Othello III: Act 2 Scene 2 - Act 3 Scene 2

In this passage, Iago maintains his principle of never making a statement that is entirely untrue except about his own feelings. He asks at the beginning of his soliloquy, "what's he, then, that says I play the villain, / When this advice is free I give and honest, / probal to thinking, and indeed the course / to win the moor again?" (II.iii.356-359). In other words, Iago asks the audience: why would Cassio think I am evil if I give him advice that is, indeed, the best course of action, even if I have my own motives behind it? Iago illustrates why every character in the play believes him to be honest: because he always offers advice that is valid and information that is generally plausible, despite his own motives for guiding characters in particular directions. Thus, Iago maintains his odd honesty that makes him, ironically, true to what he presents (honest) in the technical meaning of the word, without the trustworthiness that is connotatively associated with that diction.

S&S 13: Exercise 1

1. A because of the phonetic similarity of guide and guard as well as the lack of unnecessary verbosity in the second line.
2. B because "Apollo's lute" sounds more musical than "the lute of Phoebus" due to the 'l's in "Apollo."
3. A because "over" and "snow" continue the long 'o' sounds from prior in the line.
4. B because of more "l" sounds in a passage mentioning "bells"
5. B because it sounds more "murmur-y" and with the multitude of 'm's and many short syllables.
6. B because the "warbles" sounds more musical than "sings," more euphonious, whereas the latter line is more cacophonous (when describing the failure of the lark to be musical).
7. B because the list of items, particularly with 'b' sounds, enhance the harshness of the items.
8. A because the repeated 's' sounds are appropriate for "softly" washing one's hands.
9. B because of the more onomatopoeic word "tolls" (vs. "sounds"), among other sounds.
10. B because the "stinks and stings" contrasts more strongly with the "gilded wings" because of the harsh, cacophonous "st" sounds.

Othello II: Act 2 Scene 1

An interesting feature of Iago's character is his strange honesty. He rarely makes a statement that can be illustrated to be incorrect except his expression of his own feelings. For instance, after telling Roderigo that Cassio and Desdemona love each other, he acknowledges that his statement could quite possible be true. He says that "that Cassio loves her, I do well believe 't. That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit," indicating that he finds is quite possible that nothing he said was false (II.i.308-309). Thus, everything he said on that topic to Roderigo could, theoretically, be logical, and therefore his opinions are, should he need to explain them if his plans unravel, plausible even if he weren't conspiring against Othello. While he acknowledges Othello's quality as a husband (in contrast to what he said to Roderigo), he still defiles Othello's name with respect to virtue, thereby rendering his opinions of Othello's future also plausibly true from his perspective should Roderigo analyze the truthfulness of Iago's claims to him. Thus, the only matter in this passage about which Iago has lied such that he contradicts what another person may perceive him to be is when he lies about his feelings about Othello to everyone but Roderigo. In this way, he simultaneously maintains multiple effective façades about his feelings, all of which are plausible interpretations of his internal opinions and thoughts based on all the information he grants to his combined audiences.

Othello I: Reasons for Iago's Actions

The most vexing type of villain is that which knows its own evil. The Party of 1984, for instance, is jarring in its philosophy because it recognizes that it acts for its own benefit. By the same token, Iago of Shakespeare's Othello is one of the most desirable parts in literature. In part, this is due to the variety of facades that Iago utilizes, but it is also, in part, due to his recognition of his own villainy. He even states that he is entirely self-interested, that "[he] follow[s] but [him]self" (I.i.64). Thus, his first, instinctual thought is to act in his own self-interest rather than that of his state and of society - and that he recognizes this makes him an unusual evil, since most evil believes, at heart, that it is doing good.

This does not, however, mean that he does not believe that his actions are justified in vengeance. Firstly, Othello did not choose him as his lieutenant; instead he chose "a great arithmetician, / One Michael Cassio" (I.i.20-21). Iago feels that he is better-suited for the position of second-in-command, and that Othello should therefore have chosen him. Secondly, his racist opinions cause him to think poorly of Othello, despite all respect he may have - he states that "Moors are changeable in their wills," and so does not hold respect for Othello's personal virtue despite his acknowledgement of his capacity as a general. Thirdly, Iago states, "it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets / 'Has done my office," meaning that he believes Othello has slept with his wife (I.iii.430-431). Although it may appear to be a reason for Iago's anger, the fact that Othello stole the woman that Roderigo, a friend of Iago, as declared when Iago stated "I have professed me thy friend," sought to marry is irrelevant to Iago's decision - Iago is not so considerate as to think of his friend's feelings (I.iii.379-380).

S&S 12: Notes

• Rhythm = practical, meter = ideal
• Accented produced by stress ("force of utterance"), duration, pitch, juncture (by pos. in Latin)
• Rhetorical stresses: to make intentions clear in speech/prose
• End-stopped line vs. run-on line: by punctuation vs. natural pause or no pause
• Caesuras: mid-line pause, grammatical nor not
• Free verse: no meter, typical today; prose poem: ignores even line, like prose
• Feet --> Lines --> Stanzas; identification = scansion
• Foot Types
• Duple: Iambic (iamb), trochaic (trochee), spondaic (spondee)
• Triple: Anapestic (anapest), dactylic (dactyl)
• Spondee never used entirely, trochee rare, dactyl only in Latin
• Line Types:Monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter
• Regularity vs. metrical variations
• Substitution (swap foot)
• Extrametrical syllables (adding at edge of line)
• Truncation (cut off, as int() in CPU)
•  Virtue
• Some lines clearly have identifiable pattern
• Added stress from tradition; not three consecutive unstressed, but rather artificial meter
• Extra syllables not counted: extrametrical syllable
• Adjust: some swapped for trochees (don't force a fit)
• Words can be broken easily
• Main points
• Not always necessary, even for rich understanding, but can emphasize and identify
• Scansion reveals meter, not rhythm properly, because oversimplified
• Feet have no meaning other than separation within lines
• Perfect meter != good poetry
• Expected rhythm vs. heard rhythm (self-explanitory)
• Grammatical vs. rhetorical pauses (commas vs. no comma)
• Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter; typical for old English poetry

The Stranger: Paper Outline

Thesis: Every death in The Stranger serves to demonstrate the same ultimate absurd point: that even death is meaningless and unimportant in the grand scheme of the world.

• The first death, Maman's, illustrates how Meursault reacts to death: very impersonally, as though he were merely an acquaintance of Maman.
• Lack of info p. 1
• "Not my fault" instinct p. 1
•  Does not express emotion towards death of mother
•  Meursault's reaction in this case illustrates how society in general reacts to death.
• Continuing of life shows symbolism - ch. 2 in general compares Meursault to society through juxtaposition of interactions w/ Marie and observation of other lives
• Specifically: "really, nothing had changed" (24).
• Absurdist philosophy: World continues on, even after death that jars one world
• Salamano's dog, although a disappearance rather than an absolute death, serves a very similar purpose to Maman in that Meursault acts pragmatically, stating facts rather than helping Salamano; even after Salamano finds out that his dog is most likely dead, Meursault still only offers condolences.
• Meursault's response to Salamano's distress, showing up at his doorstep: "I told him that the pound ... as they saw fit" (39).
• No compassion in response, merely informing of facts as losing of dog is routine, insignificant occurrance, even though Salamano is shocked by it
• Offers condolences when "I told him [...] that I was sorry about what had happened to his dog" but still "yawned," indicating boredom, immediately before (45)
• In the murder of the Arab, Meursault is an agent of the world, illustrating how random the world is in the people whom it harms and helps.
• Happened to choose to return to beach (57)
• No agency in crime - "the trigger gave" (59) and whole passage
• Illustrates pointlessness of world in action
•  Meursault's preponderance of his own death and his own conclusions illustrates the ultimate point of absurdism - the philosophical if not the narrative climax of the book.
• Paragraph from last blog for points

The Stranger IV: Bk. 2 Ch. 4-5

In the end of The Stranger, Camus directly inserts several of the ideas of absurdism in order to explain not only Mersault's thought process, but the very precepts of the philosophy of absurdism. Camus even goes so far as to have Mersault directly state that he had had an "absurd life," the direct relationship in diction with his philosophy of which cannot be ignored (121). Moreover, he elaborates on the concept of absurdism for any reader who is not familiar with Camus' philosophy. He states that "everybody knew life isn't worth living. [...] Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter. Therefore (and the difficult thing was not to lose sight of all the reasoning that went into this "therefore"), I had to accept the rejection of my appeal" (114). A few specific pieces of this quote explain his absurdist philosophy: he first writes one of its main ideas, that "life isn't worth living." He then explains why that is so - because we will all die eventually. He then defends his idea with a parenthetical elaboration. His statement is essentially that one must accept what logic states, despite what conclusion it might result in - in this way, absurdist philosophy is like science, because it lies upon a basis of logical argument in order to concoct conclusions that some might consider "absurd." In this way, Camus explains what absurdist philosophy states and how it comes to its conclusion, then argues that his logical argument must result in a true conclusion.

The Stranger III: Bk. 2 Ch. 2-3

When Mersault reads the story about the Czechoslovakian, he concludes with a moral lesson - he interprets it as a allegory. He concludes that "you should never play games" (80). To a large extent, this is how he spends his life: he does not play the "games" of society. Whereas society would prefer that he put up a façade of sadness at his mother's death, he does not follow this rule. Whereas society would prefer that he equivocate about some of his deeds - most notable in his discussion of his sexual interactions with Marie - he does not avoid what he has done. There are many actions that society would prefer him to take which Mersault considers to be "games" and does not want to "play." Mersault chooses to ignore the rules that constitute the "game" of society because he considers society to be no more important than the rules of a game: important in context of the game (just as he understands that he is going to be punished for killing the Arab), but this "game" should not determine how he lives his life - ultimately, he, like any game-player, exists outside of as well as within the game, and can choose to ignore those rules externally despite needing to follow them in their context.