American Literature

The main characters in the three works, Othello, Tattoo, and Love Calls Us to the Things of the World, are vain and self-obsessed people.  The say they love, but not in a spiritual way.  They love in the way you love pizza  its the best thing ever when youre eating it, then youre full and you dont think about it until you want it again.  As Wilburs title points out, this lust for things of the world, mistaken for love, is a great flaw of men, and is a main thread in all three works.

The catechism warns us that the world is an enemy which with his pleasures doth so entangle men that he seemeth to reign alone like a god.  From the highest to the lowest, from the king to the subject, they all embrace the frail and transitory things of this world and utterly neglect the things to come (Ayre, 184).

Men become so caught up in the transitory things of this world, like sex and jealousy, that they become arrogant and vain, which blinds them to the true love that they are destroying, and then to their own destruction.

Othello is a loving husband, but is a general who is not at home much because hes often off to war. He barely seems to thing of his wife, except when he is at home and wants the pleasure of her company.  Until Iago plots to ruin him, by lying about Desdemona being unfaithful.  At first, Othello doesnt believe Iago.  Iago then provides proof of Desdemonas deceit by planting a handkerchief he stole from Casio.  Othello, becomes obsessed, and can only focus on his jealousy and Desdemonas unfaithfulness.  He is so caught up in the transitory things of this world, that he is blinded to the truth.  He ignores Desdemonas claims of innocence and his own love for her.  In a moral and spiritual sense, he ignores the possible consequences of his actions.  Thinking only of himself, Othello tries to act like a god, handing out life and death.  Unable to stand Desdemonas treachery, he kills her.  Before he learns of her innocence, Othello says,
Nay, had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Ild not have sold her for it (Shakespeare, V.ii. 143-6).

Othello doesnt think about what he had in Desdemonas love for him, or even his love for her, but only about her supposed cheating.  He doesnt want the love or the things to come, but only another world, which in his vanity, he would probably mess up again.

Finally, with his hate as strong as his love, when he learns of the truth, that Desdemona was innocent, Othellos self-love turns to self-hatred.  Again, not thinking of the spiritual or moral consequences of his actions, Othello plays god and kills himself.

In the time of Shakespeare, people were probably more religious and less troubled by death in the real sense.  Death was likely seen as the things to come.  If one was a good person, it was her reward if one was a bad person, it was his doom.  Othello didnt consider these consequences.  He played god and handed out death.  He was entangled by the world.  From heaven, all he wanted was another world.  Instead, he got the things to come.

Like Othello, William in Tattoo is vain, and so obsessed with worldly love that he doesnt think about the consequences of his actions. William is a lawyer who is dating tree girls at the same time. Eventually, the women find out about each other and set up a meeting between them and William.  He is frightened, because in his vanity, William thinks each of the women love him and are capable of killing him.  William loves himself, and thinks he loves the women because, as he tells them in each case a different part of me responds. I dont give the same thing. I dont get the same thing. The me that is with each of you could not respond to the others. The only thing he truly fears is being alone, without the worldly pleasure of the womens company.  He has embraced the frail and transitory things of this world, and utterly neglected the things to come.  The thing to come for William was vengeance from the three women.  He was given two choices all family and friends being told what he did, or to have a tattoo on his bottom explaining what happened at the meeting with the women.  In his own vanity, William thought the women loved him enough to kill him, but in the end, he wasnt worth it.

Maybe William should have read Richard Wilburs poem, Love Calls Us to the Things Of this World.  Wilbur compares love to uncommon feeling. Love makes you feel light as feather. Love is clean like fresh laundry it is a calm dance from the clouds. It is beyond our expectation, unrealistic. Maybe we dont absorb it hear on land, maybe after death we finally will see the open window the morning air is all awash with angels.

In the ideal, love means caring for someone, deeply connect with another person. We are designed to love.  But as Wilbur warns in his title, it calls us to the things of this world.  While as much as we may want the spiritual ideal of love, the angels and the laundry, we are inevitably going to be entangled in the worldly aspects of love.  Deep inside we know that the halcyon feeling of love must give way The soul descends once more in bitter love.  It shrinks from all that it is about to remember, From the punctual rape of every blessed day  The jealousy (Let there be clean linen for the backs of thieves.) and the consequences (Let lovers go fresh and sweet to be undone.).

Had William and Othello been able to read Wilburs poem, they would have had fair warning of the damage that love can cause, that it would lead to jealousy and obsession and vengeance. Perhaps, they could have ignored their vanity long enough to realize that the failure is not loves, but mens.  Were unable to look beyond the frail and transitory things of this world and balance what we do with the consequences, moral, spiritual, or otherwise, of the actions.  William and Othello perhaps should have followed the example of the nuns, who having renounced worldly things and men, must still live among us, walking in a pure floating Of dark habits, keeping their difficult balance.