Amanda McGovern
Critical Lens Essay J.P Morgan once said,
"A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason." When doing anything, a man always has a motive for his actions; something he truly believes is the truth, and the actual truth behind it. Examples of this quote can be seen through the works of literature,
Othello
by William Shakespeare, and
The Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Characters in both readings can often be misguided by outside information that is not always true which causes them to commit actions they may not have done so if they had been aware of the truth. In
Othello,
the main character, Othello, is a noble general who was given the duty of assigning the title of lieutenant to one soldier he felt worthy. After assigning the job to Cassio, another soldier,angry and jealous, begins to misguide Othello in the wrong direction purely out of anger. He convinces Othello that his wife has committed adultery with Cassio; as Othello hears untrue information, he decides on killing his wife,Desdemona, because of her
“betrayal”. His actions are influenced by such false accusations which drive him crazy, resulting in the murder of Desdemona by Othello. The irony of the situation is that the truth is,
Desdemona was always faithful to Othello but because of the lies and manipulation from Iago,
Othello is convinced that she is guilty and deserving of death. Similar to
Othello
, is the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby.
The
relationship between Gatsby and Daisy has always been complicated from the start but now as Gatsby returns for her, Daisy’s husband, Tom, is furious and will do anything to stop
Gatsby. In the tragic death of Tom’s mistress, resulting from Daisy hitting her with Gatsby’s car, Tom finds his chance to finally