20110519 Through racism, love and jealousy in ‘Othello’

Critical Review of Othello

Through racism, love and jealousy in ‘Othello’

Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy that is written by William Shakespeare in 1604. Shakespeare tended to use existing stories from history and books for the basis of his play. Othello was based on a story in Cinthio’s ‘Hecatommithi’ in 1565, ‘Un Capitano Moro’.

Othello, the Moorish general in Venice married Desdemona, a daughter of a Venetian senator, Brabantio in spite of her father’s opposition. However, Iago, Othello’s ensign bears a grudge against Othello because Othello appoints Cassio to his lieutenant. Therefore, Iago let Casso lose his position as a lieutenant and let him approach Desdemona for his reinstatement as a lieutenant. He also devises wicked designs to let Othello misunderstand the infidelity of Desdemona. Finally Othello strangles his wife because of his suspicion and jealousy. Fortunately Iago’s evil scheme is discovered but it becomes too late to put his lover back so Othello commits suicide.

In this tragedy there are various themes; racism, love and jealousy.

First, there is racism in this work. Othello is the Moor not the white. Desdemona’s father opposites the marriage between his daughter and Othello because of his race. If he is not the Moor, it cannot be a tragedy. The tragedy happens because of Iago’s intrigue and hostility against Othello. At that time, the Moor is treated as an inferior race but Iago is neglected by the Moorish general, Othello so Iago becomes much madder at Othello. Furthermore, it is possible that Othello also has inferiority as the Moor. He cannot sure that his wife, Desdemona really loves him or not so he becomes to lose his reason because of his distrust and jealousy. The race of Othello results his inferiority and lack of pride leading his murder.

Second, this tragedy is based on Othello’s love and jealousy. The central figure of the tragedy Othello, the scheme of Iago is using Othello’s love with Desdemona. For Iago their love is only leverage for achieving his ambition When Othello’s love turns out jealousy, he becomes to destroy his love and himself by himself. Othello’s jealousy grows that Desdemona betrays him with Cassio resulting him killing his wife Desdemona. Actually, the relationship between Desdemona and Cassio is treated as an adulterous love by Othello’s misinterpretation. When Othello realize his fault, he wants to get his love back through killing himself. If Othello loves Desdemona believe the innocence of her love, this can be a happy ending punishing Iago’s scheme without destroying a lover.

In conclusion, Shakespeare uses several human basic emotions; racism, love and jealousy to make this play as tragedy.

20110512 Good Interview and Bad Interview

Good Interview and Bad Interview

Through the movie, ‘All the President’s Men’

The movie, ‘All the President’s Men’ is a story of the two reporter in the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who discovered a Nixon’s Watergate scandal. This movie describes a course how they investigated the truth and report it. This movie shows us what the role of Journalism in society is. In addition we can see that what the good interview skill is or the bad interview skill is through the two reporter’s interview ways.

For good interview, Journalist should mention his or her identity and the purpose of the interview before beginning of the interview. In this movie, Bob Woodward always mentioned his name and his position as the Washington Post journalist. Moreover, good journalist is full of curiosity so he or she keeps ask question to find out the source and proof of the new. When the thief case in the democratic office happened, Bob Woodward went to the court to investigate this event. At that time he interviewed a lawyer with a curiosity of this case. Although a man did not want to answer, he kept asking questions and then he became to doubt on this case that in this case the former CIA member was also involved. As shown in this scene, Bob Woodward has an ability to gather the sources from interviewing people with detail.

There are also some bad interviews in this movie. When journalist interview, they should make an interview in the quiet place discovering the coverage. However, when Carl Bernstein interviewed a woman, he interviewed her in the open place that is noisy with the sound of driving cars without telling the coverage. Carl Bernstein is very impromptu, passionate and emotional person. Therefore when he interviewed people, it is hard to gather the sources logically. When he interviewed a woman who was a former secretary and knew a lot of hidden truth of the Democratic Party during the election period, he had an interview for 6 hours in her houses. Although she was afraid of answering his questions, he did a speculative interview. It is not a good interview skill. Interview time was too long and he forced to keep this interview going. Also when journalist make interview, they should confirm the interviewee correctly. Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein had a woman Evert. During the interview, they found some weird answers and asked her name again and they found out that they did interview to wrong person. They were supposed to interview Judith Evert, but actually they interviewed Carol Evert. For a good interview, journalist should confirm the source is right or not.

Although two journalists in the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had a totally different style and character as a journalist, they mixed different abilities and made a harmony as a good journalist called Woodstein. They became the pioneer of the investigating report in the journalism.

20110504 The Power of Beauty

      

             I think that the power of beauty is immense to all people, both men and women because it is natural that most people are interested in a good looking person. In my opinion, there are two reasons for immense power of beauty: first impression and confidence.

             Beauty is highly influenced on people’s first impression. For example, when I was an intern at Human Resource (HR) Team, my boss said me that when a company hire new employer, having good first impression is also very important for company’s image and knowing personality. At this point, good first impression doesn’t mean that people should be beautiful like actors and actress. Real beauty is not made by plastic surgery or make-up but revealed by people’s mind. When we meet people at first, there are some people whom we feel more comfortable and prefer to. We judge people by external beauty at first but external beauty is highly related with internal beauty. Therefore beauty is very essential for people’s good first impression.

             Normally, when someone is beautiful, he or she has a high confidence on herself or himself. It is natural that all people want to be shown with good-looking. In my case, when I don’t have a time to wash my hair, I usually wear my cap to hide my face and hair. However, when I had a make-up and beautiful clothing, I feel more confident on myself because I want to be shown more beautiful to others if possible. Beauty gives a pride to people on themselves. It makes them be more active and energetic in everything. In addition, this is helpful for making a good relationship with others. With self-confidence by beauty, people can love and care themselves with pride.

             In conclusion, beauty is important not only for women but also for men. According to the Collins English dictionary, a word, beauty means that “the beauties of something are its attractive qualities or features.” Being attractive to others is very natural as a human, so most people want to be more beautiful for their first impression. Moreover, beauty makes a person be more confident on everything. We cannot live without considering our beauty, but we should keep in mind that external beauty reflects internal beauty.