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.

Paragraph of Analysis of "To His Coy Mistress"

     The relationship between "To His Coy Mistress" and the  "live fast, die young, make a pretty corpse" is all-too clear in the second stanza, exhibited by gruesome imagery that contrasts with the rest of the poem. Whereas the first stanza laments that the speaker cannot focus on the object of his affection's beauty for all eternity, expressing in an admiring tone, and the last stanza states in a passionate tone his desire to live in the moment, the second stanza has a much less affectionate tone. He discusses the "deserts of vast eternity" (24), i.e. death, similarly referencing a "marble vault" and  "worms" (26-27). This discussion of death is a complete reversal of the rest of the poem, intended to shock the object of his affections from her comfortable refuge of her coyness into his awaiting arms. In other words, he intends to make his mistress uncomfortable so as to reduce her coyness and increase his attractiveness in the grand scheme of things. He is telling her that she will certainly make a pretty corpse, but that the only one to enjoy this pretty corpse will be the worms, causing her "quaint honor [to] turn to dust" (29). He is telling her not to waste his affections by holding him away until he dies, at which point so would his affections as "all [his] lust" turns "into ashes" (30). Rather, the two of them, by the speaker's thinking, should enjoy the time they have, else her beauty will ultimately have had no purpose- the "beauty [that] shall no more be found" will have been wasted (25). So as not to simply jar her from her complacency and cause her to hate him, he provides himself as a solution for her newly discovered problem of her beauty's ephemeral nature.

The Stranger II: Bk. 1 Ch. 6 - Bk. 2 Ch. 1

Mersault's incomprehensibly impersonal tone in the novel is also evident in his interactions with others. Mersault can see that the magistrate "couldn't understand" why he waited, because this part of Mersault's story is inconsistent with the model that the magistrate has built for Mersault's psyche (68). Mersault's mind cannot be comprehended by the people around him because his absurd philosophy is different from the ideologies of every person around him such as Christianity. He denies that he believes in God, indicative of his absurd philosophy. When the magistrate begins to preach about God, Mersault nods his head, but when the magistrate asks Mersault a second time whether he believes in God, Mersault finds his answer of no "obvious" (69). Mersault believes that his absurd philosophy is perfectly logical, even though it makes no sense to those around him - especially those who believe in a higher power that cares about humans, a god of some sort, which is inherently inconsistent with absurd philosophy.