Representations of Othello on Screen

I see this time and time again, but the power of artistic license never fails to amaze me. Especially in Shakespeare, I notice how many different ways a play can be performed basing on the original (or what we think is the most original) text Shakespeare wrote. It makes me admire directors as well as actors for making sense out of old English words that are hard for me to focus into when in writing. In the clip of Othello we watched together in class, my favorite representation was that of Othello. When I read the play I didn't register the emotion and the anguish that accompanied Othello's decision to murder Desdemona. I think that the actor interpreted the emotion that Shakespeare most likely meant to put into Othello during the act so well. The sadness he showed was perfectly mixed with the anger that he felt toward her because he believed himself betrayed. If I had to rethink that particular scene and try to imagine what Shakespeare most likely would have envisioned, that would be it. 

I would also like to clarify a point that I made in class. I mentioned that I thought the way Iago was represented was interesting because of how the directors portrayed his perception of the damage he caused. When I first looked at it, I thought he looked a little sorry for what he had done because of the way he was looking at Othello, and the way he was denying to answer his questions. At first look, I took his quietness to mean that he was afraid in a way to answer to Othello about what he had done. Because I didn't see glee in his eyes, I automatically went to the opposite which would be shame. When I re-watched the scene, I saw more indignation than repentance. This makes more sense because I think that the director would have had to make a very big use of their artistic license to show Iago as sorry for what he had done. I don't think the text gives enough evidence to legitimately make that call in a film representation. 

OTHELLO

Ahhh Shakespeare's tragedies . . . they always have such thoroughly horrible endings. Yes, the bad guy dies but so do all of the good guys! Here is a picture of the scene where Othello murders the most innocent and pure woman ever . . . irrational men. 

I want to talk about why Othello falls for Iago's scheme, when he and Desdemona had such a love struck relationship. I think this play brings to light a certain  inherent   quality that humans have to trust the bad or the negative.  What I mean is that Othello easily falls into the trap set by Iago by believing that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Its like the old saying i've heard that goes something like this: If someone tells you they are not in love with you, why is it so easy to believe? Shouldn't it be as easy to believe if someone tells you they really do love you? But for some reason it isn't! And I think Shakespeare is creating this similar situation. I know some people are more positive than others, and some always see the good in people before the bad. But for some reason it is so easy to believe that people can do bad things and that bad things can happen to us. When good things are happening, we tend to think, " Wow check out my luck! I hope it doesn't end soon, knock on wood!" I think this is why Othello falls for Iago's trap. . . I think he has a tendency toward the negative. Maybe he was surprised that he "won" (I.III.95) Desdemona (perhaps based on an insecurity about the color of his skin in company of fair skinned nobles) that he is prone to thinking that something could go wrong between them no matter how much he loves her. . . And no matter how much she says she loves him! 

 

Girl, Interrupted

In Girl, Interrupted, one of the things I most noticed was female discrimination. I saw it in many places which made me think of "The Yellow Wallpaper" because there are so many of the same themes. The first parallel I saw was when the doctor told Susanna that she needed rest to cure her. This is the infamous "rest cure" still being used in the sixties that we saw in "The Yellow Wallpaper." The interesting thing is that in both the movie and the story, the rest cure is imposed by a man and does not help the patient. In fact, it makes both women go even more insane than they were thought to be before they were admitted into solitude. Another place I saw sexual discrimination is when Susanna's mom is emotional about her daughter's 'borderline personality' and cries in front of the doctor. I saw his discrimination toward her when he looked straight at her and said that this disease tends to run in the family. The fact that he assumed that it would be the mother who passed the tendency on to the daughter rather than the father shows discrimination because this disease was known as a woman's disease. 

Power in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

I think the theme of power is very present in Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" in a variety of ways. The ugly yellow wallpaper is something that has power over the "nervous" woman. She thinks about it all the time, she looks at it constantly, and touches it. It bothers her to the point that she can't do anything else but be obsessed with it. John also has power over her because he considers her inferior. She does what he thinks is best for her, and talks to her sweetly but condescendingly. No man will listen to her opinion. That is why i associated the yellow wallpaper with men. They both have power over her and she resents that power. Men have women trapped behind them, and she saw the horrible yellow wallpaper as having a woman trapped behind it as well. I think her progressive insanity gives her the courage to make her attempt to break away from the trapping pattern of male dominance. When she rips off the paper, she is happy and she is strong. When she is freeing the trapped woman, who is herself, she reverses the traditional roles between her and John. She calls him, "young man," a term similar to the one he uses for her: "little girl." He is the helpless one, who is locked out of the room, and he is the one who faints at the end as if he were in a nervous state.