s-t-r-e-s-s = i-n-s-a-n-i-t-y

My other blog about the end of the year discussed the Herculean effort necessary to survive the rest of the year, but I believe it is fitting to now discuss how to even survive this week. Between prom being on Friday (and having planned it since last year), SATs approaching (again), finals and final projects, and everything else going on in life, it is almost impossible to remain breathing. At first I was reticent about this week, because I knew most people wouldn’t care if I had 40 problems for math homework, a 16-page packet for history, or thousands of papers to write. After writing one of my essays about spiders, I was transfixed to my computer, and realized how much I had to do in literally no time. It is tacitly stated that junior year is a killer, but it is impossible to understand that statement until you are truly living it. My predilection for ABC television on Thursday nights at 9:00 for Grey’s Anatomy has turned into Thursday nights starting at a notebook of cryptic and soporific formulas. I feel as if I have been beaten down so low that I don’t know how much resilience I even have left.

The pressure I have felt this year, although it may not seem like very much to a common person, is relatable to Iago’s character in Othello. Although Iago is not worrying about school, college applications, and finishing junior year alive, he is still forced to worry about his position as Othello’s “assistant,” and if there is any silver lining to his dim future. He feels bereft in his position to the august general; he is simply used to make Othello look and feel good. When Iago was a neophyte to Othello, he thought he would work with the general for a year or so, and then be promoted to captain (the position that Cassio holds). However, through all of the time that Iago has helped Othello, Othello is still blasé about his “second-hand.” The built up anger and stress that Iago has to deal with leads him to suborn Roderigo into a plot to go against Othello. The man whom Othello believed would always stand by him quickly turns into his nemesis Iago plans a way to split up Desdemona and Othello, and create Othello’s downfall out of his own pique for the man. The idea of simply killing Othello is hackneyed; Iago plans another route. He sets up many encounters between Desdemona and Cassio, the panache general, to make it seem as if they are having an affair. Iago then brilliantly talks to Othello about it, and by giving Othello bits of information each time, allows Othello to create the situation for himself, and then blow it completely out of proportion. Basically, stress drives people mad, (not technically in the case of school, although it does push students into panic-mode), and forces them to transgress past sanity and into danger.

desdemona

When I picture Desdemona, I think of a mixture of Rapunzel with her hair hanging down from the top of a forbidden tower, and Romeo and Juliet. I should probably eschew from using one work of Shakespeare to describe another, but it is necessary in this case. Her whirlwind romance with Othello lacked éclat; she basically fell in love with him because of his power as general of the Venetian army and because he was the opposite of the man her father wanted her to marry. Instead of paying homage to her father and marrying a man that he believed to be respectable, she married a man that her father did not revere at all. Even Roderigo believed that Desdemona was throwing away her duty to her father by marrying Othello, and that he is more of an animal than a person. This comment began her father’s splenetic outburst; a vendetta of which we are never informed of the ending. Brabantio went storming from door to door in search of his daughter, and picked up weapons and other people along the way just so he could publicly exculpate his own daughter!

end of the year!

It is amazing to think that in just a few weeks, junior year will be over, and I will be a senior. Even more bizarre is the fact that my sister will be a freshman next year. With all of this year’s college visits, my mom has become lugubrious about the fact that I will be leaving for college in a little over a year. Of course she is delighted about all that I have achieved this past year, but she does not know how to survive those years when I am away at school, and my sister is going through the bad teenage years. I advised her she could pay homage to my name by buying another dog, and naming it after me. This way, she could “speak” to me and hear my name around the house, even when I am not there. However, this could be a problem, since my sister, my dog, and I all have names with homogenous sounds. Even now, she mixes up our names: Kimberly, Carly, and Coko.

Although it seems like the year has begun to wind down, it is really just the beginning of the hectic weeks ahead. The idea of resting after school and relaxing on the weekends is an ostensible thought. My days have turned into waking up, coming into school early, working all day, coming home, working all night, going to bed late, and starting the cycle over again the next morning. This routine debilitates me, considering I am the person who would go to bed at 8:00 every night if it were possible. The only thing that keeps me running every day is the count on my iCal. Counting down the days until my birthday, prom, and my license (which coincidentally all occur the same weekend). The issue with counting down to these days is that prom always creates problems. Whether someone feels ostracized from the table, there is a dispute for where to take pictures, or the talk about dates, this time is always filled with the malevolent and enjoyable incidences.

iago and othello's relationship

I knew that Othello was going to be the character that made readers irritated right from the beginning. On the first page of the play, it states how he claimed he wasn’t using nepotism when he chose Michael Cassio for Lieutenant, instead of Iago. In today’s world, Othello would be compared to that kid who uses all of his friends when he needs them to spy and find out secret information, but really has no desire to help

them in return. This is exactly how Othello treats Iago. Othello thinks that Iago enjoys being his personal assistant, but really, working for Othello for so many years has caused him to feel enervated. It bothers me that Othello’s expedient strategy is to keep Iago as his assistant because it works for him. However, I am still not sure if he knows that Iago actually hates working for him. I think Iago has a scintilla of hope for his future, which is why he remains by Othello’s side. However, that must be some Lilliputian hope, because that future of his does not look very bright.