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Contextual Background Notes


War, Military & Turks
• Cyprus is positioned at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, meaning that, while it was a useful location
to help to build the 'seaborne empire' that Venice desired (brilliant for trade links between the East and
West), it was also easy to invade
...

• Venice had a split-reputation as both a place of romance and culture, but also a locus of corruption,
typified by it being the birthplace of Niccolo Machiavelli (writer of a how-to book for murderous
tyrants)
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• Shakespeare describes the two as stark opposites; Cyprus 'war-like isle', Venice 'not a grange'
• Religious context; the rise of the Ottoman Empire meant that the Muslim religion vastly conquered nonEuropean areas and struck deep into Europe, until they were conquered in France
...
This slightly xenophobic idea was fostered by the Ancient Greeks far before Shakespeare's
time, note how anyone foreign in Athens was called a 'resident alien'
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• Turks conquered Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire, with the effect that Cyprus became
a dangerously isolated Christian island, the uttermost edge of Western civilisation, and vulnerable against
a growing population of Muslims in surrounding countries
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• The Turkish invasion of Cyprus consolidated Ottoman control over the island, as well as furthering
Muslim presence in Europe
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Venetian Republic ruled Cyprus --> Christians populated the island (civilised) --> Turks invaded
--> Muslims populated the island (Barbarian)



Moors and Muslims
• 'Moor' or 'Blackamoor'; Elizabethan term that loosely referred to any person with black skin, someone
from Morocco, popular reputation for devilry
• 'Berber'; inhabitants of Barbary coast, had darker skin than Arabs
• 'Arab'; lighter black skin
• Eg
...
Pope Rodrigo Borgia)
• Forward thinking for its time; uncommonly tolerant
• Women in Venice; 'courtesans' were able to taste this freedom that was unique to Venice
Cyprus
• Never had autonomy, symbol of submission
• Birthplace of Aphrodite, Goddess of love
• Vulnerable to invasions, uttermost edge of civilised Western society
• Battlefield between Christian civilisation and Turkish heathenism
• No character returns, one-way trip to chaos
• Eg
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Emilia and Desdemona are strong female characters, who challenge the social order even if they do
not overthrow it
Reputation
• Highly important commodity for social survival
• Label given to a person by society
• A woman's reputation could be entirely ruined by a dissatisfied male, and there was no forum to challenge
such calumny
• Reputation once lost could not be regained
Chain Of Being
• Ladder that descended from God through to Angel, King, Man, Woman, Animal, Vegetable, and mineral
...

Nature
• Contemporary debate over the definition of 'nature'
• The benign and harmonious vs
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• Imagery of 'seeming' permeates the text of Othello
• Eg
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White
• Black, and words associated with darkness, was aligned with evil and the devil
• Eg
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Cassio forgives Othello for plotting to have him killed
...
’
Revenge
• Forbidden by the bible
• Direct opposite of forgiveness
• Eg
...

10 commandments
• Respect of parents was expected by Elizabethan society; shock to go against parents' will
• Blasphemy, against third commandment; sign of immorality
• Murder; only God can take away life as he gave it
• Adultery; desire to do it is as much of a sin as doing it
• Stealing; Iago steals money
• Coveting; Iago speaks enviously of Cassio
• Lying; Iago very seldom speaks the truth
Lying
• Serious offence
• Satan lied to Eve in the garden of evil
• Put the immortal soul at risk
• Grave insult to call someone a liar
Jealousy

• Irrational
• Sudden, incurable infection
• Could let in evil and chaos
Chaos
• The undoing of God's creation
• Return to darkness and nothingness
• Contemporary fear of a return to the civil war period before the Tudor settlement
Courtly Love
• Arthurian heritage
• 'Knight in shining armour' idea
• Respectable man, upright, good morals
• Brought together masculine ideals of the soldier and the lover
Cuckoldry
• Becoming a horned beast
• Huge embarrassment; fear
• Man couldn't control his wife, and/or she had an unnatural sexual appetite
Chastity
• Society passed inheritance down the male line
• Men needed to be sure than their son was their own, and not another's bastard
• A man's reputation could be destroyed by an unfaithful wife
Literary
• Giraldi Cinthio; wrote 'El Capitano Moro'; source of Othello
• Traditional Greek tragedy; hamartia
• Revenge tragedy; Iago is a scheming Machiavel
Exploration
• Known world consisted of Africa, Europe and Asia
• Maps often made symbolically, with the holy city of Jerusalem in the centre
• Only the coast of Northern Africa was known in detail; further reaches of Asia were largely fable
• Europe bought luxury goods for China (eg
...
e
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Othello can be seen to represent the Everyman who succumbs to temptation and is destroyed by it
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Desdemona is a figure of truth and fidelity

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