The Whole Play is in This Line

Sometimes the people I work with when putting on a Shakespeare play don't seem to know when I'm serious or when I'm being a wise guy.

Cast and crew might also be getting tired of me.

You see, I've done the same thing in three straight Shakespeare productions. I keep saying about single obscure lines or minor characters or apparently disposable scenes: "the whole play is in that line" or "character" or "scene".

Here's one example. In "Othello", the senators of Venice are trying to figure out what the Turkish navy is up to. The Venetians want to stop any Turkish designs on regime change or empire building. The character Othello is who the Venetians will enlist to lead troops against the Turks.

In an early war room discussion, the duke and the senators receive conflicting messages about the Turks. Regarding a feint of the Turkish fleet, as they appear to be attacking Rhodes, the senator I play remarks about this feint: "'Tis a pageant to keep us in false gaze."

I was laughed at last night when I said the whole play is in this line.

But, it is.

Iago is a maker of false appearances. He is a maker of small "pageants" to deceive Othello to believe that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. He, like the Turks, attacks Othello aggressively. He works these pageants "to keep" Othello "in false gaze".

As long as Othello is in "false gaze", Iago owns him. As long as he persuades Othello to see what isn't there and to believe what didn't happen, he can steer Othello in any direction he wants.

In other words, Shakespeare is so obsessed with the idea that the senses are unreliable, that we almost never know what's actual, that he portrays this truth at every level of life in the world of "Othello": in government, war, revelling (or drunkenness), father/daughter, friendship, desire, love, and marriage. The Turks want to keep Venice in false gaze. The tipsy Cassio is in false gaze. Desdemona has kept her father in false gaze. Iago encourages Roderigo to maintain a false gaze in his desire for Desdemona. Othello maintains a false gaze upon Iago. Iago creates pageants that feed Othello's false gaze upon Desdemona.

It's more than a theme. This incongruity between "pageant" and "false gaze" and what's actually true is the foundation of destruction in this world. The Turks' feint fails because the Venetians see through it. It's the only time in the play a pageant is actually seen as false.

Pageant keeps the others in false gaze. False gaze spells ruin. Especially for Othello. Again and again and again in his plays, Shakespeare portrays that actuality has power and to live out of accord with what is actual spells ruin.

Does Shakespeare see all of us as prone to false gaze? Does he see us all as prone to the power of pageant?

Yes.

So, that little line of mine as an anonymous Senator is fairly important. The whole play is in that line.

So is the drama of being human.