My Masterpiece - 3/6/2007 in 2005 - 2007: High School

This is a rough draft that I was required to write for my English class. It will be peer edited but (oh god hopefully) not turned in. I think if you read the whole thing, it will be worth it.

In Shakespeareís <U>Othello,</U> the role of women in society is a central theme.  Throughout the play, male and female characters alike make it clear that women must meet very specific standards in order to be accepted.  However, these standards are often unreasonable, and they often contradict one another.  For example, a woman must be pure and chaste, yet loving.  She also must be loyal to her husband, her father, and her superiors all at once.  Ultimately, both Desdemona and Emilia fail to meet one expectation while striving to achieve another, resulting in their deaths.  Through the fate of playís female characters, Shakespeare is criticizing the contradictory and unfair nature of Elizabethan gender roles.

One of the most important expectations of women in Shakespeareís time was that of purity.  This, of course, is the central source of conflict in the play: Othello believes Desdemona to be unfaithful, and that this justifies even her murder.  However, women cannot be completely chaste: They are expected to be loving towards their husbands.  They are also expected to be warm and well mannered.  This is why Desdemona treats Cassio the way she does.  ìAssure thee,î she says to Cassio, ìWhen I vow a friendship, I will perform it to the last articleî (III. iii. 35-36).  This citation is made up.  I had the line memorized and didnít feel like looking up where it was.  Because Desdemona treats Cassio with kindness, the way she is expected to, Othello kills her for being unfaithful.  I have other examples to support this point.  Iíll talk about them when it matters.  Oh, hereís one quote I have that I can sort of talk about now: So in act five, Othello tells Desdemona to confess her sins, and Desdemona says, ìThey are loves I bear to you,î and Othello says, ìAy, and for that thou diest.î  I still have to figure out exactly how that relates to this point.  Maybe you can do that for me, oh peer editor, since I am otherwise making your job very, very easy.

Another contradiction in the expectations of women pertains to loyalty.  Desdemona, for example, owes loyalty both to her father and her husband.  ìI do perceive here a devided duty,î she says to Brabantio.  ìTo you I owe my life and education [...] but here is my husbandî (I.iii. 209-214).  This time, I got the citation right but made the quote up.  I couldnít be bothered to copy it down exactly.  Emilia owes loyalty to both her mistress and her husband.  She comes face to face with this issue when she comes upon the handkerchief.  She knows that without the handkerchief, Desdemona will be upset.  However, in the end, she gets it for Iago, saying, ìI nothing but to please his fantasyî (III. iii. 343).  That one was correct.  Still feeling that she owes some loyalty to Desdemona, she says to Iago, ìIf it be not for some purpose of import, give it back, because sheíll go crazy without it and that would be sadî (III. iii. 445).  That was very clearly completely made up.  However, she ends up letting him have it even though he refuses to tell her what it is for.  She even lies to Desdemona to protect Iago: When Desdemona says, ìWhere should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia?î Emilia says, ìI know not, madameî (III. iv. 4-5).  Itís amazing, really, how much of this play I have sort of memorized.  Because of the handkerchief incident, Emiliaís loyalty to her husband results in the death of Desdemona, however, at the end of the play, when Emilia finds out the truth, she changes her mind about being loyal to her husband and decides to be loyal to her mistress.  This is a drop quote: ìTis proper I obey him, but not nowî (V. ii. 232-234).  This results in her death.  So no matter who Emilia is loyal to, sheís wrong.

This is where I will talk about the speech thing.  I havenít quite figured out the speech thing.  It is something like, ìwomen should speak, but also they should not speak.î  Iím pretty sure it is significant because I have a bunch of quotes that relate to it.  I donít think thatís really what it is though.  Like, Iím pretty sure people would have been okay back then if women just didnít speak at all.  Maybe I should not just write about contradictions.  Maybe this is not a contradiction.  Maybe it is just unfair.  What do you think, peer editor?

This is where I think I will talk about idealism versus pragmatism.  That is important.  Desdemona is an idealist and she dies, and Emilia is a pragmatist and she dies.  Iím not sure if I will talk about it here just because it might fit into one of the other paragraphs.

I totally intended on writing a good essay for this essay.  I was like, ìI am going to be a good student because I care about things like this because they are interesting and I like learning!î  But right now it is pretty late and I am having an existential crisis and I am thinking that I really donít give a shit about school or anything and that when I tell myself that I like learning I am just conforming to my own societyís expectations (speaking of expectations) because I subconsciously know that if I donít I will be shunned and end up in a van down by the river.  So anyway, this is all that you get, peer editor.  Man, I hope you have a sense of humor.

The worst school project I've ever been assigned in my life was assigned my eighth grade year.  It was to put together a collection of all the work we'd done in all of our classes that year, and write a "reflection" on each one.  I don't think it was ever fully explained to me what a "reflection" was.  If you have not noticed, middle school English teachers are paid to be vague.  Anyway, the project was a big deal, and we spent a lot of time on it in school.  Everyone I knew complained about it, because it was for most of us the first time we came absolutely face to face with bullshit and recognized it for what it was.  I remember a few of us pretty much snapped.  We couldn't deal with it.  There were several different reactions.  One of my friends came out of a reflection session with an intricate maze drawn in pen down his left arm.  He had worked on it for an hour and a half.  Another one of my friends wrote a bunch of successive reflections and printed them out.  They went like this:

ìDoing this project has taught me several things.  Oh no, wait, I lied.  It didnít teach me anything.  It was a complete waste of my time.î

ìDoing this project has taught me several things.  First of all, I learned a lot about the Quakers.  Second of all, I learned how to better manage my time.  Third of all, I learned that school sucks and WHY AM I DOING THIS PROJECT, WHY?î

ìDoing this project has taught me several things.  First of all, I learned a lot about the Quakers.  Second of all, I learned how to better manage my time.  Third of all, I learned a lot about working in groups.  I think that this was a valuable project mostly for this reason, because I wasnít very good at working in groups before.  This is my paragraph about working in groups.î  You know, she got a little bit farther every time before she freaked out, out loud, onto her word processing document.

Personally, I just told the truth.  I said exactly what I thought about each assignment I had to reflect on.  I tried to bullshit for a while, but eventually I just decided not to, and it worked.  I got an A.  Also, my project was hilarious.  This is to this day the method I use for writing health essays.

This project makes me think of that project, a little bit.  Except I canít really use my method in this case, because the actual essay is not bullshit.  The actual essay is legit and I can see where it is possible to write a very meaningful one.  But this whole process is stupid.  When I write an essay, I write an essay, and I really do not want to be told exactly how to go about writing it piece by piece like this.   I honestly donít mean any disrespect to anybody.  Or rather, I wish I didnít have to disrespect anybody.  But really, at this point in my life, I cannot be bothered with things like this.  I have filled up these four pages (wow, has it really been four pages?) with stream-of-consciousness gobbledygook because I do not want to fail this class because I do not want to get kicked out of Graham because I do not want to end up in a van down by the river.  But you know what?  Sometimes I think the Ivy league can go fuck itself, because they are only going to make me write more essays and I am probably going to grow up to be a cat lady working at a bagel store anyway.

That is all.  Thank you for reading.