. As they were all laughing I finally knew how it felt to be an outsider. I wanted to do anything to be accepted again. But I knew its better to be loved for who you are, than to be loved for who your not. They all love me. I think?
Friday, August 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Achieved with Excellence
Shakespeare’s tragedies generally conclude with the downfall and death of the noble protagonist. Discuss with detailed supporting evidence, whether or not Othello can be considered a‘noble protagonist’, given his murderous actions at the end of the play.
Othello
William Shakespeare’s Othello will forever be a character surrounded by
controversy. There will always be critics and not a few readers who cannot
forgive Othello for his violence and misplaced anger toward his wife Desdemona.
However, others argue he remains, despite this lapse a character of great dignityand one worthy of respect. Indeed, though certainly the unhappy victim of manipulation, Othello is I believe arguably one of the most noble and romantic of Shakespeare’s protagonists.
Othello is a man shrouded in mystery. Though lacking in the airs and etiquette of fine Venetian society, he is widely respected and awed by all those who know him for his military prowess and temperate nature. He appears, as A C Bradley writes “almost from wonderland”, from a far off place, bearing stories of mythical creatures and magic handerchieves. It is this mysterious dignity that attracts Desdemona to him, as well as his controlled and noble manner. He exhibits this several times early on in the play, refusing to become angry or act rashly: “keep up your bright swords or the dew will rust them”. He is also perhaps the most poetic of Shakespeare’s heroes, a characteristic evident in many of his speeches, “these nine moons wasted”. He has an eloquence beyond the airs
and graces of Venetian court, as well as a thoughtful and mild disposition.
Certainly, then, at the outset of the play Othello is every inch the “noble
protagonist” necessary in a Shakespearian tragedy.
It would be foolish to say, however, that later events leave Othello’s character untarnished. It is undeniable that eventually Othello is consumed with jealously and acts in a way far removed from his calm and reasoned normal self. However I would argue that this is not so much indicative of a flaw in Othello’s character as representative of the weakness of all men, the susceptability of everyone to suspicion and jealously and the influence of unfortunate circumstance. Othello is, in fact, the victim in the play, the unlucky plaything of a villain who admits “I hate the Moor”, a calculating and conniving man who will do anything to bring about Othello’s demise. The blame lies not with Othello, but with Iago.
As J I M Stewart writes, “Othello is everything that the human soul strives to be, Iago is that which corrupts and perverts it from within. Othello is guilty of nothing except perhaps being too passionate, too emotional. After all, Othello is a man who “loved not wisely but too well”. He is a man, according to Bradley, of “one nature” when he trusts he trusts fully. When he fights, he fights with all the strength he can muster, when he loves he loves wholeheartedly. And when Iago plants the “seeds of distrust” in his mind, suspicion consumes him.”
This is not a criticism, merely perhaps an explanation. It is Othello’s emotional nature that eventually clouds his normally flawless judgement. However, despite this, it is impossible to say that Othello was any more jealous or more suspicious than any other man would have been under the same circumstances. Despite Iago’s constant insinuation, Othello does not immediately nor unquestioningly take Iago’s word for Desdemona’s infidelity. He demands proof when a less level-minded man would have blindly assumed the worst. Indeed, that Othello does even this much is a tribute to his noble and controlled nature, for what man would not believe the word of another whom he considered an honest and trustworthy friend?
Also, it cannot be forgotten that Iago had not chosen as his victim a long-married man who as Bradley put it “knew his wife like his sister”. Othello and Desdemona were newly weds and there was much Othello would not have known about his bride. Perhaps it is understandable then, that as a foreigner and an older man without as firmer grasp of Venetian customs as the company his wife usually kept, that Othello might be particularly peceptive to Iago’s cunning and lies. It is natural, under the circumstances, that Othello may have been lacking some of the confidence he would otherwise possess. If Othello and Desdemona had been long-married, it is very unlikely that Iago’s conniving could have had such great and dire effect. Bradley writes “the Othello of Act Four is not Othello” and it is easy to see what he means. This is Othello in his fall (a fall which is never quite completed) and it is here that his noble nature is most in question. It is here we see a strong, proud man reduced to a quivering, confused shadow of his former self. He is violent and angry, but then this is no more than could be seen in any other man and reveals only Othello’s humanity. He loses his eloquence and his calm nature, but the loss is temporary. When he kills Desdemona, it is not so much a murder as a sacrifice, and the remorse he feels is painfully genuine.
In the final act of the play, we see Othello return to the man we met at the
production’s outset. He is a man of dignity, a man fond of beauty and poetry, a man quiet and controlled. Here, again, is Othello the hero. In his death is the same pride with which he lived his life. Despite the fateful turn of events and Othello’s unsavoury actions, he is not a bad person. He suffered the inherant weaknesses that all humanity suffers, and was tricked into becoming something he was not, because of it. But he is not to blame for Iago’s dangerous understanding of human nature, Iago who played our hero cruely, decieving him at every turn. Iago who said “though I hate him as a do hell’s pains yet for neccessity of present life I must show out a flag and sign of love which is indeed but sign.” Ironically it is because of his human imperfection that Othello died much as he began, the perfect tragic hero, the perfect “noble protagonisist.”
Shakespeare’s tragedies generally conclude with the downfall and death of the noble protagonist. Discuss with detailed supporting evidence, whether or not Othello can be considered a‘noble protagonist’, given his murderous actions at the end of the play.
Othello
William Shakespeare’s Othello will forever be a character surrounded by
controversy. There will always be critics and not a few readers who cannot
forgive Othello for his violence and misplaced anger toward his wife Desdemona.
However, others argue he remains, despite this lapse a character of great dignityand one worthy of respect. Indeed, though certainly the unhappy victim of manipulation, Othello is I believe arguably one of the most noble and romantic of Shakespeare’s protagonists.
Othello is a man shrouded in mystery. Though lacking in the airs and etiquette of fine Venetian society, he is widely respected and awed by all those who know him for his military prowess and temperate nature. He appears, as A C Bradley writes “almost from wonderland”, from a far off place, bearing stories of mythical creatures and magic handerchieves. It is this mysterious dignity that attracts Desdemona to him, as well as his controlled and noble manner. He exhibits this several times early on in the play, refusing to become angry or act rashly: “keep up your bright swords or the dew will rust them”. He is also perhaps the most poetic of Shakespeare’s heroes, a characteristic evident in many of his speeches, “these nine moons wasted”. He has an eloquence beyond the airs
and graces of Venetian court, as well as a thoughtful and mild disposition.
Certainly, then, at the outset of the play Othello is every inch the “noble
protagonist” necessary in a Shakespearian tragedy.
It would be foolish to say, however, that later events leave Othello’s character untarnished. It is undeniable that eventually Othello is consumed with jealously and acts in a way far removed from his calm and reasoned normal self. However I would argue that this is not so much indicative of a flaw in Othello’s character as representative of the weakness of all men, the susceptability of everyone to suspicion and jealously and the influence of unfortunate circumstance. Othello is, in fact, the victim in the play, the unlucky plaything of a villain who admits “I hate the Moor”, a calculating and conniving man who will do anything to bring about Othello’s demise. The blame lies not with Othello, but with Iago.
As J I M Stewart writes, “Othello is everything that the human soul strives to be, Iago is that which corrupts and perverts it from within. Othello is guilty of nothing except perhaps being too passionate, too emotional. After all, Othello is a man who “loved not wisely but too well”. He is a man, according to Bradley, of “one nature” when he trusts he trusts fully. When he fights, he fights with all the strength he can muster, when he loves he loves wholeheartedly. And when Iago plants the “seeds of distrust” in his mind, suspicion consumes him.”
This is not a criticism, merely perhaps an explanation. It is Othello’s emotional nature that eventually clouds his normally flawless judgement. However, despite this, it is impossible to say that Othello was any more jealous or more suspicious than any other man would have been under the same circumstances. Despite Iago’s constant insinuation, Othello does not immediately nor unquestioningly take Iago’s word for Desdemona’s infidelity. He demands proof when a less level-minded man would have blindly assumed the worst. Indeed, that Othello does even this much is a tribute to his noble and controlled nature, for what man would not believe the word of another whom he considered an honest and trustworthy friend?
Also, it cannot be forgotten that Iago had not chosen as his victim a long-married man who as Bradley put it “knew his wife like his sister”. Othello and Desdemona were newly weds and there was much Othello would not have known about his bride. Perhaps it is understandable then, that as a foreigner and an older man without as firmer grasp of Venetian customs as the company his wife usually kept, that Othello might be particularly peceptive to Iago’s cunning and lies. It is natural, under the circumstances, that Othello may have been lacking some of the confidence he would otherwise possess. If Othello and Desdemona had been long-married, it is very unlikely that Iago’s conniving could have had such great and dire effect. Bradley writes “the Othello of Act Four is not Othello” and it is easy to see what he means. This is Othello in his fall (a fall which is never quite completed) and it is here that his noble nature is most in question. It is here we see a strong, proud man reduced to a quivering, confused shadow of his former self. He is violent and angry, but then this is no more than could be seen in any other man and reveals only Othello’s humanity. He loses his eloquence and his calm nature, but the loss is temporary. When he kills Desdemona, it is not so much a murder as a sacrifice, and the remorse he feels is painfully genuine.
In the final act of the play, we see Othello return to the man we met at the
production’s outset. He is a man of dignity, a man fond of beauty and poetry, a man quiet and controlled. Here, again, is Othello the hero. In his death is the same pride with which he lived his life. Despite the fateful turn of events and Othello’s unsavoury actions, he is not a bad person. He suffered the inherant weaknesses that all humanity suffers, and was tricked into becoming something he was not, because of it. But he is not to blame for Iago’s dangerous understanding of human nature, Iago who played our hero cruely, decieving him at every turn. Iago who said “though I hate him as a do hell’s pains yet for neccessity of present life I must show out a flag and sign of love which is indeed but sign.” Ironically it is because of his human imperfection that Othello died much as he began, the perfect tragic hero, the perfect “noble protagonisist.”
A Copy of the L3 English Exam
Do You Really Think
We Would Do That!
We have some integrity!
Honestly we do somewhere?
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