The story now moves away from Venice, never to return. The characters arrive one by one at Cyprus by sea, having weathered a heavy storm. Nature itself is confused. They assemble here to prepare for battle with the Turks. In Act One, Iago only talks about his plans, but now, in Act Two, away from home, he puts his plans into action. Iago gets Cassio drunk and into a fight, disrupting the wedding night of Othello and Desdemona. Othello breaks up the fight. Cassio is dishonored. To help put him right again with Othello, Iago suggests that he talk with Desdemona to have her plead his case with her husband. He agrees. Iago uses this meeting to plant doubts about Desdemona’s fidelity. Iago has several roles in this play. He is first and foremost, the villain. A purely evil man: evil for the sake of evil. He appears as a fellow well met, but his words hide his real intent. Iago provides the comic relief in the play. He is funny, witty, clever. Audiences for centuries love this character. They recognize him. He reminds us all that we are human. But behind his jokes is a sinister plan of destruction and disorder.
Dr. White discusses Charles Dickens’ great gift for characterization, which extended even to very minor characters. He gives specific examples of this from David Copperfield, including the based-on-life character of Miss Moucher. Next, Dr. White discusses some of the author’s literary devices, including his masterful foreshadowing and the device of having a double perspective from the narrator: David experiences things as a child, and the elder David who is narrating looks back on it as an adult, giving an adult’s perspective. Indeed, Dr. White points out, the novel is somewhat autobiographical, and Dickens in examining David Copperfield’s life examines his own. Useful or important passages of the novel are read and explained. Dr. White discusses the overwhelmingly female world that David is born to, giving him no male figure to look up to. This section ends with a look at the scene in which Copperfield discovers that his mother is going to be remarried to Mr. Murdstone.
In this introduction to Charles Dickens and David Copperfield, Dr. White discusses the beloved author’s great success early in life with his very first novel and how it came about from his job as a journalist. He speaks about Charles Dickens’ special preference for David Copperfield and his belief that it was Dickens’ very best novel, giving anecdotes of people in his life who were singularly touched by the novel and the realness of his characters. Dr. White describes the serial format in which Dickens’ novels appeared and how they affected his writing. Dr. White discusses Dickens’ influence on the great writers of the twentieth century, especially of the Russian school, and his amazing ability to write children and bring the reader into the child’s point of view – an ability that shows, in Dr. White’s opinion, that there was some part of the great author that must have never truly grown up. From here Dr. White segues into a discussion of the importance of fairytales in a child’s formation, for fairytales help children discover the moral order. He characterizes Dickens’ works as fairytales for adults.
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is the second of the four great tragedies of Shakespeare (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.) These are the first great tragedies since the Greeks. Only a man faced with conflict and doubt with the skill to write could write them. Shakespeare was in his dark and troubled time of life when he wrote these plays. Tragedy is a drama in which the principle conflict is between the hero and the metaphysical powers, the universe itself. The metaphysical forces win. The hero is broken, crushed, destroyed, through his own doing. The fall of the hero is not just a personal loss: when the hero falls, many fall with him. The tragedy of the individual becomes large. The warnings are these: if a great man can fall, so can we. We can also be crushed by someone else’s bad choice. Othello is a love tragedy. It is a story about disorder destroying order, about abject evil and its ravages in the world, the misuse of free will. Othello is the hero and Iago the villain. Both are destroyed. The essential thing to understand the play: a man and women in marriage become one flesh.
The link between Hamlet and Ophelia is central to understanding the play. Beginning, with his letters to her while studying at Wittenberg University, everything revolves around her. As he slowly looses his mind, Ophelia is the barometer of Hamlet’s mental health. At the end of his soliloquy in Act Four, Hamlet is training all his thoughts on blood to act blood. In the very next scene, Ophelia has gone mad, just as Hamlet has gone mad. Her innocence is affected by those around her, and she in turn, affects them. Even through Ophelia’s madness Gertrude confesses her own guilt. Hamlet is the one play where Shakespeare is in danger of loosing his balance. He has so much uncertainty he himself could have toppled. If he had not written anything past Hamlet, that would be it. What saved Shakespeare (and Hamlet) from loosing it completely? Shakespeare can still comprehend the balance of innocence, virtuousness, something slightly sacrificial that restores a glimmer of the good in Denmark. It is the creation of Ophelia that saves him, the innocent heroine. In Othello, the innocent heroine takes a more active role in the form of Desdemona. Shakespeare further explores this saving grace in his next play.
In this enlightening lecture, Dr. White comments on how the modern adaptations of The Merchant of Venice turn a beautiful comedy into a tragedy of Shylock, thus ruining the play’s comedic purpose and message. He sets about refuting this false view and showing the audience what Shylock’s real place in the play is, disclosing his true role as the villain or problem of the play, and how he comes to be in that position to begin with. He discusses the role of outsiders in Shakespeare’s great comedies in relation to Shylock, and refutes the charge of racism leveled against the playwright, pointing out among other things that there were hardly enough Jews in England in Shakespeare’s time for him to conceive a driving hatred of them. An exposition of Shylock’s intense hate of Antonio and all he stands for leads into a brilliant discussion of the problem of usury within the context of the play and the fundamental disorderedness of usury in general.
