Anger

Anger is a funny emotion. It can motivate someone to do or feel something completely alien, something completely out of the ordinary. It can create this reaction inside a person that is so opposite of what they have said their whole life, or in this case, book it makes the reader very confused. After Lucy hears her father has died, she feels many emotions, much of which she doesn't really know how to detail. But there is one line that sticks out to me that portrays anger. "My father died leaving my mother a pauper" I realize that Lucy did not have a close relationship with her parents, which is a subject for another blog post, but I didn't realize until this moment that if it came down to it, her feelings for her mother were so strong, whether they be good or bad, that her thoughts would almost immediately travel to her mother in this time of sadness. She is angry at her father for the condition he has left her mother in. She has attempted to express her distance and frustration with her mother the entire book, but when it comes to a time of crisis, she still identifies with her and is angry at the person leaving her mother in a vulnerable position. Even though this person is her own father! The contradictions in feelings I think is a frustration that Lucy struggles with, because she still refuses contact with her family, so who knows what she is actually feeling for her mother, but from this line, it is indicative towards empathy to her mother.

Sharing Faith

One of the things that I struggled to understand after reading "This Blessed House" was the reasoning as to why the previous owners left all of the Christian trinkets. Some of them, such as the towel or the snow globe, are small enough and of little enough value as to be understandable, and replaceable. But there are others, such as the sticker thing on the window, and especially the silver bust that I think would be dearly missed. That is why I came to the conclusion that the previous owners were attempting to witness to the new owners, whether they knew they were not Christians or not. If I were moving into a house that had all sorts of knick knacks that pointed to a certain religion, especially one that I was unfamiliar with, I would be curious enough to dig deeper and try and understand the artifacts and the meanings behind them. The previous owners could have thought this way too, and hoped that in searching for the meanings, the new owners would convert. In my religion class, we focused on conversion, and one of the main things we talked about was the stimulus that drove the people to seek out a religion. These artifacts would act as such a stimulus.

Enabling in "O"

The entire premise for the movie "O" is the deception that Hugo uses to destroy the lives of everyone around him. What he is doing is evil, and should not be tolerated. He should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and yet, we watch the movie, and feel almost as if he is not responsible for his actions. The directors did such a good job portraying him as the victim of neglect by his father that the view feels sorry for him. By feeling sorry for him, you are just giving in to what he wants, and falling for his lies in the same way that the other characters in the novel do. By giving him a reason to do what he does, it defeats the point of the lack of motives that Shakespeare portrays. The directors of the movie realized that a character acting in a mean or vindictive way for no reason would probably not go over well with viewers, so they gave him a reason, they enabled him. I think that Shakespeare purposely left the reason for Iago's action ambiguous to leave it up to the reader to infer their own opinions. Movies tend to take this ambiguity out and they leave nothing to the imagination of the viewer. I think that the way Shakespeare does it is much more satisfying, because you can truly infer that Iago is evil, and not give him a reason to do the horrible misleading that he does.

Casting

Casting in a movie is sometimes the thing that makes a movie successful, and as far as the movie O is concerned who is cast as the lead characters is the thing that makes the movie. The part of Hugo has to be played by a person who is believably twisted. It would be a very difficult role to play just because of all the different angles he has to the character. In the book Othello, the character of Iago has so many different sides, he has to convince everyone he is something he is not. Hugo does the same thing, he hides his true self from those surrounding him, and this means that Josh Hartnett has to almost create a different character every time he is interacting with a different person. I think that the producers and casting directors did a great job finding actors who fit the descriptions of the characters in Othello, and it is very easy to see how they could fit into a true production of the play Othello. Yes, the story may have changed a little, but the underlying motives of the characters have not, and the actors accurately portray these motives.

Halo effect

The paintings in the back of the book, and the ones in the front, each has a different interpretation on Desdemona and her personality. My favorite one is the one where it appears that Desdemona has a halo, and is lying on the bed as Othello kills her. This view of her as an innocent and docile girl. I tended to view her as a strong-willed woman, who by the necessity of the culture, lived a quieter life than she might have wanted. You see how passionate she is a couple of times through the book. When she stands up to her father and marries Othello, shows she has the backbone to follow her heart. Plus the fact that she insists on following her husband into a war zone, shows that she won't back down. The fact of the day, however, is that a woman must stand behind her husband as a docile creature, only there to be seen and not heard. Desdemona, being a well-bread Venetian lady, acknowledges this cultural identity of women, and lives in a manner that follows this. I think, though, that to depict her as an angel goes too far, and would be seen by Desdemona herself as an insult. I think that she would want to be seen as an strong woman, who knew her place in the world, but still attempted to make her mark on her husbands life.

Adultery

I found it ironic that the entire premise for Iago's deception is Desdemona's unfaithfulness, but in Act 4, Scene 3, she has a conversation where she admits to Emilia that not even for the whole world would she be unfaithful to Othello. She seems to truly believe in the sanctity of marriage, and she cannot see how anyone could be unfaithful to the love of their life. Iago, however, is doing his best to convince Othello that the very thing his wife despises is the act that proves she does not love him. His whole plans hinge on the assumption that Othello is gullible enough to believe his wife could do such a thing, and in reality, she claims not to be. She is perhaps the purest of them all, because she is the only one to refute the possibility of infidelity.

Manipulations

I think that Shakespeare would roll over in his grave for this comparison, but I am about to draw a connection between Iago and Lisa, from "Girl, Interrupted" The two are master manipulators, and while people don't realize their full intelligence, they are always planning and working the situation to their advantages. They are always two steps ahead, and the situation rarely plays out in ways they didn't anticipate. Obviously I haven't gotten to the end of Othello, so I have no idea how its going to end, but I know how its going right now, and for much of the movie, and the book, the way we are able to realize how they are manipulating the situation and how the characters are oblivious drives me CRAZY! I hate sitting on the sidelines, feeling helpless as the other characters play right into their hands. The entire situation with the hankercheif drives me nuts, I just want to reach in and shake Cassio and Desdemona and Othello and ask them how they can be so oblivious! The same goes for Susanna, the way she lets Lisa push her around, and plants ideas in her head, it seems like it should be obvious, but Lisa and Iago are so good at hiding their true identities it is impossible for their true nature to be revealed.