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.