A stage where every man must play a part: William Shakespeare's Othello
It is not so easy to explain the tragedy Othello by William Shakespeare.
Perhaps, if I would ask you what Othello is about, you would probably answer quite easily that it is a play about jealousy. This is absolutely correct, but if we read the play carefully, we become aware of the fact that there are more issues to it, and many questions that come to our minds.
First of all, where does this jealousy come from? Why does Othello so suddenly change his mind about his beloved wife? Why does Iago act like he does? Who is Iago, in the first place? If the play is only about jealousy, why choosing a black character?
All these questions can be expressed by one single question that includes them all: what is Othello REALLY about?
1. The plot of the play
I think that we should begin from the easiest thing, that is the origin of the play. Othello was probably written around 1602: we know for sure that it was performed by the King’s Men in 1604. Shakespeare took his inspiration from a novella by the not-so-famous Italian author Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio, novella which is contained in Cinthio’s Hecatommithi . Shakespeare changed something from the original source, but the core of the plot remains more or less the same. So, let us see what happens in the five acts which compose Shakespeare’s Othello.
Othello, a Moor and a valiant general of the Republic of Venice, secretly marries Desdemona, the young daughter of a senator. In the meanwhile Iago, Othello’s Ancient, starts plotting against the Moor because he thinks to have suffered a wrong: he expected to be elected as Othello’s lieutenant, but Othello chose another soldier, Michael Cassio, instead of him. He goes to Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, to warn him that his daughter has eloped with the Moor. The case is brought in front of the Duke of Venice, where Brabantio accuses Othello of having bewitched his daughter, since he doesn’t think it to be possible that Desdemona chose a black man. Othello explains that Desdemona fell in love with him after listening to the adventurous tales of his life. Since the same thing is confirmed by Desdemona, the Duke finds no guilt in Othello, so Brabantio must accept their marriage. News arrive that the Turkish fleet is heading towards Cyprus, and Othello is sent to the island to protect it from any attack. Desdemona decides to go with him. In Cyprus, Iago begins his plotting: he decides to lead Othello into believing that Desdemona is betraying him with Michael Cassio. Othello falls into Iago’s trap, also because he thinks Iago to be a very honest man, and starts doubting about Desdemona’s loyalty. However, he asks Iago for some proofs; Iago, helped by his unaware wife Emilia, appropriates of Desdemona’s handkerchief, which was the first gift that Othello gave to her, and leaves it in Cassio’s room. Then he explains to Othello that he has seen the handkerchief in the hands of Cassio. Othello immediately asks Desdemona where the handkerchief is and, when she is not able to show it to him, he goes mad with rage. The play has a tragic ending: Othello, who is completely disfigured with jealousy, kills Desdemona. After her death he discovers that she was innocent: he can’t bear the burden of what he has done, so he commits suicide. Iago remains alive, but he is imprisoned.
2. Building a play through language
Of course, Othello can’t be fully understood by looking at the plot alone.
What matters most is the way in which this plot is developed, and which are the words that Shakespeare uses to build up the tragedy.
Language plays a major role in Othello (as in every play by Shakespeare) and only analyzing it can we fully perceive which is the greatness and uniqueness of Shakespeare’s work.
2a. OTHELLO’S TALE
The first instance of the importance of language is the way in which Othello wins Desdemona’s heart. It is crucial to notice that Desdemona falls in love not with Othello, but with the tale that Othello tells of his adventures.
Brabantio accuses Othello of having bewitched his daughter, but Othello answers that the only magic that he has used was that of his tale:
othello: […] what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic –
For such proceedings I am charged withal –
I won his daughter [1.3. 91-94]
othello: […] My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs […]
She thanked me.
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. […]
This only is the witchcraft I have used [1.3. 157-168]
Desdemona, when it is her turn to speak, confirms that she fell in love not with Othello’s physical appearance, but with what she could see through his tale:
desdemona: I saw Othello’s visage in his mind [ 1.3. 249]
So, from the very first act, the witchcraft of language becomes a manifest feature in the play, feature that will be exploited by Iago in the next acts, in order to weave his web around Othello.
2b. "WORK ON,MY MEDICINE, WORK!": IAGO’S POISONOUS WORDS
We have been wondering where does Othello’s jealousy come from.
At the beginning of the play Othello seems to be very much in love with Desdemona, he seems to be sure of her faithfulness. His raging jealousy comes as the result of Iago’s words. Iago uses language in order to put Othello in the doubt of not knowing whether his wife betrays him or not.
The first thing that Iago does is stirring Othello’s curiosity, by alluding at something and then dropping it, as if he were reluctant to tell Othello the truth. He keeps on saying that he doesn’t speak in order to protect Othello, but the result that he obtains is exactly the opposite: the more Iago doesn’t want to tell, the more Othello wants to know his thoughts:
othello: If thou dost love me,
Show me thy thought. [3.3. 114-115 ]
othello: By heaven, I’ll know thy thoughts. [3.3. 161]
The strategy that Iago uses in order to stir Othello’s curiosity is indeed amazing. He keeps on repeating what Othello has just said, and the effect that he produces on Othello’s mind is that of doubting of everything. Iago puts every word into question, as if its meaning were not clear at all. Words seem to hide a new and disquieting meaning:
othello: What dost thou say, Iago?
iago: Did Michael Cassio
When you wooed my lady, know of your love?
othello: He did, from first to last. Why dost thou ask?
iago: But for a satisfaction of my thought –
No further harm
othello: Why of thy thought?
iago: I did not think he had been acquainted with her
othello: O yes, and went between us very oft.
iago: Indeed!
othello: Indeed? Ay, indeed. Discern’st thou aught in that?
Is he not honest?
iago: Honest, my lord?
othello: Honest? Ay, honest.
iago: My lord, for aught I know.
othello: What dost thou think?
iago: Think, my lord?
othello: Think, my lord! By heaven, he echoes me
As if there were some monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shown. [3.3. 91-110]
Here Othello openly mentions the fact that there might be something horrible hidden within Iago’s words. The most striking thing, though, is the fact that the horror is not, or not only, within Iago: it is mostly within Othello himself. In fact, what Iago does is stirring and eliciting a feeling that is already present (but hidden) in Othello’s mind.
Iago’s ability is that of seeing the worst within people and bringing that worst to the surface.
For example, Othello seems to be sure of Desdemona’s love:
othello: Not from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt,
For she had eyes and chose me. [3.3. 185-187]
However, he is also well aware of the fact that Desdemona loved him only because of his tale, to the point that she were ready to fall in love with anyone who could tell the same tale:
othello: […] if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. [1.3. 163-165]
In addition to that, there is also the fact that, earlier in the play, in act I, Desdemona’s father had warned Othello about the woman’s future behaviour:
brabantio: Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see
She has deceived her father, and may thee. [1.3. 289-290]
It is therefore most likely that Othello already had some suspicion and Iago, just to be sure, reminds him of the very same episode:
iago: She did deceive her father, marrying you,
And when she seemed to shake, and fear your looks,
She loved them most. [3.3. 205-207]
At this point Othello asks Iago for an ocular proof: he says that he needs to be sure before being jealous, but what we know is that he already is jealous. In his mind, the doubt has begun to work, and the ocular proof would only serve to confirm what he already knows, but at the same time doesn’t want to accept.
Indeed, what is displayed in Othello is not the fact that Desdemona does or does not betray her husband, but the doubt that devours the Moor, who is at once sure and not sure that his wife is a whore:
othello: By the world,
I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not.
I’ll have some proof. [3.3. 379-382]
2c. LOSING LINGUISTIC IDENTITY: OTHELLO BECOMES IAGO
From the point of view of language, another striking aspect of this play is the change in Othello’s style of speech. At the beginning of the play Othello, the self-confident Venetian general, speaks in a way that reflects his own vision of himself: his style is pompous, embellished. Even when he says that, as a soldier, his language is rude, he explains it in a manner that belies what he is actually saying:
othello: Rude am I in my speech
And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years’pith
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field;
And little of this great world can I speak
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my course
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole course of love. [1.3. 81-91]
What follows this introduction is the tale of how Othello won Desdemona’s heart: a tale which is anything but round and unvarnished.
Such is Othello’s style before Iago starts poisoning him with suspicion. After Iago’s intervention, Othello’s world turns upside down, and so does his speech, which becomes broken and fragmentary. It can also be noticed that Othello’s language starts to resemble the language of Iago, as if the Ancient were projecting on Othello’s mind not only his rotten fantasies, but also his manner of speaking.
If we look at Iago’s language, we notice that his style is far more concrete and less embellished than that of the Moor; furthermore, the rhythm of the speech is faster:
iago: Call up her father,
Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense his kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such chances of vexation on’t,
As it may lose some colour. [1.1. 68-74]
Now, if we consider Othello’s language after act III, scene 3 (the scene which is usually called the Temptation Scene, where Iago insinuates doubt in Othello’s mind), we immediately perceive that there has been an impressive change. Othello is no longer a valiant general with a courtier’s manner of speaking, but has turned in a cluster of jealousy, rage, even madness, and it is his language that makes us understand that he is no longer what he used to be. Let us take a look at the part in which Othello asks Desdemona about the handkerchief:
desdemona: Why do you speak so startingly and rash?
othello: Is’t lost? Is’t gone? Speak: is’t out o’th’way?
desdemona: Heaven bless us!
othello: Say you?
desdemona: It is not lost.
But what an if it were?
othello: How!
desdemona: I say it is not lost.
othello: Fetch’t: let me see’t.
desdemona: Why, so I can sir; but I will not now.
This is a trick to put me from my suit.
Pray you let Cassio be received again
othello: Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives.
desdemona: Come, come:
You’ll never meet a more sufficient man
othello: The handkerchief!
desdemona: I pray, talk me of Cassio.
othello: The handkerchief!
desdemona: A man that all his time
Hath founded fortunes on thy love;
Shared dangers with you –
othello: The handkerchief!
desdemona: I’faith you are to blame.
othello: Zounds! [3.4. 79-94]
This is probably the most striking example of the fragmentation of Othello’s style: the rhythm is disrupted, the language does not any longer have the musicality that it had before.
3. "For 'tis most easy th'inclining Desdemona to subdue": Iago's plots
Iago often addresses the audience in aside monologues, explaining the reasons for his behaviour. It is clear that Iago’s actions are driven by his feelings, mainly the idea of having suffered a wrong, as well as envy towards Othello and Cassio. The latter is envied because he took the place that Iago claimed for himself, while Othello is thought, in Iago’s distorted fantasy, to have slept with the Ancient’s wife, Emilia.
Iago’s desire for vengeance is expressed quite clearly from the very beginning of the play:
iago: For ‘Certes’, says he,
‘I have already chose my officer’ –
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michal Cassio, a Florentine –
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife –
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster […]
Mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th’election [1.1. 16-27]
iago: I hate the Moor,
And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets
He’done my office. I know not if ‘t be true
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. [1.3. 380- 384]
It is to be noticed that it is not Othello alone that falls into Iago’s trap: the Ancient uses also other characters in order to build his vengeance against the Moor.
But how is it that Othello, Desdemona and the others are so easily submitted by Iago’s will? Iago explains this too: he says that they are malleable, ductile and therefore perfect to be shaped into whatever Iago wants them to be. They all are like pawns or wax puppets in his hands. This idea of malleability is clearly expressed by the adjectives that Iago uses to describe them:
iago: The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th’nose
As asses are. [1.3. 393-396]
iago: For ‘tis most easy
Th’inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit. She’s framed as fruitful
As the free elements. [2.3. 329-332]
Here, the adjectives free, open and, most of all, inclining, suggest that both Othello and Desdemona have not a clear-cut identity, they are ready to become everything Iago wants. This peculiarity makes us reflect upon the fact that Othello is indeed a play about theatre itself, with Iago as the playwright and Othello and Desdemona (but also the other characters) as the actors, whose parts are “written” and defined by Iago as the plot proceeds. This is suggested a number of times throughout the play and becomes extremely clear in the following passage. Iago is spying on Desdemona and Cassio while they talk and he is already envisaging what could he do with what he sees. They are talking in an innocent way, but Iago thinks about how to transform the scene into something that he could use to “write” his play:
iago (aside): He takes her by the palm. Ay, well said,
whisper. With as little a web as this will I ensnare as
great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do. I will
gyve thee in thine own courtship. You say true, ‘tis so
indeed. If such tricks as these strip you out of your
lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your
three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt
to play the sir in. Very good: well kissed, an excellent
courtesy! ‘Tis so indeed. Yet again your fingers to your
lips? Would they were clyster-pipes for your sake! [2.1. 164-173]
Iago’s plot is not already in his mind from the beginning: he builds it up as the story proceeds. He exploits whatever any situation might offer, according to what seems to be the best choice at any moment.
This attitude is , as I have already said, similar to that of a playwright, even if we shouldn’t think about a playwright according to what we know nowadays about writing.
In Shakespeare’s time, a period known as Early Modern England, writing plays was a quite different process from what it is nowadays. The playwright wrote for a company of actors, or sometimes he was even one of them, and while he delineated every part, he already had in mind which actor would have performed each part. This is similar to what Iago does: he observes his “actors” and decides what to do with them.
Furthermore, the play was something not at all fixed, it could be changed according to external reasons, for example the response of the audience to it. Therefore, the play was something always in progress, something in becoming, just as Iago’s plots are.
4. "Haply, for I am black": Othello's otherness
The colour of Othello’s skin is important for the play, even if we should always keep in mind that in Early Modern England there was no such concept as race (as we conceive it today). It is undeniable, though, that in the play Othello is actually perceived as different by the other characters. Othello is associated with far-away countries, with barbarians and cannibals. Roderigo, talking about Othello, defines him :
roderigo: […] an extravagant and wheeling stranger
Of here and everywhere. [1.1. 137-138]
Here, the adjectives extravagant and wheeling qualify somebody who does strange things, who is vagrant, who doesn’t belong to any place. In this perspective, Othello is extraordinary, but in the negative sense of the term, meaning out of the ordinary.
Othello is also described through a series of adjectives that suggest that he is beastly, almost devilish:
iago: […] an old black ram […] [1.1. 89]
roderigo: […] a lascivious Moor […] [1.1. 127]
brabantio: O thou foul thief! Where hast thou stowed my daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her
[…] the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou [1.2.62-71]
But Othello is not just that. He is also a general at the service of Venice:
duke: Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman [1.3. 48-49]
Here it is clear that Othello is not considered to be, by the Republic of Venice, like the Turks he fight against. Othello, showing his allegiance to Venice (and turning into a Christian) has built for himself an identity which is different from that of a Barbarian. He feels at home in Venice, he is proud to serve the Republic.
Then, something happens: Iago comes into play and instills doubt in Othello’s mind. Othello starts considering himself in a different light. : because of Iago’s words, he starts thinking that perhaps Brabantio was not completely wrong in saying that he was an evil thing and that Desdemona made an unfortunate choice when she chose him:
othello: Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have; or for I am declined
Into the vale of years – yet that’s not much –
She’s gone. [3.3. 260-264]
He starts doubting about Desdemona by doubting about himself: if Desdemona has chosen him, and he is a devilish beast, it is most likely that she is corrupted, too.
Iago, of course, does everything he can in order to elicit this thought in Othello’s mind:
iago: Ay, there’s the point: as, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposed matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends,
Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural. [3.3. 226-231]
By means of Iago’s words, the image of the black devil that Othello had tried to erase through his service to Venice comes to the surface again. What Othello discovers, is that his blackness comes from within, it is not only a matter of complexion, but it is the black colour of sin and guilt. It is in fact to be noticed that in the Bible the colour black is associated with evil: blackness becomes the symbol of damnation. About this, we should keep in mind that in Shakespeare’s England, Protestantism was becoming widespread, and along with Protestantism came the idea of damnation, of the Fall of Adam and Eve after the original sin. I will talk more about this issue in the following part.
In the end, Othello’s identity as the valiant general is completely disrupted: Othello is no longer there, what remains is just the evil that Iago has unveiled:
desdemona: My lord is not my lord [3.4. 120]
iago: He is much changed [4.1. 271]
othello: That’s he that was Othello: here I am [5.2. 281]
In one of the most famous speeches of the play, Othello voices the feeling that, after having discovered what living in doubt means, he will never be the same again:
othello: O now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troops and the big wars
That make ambition virtue – O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner and all quality,
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war! […]
Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone. [3.3. 344-354]
What Othello is waving goodbye, here, is his previous identity as the proud general of Venice.
In the end of the play, Othello’s transformation is complete: what he kills by stabbing himself is the exact opposite as the man that he was at the beginning of the play. He identifies himself with a barbarian and, while he recalls an episode in which he killed a Turkish enemy, he also kills himself, making us understand that there is no longer any difference between him and that enemy:
othello: […] in Aleppo once
Where a malignant and turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus (he stabs himself) [5.2. 348-352]
In these lines, it is the Othello that was who kills the Othello as he is now, as if he were looking for some form of restoration of himself.
5. "Beware, my Lord, of jealousy!": The monstrosity of knowledge
Let us go back for a moment to the Temptation scene, to the part where Iago keeps on repeating Othello’s words, as if he were questioning their meaning. The echoing of the words leads Othello to think that there might be something terrible which lies underneath them, something that Iago’s allusions leave half-hidden and that will never totally be disclosed:
othello: By heaven, he echoes me
As if there were some monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shown [3.3.108-110]
I think that it is important to dwell for a moment on the word monster. Is there a reason why Shakespeare used exactly this word? Of course there is!
The word monster suggests a cluster of different meanings: in Latin, monstrum denotes something exotic, unknown, alien to our world. The word also comes from the verb monere (to warn). Monstrum is something terrifying and beautiful, but the root monere also tells that monstrum is something we are warned not to get in touch with.
A monster is therefore something that we shouldn’t look at, but at the same time something that stirs our curiosity to the point that we can’t help but wanting to see more and more.
This is precisely what Othello wants: he wants to discover what is hidden within Iago’s words, but what is hidden is something too hideous too be shown.
This diseased desire is a reference to the Bible, in which the primal sin committed by Adam and Eve is that of having tasted the forbidden fruit of knowledge. This want for knowledge is a trespass of God’s command, and it leads to the Fall of Adam and Eve. It is important to say that, in Early Modern England, the theme of the primal sin was very frequent (re-readings of the Genesis were widespread), so it is most likely that Shakespeare’s audience would have caught the reference without much effort.
This huge hunger for knowledge is related to the notion of jealousy, as it is expressed by both Iago and Emilia in two different parts of the play:
iago: O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on. [3.3. 164-166]
emilia: But jealous souls will not be answered so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster
Begot upon itself, born on itself. [3.4. 155-158]
Both of them point to the fact that jealousy is some kind of monster. However, in Iago’s lines, the theme of the unappeased hunger is more evident. Jealousy, like knowledge, is an insatiable beast: no matter how much food it is fed with, it will always be hungry. No matter what ocular proofs Othello gets, his hunger for truth will never be appeased.
This leads also to the idea of damnation: since the primal sin and the Fall of Adam and Eve, the doom of mankind is to be damned, as the punishment of God for breaking his laws. Othello, throughout the play, becomes aware of the notion of sin and of the fact that because of it, he is damned: in the end he becomes the black devil, the doomed sinner who can’t be redeemed. He perceives his fate as unchangeable (an issue that was crucial in the Protestant ideology of Early Modern England) and, since he is the black devil, ha can’t do anything but kill Desdemona and then kill himself:
othello: Ay, let her rot and perish, and be damned
Tonight, for she shall not live! [4.1. 180-181]
othello: Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men [5.2. 6]
6. "It is the cause, it is the cause": Othello and Desdemona's double nature
Othello’s damnation is never to be sure whether Desdemona betrays him or not. I have already explained that Othello has a double identity: that of the valiant Venetian general and that of the cursed black devil. Similarly, also Desdemona, in Othello’s vision, retains this double identity: she is at the same time the chaste and loving wife and the whore that betrays her husband. We can say that, since Othello perceives himself as the proud general, his wife can’t be anything but pure and chaste; but when Othello’s identity falls, it falls along with the idea that Othello had of his wife. His idealized love becomes defaced.
before the “fall” After the “fall”
white chaste desdemona black desdemona the whore
and vs. and
othello the general othello the black devil
But Othello’s curse go beyond that. He can’t simply recognize his wife as a whore: the image of fair and chaste Desdemona is still there to be looked at, but it is tainted by the other image, that of the whore. It is as if Othello were looking back at Eden with longing and it is precisely this condition that he can’t accept. He must end it at once ant the only way that he has is that of killing Desdemona. He kills her because she is two things at once and he can’t be sure of neither of the two. This duplicity is quite evident in the following speech:
othello: It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul:
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster:
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light. [5.2. 1-7]
Here Othello states what he is about to do: he is about to kill the double nature of Desdemona. This is made clear by the use of the twofold repetition of it is the cause and put out the light.
In the end, when everything is done and Desdemona and Othello are both dead, what remains is just their wedding bed full of corpses: those of Desdemona and Othello, but also that of Emilia, killed by Iago for having revealed his plots.
After a whole play in which monstrosity is suggested but never completely shown, the most hideous thing is finally displayed: a bed full of dead bodies. Once again, this sight is something that we can’t help but looking at; at the same time it is an unbearable sight and therefore it must be hidden. The truth is finally unveiled, but it is covered again soon after, as the Venetian noble Lodovico suggests
lodovico: O Spartan dog,
More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea,
Look on the tragic loading of this bed:
This is thy work. The object poisons sight:
Let it be hid.
( the curtains are drawn) [5.2. 357-361]
Conclusion
This is a reading of William Shakespeare’s Othello which keeps into account the language in which the play was written, as well as its historical context.
It is not to be forgotten, though, that throughout the years there have been various different readings of the tragedy, sometimes in the light of cultural changes and issues that were not there in Shakespeare’s time. For example, Othello has been interpreted in the light of racial discrimination, or in the light of feminist movements.
All these readings are not to be considered wrong: they are, on the contrary, the symbol of how Shakespeare’s works can still have an enormous importance in contemporary society. All these different perspectives, along with the idea that everyone of us might develop while reading the play, also according to his/her personal experience, reveals the true greatness of Shakespeare: that of having shaped, and continuing to shape our perception of the world through the most meaningful language that has ever been used.
Is this the love, is this the recompense
Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, expressed
Immutable when thou wert lost, not I,
Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss,
Yet willingly chose rather death with thee?
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)
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