Our view of the personal integrity of a central character can help to shape our impression of the general vision and viewpoint of a text.” Compare the extent to which your view of the personal integrity of one central character, in each of three texts on your comparative course, helped to shape your impression of the general vision and viewpoint of your chosen texts. Develop your answer with reference to the texts.
It is clear from my reading of Shakespeare's Othello and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights that my impression of the GVV (general vision and viewpoint) of these texts has been shaped by the personal integrity, more specifically the lack of, from the character Iago in Othello and the character of Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights. The GVV is defined as the outlook on life that emerges from my reading of the text and the outlook the author tried to portray. My impression is that the GVV of these texts is disparagingly negative based on the terrible acts committed by both Iago and Catherine. The two characters dishonesty and lack of morals allow them to lie, manipulate and hurt others.
Both Iago and Catherine show a lack of personal integrity when they use manipulation to get what they want. In Othello we see Iago using manipulation to achieve his own personal goal of destroying Othello, similarly Catherine uses manipulation try to achieve her own person goal of being adored and shared by both Heathcliff and Edgar. We see Iago's lack of integrity when he uses his gift of identifying peoples’ fears and he exposes them. He uses this gift to destroy Othello. It is Iago that brought racism into the play by playing on Brabantio's fear of his daughter losing her virtue "An old black ram is tupping your white ewe”. His lack of personal integrity allows him to have nothing off limits. He uses his gift once again when he recognizes Othello is an outsider. He knows he has a lack of knowledge about the Venetian culture. He uses this to convince him that Desdemona is a typical Venetian woman of the time. “In Venice they do let Gods see the pranks //They dare not show their husbands”. He turns Othello and Desdemona's loving marriage into nothing. He pries on Othello's insecurities further by recognizing the colour of his skin causes him insecurity and Desdemona's acceptance of this is central to his pride. This is how he convinces him to kill her. He uses the idea of her betraying him for a white man as the ultimate betrayal and even that he would be doing other men a favor if she dies. "strangle her in bed- even the bed she hath contaminated”. Much in the same way as Iago, Catherine too can recognize people's weakness and insecurities and expose them. Catherine is clearly aware of Heathcliff's desire for a maternal figure in his life. She uses his maternal rejection to make him dependent on her. She acted as the only feminine presence in his life when he came to the grange and because of this she knew she had her hooks deep into him. This can be seen when Heathcliff describes her to be “so immeasurably superior to them- to everybody on earth”. This allows her to get away with treating him as a lesser and she tries to make him share her with Edgar. Catherine also reminds Heathcliff he is an outsider just as Iago does to Othello. She tells him he is not stimulating to be around due to his lack of education “it is no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing” In telling him this she is reminding him of both the social and class differences between him. She does this in an attempt to manipulate him to allow her to be with Edgar, she thinks if he can see what he is lacking in comparison to him, he will of course understand why she feels it is necessary for her to look for it elsewhere. Like Iago, Catherine doesn't just manipulate one person to achieve her goals. She manipulates Edgar by pretending she is someone she is not “let her to adopt a double character”. Like Iago's façade of honesty, she has one of sweetness. Even when this is exposed Catherine still manages to manipulate Edgar. She pries on insecurity of being too shy and meek and manipulates him into thinking her fire is exactly what he needs “he possessed the power to depart, as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed”. This adaptation shows that like Iago she is quick on her feet when it comes to manipulation and it clearly comes natual to her. Both Iago and Catherine manage to play on people's fears and manipulate them like pawns on a chessboard. The lack of awareness people have to their actions caused me to view these texts with a terribly uneasy feeling. The lack of personal integrity they both possess which allows them to deepen and expose people's deepest wounds and fears cause me to view both of the GVV in a negative light due to emotional harm the are causing with no care.
My GVV was affected in both texts by both Iago's and Catherine’s tempers which allow them to hurt others, fueled by their lack of integrity. In Othello we see Iago's temper causing him to hurt and murder women. Although Catherine does not murder others, she knows that in hurting herself deliberately she will in turn hurt Heathcliff and Edgar. My GVV was extremely negative after seeing Iago's lack of personal integrity that caused him to treat woman with such malice. I read this play in utter disgust when observing his actions. Not only does Iago describe woman in a derogatory manner in private asides and soliloquies “wild-cats in your kitchens” but it is his manipulation that leads to the violent death of Desdemona. It also appears that it is women that truly evoke Iago's rage, as it is Emilia’s betrayal of him for Desdemona that finally cause him to drop his perfect façade and commit murder, showing his true colors. His hatred for women causes me to ask myself what Shakespeare was trying to say about women. Did he feel that Emilia should be punished for betraying her husband and therefore he kills her to carry out this maligned sense of justice? Similarly, Catherines temper is also brought on by the betrayal of someone she loves. Iago is betrayed by Emilia, whereas Catherine views Heathcliff being with Isabella as a betrayal. It is after her fight with him about Isabella that she begins to starve herself and let herself go mad. She does this to punish not only Heathcliff, but also Edgar for his actions towards Heathcliff and herself “he has startled under stressed me shockingly! I want to frighten him.”. Just like Iago, Catherine responds to anger by punishing other people. “I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own”. Although Catherines methods are less violent, her putting her death in motion leads to Heathcliff's emotional death “I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”. Catherines lack of integrity which allows her to hurt Heathcliff in this way breaks my heart and causes me to view the GVV as devastatingly negative and tragic. It is clear both Iago and Catherine have a lack of integrity as it causes them to hurt the ones they love. However, this actions also darken the GVV even further as them being willing to hurt the ones they love this way brings into question if they ever loved this people at all. This makes me view the GVV as extremely negative as both the people they hurt express clear love for them, Heathcliff when he says he can’t live without her “would you like to live with your soul in the grave” and Emilia when she betrays her lady for him showing that they would never treat them as they have been treated.
In my opinion both Iago's and Catherines lack of integrity reaches its peak when they both still emit the truth even on their death bed. Iago refuses to tell Othello why he is acted this way towards him, denying him closure. Similarly, Catherine denies Heathcliff closure when on her deathbed. Although she admits to loving Heathcliff, she never tells him her reasons for betraying him, which leaves Heathcliff always wondering if there was something he could have done. These emissions of truth show the characters lack of integrity and gives the texts a negative GVV. In my opinion Iago's lack of integrity reaches its peak when he refuses to speak about why he has done villainous things once his actions are uncovered “demand me nothing. What you know you know”. This is the ultimate revenge as it leaves Othello in inner turmoil unsure of what he did to deserve such fate. Iago once again strikes with his pure evilness and takes away the little closure Othello might have been able to find. This also creates a negative GVV for the reader and they leave this play truly heartbroken for Othello and Desdemona but also unsettled. Shakespeare did not just rob Othello of closure but also the audience. The audience are aware of the apparent reason of his anger at a rumored affair and being overlooked for a promotion, but I simply do not feel these things to be motivation enough for murder. Bronte does a similar thing in Wuthering Heights. Although I am aware of the apparent reason for Catherine leaving Heathcliff, the idea she would turn her back on such an all-consuming love for social and monetary gain baffles me “why did you betray your own heart, Cathy”. It is clear this also leaves Heathcliff in turmoil just like it does Othello “because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would've part of parted us, you of your own will, did it”. Heathcliff lost years of happiness with his love. Catherine never admits her reasons to Heathcliff for leaving him “let me alone- if I've done wrong, I'm dying for it. It is enough!”. This leave both Heathcliff and myself wondering if her love for him was as strong as his was for her. Heathcliff can only guess from Catherines body language her true feelings, but he will never truly know. Because of this tragedy the GVV is negative. While Iago's actions are clearly more severe and have more dire consequences, both his and Catherines actions arise from the same issue, each character lacks integrity. This lack of personal integrity adds to the texts’ tragic GVV as it leaves a depressing and confusing outlook cast over them.
In conclusion, the lack of Iago's personal integrity helped shape my view of the GVV of Shakespeare's Othello. Likewise, Catherines lack of person integrity also helped shape my GVV of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Both Iago and Catherines manipulation, violence, and refusal to tell the truth all contributed to my sense of despair I felt when reading the texts and that caused me to view the GVV as disparagingly negative in both of these texts.
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