Expanding Eyes: A Visionary Education

Numerical symbolism in the play: the number 23 and the theme of time. Leontes arrests Hermione despite his entire court telling him he is mistaken, throws her in prison. The psychology of a conspiracy theorist: “All’s true that is mistrusted.”

Shakespeare’s late career, in the new theatre of Blackfriars, with a new genre, romance. A new version of an age-old genre, the tale of wonders. The theme of redemption over a long span of time. The mad jealousy of Leontes, who for no reason thinks his wife is unfaithful with his best friend Polixenes.

The last event of the play is Othello killing himself as a judgment upon himself. The imagery of a Last Judgment in the play. The difficult paradox in Christianity: punishment or forgiveness, justice or mercy. Desdemona refuses to judge Othello: how do we judge him. Is his final speech an honest judgment of himself?

At the end of Act 4, Emilia and Desdemona debate men. Emilia’s wonderful pre-feminist speech about how women’s feelings are as important as men’s—including revenge when men mistreat them. Versus Desdemona—is she too good to be true? Act 5, like Act 1, in darkness. Roderigo and Cassio wound each other, Iago kills Roderigo. Othello’s great speech before smothering Desdemona.

Thanks to my listeners on this 250th episode. Iago, through ugly sexual insinuations, drives Othello into such a frenzy that he loses control and then faints. Cassio makes cruel fun of Bianca the prostitutes love for him, and Othello from a distance thinks he is talking about a good time with Desdemona. Othello strikes Desdemona in front of Lodovico of Venice.

After Iago tells Othello that Cassio has Desdemona’s handkerchief, the two swear a demonic vow of revenge. Othello tells Desdemona a lie, that the handkerchief is black magic. Emilia says that people are not jealous for a cause. A third woman in the play, Bianca the prostitute.

Within a single scene in the center of the play, Iago turns Othello from loving husband to jealous maniac. The question of faith, in love and religion. Othello demands “ocular proof.” What Iago gives him is “ocular”—images of infidelity planted in his imagination.

The opening of Act 2 seems like the happy ending of a comedy, the enemy destroyed and Othello and Desdemona reunited. Iago’s soliloquy: Coleridge’s famous description of Iago’s “motiveless malignity.” Cassio, made drunk by Iago, disgraces himself at the celebration and is demoted.

At the end of Act 1, Iago counsels Roderigo, “Put money in thy purse.” What motivates Iago? His puzzling soliloquy. Act 2, the Turkish fleet has been scuttled by a storm, and the characters land one at a time on Cyprus. While waiting Iago engages Desdemona in a game of wit and she defends herself spiritedly. This is no passive, victimized Ophelia.

Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, accuses Othello, who recounts how Desdemona fell in love with him listening to his stories of his life. The danger in love of believing stories, of having “faith”—but also the danger of disbelieving. Othello sent to Cyprus to defend against the Turks.

The significance of the full title: the definition of “Moor,” the associations of Venice. Othello as a “domestic” tragedy: an inadequate designation. The play opens in darkness. Desdemona’s father Brabantio is awakened when Roderigo and Iago shout vicious racist and sexist accusations out of the dark.

The murder of MacDuff’s family. MacDuff persuades Malcolm to return from England with English forces. Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, washing her hands. Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth goes down fighting. Can Macbeth be called heroic, or is he merely a “dead butcher”? We admire ambitious men who trample all obstacles in their path, including other people, don’t we? A play for our time.

Macbeth sees Banquo’s Ghost sitting in his chair at the banquet. This drives him back to the witches, who show him three Apparitions that give him three riddling oracles that, once again, he interprets according to what he wants to hear.

Immediately after the horrific murder of Duncan, the startlingly incongruous monologue of the porter too drunk to open the gate. The psychological closeness of terror and laughter. Macbeth hires three murderers, who kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes.

Lady Macbeth goads her husband, telling him to be a man. The theme of being an “instrument.” Duncan and company are put up for the night in Macbeth’s Dunsinane. Murder in the middle of the night.

The witches and their prophecies to both Macbeth and Banquo. Thematic patterns: things occur in 3’s; the word “equivocal.” Duncan declares his son Malcolm heir to the throne, and Macbeth decides upon murder.

Macbeth (1606) is a play about real Scottish history, but is also a drama of the mind, clearly written with James I in mind, who was both Scottish and obsessed with witches. The opening scenes alternate between political and military doings and the dark Otherworld of the blasted heath, with the three witches.

Albion redeemed from his fall into illusion and nihilistic despair by the work of Los. The renunciation of the natural self and “natural religion” for the true Christianity of the imagination. Against illusion, the arts and sciences. Against vengeance and love of war, the forgiveness of sins.

Blake’s culminating epic, on the work of Los, the imagination, to redeem the fall of Albion, the universal divine-human figure. Chapter 1 of 4: the great debate of Los with the Spectre of Urthona, the selfish and despairing part of all of us. The struggle of Los to keep faith in a time of despair like our own has great dramatic power, as it is a struggle within every person.

Milton, inspired by the Bard’s Song, returns and enters Blake, who is thereby united to Los, the imagination, resulting in a vision of nature redeemed by imagination. Then Milton confronts his Selfhood and renounces it, reconciling with his Emanation Ololon, a kind of renewed marriage witnessed by the married couple William and Catherine Blake in their garden.