Blog post #10

"MONTANO: What from the cape can you discern at sea?
THE FIRST GENTLEMAN: Nothing at all. It is a high-wrought flood. I cannot 'twixt the heaven and the main descry a sail." (pg. 59)

While I was reading this play, I read the original version and filled in the holes of what I didn't understand with the translation. As I did for most of the book, I read the original and barely absorbed anything, but the first lines of Act II caught my eye. Montano and The First Gentleman are talking about how it is impossible to tell what is going on out at see because the storm is clouding everything. Not only is this a comment on what is literally happening out at see at the time, but this same judgement that nothing can be truly discerned through the turmoil of a storm applies to what is going on with the plot. Iago is deceiving everyone around him except for the audience, who are the only ones who know what is actually going on and what Iago's real intentions are. In a way, Iago is like John Thorpe in that they both fashion stories, or storms, to raise themselves up and ultimately play people to the extent of getting what they want, in this case revenge on Othello and Cassio. Iago creates his own storm and makes it impossible for any of the characters to know what the truth actually is, no matter how sure they are of what they think the truth is. The first part of this act is directly foreshadowing the deception and manipulation that is to come later on. Not only is this instance of foreshadowing interesting in and of itself, but I think this applies to one of the main themes I've chosen to explore throughout this course: misinformation and its consequences. In some way, everything we have read so far has had some sort of relation to misinformation. Othello is no exception because misinformation gives rise to literally the entire plot. Without Iago's deception, none of the conflicts would have happened. This follows the idea I explored in my midterm project that everyone can be and is subject to propaganda and misinformation, even when we are so sure we know the truth. Much like almost all of Germany under Hitler and the Nazis during WWII were so sure they knew the objective truth, Othello started as a skeptic about what Iago was suggesting but later with a little push became completely ensnared by the trap and turned to unbelievable barbarism. What makes this passage very interesting to me is that this was written 300 years prior to all the propaganda and misinformation that plagued the world. Shakespeare had no way of knowing that any of the events that transpired in the 20th century would happen. The entire play shows that misinformation has been alive and well, sneaking past our radars, arguably for all of human history. I could go on for another 20 pages about this, but this post is already too long so I will stop for now.