| Description |
In four Shakespeare plays--Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and; Troilus and Cressida--the heroes exemplify a destructive; connection between egotism and delusion about women. The; connection is evidenced in the power-relationship between; mother and son in Hamlet, between husband and wife in Othello,; between father and daughters in King Lear and between lovers in; Troilus and Cressida. Each man's self-absorbed conception of; himself dictates his conception of the woman with whom he has a; significant relationship. Hamlet is so preoccupied with himself; that he can judge his mother and even Ophelia from only one; perspective--as unfaithful, deceiving women who cannot be; trusted. The perception of women as unfaithful and deceiving; occurs in each of the plays, albeit in different ways. Othello's; insecurity about his self-worth makes him vulnerable to and; dependent on other people's good opinion. This vulnerability; provides the path down which Iago takes Othello to his destruction. For Lear too, self-worth and imagined betrayal are linked. He needs others to praise him and to pronounce their love for him to maintain his own sense of self-worth. Like Othello, his sense of self-worth feeds obsessively on the praise of others. When Cordelia refuses to succumb to this charade, Lear denounces her as unfaithful and unworthy to be called his daughter. Troilus' egotism is displayed in the most extreme and grandiose manner. He expects Cressida to pander to his desires, but quickly and thoughtlessly discards her once he has achieved his wish. To him, some abstract "honor" becomes more important than his relationship with Cressida--after getting what he wants he moves on to his next conquest to gratify his ego. In the end, each man's misconception about himself leads to his destructive delusion about women. The destruction caused by each man is the direct result of the power each exercises to maintain his own egotistical position. All except Troilus recognize their delusion once they move beyond their egotistical, narrow world view, but for each awareness comes too late. In each play, the root of the conflict between self-ignorance and self-awareness is egotism. Egotism as a "sense of superiority often accompanied by contempt toward others" is displayed by the men toward women they first love and care about but whom they come to despise and ultimately destroy. The sense of superiority is evidenced in each man's denial of his limitations- each condemns all women and each blames them for his own suffering. Such self-indulgence expresses each man's egocentric self-conception. Rather than seeing a problem within themselves, the men displace their problems onto the women In their relationships. Each man's self-concept is threatened, and as a result his ego takes a more prominent rather than less obtrusive position in the man's actions. And the women become the victims of such overblown male ego. The victimization occurs as a result of the delusion each man possesses--a delusion that is a "persistent error of perception occasioned by false belief or mental derangement . . . a false belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that persists despite the facts and is common in paranoia, schizophrenia and depressed states . . ." In each play, the false belief centers around the women in the plays--each of the men see the women only from one point of view, their own--and it is an erroneous point of view in each case. For Hamlet and Lear, the delusion occurs in depressed states, while Othello becomes increasingly paranoid and Troilus sees Cressida in a schizophrenic light--she "is and is not Cressida" to him. In each case, the delusion, engendered by an overblown ego, results in destruction. |
