Friday, August 22, 2014

Please give three examples of truth versus falsehood in Othello.

There are examples everywhere in the play - almost too
many to list. Here are three, all from the first scene, Act One, Scene
One:


First, one from the end of the scene. Here's Iago
talking about Othello to Roderigo:


readability="9">

Though I do hate him as I do
hell-pains.
Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must show out a
flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but
sign.



Pure and simple, Iago
is telling Roderigo that to protect his own life ('for necessity of present life') he is
going to have to pretend to show love to Othello - wave a 'flag' (a 'sign') of love -
but that 'sign' will be only a sign ('but sign'). It'll look like love, but it'll only
look like it - it's an appearance not a reality. A falsehood disguised like a
truth.


And, secondly, as I jump to the start of the scene,
here's the first two lines of the play for some more:


readability="13">

RODERIGO
Tush! never tell me; I take
it much unkindly
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the
strings were thine, shouldst know of this.

IAGO
'Sblood, but
you will not hear me:
If ever I did dream of such a matter,
Abhor
me.



Roderigo is angry that
Iago has known about Othello's marriage; Iago tells him that he never even dreamt of
such a thing. Now, Shakespeare doesn't tell us how Iago found out about the marriage,
nor do we know if he knew about it beforehand. We don't know whether he's lying or not.
Though he lies to Roderigo later, and we know that he has indeed had Roderigo's 'purse /
as if the strings were' his own, we don't know whether Iago is genuinely surprised or
not.


Point being, the audience don't know whether Iago is
telling the truth or not. Nobody knows. What's the truth of the matter here? Did Iago
know about the marriage? Who told him? Did he keep it from Roderigo? Shakespeare
deliberately leaves it ambiguous.


And this is the problem
with truth and falsehood in this play. We never find out for absolute certain whether
Desdemona and Cassio have slept together (it would be SO easy for Shakespeare to write a
short scene for the two characters together to confirm that it never
happened
. But he doesn't). We never find out for certain whether Othello
and Emilia have had an affair (Iago certainly thinks so). You don't know whether anyone
is really what they claim to be or not.


And Iago even admits
this:



I am not
what I am.



True line or false
line? Well, it's both. He's admitting to lying ('I'm not what I seem to be'). But he's
being honest about lying. He's being truthful about his blatant falseness. And just like
everything else in the play, you're not quite sure what to do with him - not quite sure
what to believe. He's the liar who everyone thinks is 'honest' (go through and count the
number of times they call him that!).


So truth and
falsehood in this play are difficult categories to separate. But it's a great
question!

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