Having already read Othello for previous classes it never seems to disappoint, but the reason is because I can’t but stop and like Iago as a character in this play. The way he’s so sneaky about what he does and so good at it is what makes all the little turns makes the play so intriguing. Iago seems to have such a clever way of creating this illusion for people, while he says one thing he makes it come off as something entirely different. Just like how he made Othello believe that Cassio was talking about Desdemona, but he wasn’t at all instead he was talking about Bianca’s sexual advances on him.
Iago has been able to plant his poisonous seed so deep into Othello’s mind that he can control Othello into doing whatever he pleases. Othello goes so far as to hit Desdemona when Lodovico comes to deliver a message for him. That’s where you know Iago has corrupted Othello so much, because Lodovico is so shocked that the man he once knew would do something like that. He says “My lord, this would not be believed in Venice” (Line 270 Act IV Scene 1). Meaning that Othello would have never done something to that extent that even people back home wouldn’t believe that would happen. Iago is my favorite character in this play by far. His whole agenda and quest for vengeance is thought-provoking at the least.
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The Great Hymn to the Aten
It’s kind of shocking how much our view on a God or someone/something that is responsible for everything that is occurring has changed over the years. In “The Great Hymn to the Aten” the focus is on the sun god. The story is about how the sun god is the all powerful being, and how the world wouldn’t run correctly without his rule. Reading this during that time period would have seemed logical just because of the lack of information, but knowing what the sun is and what its role is in the universe you start to look back at readings like this and wonder what they would have assumed this ball of light in the sky was actually doing. Where did it come from? What was its purpose? What stuck out to me is that the Egyptians seemed to have this belief that Aten the sun god was the sole creator of everything. That without him nothing would happen, almost as if life would end or stop in time. ” Every lion comes from its den, All the serpents bite.” (20-21) Aten by the views of the Egyptians is the sole reason that life goes on, that creatures and man are able to do their work. “You set every man in his place, You supply their needs; Everyone has his food, His life time is counted.” (72-75) The Hymn shows that Aten is a creator, he is life and death. He created man, gave him what he needs to survive and live but at the same time he knows when they will die. They view him as the one to start it all, created earth and all its inhabitants. The Hymn shows a little peak into what life was like, Egyptians looked at the sun almost like a start button. When the sun was up life started but when it set life took a pause. “All labor ceases when you rest in the west.” (117) I wonder what the Egyptians would say if they knew what the sun was actually all about? and at the same time I want to know what they thought of the moon? How did the moon fall into this worship of the sun? Maybe the moon was a god too.