Representative Reputation

Eyes are like open books; staring into them allows you to see a person's soul. Or so they say...

The two simple circles used to represent "self" and "reputation," as Caroline pointed out, look oddly similar to an eye. I have greatly enjoyed examining this theory and have decided this may have been on purpose;

The color of the eye (or iris) is, of course, the first thing we all notice. It may be the only thing we notice about the eye. Some we immediately recognize as beautiful while others are considered ordinary. Reputation is very similar to this. It is the first thing we hear about a person. This reputation is then what is used to judge what we think of the person. Some we immediately recognize as kind and others we fear or dislike.

Pupils are often ignored, as they are dark and difficult to see. They change often, growing and shrinking in the changing light. They control the main functions of the eye yet are still ignored in everyday life unlike their counterpart, the iris. This is similar to the self, or true personality, of people. It takes more than just listening to stories or hearing other people's opinions to truly get to know a person. You must focus on that small black ever-changing circle to truly learn the function of the eye just as you must focus on the ever-changing individual personality to truly understand a person.

The similarity I found between the figure and an eye is the idea mentioned above- staring into a person's eyes allows you to see their soul. It is a very overused, corny statement that holds significant importance to my argument. Just glancing at the outer circle (reputation) will not allow you to get to know a person for who they are. You must stare until the inner circle (self) becomes clear and separates itself from the rest.

In Shakespeare's Othello, characters boast the significance of reputation. This comes to be a rather important theme. Each character has a skewed perspective of another because of reputation, and that leads to trouble. Othello has a skewed perspective of Desdemona after Iago messes with her reputation with false stories. Roderigo has a skewed perspective of Iago because he thinks Iago is loyal and is acting as his friend when really Iago is quite the opposite. If any of the characters took the time to recognize that reputation is not everything (and true self is far more important) all this trouble could have been avoided.