my maid of honor speech for my sisters wedding!
13 years ago
Friday, February 27, 2009
Killing Me Softly...
React to Desdemona's death. As discussed in class, Desdemona is smothered then somehow revived before dying again. Surprisingly more interesting then her bizarre death is her lines prior to her death where she reveals to Emilia that she (Des) is at fault for her own death -- not Othello, her "lord". Is this an admission of true guilt? Or is she such a Christian that she is merely forgiving Othello, her love, for his murderous actions?
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I found this part to be not only frustrating but silly as well. I was actually laughing along with the whole class. Her husband is killing her... she has the chance to tell someone what had happened... that is the last chance she will have... and she says its my fault leave me to die! What the heck? Well this just proves how committed to Othello she is. She is willing to die for something she would never think of doing and not tell anyone when she has the chance. Why does she do this? She is soooo committed to Othello. I think about it and in that situation I would yell out the truth to Emilia. But, in reality it would do no good. She is dying no matter what why not let her husband live. She truely loves Othello with all of her heart, so much that she will die for him and to perserve his good name (or whatever is left of it). It is a lesson in love.
From Desdemona's death, I found Shakespearean deaths to be quite funny and silly. Desdemona dies not once but twice, and before she dies the second time she is blaming her death on herself. This I found to be typical of comedical movies, where the people think that the person is dead, but they really aren't, they come back say something funny and then die for real. I think that Shakspeare's deaths could be in a way mocking death itself, because of the way that he makes his characters die twice. Desdemona's revelation before her second death that this was all her fault, I thought was her being a good Christian that is just forgiving Othello. The way that I saw this all was that she was trying to ease up Othello's conscience and is only trying to protect him from any bad mouthing. It's as if she is trying to tell Emilia, this is all my fault, not Othello's and don't let anyone think otherwise. Honestly, I found this whole death scene to be just plain bizarre.
I thought this part was ridiculous in a sense because it is just not logical and plain old silly. While Othello is killing her she ahd a chance to run, but all she does is keep begging for more time and for the Lord to have mercy on her. She doesn't even beg to let herself live and to just hear her out,I mean yes she does tell Othello that she never did cheat on him with Cassio, but just saying that isn't going to help. Plus she is so into being such and innocent person that she can't even lie and say she did it just to save her life! I mean come on! I actually like Desdemona but she was dumb in this scene. Othello finally has heard enough begging and decides to smother her, which means that if she truly was sufficated then she officially died. There could have been no possible way of her coming back, but the fact that she did meant that she was able to breathe again and should've stayed alive because once you bounce and are able to breathe there is no way you just die like that. Then to top it all off, when she has the chance to tell Emilia the truth that Othello killed her because of what he thought was true, she says that it was her own fault! Desdemona says that Othello has nothing to do with it! This only proves that Desdemona truly did love Othello with all of her heart and that their love was real, even though it was doubted at times.
Desdemona’s death is soooo unrealistic to the point where it is ridiculous. However, it is a Shakespearean play, so anything can basically go :) Regarding when Desdemona reveals to Emilia that she is at fault for her own death, I don’t think she is admitting guilt. Desdemona probably knows that Othello will be killed or have some serious consequences after she dies. Maybe she is just trying to protect him from that. She still loves him so much that she is willing to give up her Christian values to keep her husband safe. She could also be forgiving Othello for what he did to her and his murderous actions, but I don’t think that all of that was really Othello’s fault. Othello was almost pressured into killing Desdemona by Iago, especially after Iago had already supposedly killed Cassio.
This was completely absurd, this whole dying and reviving and dying thing. But her claim that she is at fault for her death is not an admission of any guilt since she quite obviously didn't do anything wrong. I'd say she is actually at fault becuase she did have the opportunity t run away and didn't take it. And even before that, who would be stupid enough to get in bed with someone who was raging with anger and obviously a bit insane? So in that sense, she was an idiot and kind of responsible since if she were even a little bit smarter, she would have taken the chance when she had it. However, I highly doubt this is what she meant. She most likely is so innocent and kind and Christian that she actually would forgive Othello for murdering her for no reason whatsoever other than rediculous unjustified jealousy. It is sad that she loves Othello so much as to take responsibility for something she didn't do just to protect his reputation, and yet he didn't see that becuase he is an idiot who gets paranoid without doing something so simple as asking Desdemona or Cassio for the truth himself, and instead relying on Iago. Being a general, he should know that you really need to do things yourself if you want them done right. So Othello is an idiot and yet Desdemona chooses to forgive him, even in death.
The perfect little Christian angel forgives her husband at the end because she just knows God will reveal the truth and he will be heartbroken so she wants him to know it is okay. It's kind of ironic that she wouldn't lie to save her life but now that she is dead and still speaking, she lies in a Christian way to improve life for her husband I guess you could say. I still think she's an idiot, and a dumb blonde, and should have at least tried to fight for her life. It's also ironic that the perfect Christian blame it on herself. Personally, I think it is her fault because she was too quiet and trying to be the innocent little wife that she never tried to tear him away from Iago and talk to him. She tried to talk to Iago which is stupid because you never bring friends into your own relationship problems. Her death is just another example of what an idiotic little perfect Barbie she is. She doesn't even want her husband attacked because it's "her job" to improve his wife, as previously discussed, but she doesn't even want people to blame her husband. I guess the girl just turned her cheek so that when Othello slapped her the first time (a serious warning that means hey, let's talk and figure out what's going wrong in this marriage), she let him just smother her to death in her own bed. Basically, I say she's an idiot.
Desdemona's actions before her death are clearly the result of her very christian mentality. She is not admitting guilt, but is actually kind of being the "bigger person" by not fighting Othello. She is basically showing that her love is deeper than Othello's, because she is willing to forgive him for anything, even for her own death. I think Shakespeare included her "second death" in order to show her character more clearly. In movies, directors or writers will often include some kind of testimonial from a dead character, such as a letter, worldly possession, or even some kind of vision, that shows that person's "true colors" more than could be possible through the actions and thoughts of other characters. It is also useful in a work like this, in which there is no narrator or other omniscient figure that lets us know what characters are really feeling. The only way we can see this is through words and actions, and the occasional soliliquy.
She is too much of a Christian. I don't know if she's necessarily forgiving Othello, but she's just not willing to let Othello have the title of a murderer. This is again one of the things that I found annoying and frustrating. She had the chance to tell people about Othello's wrongdoing, but she didn't do it. I don't know about anyone else, but if somebody stabbed me and someone else comes in, I would tell that person who my murderer is. I'd already be dead, so what's the harm with telling someone who killed me? Desdemona is such a moron....she's so much of a goody-two-shoes, and a drama queen. If she did it out of love, she's too much in love with Othello. Maybe idiots attract idiots (to put it "mildly"), but I would not love anyone anymore if he stabbed me. I knew you could die in love for someone you love, but I didn't know you could die (possibly still in love) because someone you loved killed you.
Desdemona was a victim of too much commitment to Othello and Christianity that resulted in a sad, sad death. It was absolutely painful because of the absurdity...
Desdemona is funny here. She dies, and then doesn’t die, and then dies again. Hehe. So unrealistic, and as was said in class, quite comedic. Shakespeare had a reason to have her die and then come back to life so Emilia could find out of her lady’s murder, so I understand why it was necessary. But I can’t deny I was smirking the entire time I was reading this scene. When she says that she is at fault for her own death, she’s not admitting to having slept with Cassio or anything, because her true Christian self would never do such a thing; even though I loathe the girl, I don’t think she’s false. She is forgiving Othello, because she doesn’t want him to get into trouble afterwards; as she cares so much about him, she wants him to have a good life. She dies here a martyr, which only makes Othello feel even worse, and the reader have even more pity for her. If anything, she may be admitting that it was she that got herself into this mess because she didn’t bother to foster a true relationship, realize that Othello had a darker side to him, or work with him to fix their issues along the way; she could have prevented her death if she only tried to communicate with him more. (>:D)
Obviously Desdemona did not cheat on Othello. If she had it would have been revealed in the book and the audience would have known a little beforehand. Plus it is clear that Desdemona is very religious and she was horrified when Emilia said she would cheat on her husband for the world. Therefore I think that it is safe to assume she did not cheat on Othello and her dying words symbolized her forgiveness to Othello. She still loved him when she died and therefore she forgave him knowing that when he discovered the truth he would be distraught.
Desdemona’s death is hilarious, I thought this was supposed to be a tragedy not a comedy; I can just imagine a young guy overacting on stage, lol. But anyways, Desdemona’s death was pathetic. She had an opportunity to tell everyone that Othello had been the one to kill her, but she didn’t rat him out. Desdemona seemed to want Othello to know that it was ok that he killed her; she also seemed to go against the basic instinct of fight or flight. She just sat there and asked the lord to have mercy on her soul and didn’t even show any signs of resilience toward dieing. She is such a diehard (literally) Catholic that she would forgive Othello for killing her. Who in their right mind would willingly die just because they wanted everything to be right? But the funniest thing is that in all reality Othello didn’t kill her, suffocating is suffocating, she wouldn’t wake up or she’d be fine, she really just, died, that is really weird.
Although this scene is quite humorous, these last few lines before her death are very christian like. When Jesus died on the cross, one of the last things he did was forgive the people, for they do not know better. Forgiving is perhaps one of the hardest things to do, and it is very christian like for Desdemona to forgive him. Let's be clear that she is not guilty, shes just being the perfect angel that she is, which was Shakes aim all along. The fact that she is this christian like only amplifies Othello's stupid decesion of killing her.
Gosh Desdemona, grow a backbone! I hate how she can just be stepped all over like it's no big deal! HELLO! YOU'RE HUSBAND JUST ATTEMPTED TO KILL YOU!! Really Desdemona? Really, is that how it is? She obviously did no wrong and she knows it, yet she totally lets Othello win. And yet, imagine the guilt he will have for the REST of his (short) life. In a way it's totally brilliant! I'm sure Desdemona only did this because she is a good Christian and is forgiving him, but had it been any other woman who REALLY wanted to mess with her crazy husband, she'd say the same thing.
It makes me think, maybe Desdemona is a little tainted. I don't know if someone so perfect actually exists and she really did have many opportunities to talk to Othello and clear things up. It's possible she could have been upset with Othello for thinking she'd cheat, or maybe she heard the rumor about Emilia and him, and she decided to watch him fall. NEW THEORY- Desdemona was completely aware of what was going on and out of pure spite, she tortured Othello. :) it's a little far-fetched, but hey, a girl can use her imagination...
OH MY GOD! This scene was so aggrivating. What the heck was going through Shakespeare's head when he wrote this ?! Same thing in Romeo and Juliet, I just wanted to scream out the truth to them before they both died because they didn't know the whole story of what was going on. I deffinately don't think that this was an admission of guilt. Desdemona has nothing to be sorry for. The only bad thing that can be traced back to Des is Iago. Man if i could just talk to that guy; he'd never hear the end of my Shakespearean insult sheet. Anyyyways, I think that Desdemona really is a committed Christian who's strength is in her faith, while she lacks some strength in her words. But her faith definately says alot more about her character than words might. I think she forgives Othello because she knows deep in her heart that the reason he hates her so much is because he has heard some twisted version of something that never even happened. And she doesn't want to blame him for what he never knew. Although it is partially her fault that he still believed what Iagao told him (because she never full out stood up for herself) she forgives him for acting on the false information that he had received. I agree with what Carl said about her resembling Jesus on the cross forgiving the people who were not able to see the truth in his words and actions. When Desdemona was given those few last minutes to live, she used them in such a wise, religious way that was characteristic of Jesus. She was given those last few mintues for a reason. She knew that she was already dying and she had no intention of wasting that time on ratting out Othello when it wouldn't do her, or him, any good. By stating that she was at fault for her own death, Desdemona was able to forgive Othello for his actions, and she was truly able to put an end to all the nonsense that caused the downfall of her marraige, and of course, her life. She knew in her heart that she was innocent, and for her, that was all the support that she needed. What a saint!
Oh my God you guys CALM THYSELVES. Poor little Desdemona, being hated upon by a bunch of AP kids. =[
I'm gonna stand up for her. Desdemona doesn't aggravate me in the least. Sure, she's a bit dramatic at times, but she really does what she thinks is right. She's a genuinely sincere person, and I think that her attempted saving of Othello completely highlights the selfless aspects of her character. She could have easily told the truth, but she didn't. That's true love man. Saving the one you love even after he's just strangled you is quite a moral feat. I wouldn't be able to do it, and sorry if I offended any of you, but I don't think most people in either periods would have done the same. Desdemona can't condemn a man she's loved whole-heartedly; if she were any better of a person, she would be flawless. Isn't that what people always strive for? Improving themselves and becoming better people? Take a hint from Desdemona, all you haters. BE NICE PEOPLE. :D
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