THE RIGHTFUL LEFT-TENANT
The most relevant McGuffin in
The Tragedy of Othello is the rank of lieutenant, pronounced "leftenant." As for why Shakespeare uses the name of the rank instead of "right-hand man" for some reason or another... "left-tenant", maybe because the story is about what happens when we follow our hearts blindly, and we have our hearts to the left side (laevocardia/sinistrocardia being usual and dextrocardia a rarity)... Yet the most relevant fact is how this commission is regarded: A lieutenancy which Iago views as his by right/rightfully, himself as the rightful left-tenant...
Iago himself is a rather sinister character, and, in my mind's eye, he is always left-handed (the other southpaw in the core cast of seven being his wife, the only person aware of his agenda). "Leftenant," like the hypothetical "love-tenant" from which the pronunciation hails, is a quote to be read between the lines. For instance: the only two southpaws mentioned in the Tanakh, Ehud and Joab, are shrewd, devious, and take advantage of their unusual handedness to cajole and treacherously kill right-handed opponents who are unaware of that fact. Furthermore, the sinister, ironic deaths of both Eglon and Amasa are described with a tinge of homoerotic innuendo... correlating leftiness with queerness? In classical myth, the father of Oedipus is called Laius, literally "Lefty," (compare the surnames "Izquierdo", "Gaucher", and "Hidari"), and he is left-handed and gay. Furthermore, he is said to have been the first homosexual in the Western world. And there is the Spanish idiom "cojear del pie izquierdo".
Historically, left-handedness has always been correlated with sexual deviance...
After all, 'tis a lieutenancy which Iago views as his by right/rightfully, himself as the
rightful left-tenant...
It is worth noting that Iago gets his rival Cassio
so drunk that the young officer cannot tell his left from his right. If we stick to the "Iago is left-handed" characterization, we'll realize that etiquette in those days (and I'm referring more to rulers' courts than taverns, but it could also apply to outposts) prescribed, to quote Erasmus's book of good manners for young courtiers: "Should you ever pour someone a drink, be careful not to do it with your left hand." Bad news for lefty cupbearers, not only because left-handedness (like freckles or red hair, or being tall for a girl) carried a stigma in those days, but also because of a more sinister reason: a left-handed cupbearer was more likely to be accused of poisoning (pouring the drink with the left hand and stealthily lacing it with the right). Though he does not spike his rival's tankard, Iago does indeed intoxicate Cassio, altering the lieutenant's internal state of health to the point of confusion, of not being right.
To have a peek at a different culture, the Japanese words for handedness are also used to denote ethyl tolerance. Those who hold their liquor well, and hard drinkers, are called 左利き "hidarikiki" (literally, lefties) and those who can't hold themselves are called 右利き "migikiki" (literally, righties). Iago winds up far more sober than Cassio, but the latter, bereft of reason, has even forgotten what is right (and what is left/wrong as well). (Incidentally, there is a Japanese idiom 右も左もわからない "migi mo hidari mo wakaranai," literally "I don't know either left or right," which means "not to have a clue, to have no idea." This expression may have a Western parallel in the Book of Jonah, when the LORD arguments against Jonah about why He has decided to spare thousands of Assyrian "persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand," to quote the King James version [אשר לא־ידע בין־ימינו לשמאלו "asher yada bein-yeminov lismolov" in original Hebrew]. The expression may be taken to refer to innocent, ignorant young children, or to confused, ignorant adult sinners: in any way, it refers to immature humans whose ignorance makes them unaware of the difference between right and left as well as of that between right and wrong.
persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; i.e. children of tender years, who did not know which hand was the strongest and fittest for use; or, metaphorically, who had no knowledge between good and evil", at present incapable of moral discernment. This limitation would include children of three or four years old. that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; do not know one from another; cannot distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong; are not come to years of maturity and discretion; and therefore there were room and reason for pity and sparing mercy; especially since they had not been guilty of actual transgressions, at least not very manifest; and yet must have perished with their parents. that cannot discern between their right hand and their left—children under three or four years old. And besides, these persons are young, and have not offended, [for they knew not the difference between their right hand and their left] who, in the weakness of infancy, knew not which hand, "the right" or "the left," is the stronger and fitter for every use.
the infants that have not come to so much use of understanding as to know their right hand from their left, for they are yet but babes. These are taken notice of because the age of infants is commonly looked upon as the age of innocence. They had not been guilty of any actual transgression,
infants only, as next described: that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand;
do not know one from another; cannot distinguish between good and evil,
right and wrong; are not come to years of maturity and discretion; and
therefore there were room and reason for pity and sparing mercy;
especially since they had not been guilty of actual transgressions, at
least not very manifest,
Those who cannot discern between their right hand and their left are those who unable to make moral judgments.
Aquellos que no saben discernir entre su mano derecha y su mano izquierda son aquellos que son incapaces de hacer juicios morales.
lo que consideramos era una multitud de niños que “no sabían discernir entre su mano derecha y su izquierda”.)
Los miles que no podían "discernir entre su mano derecha y su mano izquierda" eran los jóvenes (niños) y las personas inocentes.
[···] innocent children [···]
"persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand", that is, so many children under two years of age. [···] these would have been destroyed [···] And what have these done? If grown-up people are wicked and deserve to die, these have done no action worthy of death. And yet had [···] been swallowed by an earthquake, all these harmless babes must have gone down alive into the bowels of the earth [···] for helpless offspring's sake.
11. that cannot discern between their right hand and their left--children under three of four years old ( Deuteronomy 1:39: children who do not yet know good from bad ).
and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and
evil;
not being at years of understanding, and which is a common description of children
In any way, both this biblical quote (We can
understand this with
regard to the age of infancy,
which is innocent
and simple [···] did not
know the diference between good and evil::: people who cannot tell their right hand from their left --
Their ignorance is so great they “cannot tell their right hand from their left.” ) and this Japanese idiom of left-right confusion may be applied to Cassio when intoxicated. These expressions suggest ignorance,
immaturity, and innocence, as well as weakness, helplessness, existential confusion, and/or error. And clouded judgement. Knowledge of the left-right distinction is considered a sign of maturity: I myself learned the difference upon hitting puberty, i.e. that my left faces the right of what I see through my eyes and vice versa. Before that, I thought that the left was always the side of my writing hand and the two/three birthmarks on my forearm. One of the ways I learned real left-right distinction was through the clever use of colour-coded Kickers shoes: red for left and green for right. Thus, I learned that my left side faces the right side of others and vice versa. The gunshot on Lord Nelson's left shoulder at Trafalgar and my handedness and birthmarks, however, proved more influential in this aspect than the Kickers; from looking at depictions of the wounded and dying admiral, I realized that my right faced Horatio's (and everyone else's) left.
The left-tenant drugged to the point of not knowing what is right (and what is wrong)... is, due to his actions under the influence, subsequently cashiered and wants to claim the rank he had left. The commanding officer, the general, is thought to believe his wife has left him for the younger and more well-spoken former lieutenant, who is more similar to her and more "upright", and who stands upright (even though stabbed in the right leg), following his fall from grace, throughout the play (thus... right-tenant?). In Swedish, infidelity is called "vänsterprassel," literally "crackle to the left." "Att vänstra," "to go left" literally, means to cheat on one's partner. (BTW, "vänster" is cognate with "vän," "friend...") The punning on "left" and "right," like that on "to lie," or that on "darkness" and "fairness," is one of the leitmotives that vertebrate the whole play.
In Swedish, infidelity is called "vänsterprassel," literally "crackle to the left." "Att vänstra," "to go left" literally, means to cheat on one's partner. Which leads to a second theme as close to the left-right innuendo as the rank of left-tenant... which is
infidelity. Right is left and left is right, yet having left (oneself, one's place, one's loved ones) or being left (behind, alone) is as wrong (as sinister) as being upright and doing the right things (and being righteous and rightful) is right.
The lieutenant is called left-tenant because he always stands to the left of the commander, like the bride to the left of the bridegroom. In this story, there are two husband and wife couples (one happily married, the other one turned cold as ice) and a fiancé couple, plus a brokenhearted lover left (!) on his own. The climax is the oath of Othello and Iago, exchanging vows like a bride and groom, culminating in "Now are you my lieutenant" (which implies "I am your rightful commanding officer"). A gay wedding without a priest or church, disguised as a military command and as a gentlemen's agreement. A metaphorical wedding in which there are not a bride and groom, but a lieutenant and commander, in the same positions (the former to the left, the latter to the right). The traditional stance of both the bride and the lieutenant, to the left of their superiors, actually hails from the same origin: Swordfighters wear their sheathed weapon on the opposite side from their dominant hand (righties on the left, lefties on the right) to make it easier to draw steel. Most people are right-handed, and thus, both the bridegroom at the altar (should the bride get captured by wedding crashers) and the commander on the battlefield needed to leave their respective sword hands free and to guard their respective scabbard sides. Hence the reason why both the bride and the lieutenant stood to the left of their superiors. Conflating these two related traditions into a symbolic "gay wedding" is one of the best climaxes ever created by the Bard.
If vanilla sex is all right, everything else, everything deviant, is considered sinister.
Lefty/Sinister Iago deceives mainly men, right-handed, righteous men above him on the social ladder... yet the female characters are immune to his flattery. In my depictions, Emilia is the only left-handed female, like Iago the only left-handed male, not only to pair them, but to signify that she is most immune to his deception as well as the savviest female character, compared to innocent Desdemona and perky Bianca (right-handed like their male counterparts), as well as taking an older-sister stance with Des and preferring her company to that of the male characters. Des is to Milly as Othello is to Iago, a foil to her, after all.
If vanilla sex is all right, everything else, everything deviant, is considered sinister. We left-handers are far more likely to deviate from the sexual norm than right-handers (and it has been scientifically proven).
And a Mecano song uses the euphemism "culear de estribor" (compare "cojear del pie izquierdo", a more usual expression for the same sexual orientation), "to steer towards starboard," for a gay male. But starboard is considered the right side, vs. port/larboard side being left... There could be either irony here, or the reflection that port/larboard and starboard marks are of a different colour depending on whether you're following or against the direction of the channel:
- Following the direction of the channel: there's red port left (and green on the right).
- Against the direction of the channel: red, right, return (left, green, return).
But the meaning of the expression actually comes from the fact that commands on board refer to the tiller direction: if you want the boat to go left, you have to steer it moving the tiller to starboard (in the opposite direction), for instance in the command "hard to starboard!" meaning that you have to move the tiller to the right to sail left, in the opposite direction. The same goes for
The Tragedy of Othello when it comes to both the themes of rank and gender/sexuality.
Othello, as a subversive story, goes against the channels tragedy (and Shakespeare) has sailed before, confusing directions and sexual orientations, making sure that left is right and right is left and wrong is right and right is wrong... (Just like, in real life, my left is your right, and vice versa, and what we approve and disapprove of often depends of the person who has the opinion...)
The lieutenant's place was given by right not to the one who claims he is the rightful lieutenant... the one who believes he is left behind and encourages the others to share his views, forgetting what is right, yet is defeated in the end by the righteous left-hander who once stood by his left side... this is a game with which we are tested ourselves in real life time after time, after all.
POST SCRIPTUM I.
"We live as in a crossroads. [···]
Let others rule the army. Our army is that of our thoughts: we are distraught with foreign wars," a certain Renaissance philosopher once wrote on the condition of free will and human life, and on the constant challenge of self-control. The solution he gave to the issue was not that of fight, but that of flight to the refuge of solitude, of spiritual retirement, a contemplative life free from ambition, from warfare, and from the pleasures of the flesh. Try to apply all of this to
Othello, with its military backdrop and ethical themes!!
POST SCRIPTUM II.
It's interesting how, in a misogynistic twist, the Pearl Poet or Gawain Poet, in his Patience, applies the left-right confusion metaphor in Jonah 4 to Assyrian women, said to be foolish or mentally challenged ("unwitted," in the original; "handicapped," "foolish," "witless," and "light-headed" in translation). I am a woman, once a child, with a mental disorder, for whom it took about a pair of decades and many a pair of Kickers to be able to tell left from right. But I can, and could in my childhood, tell a staircase from a steel handrail...
MODERN VERSION (PROSE):
[···] and handicapped women who cannot tell their left hands from their right, nor a stair from a handrail even.
MODERN VERSION (VERSE I):
And foolish women, that could not choose
512* one hand from the other, for all this high world;
that cannot discern between the handrail and the stair;***
what secret suggestion runs between the right hand
and the left, though their life should be lost therefore;
MODERN VERSION (VERSE II):
And witless women who could not distinguish their
one hand from the other, for all this high world.
MODERN VERSION (VERSE III):
And light-headed ladies, who lack wit to tell
the one hand from the other, for all this wide world.
MEDIEVAL ORIGINAL:
511 & wymmen vnwytte Þat wale ne couÞe
512Þat on hande fro Þat oÞer, fo[r] alle Þis hy3e worlde.
513Bitwene Þe stele & Þe stayre disserne no3t cunen,
514What rule renes in roun bitwene Þe ry3t hande
515& his lyfte, Þa3 his lyf schulde lost be Þerfor;
LISA AMPLEMAN - RESPONSE TO THE POEM PATIENCE
[···] that there are fools
who can't tell their left from
their right, or accept the LORD's
judgement. Those stupid little bairns,
those unwitted women.
POST SCRIPTUM III.
In Japanese, the kanji for "left"
左 can be pronounced "hidari" or "sa," while the kanji for "right"
右 can be pronounced "migi" or "u/yú." Both kanji together can be written as
右左, pronounced "migi hidari," which translates to "right and left (in that order)," or more frequently as 左右, pronounced "sayú," which means "left and right," or "symmetry," but also "control of one's life," "determining," "influencing," "swaying..." in general, "
to have something completely under one's control". Here lies something more to ponder upon regarding the plot and the characters of
The Tragedy of Othello.
The expression "sayú suru" (transitive form) means to have something completely under one's control; the intransitive form is "sayú sareru."
UPDATE:
The kanji are pronounced "sa" and "u" in compound words. To put some examples: 左心室 sashinshitsu, left ventricle (literally, left chamber of the heart - compare the equivalent terms in Germanic languages);
右心室 ushinshitsu, right ventricle.
POST SCRIPTUM IV.
A black cat brings good luck if it crosses your path from left to right. However, if it crosses from right to left, it brings misfortune. Consider the connotations of this distinction.
POST SCRIPTUM V.
Wherein are more than six score thousand {persons),
that are so young, and voide are of all {reason),
that by no means they able are to learne,
the right hand from the left, for to discerne ?
Should I subvert so many infants too?
persons, that can-
not discern between their right hand and their
left hand
persons that cannot discern be-
tween their right hand and their left hand.
These are young children and infants, who are
not old enough yet to understand the difference
between right and wrong. For this is what the
Jews meant, when they spake of a person not be-
ing able to discern between right hand and
left hand.
Must all these little ones perish? The young
children and infants, have had no share in the
dreadful wickedness hat has been committed.
the tender and interesting little children
...
