Post 3: The Game of War

"Iago, as Harold Goddard finely remarked, is always at war; he is a moral pyromaniac setting fire to all of reality.......In Iago, what was the religion of war, when he worshiped Othello as its god, has now become the game of war, to be played everywhere except upon the battlefield."--Harold Bloom

Iago begins the play Othello believing in the religion of war. He is a warrior on the battlefield under his commander, Othello. He says himself to Roderigo that he has showed Othello that he can handle himself well in war while Cassio is untried in actual battle and knows only what is in the books. He says that he worked hard under Othello and it is obvious from his outrage that he thought very highly of Othello before Othello "betrayed" him by choosing Cassio as lieutenant. It seems that while he had thought before of causing some trouble because of his previous questioning of Emilia for Desdemona's handkerchief, he was too wrapped up in actual war and battle to cause any real trouble.

Iago begins to turn from war as a religion to war as a game when he is turned down as Othello's lieutenant. While he already harbored what could have been jealousy for Othello with his beautiful wife and high status even for his race, when Iago is turned down that jealousy is turned to anger and hatred, as he shows when he talks to Roderigo. He states that the only reason he stays to work for Othello is to undo Othello. Another fire for his anger could be his love of Desdemona vs. his seeming apathy for his wife Emilia. He says that he loves Desdemona but he never says anything like that about Emilia, only calling her "wench" and speaking thinly veiled jibes at her honor and intelligence. Once this fire is lit, Iago goes after the other characters one by one on his way to Othello.

He does not care any longer about the "honor" that he used before on the battlefield and begins to use underhanded measures to achieve his means like placing the doubt that Desdemona is faithful in Othello's mind and pushing Cassio to press his suit with Desdemona. He even asks Othello how far he will have to go, how much he will have to say, until Othello believes what Iago says about Desdemona and her love for Cassio. This questioning shows that war or dischord has been turned into a game for Iago, and that he is willing to do anything besides show himself to continue the game.

When Iago becomes angry is the moment where he throws away all reservations that had kept him seemingly honorable and trustworthy before and although he still seems good to those around him, he no longer tries to be. He will do anything, say anything to anyone, to twist the truth and tell white lies so that Othello is brought down. Here is where the idea or the "moral pyromaniac" sets in as Iago isn't afraid to say outrageous things against the other characters simply to sway one person's mind. He doesn't care that he kills his wife or causes Othello to kill Desdemona. It matters not to him that once Roderigo has outlasted his usefullness, Iago basically kills him in cold blood. Iago's use of Desdemona as the trap that brings all the others down also points to Iago believing that war is now a game. He knows how pure she is and uses that irony to enslave everyone is something more tragic than simply killing them would be. Iago knows how to turn people's strengths into their weaknesses, and that his ability will make the fall even more terrible an awakening than anything they could have managed by themselves. He creates theses complex webs between the characters so that each is working against another, be it knowingly or not.

Through all of this though, he manages to still be trusted by everyone else. A true warrior would not care how he appeared only that the ends were met, but a player in a game does anything and everthing to achieve ends without being uncovered or understood.

Post 2: Don't Sleep with Your Mother OR Your Father

Besides the obvious anti-incest feelings that Oedipus brought me, my brain was simply boiling as I walked away from class...



I have always struggled with the fate v. free will idea. I want to believe that I have the choice in my life to do what I want: that I am the one who chooses to eat the cake, that I am the one who decides to go to college and study said subject. I want to be the one that is taking my life in the direction that it is going, and not some higher power. At the same time, I can't help but believe that there has to be some preset line of events that every person must follow without realizing it. If not, how are there situations like the terrible things that happen to good people? Some might say that those people deserved the pain or suffering that they were forced to live with, but I do not agree. While some problems we may bring upon ourselves like a decision with terrible side effects like drunk driving for example, what about the people who get effected because of your drunk driving? Is that their fault? Did they bring that on themselves? Obviously not, so it must have been meant to happen in the larger scheme of things.

I managed to more or less ignore that problem in my head before now, but after reading Oedipus Rex, I am confronted with it more. However, I can't come to a single conclusion in my head. There is another alternative though: that while a person has a certain road to travel, that road can be branched off of or detoured from, but the person always comes back to that road. I guess this could sort of be like saying that Oedipus's original fate was to kill his father the King of Corinth because that is what he thought the prophecy meant. But when he tried to run from that fate, it changed so that he killed his father by leaving Corinth. It just gets confusing from there, which is another reason why I think this subject is so hard to debate. It's difficult to argue something if each person uses different words interchangably....

These are very unpolished thoughts, but pretty much what my mind debating with itself.

Post 1: In the Beginning (because the words in my brain aren't flowing yet)

There were too many excerpts to choose from, so here they are:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile group
With walls and towers were girldled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incence-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
-from "Kubla Khan" by Samual Taylor Coleridge


You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary, and the soles of your shoes
Are all worn down, the time for sleep is now
Its nothing to cry about because we'll hold each other soon
In the blackest of rooms

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
And they illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soal embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark
-from "I Will Follow You into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie