The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-12
THE DRAMA OF OTHELLO.
One of S~hakspeare's Masterpieces
CausticaIly Reviewed.
Its Weakness in Plot and Character-Iago
the Center About Which the
Play RevOlves.

Prof. II. W. Wiley Before Parlor club Of Lafayette.
In this play Roderigo is the first speaker.
Roderigo was a member of that great family
Of fools which has branches in all parts of
the world. He had been Tilted, and instead
of taking it like a man and congratulating
himself on his good fortune, he preferred to
grow desperate and devise some plan to get
even, or a little more, with his successful
rival. This weakness is seized upon by Iago
to make Roderigo his tool and his dupe.
About the only other use Roderigo is put
to is to be~nade the recipient of that most
wholesome and reiterated advice, Put
money in thy purse" Roderigo followed
this admonition, as 1t was intended he should,
by putting money into the purse of the adj
wiser.
The whole philosophy of life is found in
this %apothegm.
The man who fails to put money in his
purse" fails to perform the chief function of
life. Money makes life comfortable. Money
brings culture, refinement. Money gets
books, opportunities, friends, Money buys
honor, preferment, love. Money will not buy
immunity from death, but it will buy immu-
nifty from life, which is a thousand times more
desirable. To every one who believes that
this world was made to live in and that this
life is worth living, Shakespeare, Iago and 1
ego say "Put money in thy purse.'' 1 have
no desire to possess the enforced virtues of
poverty, nor to be raised to the highest pin
nacle of intellectual excellence by the mighty
lever of bread and water diet. Give me
rather wealth with some of the amiable vices
of mankind. If 1 can't be good and bright
without being poor, then let me be bad and
dull. If I cannot be stirred except by the
stimulus of starvation, then let me remain
an eternal sphinx, with cold eyes immovably
fixed on fate, and the message which l have
to deliver to mankind be unsaid forever.
Brabantio is a member of the city council.
He is introduced in the play because it
seemed necessary, in order to secure dra-
matte unity, as we'll as to avoid unpleasant
complications. that Desdemona should have
a father. Brabantio is aroused in the middle
of the night by the pleasing intelligence that
his daughter has run off to get married.
Brabantio, as becomes an injured father,
fumes and frets for awhile and then resigns
himself to the inevitable, In fact, when all
the parties are brought before the mayor
Miss Desdernona gives the old man the
dead shake"
Brabantio finally dies in time to join the
general necrosis of the last act, although his
body does not help to swell that colossal ir-
ruption of quivering corpses.
Emilia, the wife of Iago, is a woman of
shrewd sense and plain matter of fact. She
is not troubled with that high sense of honor
and that acuteness of conscience which make
life so uncomfortable to many, She looks upon
everything from a business point of view.
She would not deceive her husband for a
triae, but declares that she would not hest
tate were the stake a large one, like the whole
world, for instance. Hers is a character in
which we find much to condemn and little to
admire, save the genuine outburst of indig-
nation with which she discovers the sad fate
of Desdemona.
1t was, however, quite stupid of her to give
the lost handkerchief to her husband, for
she must have known him we'll enough to
know that he did not want it for any good
use. But let us give her the benefit of the
doubt. She certainly did not know the real
purpose of her husband, though she may
have suspected his intentions.
1t is hard to see the dramatic necessity for
the Introduction of Blanca into the play. She
is a woman of whom we say, 'She is no bet
ter than she ought to be-" and yet she is a
great deal better than many who are. Her
attachment to Cassie appears to be of a genu-
inc character, and utter basenesS cannot eX-
list where true love is found.
Desdemona, like many of the others of
Shakspeare's heroines, has nothing to do
but to fall in Low and suffer the conse-
quences. This she proceeds to do with a
truly dramatic power, which is always a lit
tie more intense than the article as found in
real life. We will allow that Desdemona was
beautiful. 1t woul be utterly useless to
raise such a racket about a Manufactured
woman Rnt har haautu nUct baua ham Of
a peculiar kind, since her two lovers were
Othello, the brute, and Roderigo, the simple
ton. The play gives us little description of
her appearance. Her father described
her as "a maiden never bold, of spirit so still
and quiet thather motion blush'd at herself"
This is, indeed, a too charming simplicity.
What would the old man have said had he
heard the knock-down hint which this mod
est maiden gave the Moor?
"she thanked me,
And bade me that If l had a friend that loved
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would WOO her"
For a maiden never bold" his Is pretty
plain talk. A much more stupid man than
the Moor had acted on such a hint.
But the poet tells us nothing of her eyes
and hair, of her skin and teeth. l think
Desdemona had black hair and blue eyes,
and white teeth with one or two gold filings.
Her complexion was certainly clear. She
was one metre and twer.ty-hundredths in
height, and weighed fifty-seven kilogrammes.
Further than this, | leave each member of
the club to fill out the details. / have only
furnished the skeleton for your im%aginations
10 clothe with such beauty and grace as the
exigencies of the case may demand.
Brabantio often invited Othello to dinner.
After dinner the Moor, by request, would
tell of his exploits on lane and sea. He
would recount the passion and tumult of
battle, the rage and fury of the sea. l half
suspect that in these stories Othello assigned
no mean place to himself. The dangers of
battle became his personal danger, and the
perils of the sea were those which he himself
had undergone. In such n case as this it is
not human nature to confine oneself to dry
facts. The pencil of fancy is to be called in
and shade.