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One philosophy from which Shakespeare's Othello can be interpreted is Freudian. This philosophy is based upon the work of Sigmund Freud, a prominent, yet controversial psychoanalyst of the early 0th century. His philosophy is based on his division of the mind and personality.
Freud separated mental experience into three categories the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The conscious mind is that in which we see and interpret the world. The preconscious mind is all the memories and desires which we aren't currently conscious of, but that we can quickly recall if we want to. The unconscious mind consits of desires and impulses of which we are not aware. Freud believed that the main motivations behind all human behaviours are drives from our unconscious brain.
The Freudian philosophy segregates personality into the ego, the id and the superego. The id is the biological side of the personality, driving the organism to survive to eat, drink, keep warm etc. The ego is basically the organism's reason. It allows it to solve problems, so that it can satisfy the desires of the id. The organism's superego is the organism's memories, divided into the conscience and the ego ideal. The conscience records the cautions and penalties the organism has received, while the ego ideal remembers the organism's positive experiences and rewards.
Sometimes, however, the ego is overwhelmed by the demands placed on it by reality, biology (the id) and society (the superego). When this happens, according to Freud, the ego blocks or distorts painful thoughts and desires, so they cease to harm the ego. There are many different defense systems used by the ego. The main one is repression. Repression is when certain traumatic events cannot be recalled by the conscious mind, but feelings of anxiety are brought up when faced with similar traumas.
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The Freudian philosophy can be applied to the play, Othello.
During actscene 1, Iago insinuates Desdemona's unfaithfulness, and Othello takes the bait. From the Freudian view, Iago manipulates Othello as a result of never having resolved his Oedipal crisis. Othello demonstrates the projection of desires and emotions onto others, in order to defend his ego from the aspects of himself that he would rather not acknowledge.
Throughout this scene, Iago revels in destroying Othello's marriage. He continually degrades Desdemona for infidelity and insults women in general, commenting on their immorality "their best conscience/Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown." This shows Iago's general contempt for women. Also throughout this scene, Iago obsessively refers to his love for Othello "My lord, you know I love you," "what is spoke comes from my love." He even fantisises about Cassio "I lay with Cassio lately," going on to describe what appears to be a homosexual fantasy about him "…then laid his leg over my thigh and sighed and kissed…" Iago's hatred for women, love for Othello and mind capacity for erotic homosexual fantasy all suggest that Iago is in fact a homosexual. This homosexuality, in the Freudian view, could drive his will destroy Desdemona and ruin her and Othello's marriage. Iago's primary motive is his jealousy of Desdemona's success with Othello, as Iago himself is in love with the General. According to Freud, this homosexual orientation would result from a failure to resolve the Oedipal complex in childhood. As a child, Iago lusted after his mother, rivaling his father for her attention.Rather than displacing his desire from his mother to other females, he displaced this desire onto males. This occurred because of his inability to identify with the aggressor (his father). This may have occurred for a number of reasons, but the result is ahomosexual orientation that lasts throughout adulthood.
Othello here is quick to pick up on the insinuations Iago makes about Desdemona. In this scene, Othello is the one who reaches conclusions about her and CassioIago never actually accuses them of an affair. This shows that Othello's mind is predisposed to jealousy, as he goes from absolute faith in his wife to an absolute conviction of her guilt in just 7 lines. In line 185 he says, "Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw/The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt." By line 64 he's saying, "She's gone I am abused." According to Freud, seeing desires in other people generally results from an inability to accept such desires within oneself. The likely cause of the rapid fruition of Othello's jealousy is therefore a denial of his own desires. Othello probably lusts after someone else, but, seeing the immorality in his desire, failed to accept that it ever crossed his mind. To defend his ego he projected these desires onto his wife, becoming very suspicious of her interactions with others. Othello then convinces himself of his wife's infidelity by displacing a hatred of himself onto Desdemona. He broods about his race, poor language and age, saying "…I am black/And have not those soft parts of conversation/That chamberers have…I am declined/Into the vale of years…" This demonstrates self-loathing. When he goes on to say "my relief/Must be to loathe her," he means (consciously or unconsciously) that his ego must defend itself by transferring this hatred onto Desdemona. Othello is therefore making his personal unease less threatening by hating Desdemona instead of himself.
In act 5 scene , Othello murders his wife as justice for her infidelity, only to find out that she was innocent, wherein he murders himself. By the Freudian philosophy, in killing her, Othello projects his death instinct out towards Desdemona, and exercises his will for regression when killing himself.
Before Desdemona's murder, Othello speaks of the peace and beauty of death. He speaks of Desdemona's skin as being "smooth as monumental alabaster." Referring to Desdemona as though she were a stone monument suggests his desire to make her still and everlasting, with no more needs or desires. Stone statues are unchanging objects, that remain for centuries without requiring food or desiring other men. In Freud's view, murdering others is an outward projection of an unconscious desire to die. So Othello himself wanted to die, but in projecting his self-hatred to Desdemona, also projected his death instinct.
After murdering Desdemona, Othello shows remorse and devastation, "O Desdemon! Dead Desdemon! Dead! O! O!" Being faced with the stress of unjustly murdering the one he loves, Othello executes justice upon himself. By the Freudian philosophy, when one is faced with stress, they can find relief in regressing to a previous psychological time. By committing suicide, Othello is regressing to a previous psychological timethe time before he was born. The stress of the murder therefore lead him to retreat to the time before birth, where he felt safe and secure. This regression is also a manifestation of the death instinct. In killing himself, Othello projected his death instinct towards himself.
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