Othello appeared at time in England 's history when had come to fore in country's homeland security politics, legal debates, and popular culture.1 At pivotal moment in play's famous seduction scene, Othello twice says that Iago tortures him: hast set me on rack! (3.3.335); If thou dost slander her and me, / Never pray (3.3.368- 69). This essay scrutinizes these declarations by assessing them not only on basis of what happens in play, but also through Shakespeare's adaptations of his sources and through lens of play's historical moment. Notably, in Giraldi Cinthio's Un Capitano Moro, source of Othello's plot, Venetians physically Moor: Signoria . . . with many tortures . . . sought to draw him truth about why he murdered his wife, a lady of their city (388). In this version of story, no confession could be drawn from (388) Moor, who is exiled, and then killed, by lady's family. Shakespeare transforms source insofar as play stages an assault on mind rather than body; Iago pledges to practi[ce] upon [Othello's] peace and quiet / Even to madness (2.1.310-11), and general bids Farewell tranquil mind! (3.3.348).2 Whereas Cinthio portrays man who withstands physical torture, Othello shows man broken by insidious psychological methods that he himself describes as torture. A second source, Lewes Lewkenor's 1599 translation of Gasparo Contarini's The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, provides play's mise en scene and certain verbal echoes, but Shakespeare drew on this text more than has generally been recognized. In its preface, Lewkenor extols moderation . . . wherewith [the Venetians] governe such subjected provinces as are under their dominion, binding them thereby in faster bonde of (Contarini A2r). Othello stages an exercise of nonviolent domination insofar as Iago appears as an unweaponed Venetian (A3r), one who commands obedience without using violence.3 His use of such methods may in fact identify him as typical Venetian, perhaps even super-subtle one (1.3.356).Although Othello does not contain an episode of physical such as one found in Cinthio or Shakespeare's own King Lear (the blinding of Gloucester), absence of such violence is itself notable. This essay argues that Othello examines effectiveness of different kind of coercion, described here as psychological assault that enables torturer, Iago, to break his victim without using physical force. The play's signature accomplishment lies in its portrayal of Iago's ability to refashion Othello's mind and, by extension, general 's sense of himself as person. In an early modern culture of pervasive, public, and brutal forms of corporal punishment, such as branding, drawing and quartering, or burning at stake, usually remained invisible, hidden away in secret chambers. Othello, by contrast, vividly stages power of these coercive mechanisms to convert their victims, who then choose suffering, exclusion, and death. This essay examines Iago's transformation of Othello in light of such methods and in relation to legal and political associations that allusion to practice itself might have produced for early modern audiences. Othello's references to the rack and to may well have called to mind, at time of play's appearance in midst of England's century of torture (Langbein 71), complex range of meanings associated with practice at this historical moment. In short, Othello seems to draw on two crucial aspects of this cultural phenomenon: in way text suggests that Iago's coercive methodology amounts to form of psychological torture, and in way it situates his exercise of this power in extralegal context of military outpost at Cyprus.Writing in nineteenth century, David Jardine described torture's application under Elizabeth as manifestation of sovereign prerogative, monarch's ability to exercise an absolute power, which does not mean turning massive state apparatus to do her bidding at any time, but rather, occasionally operating outside (or against) law. …
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Jun 30, 2024
Suci Musvita Ayu + 7
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