“But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at; I am not what I am.”
-Iago, Othello. Act One, Scene One lines 64-65.

Here, Shakespeare coins the phrase we now use to describe sensitive, open-hearted people. Which, incidentally, is something Iago is not. He does not want to expose his heart; rather, he keeps his desires hidden for fear of someone using them against him. Iago is the original cynic. He scorns Roderigo’s ideas about courtly love (”It is merely a lust of the blood…”). He vies and manouvres for control. He turns Othello against Desdemona with lies; my teacher likes to refer to this as “poison in the ear”. And Iago, above everything, is a pragmatist. His answer to Roderigo’s pained proclamations of love? “Put money in thy purse.” Get some money, then she’ll love you.

The reason I picked this quote is because, unfortunately, our generation is plagued with Iagos. I think we would all like to be seen as machiavellian manipulators. I think we would all like to put money in our purses. Greed, as Gordon Gekko says, is good. People uphold utilitarian ideals – pleasure is good, and we should seek it out in its hiding places. As long as more people benefit from something than suffer, we call it “good”. Sacrifice one for the good of the many. In short, when we look at each other we see pawns, empty vehicles of flesh and blood and bone. We are spiritless, hopeless, careless. We are sex-obsessed. We do not wear our hearts upon our sleeves. We are not what we are.