Othello and Desdemona as Renaissance Love

            Shakespeare’s Othello is more than an early example of interracial love, as many would perceive it to be; it incorporates the attitudes of men toward women and minorities in the case of Othello himself. Throughout the play, a sense of otherness pervades in dialogue between Othello and Desdemona, Othello and Iago, etc. implying that one point or another someone is seen as the superior whereas the other party is deemed inferior. The attitudes include jealousy, stupidity, pride, and greed; each negative characteristic is illustrated within each act.

            One must remember that the opinions formed about women came from the Renaissance era, meaning change was bound to happen sooner or later. Othello understood the reason he became the leader of the Venetian army: he has successfully fought off the Turks and sent them back home to Turkey. His followers saw him as a respected leader and a great man who happens to marry the purest woman around: Desdemona. His biggest detractor, Iago, who ironically was his closest friend, became jealous of Cassio because he received the promotion that had been so coveted. The way Iago went about his “inferior” feeling is since he could not take losing to a better qualified person, he begins by bringing up the worst excuse possible: race and the fact Othello and Desdemona are happily married. Therefore, to make himself feel better, he ran to tell her father that his daughter has been sleeping with a black man and they should both be ostracized from Venice.

            In addition, Iago attempted to portray Othello as stupid for trusting another man’s words over those of his own wife. Desdemona truly loved him, yet he is stupid for listening to another man about what his faithful wife does while he is away. As a result, Iago plays off Othello’s jealousy to perfection – only to find out he has been framed for the murder. Only after acknowledging the crime does Othello feel sorrowful and vow revenge on all parties involved.

            During male-to-female conversations, the male seemed to put on more of a father-daughter relationship as opposed to being equals. In the case of Iago and his wife Emila, he had a tendency to talk to her as if she were a child and an unfaithful whore. The “evidence” planted by Emila, Othello’s napkin from his late mother, comes up with Cassio only because she obeyed Iago’s orders. Jonathan Swetnam was once quoted for saying “Men, I say, may live without women, but women cannot live without men.” (Swetnam 1336). Perhaps his reason for the statement is archaic, but in that era, he was partially accurate for making the comment women cannot live without men. Unfortunately for Swetnam, men cannot live without women because we do not possess all of the body parts to continue into the next generation.

            Throughout Othello, pride is shown as a male characteristic as evidenced in every act and scene, particularly in who else? Iago! He stood in the way of everyone’s successes, accomplishments, etc. simply to meet the goal of destroying Othello; in the process, he gained nothing and still lost his soul, identity, and respect of the remaining soldiers.

He Who Wins, Writes the History

“History, who keeps a durable record of all our acts, and exercises her awful censure over the proceedings of all sorts of sovereigns will not forget, either in those events, or in the era of this liberal refinement in the intercourse of mankind.” – Edmund Burke

            As the statement reads, history is an extremely accurate record of all of our actions. How we read and understand history is critical of how the future is shaped, or in the cases of certain cultures and generations, if the same history would repeat itself. Burke points to the French Revolution as a turning point not only for France, but also for the majority of the world which consisted of Europe, a few countries in Asia, and a colonial America that only earned independence ten years earlier. Without a revolution of any sort, the world continues to rotate in a chaotic fashion and the original revolutionaries eventually become conservative toward any change. For instance, the children of Louis and Antoinette were forced to watch their parents beheaded by the Napoleon-led commoners.

            For us Christians in America, history indeed repeats itself as a result of what sin we have supposedly obliterated with a “we’ll never do it again” and then turn around to magnify the same misdeed ten times over. It comes in different forms of transgression, and while each is worse than the previous as a result of knowing better, the opportunity for forgiveness remains. Hence, for history to repeat itself, one must either be so complacent or ignorant of wrongdoing that there is no turning back.

Sonnet No. 1

How does it feel to keep it real within

When the enemy only wants to see us crack

Unlike Rice Krispies, instead moreso a big box of Cracker Jacks

Are we doing it without sin?

If so, then he who casts the first stone shall judge my fate.

No one is perfect, not even the one who thinks he knows

About every little flaw, defect, all interrupted blows

To the head; in my mind it is nothing more than hate.

Being one hundred percent original is like, representing the cynical

Or something like that, sarcasm reigns supreme

In the minds of those chasing the cream –

Eventually, that becomes a bit mystical.

With that in mind, I shall seek to shine,

Recline in the house with dirt-cheap bottle of wine.

Sonnet No. 2

I hope that this is not a last-minute deal.

I feel that I will be able to accomplish whatever it takes

To not only finish a quick sonnet, but also devour two milkshakes.

I feel like a prisoner eating his final meal,

Not because of how it tastes, but knowing

That cheeseburger and this catsup-drenched onion ring

Are going to be all people remember me for.

Or, will they recollect that time I kicked in the door?

Did I fall in at an angle correct enough

Not falling in or being pushed,

Nor using the childish word squooshed

To land on my rusty lotion-seeking duff?

Let this be a lesson to all.

If you slough off, then surely you shall fall.

Caught Up For the Last Time

“Tyler! What the hell?!! Cancel that. Who is this whore in our bed?”

“Chelle, I can explain everything! It doesn’t look like what you think it is!” screams Tyler. “I mean, it was supposed to be a study session for our Spanish final. One thing led to another, and next thing I knew, I woke up with her next to me. How she got here I really don’t know.”

“Well, it looks like you and that blonde bitch were screwing all night long, so forget you and your ugly mama: it’s over between us!,” Chelle declares as she slams the aging bedroom door at what was once their loving home but instead has turned into a creaking path of strewn t-shirts, worn Levi’s jeans, socks, Tyler’s good luck tye-dye boxers and a blue pair of satin bikini panties. In disbelief, Tyler looks over at Ashley and realizes, Damn, I’ve lost her for the last time. All of Daddy’s lessons on how to treat a woman have gone down the drain because I thought I could be the pimp-player of the year and bed as many females as I could. That was the fun part, anyway. Well, that’s what my frat brothers told me after I came off line. I think it was Ed told me that once I put on the blue and gold, I became hot property for all women to pursue and for a while, that included Michelle. I don’t know, but maybe she actually wanted the complete me after all and the only thing I could donate was ten inches of darkened wood.

After the early-morning disaster with Chelle, I started to pick up all of last night’s passion off the floor and toss into the washing machine; some of the best sex is caused from two students cramming before a major exam. So that was what I was told. Beneath the semen-stained sheets lay Ashley who seemed to be only temporarily fazed by the entire blowup. The short tanned woman slept like a baby, and I found that to be very attractive. Unlike what early bird Chelle would have done, Ashley stayed in the bed all morning and for a good part of the afternoon, and once she woke up, it was like a tornado erupted once again. “Oh my God, I’m late for work! What am I doing here – with Tyler? And where are my clothes? Tyler?”

“I washed them after I woke up this morning. I was about to check my email and download more of Dave Hollister’s MP3s  when my ex came in and destroyed the place. It has taken me all day to restore it to the way you saw it - or remember it, perhaps on the pristine side. As for the Spanish final, good luck tomorrow. It’s likely that I will take the zero and it’ll reduce me to like an 85 for the semester.”

“Why?”

“Because they were on the floor and I don’t like having a lot of clutter unless it is called for. Come over here and we can talk some more – after you brush your teeth. I have an unwrapped toothbrush in the bathroom; this way you have no excuse in having bad breath.”

“No, Tyler, I meant the Spanish.”

“Ashley, I honestly did not plan on doing that well on the test by virtue of setting the curve all semester. And you know damn well how hard that is in Dr. Hernandez’s classes, especially this one.”

As Ashley stumbled to the bathroom, the cold bathroom floor jolts her to reality. Her short blonde hair is knotted from last night and whispers, “Ty’s got it going on. He is everything I expected in a man – except he’s black. I know I’m not supposed to look at him like that, but the way he carries that frame and his fluidity, how can I not fall for him?” She reaches for the brand new orange toothbrush and haphazardly swipes at a tube of Colgate, but she misses the toothpaste. Tyler oversees the error in brushing her teeth and creeps inside the porcelain palace to her surprise. “Thanks, but I can do it myself,” replies Ashley and thus thepotential remake of paradise has been halted.

Several long minutes pass before another mumbling word is said. Memories of Tyler and Chelle’s relationship trickle through his brain like the minute hand on a grandfather clock. Like the first time Chelle looked at Tyler, the way she walked to him. It was part of Blue and Gold Week, and since I wasn’t stepping because of my broken ankle, I had it taped with Papa Smurf’s autograph. The struggle to make it up the stairs was a mother, so she helped me up. Since then, we had been together…until this morning. I forgot she had a key to my house and even then, Ashley had a morning class; therefore, I should have been in bed by one at the latest. I just kept seeing her face over and over again as she first incessantly bawled and second began firing off trophies, plaques, CDs, and even my plates. I just hate that because of my doggish ways, I have lost someone who really cared for me. Or maybe it was the prestige of being part of what they call the "in-crowd". What shall I do? I can’t call home and talk to the folks because they disapproved interracial relations in the first place, none of the brothers are here, and my roommate Jammel went to the mall across town for honey-chasing again. So the most logical person I can talk to is Ashley.

“Ash, have you ever loved someone but failed to realize it until he was out of your life?”

“To be honest, yeah. There was this really hot guy that I gave my total devotion, but I found out he had been cheating on me with half of some sorority. I guess he was their pilot or something. To this day, I haven’t really cared for those girls nor do I respect his ass. I guess screwing around dooms people after all.”

“Yeah, I feel the same way too. Over and over my mom told me to watch myself for those chickenheads because they are everywhere, but me being the man I am, I let my guy down low do the thinking for me," pointing toward his crotch. "Soon enough, I met Chelle and I thought I was happy being tied down to one. Then, I realized it was just that: tied down. After I met you, all I wanted to do was get some, but I see now that we can move in another direction – if that’s what you want.”

“Have you told Chelle of how you felt?”

“No! She wouldn’t go for that, even on a good day. Here I am, fraternity president, double major computer science and international business, and the guy everyone looks up to for student body direction and I can’t make a fucking decision on where my life is going! It was so mapped out! I mean, what the hell? If I wasn’t graduating next semester, I would simply go ahead and withdraw from classes altogether because I cannot take the crap anymore.Perhaps I never really tried; there was that damning fear of commitment to her anyhow.”

“I’m sorry to hear of all your problems. I hope you can get them worked out, but if you ever need someone to lean on, you can call me or come to my place on Jefferson Street.” Ashley gave Tyler a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. Slowly departing the front door, she said, “Listen, I have to go, but if you want to…you know I’m not hard to find. Call me tonight after eight-thirty and we'll hang out, maybe grab some books and coffee or something. Who knows...”

Was Job A Patient Sufferer?

Tragedy strikes at each and every corner of our lives, yet not all tragedies are intended by the media as Job stories. For example, the eastern Arkansas woman who lost her entire family before Christmas in an automobile accident openly questions God, as her faith has been lost in Him to protect her family. In comparison to some of us, Job is only moderately radical when he only questions God, whereas our culture has no limits to degrading our Lord and Savior. The average person who suffers is not as patient as we would like to believe because we take for granted the basic necessities of life.

            Like so many of us, Job basically has it made; he owns thousands of cattle, employs hundreds of men to tend them, has a beautiful wife and family as well as several concubines at his will. Therefore, he has no reason to question his faith in God – yet. Likewise, we think life is all right and enter a mentality of “this is how things are supposed to go” until something negative happens because I know that has happened to me. Nine months ago, I was on top of the world with a new car, an off-campus apartment, plenty of money in my checking and savings accounts, my Wal-Mart stock increasing daily, no worries regarding food or credit card debt, and classes were going to be a breeze. To make a long story short, I moved two months after I got the first apartment as a result of my then-roommate not paying any bills and stealing clothes – after I put myself into over a thousand dollars’ debt with Visa which is now paid in full, and my GPA has gone south. Fortunately, I did not curse God; instead I believed that He intended for me to lose it all as a test of my faith in Him.

Similar to my experience, Job is eventually tested to find out whether his faith lies in God or in his possessions. One day Satan proposes a deal with God that if Job lost everything, he would curse God and the very day he was born through a series of tests: First, he would lose his children when their home fell upon them during their dinner. Second, all of his cattle would be killed meaning he would no longer be wealthy; the third challenge is giving praise when his body is covered with sores. His wife even urges Job to “curse God and die” (The Book of Job 412); and finally, his three friends ignorantly tell him that he has committed an awful sin. Initially, he takes the pain and tragedy well, but as his health worsens and his friends criticize him, saying he committed a horrible sin to deserve this condition, Job finally gives in and curses the day he was born! To wish one had never been born signifies that life is not worth living and often shows a total disregard of a higher being.

            Our confusion is similar:  once trials arise, our faith in God is out the door, sprinting almost as fast as a track athlete, causing confidence to drop enough to question God. Denying our pain allows us to delay the pain period indefinitely; no one dares to admit their suffering and it extends the pain.. This is similar to a son coming to a parent with a hurt finger and saying: “It doesn’t hurt. Think of something else and it will go away” (Baker 33). What is the child supposed to do, walk it off every time he slams his finger in the car door? It results in a mixed message from receiver (the child) to sender (the parent). Many of our messages from God go unheard in the same manner since we hardly bother to “listen” instead of letting it go from one ear and out the other and “seeing the writing on the wall”.

            In a scientific society in which everything has a reason, Job’s submission has failed to satisfy us because it accepts mystery (Birrer 1). Perhaps it is better for us to simply know His omnipresence and to be in it. According to Roland Murphy, author of the Proclamation Chronicles, our attempt to understand or approach the idea of God’s presence in scientific or human concepts constricts divinity, making it impossible to understand why things happen, good or bad. Failing to understand that faith cannot be interpreted in scientific terms, we so often miss our blessings and are restricted by our oppression.

            Sometimes it takes a personal tragedy such as the death of a family member or a close friend to test our ability not to curse God for it and not to stray from His teachings. Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People and a Boston rabbi, summarizes his son Aaron’s short life: he stopped gaining weight at ten months; aged considerably before reaching five years old; and died two days after his fourteenth birthday; and how Harold Kushner compared himself to Job. Young Aaron Kushner was afflicted with a rare disease called progenia, resulting in his father beginning to have doubts about his God, whom he had always viewed as an “all-wise, all-powerful” parent figure who praised us for good and reluctantly punished for evil (Kushner 453)! Did God present a task for his faith while he watch Aaron die patiently knowing the result of his illness is death? Cassandra Winslow, the Brinkley, Arkansas woman who lost her entire family in December when she swerved her car to avoid a dog and subsequently plunged into a creek, felt for a time that “if God was real, then He would have let my family live”(Winslow 2). Obviously, she was so distraught she openly questioned God; the only difference between her tragedy and our unpublished trials is the local newspapers and television stations published and broadcasted her story. Recently, Ms. Winslow sent her thanks to all of those who prayed for her in her “time of bereavement” and concludes that God “works in mysterious ways sometimes. I may never know the reason why He took my family from me.”

            During his trials, Job always seems to remain pious despite having every reason in the world to go and abandon God. Fortunately, he does not; otherwise the Bible would not have a chapter devoted to such an upstanding man. When he eventually questions God as to why, he makes the mistake of “talking to God on a man-to-man level”. After God demonstrates why He is God and Job is merely a man, Job feels less than dirt and in turn passes his test with flying colors.

Job rises from the ashes and is eventually blessed with more than he had before as a result of remaining faithful to God during his time of affliction. From enduring through losing everything to having his own friends turn against him saying he sinned, Job is renewed by his repentance, and enriched and strengthened by God’s self-revelation to him. “Not only does Job realize God is sovereign, but also he intimately knew the God who is sovereign. In that knowledge and that relationship is the resolution of life’s problems” (Zuck 456).

            The sufferer is everywhere, regardless of how he I is portrayed in our newspapers, on television, via Internet and on morning radio. However, not all of those images are intended as “Job stories.” “When you were down at your lowest and you seemed alone, it was I who carried you”(Footprints). Job shows we all have to endure for a short while during life to reap the benefits such as good health, prospering, and of course, the gift of life. Bad things do happen to good people; it is a matter of how we adjust and battle through.

Works Cited

Kushner, Harold. “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.”  Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman, 2000.452-63.

Baker, Wesley C. More Than A Man Can Take. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1952.

Zuck, Roy B. Sitting With Job. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992.

Birrer, Jessamyn. Trusting Job in a Cynical World: The Problem of Understanding the Message of The Book of Job. http://www.angelfire.com/wa/TiltingWhirlwinds/VoicingWhirlwinds.html

 Terry, Rev. Llewellyn E. Announcement from Mt. Olive Baptist, Arkadelphia, AR. 19 March 2000.

Rosemary's Baby

            Horror films are dotted with bizarre experiences during what can or could be any given day. After all, it is not everyday when a six-foot-tall man wearing a hockey mask and brandishing a machete as his toy chases teenage campers to their deaths nor does the story always have to be set in a hilly small town. To this day, we are “freaked out” by normal people who see unusual things such as the little boy in The Sixth Sense who sees dead people and is constantly abused by them, leaving him with scars and also nearly dead. Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) is labeled as a horror movie because it can be set anywhere, contains a body count, and withstands the test of time.

            Rosemary’s Baby was set in New York City to the inharmonic song patterns of Rosemary herself, sung by Mia Farrow and the views of the older Victorian apartments surrounding Central Park. As she and her husband Guy Woodhouse (John Cassevetes) search for a new apartment to call home – for the time being, they notice the signs of wear and tear to the property: chipped floor tiles, cracked walls, and unpainted plaster on the hallway wall of the seventh floor. The place they call home is one where an older lady had deceased inside a few days earlier after lying in a coma for weeks; the first thing Rosemary attempts to do is to brighten the place by placing colorful furniture and planning a nursery in hopes of an upcoming pregnancy. During the time after her death, Mrs. Gardenia may have left her ghost in the apartment to scare off the new tenants or perhaps she indulged in Satanism with her neighbors while alive because of the black curtains. The Woodhouses’ neighbors, Roman and Minnie Castavet, seem to be interested in the new couple for more than mere company: little did Rosemary know that the baby she would later conceive was that of Satan himself, not Guy.

            The movie did not really have much of a body count aside from Terry and Hutch’s deaths because it focused so much on Rosemary’s weight loss and depression during her pregnancy and Minnie Castavet intruding at all hours, giving her a concoction instead of pills to take on a daily basis. Terry’s death was ruled a suicide as a result of jumping from a seventh floor window in the Castavets’ home. She also wore that same grotesque charm that Rosemary would eventually receive from Minnie as a “good luck charm”. This “charm” was actually the Devil manifesting himself inside the root in search of the perfect woman to bear his child, which turned out to be Rosemary. Once leaving Rosemary’s apartment and suffering from a stroke, Hutch dies three weeks after  entering a coma, yet one of his final deeds was an anagram for Rosemary to realize that Roman is the son of Adrian Marcato, a famous warlock who was attacked and nearly killed from declaring he was the Devil. Upon this realization, she tries to tell Guy to sever all ties with the Castavets because they are affecting their lives negatively and the upcoming birth of her baby the Anti-Christ. In a sense she loses the child because it does not have Guy’s features, but Rosemary is still a mother to him despite her newfound knowledge.

            As scary as mothering the Devil’s child sounds and is, Rosemary’s Baby seems a bit dated with Guy’s constant references to Rosemary as a “dumb b**** who needs guidance” similar to a small child. Also, who is going to be dumb enough not to seek a second opinion regarding the life she is carrying for nine months? Guy could have not only been arrested for torture, but also for raping her! Granted, the movie could have been made anywhere and someone can even play the same waif as Rosemary, but no one would really want the role of a naïve woman. Fortunately, times have changed for the better meaning the “waif” is a major character in later horror films.

It may not have been a slasher film as of late nor a “kill or be killed” movie, but Rosemary’s Baby scares the viewer into thinking this could very well happen to anyone. Just because only two people died in the film does not make the movie less a classic; instead it symbolizes death can happen in another way than the coma or suicide because upon learning her baby was Satan’s offspring, Rosemary’s spirit dies and is forever shattered by mothering the Anti-Christ.

                                                                                                          

Works Cited

Glenn, Frederick. The Devil Turns Thirty: Rosemary’s Baby and the Manson Family Murders. Rosemary’s Baby 30 year anniversary. http://thetake.com/take/html/tendllr.html

All Movie Guide.  Rosemary’s Baby. http://allmovie.com/cg/x/dll

Dirks, Tim. Review of Rosemary’s Baby (1968). http://www.filmsite.org/