Act One of Othello shows the whole world in disorder, and it all begins with a single decision. Desdemona, the beautiful daughter of Brabantio, falls in love with the black Moor Othello. They elope and marry. They do not seek the permission of the father, knowing that he will not allow it. This is the first critical mistake. This decision disrupts a household. This disruption spills onto the streets with near bloodshed, to the senate where the Duke is in need of the services of the mercenary Othello, and thus refuses to admit much less help solve the problem, and the disorder moves to the outside world. The second critical mistake of Othello and Desdemona is their denial of their physical bond to one another and thus deny the fact that they have now become one flesh. This is the very heart of this tragedy. This is a story of fragmentation, of not being whole, and the destruction it causes on individuals and the world. While the love of Othello and Desdemona is pure, it is flawed because of their decisions. Brabantio warns Othello that if his daughter can deceive her own father, she can certainly deceive her husband.
This superb lecture by Dr. White opens with a discussion of the definition and nature of tragedy and what precisely separates it from comedy. The fact is emphasized that the destruction taking place in tragedy must not be meaningless, but must serve a purpose. Dr. White discusses King Lear’s tragic flaw, the prominent theme of fallen man, and the unusual format Shakespeare chose, giving the play five acts of falling action instead of having the climax near the end of the play, as is customary. Also covered is the double plot of King Lear, the play’s presentation of the destruction of language by overuse and twisting of meanings, and the parallel between the situation in King Lear and the situation in the Church today: in both conditions, those who are disobedient (Kent and Cordelia in the play) are the ones who are truly caring and trying to preserve what is good.
This is a question and answer session, with a wide range of topics. Shakespeare had an eighth grade education, equivalent to a Harvard doctoral degree of today. Shakespeare was raised in a good Catholic family with good Catholic ancestry who heroically professed their Faith. He possessed a vivid imagination that was fed the best that theater could offer in the form of the Corpus Christi plays that he witnessed as a child. By the end of his career he was able to recover the lost prominence of the family name by purchasing a title of Gentleman. Shakespeare is credited as being the most creative writer in the English language, perhaps in all of literature. It is said that between him and Dante, they share the world. Dante was a religious writer and Shakespeare was a secular writer. They both wrote about the same things but from different perspectives. Dante was firmly rooted in the medieval world while Shakespeare had one foot in the medieval world and one foot in the modern. This is the central conflict in all of his work. But Shakespeare is far more creative, having created thousands of characters. It is said that after God, Shakespeare created most.
Dr. White continues his discussion of Cordelia and Kent’s loyalty as the cause of their disobedience and shows that, since they love the king, they must sacrifice, for love and sacrifice are one. He then discusses the setting of King Lear in pre-Christian Britain, showing that it was purposely done to circumvent trouble with the government – but that nevertheless it is filled with beautifully Christian iconography, presented subtly but meaningfully. Dr. White speaks of the expectations that audiences would have had for the play, and how it would have shocked them by its tragic ending. Finally, he reaches the scene where Lear enters with Cordelia dead in his arms, covering the symbolism of Lear’s line of inverted iambic pentameter and the way in which the scene is a kind of vision of the Pieta, but with father and daughter in place of mother and Son.
Dr. White explains the connection between language and personality, and shows Shakespeare’s mastery of this in the realness of his characters. He examines the significance of Shakespeare’s position between the medieval and modern worlds, and the dislike of his largely medieval worldview by modernists, who try to undermine his work by removing it from classrooms and ruining the language by translations. Edmund’s soliloquy in Act I is analyzed, showing his practically modernistic point of view in his twisting of the truth, lack of logic, and appallingly egocentric viewpoint. Next, Dr. White examines the characters’ various uses of the word “nature,” which is constantly redefined throughout the play. He looks at Edmund’s lack of personality and traces it to his bland, over-comfortable
Dr. White uses Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book The Gulag Archipelago to illustrate his points on King Lear, particularly in Lear’s speech calling to “allow not nature more than nature needs,” where he discusses how very little one technically needs in order to survive. The whole celebrated sequence where Lear is out in the storm is carefully examined. Lear’s fast-changing moods are noted as he goes from towering rage and futile commands to the sky to self-pity to cries for patience to bear his sufferings. Dr. White then speaks of the significance of Edgar’s progression of disguises, Edmund’s piteous desire for love, and finally, how Lear and the other sufferers in the play were actually blessed by their suffering.
