자기 보존의 법칙으로 작동하는 오셀로

Abstract

Self-preservation is the uttermost important emotion for maintaining one's own life. Hobbes says that the law of nature tends to preserve nature. Human beings are encompassed within nature. A practical mind and preference for delight are the concrete expression of self-preservation. Freud, however, says that the principle of pleasure is replaced with that of reality under the influence of one's instinct for the self-preservation of the ego. Moreover, the principle of reality demands the delay of satisfaction and the mind for seeking delight and pleasure never disappears. Finally the subject seeks to be satisfied with the delayed delight. Othello seems quick to doubt Desdemona and kills her and himself. However, he delays his final judgement that she is disloyal to him. While he regrets marrying Desdemona, he blames himself for not trusting her. Even after he saw the handkerchief in the hand of Cassio, he insists that Desdemona is a 'fine woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman'. He also delays consummation of their marriage. For self-preservation, he tries to delay his own delight that might be caused by the ironically fair and final punishment of Desdemona. Finally he kills Desdemona and becomes satisfied because he carries out justice against the person who made him a cuckold. He also restores his honour destroyed by Desdemona's supposed adultery so that he satisfies his delayed desire for pleasure and delight, thus preserving himself. Othello's suicide is also derived from his desire for self-preservation. First, he firstly identifies himself with an Indian and Turk who were marginal beings in Venice in the early modern period. Then, he kills himself as he did the Turk. This signifies that he thinks the one against Venice deserves to be killed. Before he kills himself, he narrates a suicidal monologue in which he dramatizes and displays himself before others, which means that he tries to redefine himself by using the power of language. As a result, his monologue makes him white and he aggrandizes himself. Killing himself is one way of self-preservation and of living eternally for primitive men. This case can be applied to Othello. He wants to preserve himself by belonging to the Venetian society even after he kills a Venetian woman. That is why he gives his suicidal monologue in that way and kills himself. This process makes him 'the sublime object of Ideology' by submitting to the demand and power of Ideology. The sublime is the 'object a', which makes the subject see into his unconsciousness. Othello reminds Venetian subjects that they regard Othello not as a Venetian but as a Moor. The sublime is also associated with self-preservation. The grand or terrifying thing displeases the viewer because it overwhelms but next time the viewer comes to be pleased with the quality of the great and terrifying thing. When Othello kills himself, his self-preservation is achieved. By being the sublime object of the observing Venetians, Othello regains the recognition of Venetians because he is reevaluated. His reevaluation is achieved because the viewers and listeners at the sight of terror see the object, Othello, affirmatively after he dies. His reevaluation comes from his repentance and his suicide. He therefore succeeds in preserving himself within Venetian society.