Back to Work

I had a fairly uneventful weekend. Determined to rid myself of the cold that has been plaguing me for the past week, I spent much of the weekend in bed. I think I slept more in the past weekend than I have during an average two weeks since I started school. Though I am very sneezy today (which is odd, since this is a new addition to my cold symptoms), I am feeling much better in the congestion, coughing, and running-a-fever departments. I did take the time to read Othello this weekend. Okay, don't get excited, it was an assignment of course, I didn't choose to read it of my own volition. I am already dreading the class discussion of this play. It was depressing, as I guess tragedies usually are. I was a bit upset at the portrayal of the character of the main players. Othello is initially described as being trusting and being positive about human nature. But he turns on his own wife extremely easily, while trusting the evil Iago. Iago is believed by everyone in the play to be honest, it is said over and over how honest he is, while he is truly despicable, plotting against everyone. And Desdemona, the truly tragic character in the play, is the one person who really, truly cannot even imagine someone being sneaky or anything less than loyal, gets turned against and tricked, and eventually killed by her own husband who won't believe anything she says. This idealistic, trusting soul (could I possibly be connecting to a character in the play) is played the fool, is not trusted, is killed for someone else's rotten scheming. What is Shakespeare saying here?