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Othello: Character- Othello
Oppositions:
- 
All the characters hold specific, and often
opposing views of the Moor
...

- 
The hero’s two contradictory ;both military
man and lover-husband
...
A03
Domestic Tragedy:
-  The Turkish invasion and machinations of the
Venetian state provide the backdrop to an
essentially private tragedy
...
Othello’s desire for revenge is prompted by
his need to recover his reputation
...
A03
-  When Othello fears that he has been
cuckolded the hero doubts himself and is
forced to accommodate a new role, that of
duped husband, which his pride will not allow
him to accept A02
- 
...
A05

First Impression:
-Before he appears, led to believe by Iago that Othello is conceited and personally lascivious
...
A02
-  Unlike Shakespeare’s other tragic protagonists, Othello is not a monarch (King Lear), an aspiring monarch
(Macbeth) nor a displaced prince (Hamlet)
...

-  Othello’s positive attributes indicate that we should view him as a hero, as does his customary mode of
speech
...
) A02

A03:
• 
Othello is the first Moor who is a tragic hero in Jacobean drama
...
1591)
...

• 
Peele’s play was anti-Spanish and pro-Moroccan because of its historical context
...

Race:
-  Othello is not the stereotypical immoral, lustful Moor of much Renaissance drama
...
AO2 Race is not an issue for the heroine: as Othello reminds Iago, ‘she had eyes and chose me’ (III
...
192)
...
3
...
A02
-  A modern audience would never feel that Othello becomes jealous and murderous because he is black A05
...
2
...
R
...
1
...
Given his
pride, the hero finds this intolerable
...
R
...
DOWNFALL- A05
•  By the time Othello descends into murderous
jealousy we are well acquainted with his
noble character and recognise that he has
been ‘ensnared’ (V
...
299)
...
A05
•  When Othello fears that he has been
betrayed by Desdemona he says woefully,
‘Othello’s occupation’s gone!’ (III
...
360)
...
She has perhaps
replaced his career as the source of his pride
and honour
...
A05

LOVER AND HUSBAND:
•  we are not encouraged to dwell on the elopement itself because it becomes clear that Desdemona was ‘half
the wooer’ (I
...
176) and the couple speak clearly and honestly about their love, to the council and to each
other
...
A02
•  The Duke of Venice recognizes Othello’s suitability as a wooer when he says, ‘I think this tale would win my
daughter too’ (I
...
172)
...

3
...
A02/ A03
•  However, there are tensions and contradictions that must be considered, as Desdemona’s need to live with
her husband conflicts with Othello’s intention to keep the marriage separate from his duties
...
He claims that Othello is not driven by
jealousy, but by ‘moral indignation and regret’ that Desdemona’s virtue has been destroyed
...
When Othello greets Desdemona in Cyprus – he is almost too happy
...
3
...
A02
•  The successful soldier becomes a blind lover
...
Othello’s decisiveness leads him to seek ‘ocular proof’ (III
...
363) and then when he is
presented with that proof his decision to pursue a bloody course is made swiftly
...
Othello suffers acutely from Act III Scene 3 onwards and does not give into his feelings of jealousy as swiftly
as William Hazlitt suggests when he describes Othello as having ‘blood of the most inflammable kind’
...
2
...
A05
•  We know just how powerful Iago’s influence is because Othello begins to speak and think like the ensign
when his imagination is polluted
...
A02

Othello: Character- Othello


...
Nonetheless,
Othello believes he is saving other men’s honour and redeeming his own when he smothers Desdemona,
calling himself an ‘honourable murderer’ (V
...
291)
...
When Othello commits suicide he courageously takes his own life to pay for the crime of killing
Desdemona
...
So, while it is impossible to condone Othello’s actions in Act V Scene 2, it is
possible to sympathise with and pity the fallen hero, whose suffering has been extreme
...
One popular view is that the character of Othello disintegrates psychologically and morally through the play
and that this disintegration can be followed in his changing speech style
...
Others, such as the scholar Muriel
Bradbrook, see Othello as the descendant of the medieval stage devil, a corrupting influence throughout the
play
...
A05
•  Caryl Phillips, on the other hand, believes Othello to be fundamentally ‘an impulsive and insecure man’, a
vulnerable human being who reacts under pressure (‘A black European success’, The European Tribe,
2000)A05
•  Some critics go even further and praise Othello’s decision to commit suicide, reading it not as a mark of
weakness but as a sign of a Stoic hero
...
A05
•  Eliot says that Othello’s last speech is a ‘terrible exposure of human weakness’
...
3
...
He says
she is ‘A maiden never bold,/ Of spirit’ (I
...
95–6), modest and opposed to
marriage, afraid to look on Othello
...
This
version of Desdemona proves inaccurate when she speaks in Act I
...
This is horribly ironic
...
A02
• 
In Othello (1997), E
...
J
...
’A01
•  Desdemona asserts her sexuality- for example Desdemona’s participation in the
crude talk with Iago in Act II Scene 1, and her admiring reference to Lodovico in
Act IV Scene 3
...
Iago is able to make a
great deal out of the fact that Desdemona deceived her father in order to choose
her own husband, and is therefore untrustworthy
...
She states this explicitly when she
says, ‘My heart’s subdued/ Even to the very quality of my lord’ (I
...
251–2)
...
Desdemona’s ‘nagging’ can be portrayed on
stage as playful and loving, her anxiousness about Othello’s health touching
...
A02
•  When Othello strikes her publicly Desdemona reproaches him briefly: ‘I have not
deserved this’ (IV
...
240)
...
A02
•  Desdemona asserts her loving loyalty and questions Othello bravely in Act IV
Scene 2 (see lines 30–89) but is reduced to dumb misery when her husband calls
her ‘that cunning whore of Venice’ (IV
...
91): ‘nor answer have I none’ she says
woefully (IV
...
105), remarking – girlishly – that she is ‘a child to chiding’ (IV
...
116)
...


Final Words:
•  Ultimately Desdemona refuses to blame Othello for her unhappiness: she
declares it is her ‘wretched fortune’ (IV
...
129)
...
4
...
But while Desdemona submits willingly to the man
she chose to marry, she dies valiantly, fighting to be allowed to live and
asserting her honesty
...
Why does Desdemona
take the blame for her own death? Is she trying to protect Othello in death
as she sought to defend him in life? Or is she simply a victim asserting her
own innocence? However we interpret Desdemona’s final words, we will
probably feel that the heroine’s passivity in Act V Scene 2 contradicts her


...
A
...
Honigmann interprets Desdemona’s last words as
‘an act of forgiveness’
...
1
...
He wants to be
even with Othello ‘wife for wife’ (II
...
297)
...
3
...
A02

•  E
...
J
...
There is
one line of Iago that could be delivered with a hint of regret: ‘Do not weep,
do not weep: alas the day!’ (IV
...
126)
...
A05
BRAVERY: A02
•  Desdemona defends her own honour throughout the play, shown when she
says to Othello, ‘By heaven, you do me wrong’ (IV
...
82)
...

•  The reference to heaven reinforces Desdemona’s virtue
...


Othello: Character- Desdemona
A04:
•  The actor Dominic West, who played Iago in 2011, said that he felt that Iago’s
‘love’ for Desdemona was an important part of the villain’s motivation
...
Do you believe West is correct,
and that Iago is in love with Desdemona?
FURTHER KEY QUOTATIONS: A02
•  Desdemona actively chose Othello and sees him as a hero: ‘I saw Othello’s visage
in his mind/ And to his honours and his valiant parts/ Did I my soul and fortunes
consecrate’ (I
...
253)
...

3
...

•  Desdemona loves Othello to the bitter end
...
2
...

•  For Othello there are two Desdemonas
...
1
...

2
...

•  Desdemona is Iago’s victim
...
3
...


Othello: Character- Iago
IAGO THE VILLAIN:
•  Iago is a compelling and sophisticated villain
...

•  Shakespeare presents Iago as cynical, quick witted and opportunistic – all
qualities of stage villains in revenge tragedies
...
Iago’s silence led Romantic poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge to conclude
that the ensign is an example of ‘motiveless malignity’
...

•  In more recent times, Iago’s role has been reassessed
...
Instead he can be seen as an example of an
emotionally limited man, driven by petty professional jealousy and class
consciousness
...

•  For example, Iago demonstrates several characteristics of a typical Jacobean
stage villain
...
He is selfcontained, egotistical and confident, and successful because he can play different
roles
...
With
Cassio, he is coarse and genial when offering plausible practical advice
...
With Montano
and Lodovico he makes a point of stressing that he has Othello’s and the
Venetian state’s best interests at heart
...
But this is deliberate and false
...
Pay close attention to his exchanges with Roderigo,


...
H
...
), Othello (1971) A05

IAGO’S MOTIVES

•  Critics are divided about whether or not Iago’s motives are adequate or
plausible
...
One
school of thought suggests that Iago knows the things he says about
others are not true, but that his desire for revenge demands that he has
an explanation for his actions
...
He is certainly also envious of the
‘daily beauty’ in the lieutenant’s life (V
...
19)
...
Iago’s relationship with Roderigo is driven by callous
greed and when his ‘purse’ (I
...
381) becomes a dangerous
inconvenience, he kills him
...
Iago holds a grudge against
Othello for promoting Cassio over him
...
He says he hates Othello because he suspects the general has
‘’twixt my sheets … done my office’ (I
...
386–7)
...
It is tempting to add misogyny and racial prejudice
to Iago’s motives
...

Iago wants to degrade those he despises
...
Do they provide proof that they
are weak minded, foolish, petty or inconstant? There is a strong sense
that the women in this play are hapless victims
...
A04

A02:
Iago’s plan is to use Desdemona’s virtue to destroy Othello
...
3
...


The imagery suggests that Iago is setting a trap for his prey
...

Iago’s intended exploitation of Desdemona’s goodness prepares us for
his abuse of the other female characters, Emilia and Bianca, later in the
play
...
Iago presents
Cassio as an inexperienced soldier, a mere ‘arithmetician’ (I
...
18) who has been
promoted beyond his deserving
...
However, there is some evidence that
Cassio lacks military judgement
...
Instead of keeping order and discipline, he creates confusion
and alarm
...
Perhaps Cassio’s military inexperience is meant to serve as another
parallel with Othello, who is an inexperienced lover – despite their inexperience
both men take their roles seriously
...

•  Cassio’s misery when he fears he has lost his good name reminds us how
important reputation was to a man’s conception of his honour in the
Renaissance
...
A03

Cassio and Othello:A02
•  Michael Cassio’s primary function in the play is to offer a point of
comparison with Othello
...
Both value their reputations highly
...

•  Florence had a reputation as city of culture so, unlike his general, Cassio
is a social sophisticate
...
At the start of the play, when Othello is
‘well tuned’ (II
...
198) with Desdemona, his relationship with Cassio is
good
...
Cassio
assisted Othello while he was courting Desdemona but Iago is able to turn
this act of loyalty into proof of treachery
...
Cassio’s generous tribute to Othello at
the end of the play also reminds us how great the hero was
...

3
...


CASSIO AND IAGO:

•  Cassio’s worst qualities are revealed when he is under Iago’s influence
...
Iago pretends to be a loyal friend to both men
...
It is to his credit that Cassio is as easy to fool as
Othello; to Shakespeare’s audience this would have been proof of his honesty
...
He takes advantage of the
lieutenant’s courtesy, recognising that Cassio’s weakness lies in the fact that he is ‘handsome, young and hath all
those requisites in him that folly and green minds look after’ (II
...
243–5)
...

From this position of strength, Iago is then able to make Cassio’s virtues look like vices
...
Like Othello, Cassio is a puppet in Iago’s hands
...
Consider
the role of Cassio in the light of this comment
...
Cassio’s treatment of his
mistress is often callous-referring to Bianca contemptuously as a
‘bauble’ (IV
...
134), and compares her to a ‘fitchew’ (a polecat, IV
...
145)
...
It is hard not to judge Cassio harshly when he tells Bianca to be
gone because he does not want to be found ‘womaned’ (III
...
194)
...

Rather than facing up to Othello he enlists the help of Emilia, then
Desdemona to plead his case
...
3
...
We have
to remember the ‘daily beauty’ (V
...
19) of Cassio’s life that Iago detests
so much
...
A03
•  Writing in 1765, Dr Johnson had a very positive view of Cassio’s character
...
A
...
Honigmann comments that ‘one wonders …
whether the men are capable of unselfish love’ in Othello
...

For example, why is Cassio portrayed as gallant and courteous when he
speaks to Desdemona in Act II, but as a reluctant and abusive lover of
Bianca? A02


FURTHER KEY QUOTATIONS
•  Cassio’s charm and courtesy, welcoming Desdemona to Cyprus: ‘O, behold,/ The
riches of the ship is come on shore:/ You men of Cyprus, let her have your
knees!’ (II
...
82–4)
...
4
...

•  Cassio’s generous tribute to Othello: ‘he was great of heart’ (V
...
359)
...
3
...

•  Cassio’s obsession with his reputation mirrors Othello’s obsession
...

•  The reference to being ‘bestial’ foreshadows Othello’s downfall – Othello will
become ‘bestial’ himself when he avenges his masculine honour
...
Emilia makes the wrong moral choice when she gives the
handkerchief to Iago because he ‘hath a hundred times/
Wooed me to steal it’ (III
...
296–7)
...

3
...
Will the audience blame Emilia for putting her
husband’s ‘fantasy’ (III
...
303) before her mistress’s peace
of mind? A02
•  Emilia’s loyalty is tested again when Desdemona wonders
how she lost the handkerchief
...
4
...
Emilia’s
loyalty is tested for a final time in Act V
...
She tells the truth about the
handkerchief and betrays Iago
...
A02
•  Some critics have suggested that Emilia is the most
admirable and the strongest woman in Othello
...
2
...
To what extent do you agree with this
interpretation? A05

EMILIA AND IAGO:
•  Emilia’s relationship with Iago is a chilling example of marital disharmony
...

•  Iago’s attitude towards his wife is proprietorial and controlling
...

•  Iago treats Emilia contemptuously- insults Emilia as ‘a foolish wife’ (III
...
308), but when he
realises she has the handkerchief, his tone softens: now Emilia is a ‘good wench’ (III
...
317)
...
In Act IV
Scene 2, Iago is annoyed when Emilia refers to Iago’s false suspicion that Othello cuckolded him
...
2
...
2
...
A02
•  In Act V, Iago’s verbal abuse intensifies just before he kills her
...
2
...
These
words encapsulate the disrespect Iago feels for all women
...
A02
EMILIA’S JUDGEMENT:
•  It is difficult not to agree with some of Emilia’s harsh judgments of Othello and we know that
she is absolutely right to betray Iago
...
Look at Emilia’s defence of adultery in Act III Scene 4
...
Should we conclude that Emilia’s female voice is trustworthy, but not infallible?
•  In Othello (1997), E
...
J
...
He says ‘Emilia’s love [of Desdemona] is Iago’s undoing’
...
It
comes as no surprise that Emilia is cynical about men
...
She uses it to
defend herself and her sex
...
1
...
In Act III Scene 4 we see that Emilia is more realistic about male–female
relationships than Desdemona
...
/ They are all but
stomachs, and we all but food’ (III
...
104–5)
...
In the willow song scene,
notice how Emilia insists that women have the same appetites as men and the same right to
‘revenge’ if they are badly treated (IV
...
92)
...

•  She becomes her mistress’s energetic defender, voicing the audience’s
outrage at the treatment Desdemona receives
...

•  She describes Othello’s destructive jealousy accurately
...
2
...
A02
•  In the final scene Emilia becomes the voice of truth and stops Iago’s evil
progress
...
2
...
It seems fitting that Emilia should die beside the
mistress she defended with her dying breath
...

This is especially important when writing about language and imagery
...
Firstly, why does she give
the handkerchief to Iago when she does not know why he wants it? Emilia regrets
giving it to him the moment he takes possession of it, suggesting that she is
uneasy about his motives
...
When she hears that Iago led Othello to believe Desdemona
was false she says, ‘I think upon’t, I think I smell’t, O villainy!/ I thought so then:
I’ll kill myself for grief!’ (V
...
188–9)
...
A02
•  However, Emilia’s horrified repeated question ‘My husband?’ (V
...
138, 142, 145)
could be seen as proof that Emilia knew nothing of Iago’s villainy
...
A02
•  KEY INTERPRETATION
•  For a feminist reading of the play, see Marilyn French’s essay in John Drakakis
(ed
...
A05


A02:
•  Emilia says ‘jealous souls … are not ever jealous for the cause, … [Jealousy] is a
monster/ Begot upon itself, born on itself’ (III
...
159–62)
...

•  These words suggest Othello’s jealousy will feed itself
...

•  It is ironic that Emilia is the wise expert on jealousy, when she seems to have no
clue about Iago’s villainy
...
We are
led to believe that Brabantio is a valuable member of the council, well
respected by others
...

•  Ironically, like Othello, Brabantio puts his private affairs before affairs of
state
...

PROGRESS BOOSTER: A03
•  Shakespeare lived in a patriarchal society and consider the different
ways Elizabethan and modern audiences might respond to
Desdemona’s behaviour towards her father in Act I
...
Shakespeare’s audience may
have felt his wrongs more deeply than we do today
...
A03
•  Like Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the treasured daughter denies her father’s right
to dispose of her in marriage as he sees fit
...
1
...
A04
•  He reminds Desdemona that it is her duty to obey him in Act I Scene 3 (see lines
175–9)
...
These views come across
in Brabantio’s descriptions of Othello as a ‘foul thief’ (I
...
62) who has bewitched
Desdemona
...
Brabantio suggests that
Desdemona’s marriage to Othello undermines not just his own authority, but the
whole social order
...
Fathers expected to control
their daughters and marry them off to their own social or financial advantage
...
Brabantio is more tolerant than many
Renaissance aristocrats – he says he was willing to allow Desdemona some choice
about whom she married
...
Until the elopement his home has been a place of family harmony
...
Any audience would understand Brabantio’s
desire to find a suitable match for his daughter
...
1
...
Brabantio has also allowed Desdemona to reject suitors herself
...

•  Not all of Brabantio’s speeches about losing his daughter are unsympathetic
...
He says ‘my particular grief/ Is of so flood-gate and o’erbearing nature/ That it
engluts and swallows other sorrows’ (I
...
57–9)
...
A02
•  The intense emotion described in this speech foreshadows Othello’s outraged feelings when he believes he has been
betrayed by Desdemona
...

Like Othello, Brabantio dies grieving for his lost love
...

2
...
A02

Othello: Character- Brabantio

•  Identify the factors that cause us to lose sympathy with Brabantio
...

•  Brabantio refuses to have anything to do with his daughter after her marriage
and he casts Desdemona off
...
3
...
Brabantio’s final words to Othello are a harsh warning: ‘Look
to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:/ She has deceived her father, and may
thee’ (I
...
293– 4)
...

Brabantio also proves to be too selfishly materialistic
...
3
...
We also come to question Brabantio’s judgement when he says it
would have been better if Roderigo had ‘had’ Desdemona rather than
Othello
...
His unfavourable view of Othello is influenced heavily by the
ensign’s crude and prejudiced characterisation of the Moor
...
Does the fact that Brabantio’s point of view and
wishes are denied by the senate suggest that this interpretation is valid?
KEY CONNECTION A04
•  For a comic treatment of a father trying to marry off his two daughters, see
Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew
...
Bianca is outwardly obedient, but secretly arranges her
own marriage, while Katherina is a ‘scold’ who is married against her will to a
fortune hunter, Petruchio
...
2
...
A02
•  Brabantio sees Othello as a threat to social order and stability
...
A03
•  These words reveal the social attitudes of many people in Shakespeare’s
society: Brabantio implies slaves and foreigners should not be treated as
equals
...
3
...
How many other
examples of deception can you find in the play?

Othello: Character-Roderigo
RODERIGO: VICTIM OR VILLAIN?
•  As a disappointed suitor Roderigo represents the ‘curled darlings’ (I
...
68) that
Desdemona rejected, providing us with a point of comparison with noble Othello
...

Often he seems villainous – he has no concern for Desdemona’s feelings, making
him a potential abuser of women
...

•  In Cyprus, Roderigo participates in the attempt on Cassio’s life without feeling
convinced that his intended victim deserves to die
...
He lacks
resolution or volition and has to be directed offstage many times
...

•  It is possible to see Roderigo as another outsider in Othello
...
Roderigo’s
miserable end seems a cruel fate
...
There is some rehabilitation of Roderigo’s character in the final scene
when his letters are discovered, revealing the truth about Iago’s plots
...
If you are writing about the theme of love, you could
comment on Roderigo’s role as thwarted lover, comparing him with Othello
...

•  Roderigo’s primary role is to enable the audience to gain insight into
Iago’s methods
...

1
...
In the subplot Iago exploits Roderigo for his money, promising his
victim that he will be able to enjoy Desdemona’s sexual favours
...
Roderigo is used as
a pawn in two key scenes: the drinking scene where Cassio is provoked,
and then the attack on Cassio’s life in Act V
...

KEY INTERPRETATION A05
•  In Othello (1997), E
...
J
...
Firstly, ‘Roderigo activates poisonous
impulses in Iago’
...
1
...

•  Roderigo realises the truth about Iago too late, and is ironically the first
to recognise his villainy
...

•  It is darkly ironic that Othello will also use dog imagery just before he
kills himself, linking his evil actions to Iago’s influence
...
Iago accuses her of
involvement in the plot to kill Cassio to distract attention away from himself
...
As a prostitute, Bianca’s only power lies in her ability to
attract customers
...
Love also makes Bianca vulnerable
...
1
...
The irony is that Bianca is more honest and true than the
outwardly honourable men who abuse her
...

KEY CONTEXT: A03
•  Venice had a reputation for its courtesans
...
Guidebooks were available, which gave the names, addresses
and fees of Venice’s most prominent prostitutes
...
Iago jokes with Cassio about his marrying Bianca, so
we can assume she is single
...
4
...


Bianca’s words reveal how powerless she is
...

Bianca’s acceptance of Cassio’s authority over her foreshadows Desdemona’s words
and actions in Act IV Scene 2
...
Cassio tells us
that ‘she haunts me in every place’ (IV
...
132–3), suggesting that
Bianca is smitten with him
...
1
...
Bianca’s unfounded
jealousy mirrors Othello’s
...
She says woefully, ‘To the felt absence now I feel a
cause’ (III
...
182)
...
2
...
It is worth
thinking about why Shakespeare links Bianca and Othello
linguistically
...
We know
this because Cassio is dining with Bianca before he is wounded in the
final scene
...
1
...
Her constancy in love links Bianca to Desdemona
...


KEY INTERPRETATION:A05
Some critics have argued that Shakespeare criticises the double standards
applied to male and female sexuality in Othello
...


Othello: Theme - Jealousy
JEALOUSY AND DESTRUCTION
•  Jealousy is a form of tyranny- destroys love, honour and nobility in
those it afflicts
...
It also seems
that it is the nature of jealousy not to be satisfied
...

•  Othello’s jealous thoughts are characterised by references to acts of
violence against Desdemona
...
3
...
1
...
Othello also
wants to torture and kill his supposed rival Cassio
...
Jealousy has
destroyed him
...

KEY INTERPRETATION:A05
•  F
...
Leavis has claimed that Othello’s jealousy ‘is unassociated with
any real interest in Desdemona as a person’
...
To what
extent do you agree with these comments?
PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSY
•  Iago’s professional jealousy, which can be linked to the sin of envy,
sets the tragic events of the play in motion
...
I
•  ago is also envious of Cassio’s superior manners and social status
...

Iago says Cassio must be destroyed because of the ‘daily beauty in his
life/ That makes me ugly’ (V
...
19)
...

•  It is ‘the green-eyed monster, which doth mock/ The meat it feeds on’ (III
...
168–9), ‘a monster/ Begot upon itself, born on itself’ (III
...
161–2)
...
3
...
A02
•  Shakespeare explores the monstrous power of jealousy again in The Winter’s
Tale, where King Leontes becomes convinced his wife, Hermione, has been
unfaithful
...
A04
STUDY FOCUS: JEALOUSY AND MADNESS: A02
•  Iago makes explicit connections between jealousy and madness
...

•  Iago observes how ‘he foams at mouth, and … Breaks out to savage madness’ (IV
...
54–5)
...

•  Othello believes he is watching Cassio describe his adulterous liaison with
Desdemona
...

1
...
Emilia also makes a connection between madness and jealousy when she
describes how husbands ‘break out in peevish jealousies’ (IV
...
88)
...

•  Does sexual jealousy turn Iago into a villain- Iago’s aim is to make Othello
and Cassio suffer as he suffers because he fears he has been cuckolded
...

•  This is not the case with Bianca and Othello
...
Perhaps Othello’s insistence on proof might suggest that this
jealous husband is a nobler man than Iago
...
1
...
These words suggest sexual jealousy is
prompted by competitiveness, as well as possessiveness
...
Othello cannot bear the idea of Desdemona’s ‘stolen hours of lust’ (III
...
341)
...

•  In Othello sexual jealousy seems to be the ‘flipside’ of boundless love
...

•  Finally, Othello suggests jealousy is ridiculous and humiliating, as well as
terrifying and corrosive
...

•  It is horribly humiliating that Othello, a renowned and experienced soldier,
should kill his wife and himself because of a handkerchief, which has absurdly
come to symbolise his own and Desdemona’s honour
...
4
...

•  Emilia’s words can be applied to both Iago and Othello – neither has a just
‘cause’ for his actions
...

•  Othello’s jealousy ‘will not be answered’: he refuses to believe
Desdemona’s protestations of her innocence
...
In the
comedy Much Ado About Nothing the young lover, Claudio, believes his
fiancée, Hero, has been unfaithful with another man and rejects her at the
altar
...
When Brabantio warns him that Desdemona may
deceive him, Othello is dismissive
...

3
...
Othello trusts his wife completely
...


Othello: Theme- Love and Relationships
DOUBLE STANDARDS
• 
...
Men have more personal freedom,
and women are judged by them and in relation to them
...
1
...
It is socially acceptable for Cassio to consort with a courtesan,
but it is presumptuous for Bianca to expect him to marry her
•  Iago pretends to help Roderigo in his adulterous pursuit of Desdemona
because it enables him to keep hold of his ‘purse’ (I
...
381)
...
Iago’s successful vilification of
Desdemona is the key example of this
...
The masculine code of honour is threatened by the
idea of active female sexuality, so Iago destroys Othello by making the
hero believe his chaste wife has strayed
...

If Desdemona is not one, then she must be the other
...

KEY INTERPRETATION:A05
•  A good way of demonstrating your understanding of how love and
relationships are portrayed in Othello is to take a New Historicist approach
to the text
...
For example, what sort of power does
Desdemona have before and after marriage?

PROGRESS BOOSTER: GENDER AND POWER A02

•  It’s important that you can discuss how power is a key factor in all the
relationships portrayed
...

•  The example set by Desdemona shows that male–female relationships
are the focus of conflict in this play; they are about opposition and
power
...

•  The women lose these power struggles
...
That they
ever had any power is debatable
...



KEY CONTEXT: A03
•  During the Renaissance, many people believed that men were
intellectually and morally superior to women because of Christian
teachings
...
How do you judge Desdemona in the light of Knox’s comments?

Othello: Theme- Love and Relationships
Othello: Genre- Love and Relationships
COUPLES
•  Initially, Desdemona and Othello stand apart from the other
couples because they have a harmonious relationship
...
The former is an unequal match between a ‘customer’ (IV
...
120) who feels a limited affection and a ‘bauble’ (IV
...
134),
whose genuine love makes her unhappy
...

•  Marriage has made Emilia cynical about male–female relationships
...
4
...

•  The misogyny of Iago casts a dark shadow over Othello’s
relationship with Desdemona, which seems so full of optimism and
delight at the start of the play
...

Othello loves Desdemona for her feminine grace and sympathy;
she loves him for his masculine heroism
...
These
differences become distorted by an interloper, a man who cannot
bear to see two lovers ‘well tuned’ (II
...
198)
...

KEY INTERPRETATION: A05
In ‘The Noble Moor’ (1956), Helen Gardner suggests that Desdemona is
‘love’s martyr’
...
Do you find this
reading of the end of the play plausible?

EMILIA ON MARRIAGE: A02
•  Emilia has a disillusioned view of marriage: ‘’Tis not a year or two shows us a
man
...
4
...

•  These words remind us that the female characters are powerless in Othello ; they
are ‘food’ for their men
...

•  Emilia reminds us of the importance of not judging by first impressions and
appearances
...
Desdemona
submits willingly to Othello’s authority
...
3
...
Later she obeys Othello
even when he strikes her, saying ‘I will not stay to offend you’ (IV
...
246)
...

PROGRESS BOOSTER:A05
If you are asked to write about the ways in which love and marriage are presented in
Othello you need to link these themes to the cultural and historical context of the play
in order to get the best grades
...


Othello: Theme- Race and Colour
•  It is not possible to define Othello’s race exactly
...

It can be argued that Othello’s race is irrelevant
...
The wealth of imagery of black and white and light and dark
suggests that colour is significant in this play (see Language section)
...
A03
•  From the medieval period onwards the devil was often depicted in art
as a black man surrounded by the flames of hell
...
Prior to Othello,
‘blackamoors’ in plays and pageants were usually sinister figures
...

•  Here we see a tension between the state and the family
...
A
victim of racial prejudice himself, Robeson saw Othello as an underdog
...
The fact that Othello has risen to
the important and powerful position of general and is accepted as a distinguished
member of Venetian society suggests that the state he serves is prepared to see
good in foreigners and accept that they have a useful role to play
...
She defends her marriage by saying she
‘saw Othello’s visage in his mind’ (I
...
253)
...

•  Is Shakespeare suggesting that Othello is the exception to the rule that black is
usually bad, or urging us to see that racial differences do not matter in love?
•  If this is the case, Desdemona holds a radical point of view for a Jacobean
heroine
...

•  The Duke’s words to Brabantio suggest caution or racial tolerance, ‘Your son-inlaw is far more fair than black’ (I
...
291)
...
Othello stresses this when he says ‘she had eyes and chose
me’ (III
...
192)
...

•  There is a negative view of Othello’s blackness, which is undermined because we
are not encouraged by Shakespeare to respect the speakers, or we at least
question their judgement
...
Their
references to a ‘sooty bosom’ (I
...
70), ‘the thicklips’ (I
...
65) and ‘an old black
ram’ (I
...
87) who practises witchcraft construct a negative racial stereotype of
Othello
...
It is important to remember that the
negative racial descriptions of Othello, which dominate the play at times, are
inaccurate
...
Othello is superstitious (the
handkerchief), he is passionate (he weeps many times) and he does become
violent
...
Othello
is in an impossible position as a black man serving a white
patriarchy
...

•  We might feel that the hero is dislocated because he marries,
turning his back on his profession to become a husband
...

•  Consideration of Othello’s dislocation must include an assessment
of his final speeches, which suggest he is not his noble self because
he has become a villain
...

2
...

•  References to the devil are reserved for Iago at the end of the play,
linking him firmly to the theme of dislocation
...


•  Desdemona views Othello’s origins positively
...
4
...

•  Desdemona’s positive view of Othello’s race provides a clear contrast with
the negative Renaissance racial stereotype of Othello as a cruel, savage black
man, which comes across in Iago’s speeches
...

•  Ironically, Desdemona is wrong about Othello: he does become jealous,
although Shakespeare does not suggest Othello has a propensity to jealousy
because he is black
...
Elizabeth I set up the Barbary Company, and an embassy of Moroccans
was received at court in 1600
...
English attitudes to ‘foreigners’ were clearly
contradictory
...
The Duke accepts
Othello’s marriage to Desdemona, while Brabantio cannot
...

•  They are destroyed swiftly by the disastrous consequences of their errors
...

•  At the end of Greek tragedies justice and order are restored and a new status quo
is established
...
Aristotle
suggested that tragedy should evoke pity and fear (pathos) in an audience
...
They witness and
comment on events, but do not participate in them
...
Make sure that you can
comment on this aspect of genre in relation to Othello
...
Othello is a high-ranking
general and is descended from a line of kings
...
It is possible to argue that there is a sense of inevitability about Othello’s
downfall from the moment he arrives in Cyprus and declares he feels ‘too much
joy’ (II
...
195)
...

Emilia performs some of the functions of a Greek chorus when she comments on
Othello’s folly
...
g
...


CONFLICT AND SUFFERING IN TRAGEDY

•  However, Othello is a highly original tragedy
...

Shakespeare also subverts tragic conventions by keeping the evil revenger
Iago alive at the end of the play
...
Iago’s dominance in this tragedy is
also unusual; the villain and hero have equivalent stage time and are
equally powerful speakers
...
R
...
He claims that Othello realises his folly but
there is ‘no tragic self-discovery’
...
Is this how you view Othello at the end of the play?

Othello: Genre-Tragedy
STUDY FOCUS: SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY AND OTHELLO

•  In Othello, Shakespeare pits good (Othello) against evil (Iago) and we watch as
the tragic hero’s new family unit is destroyed against the backdrop of the Turkish
conflict
•  As well as observing some of the conventions of Greek tragedy, Shakespeare
makes effective use of the theatrical conventions of his own age
...


KEY CONNECTION: A04
•  Rory Kinnear, who played Iago in a production of Othello in 2013, says that the
tragedy of the play is ‘all the more overwhelming’ because the audience knows
about Iago’s evil scheming and are ‘powerless to stop it’
...
The suffering of the central couple is a
direct result of his malicious plotting
...

•  The play is extremely painful to watch because we know how
untrustworthy the villain is from the very first scene, and can see how
expert Iago is at exercising his power
...
Think about how the villain Iago works
to isolate the characters from each other in Othello and why he does this
...
Or does Iago need others for his plans to succeed?

LOVE AND PITY IN OTHELLO

•  Othello is a tragedy preoccupied by the nature of love
...

We side with Othello and Desdemona in the Senate scene in Act I Scene 3
because their love is threatened
...
From Act III love is undermined by mistrust,
uncertainty and jealousy
...

•  Desdemona defends her love for Othello with her dying breath, and the tragic
protagonist dies ‘upon a kiss’ (V
...
357)
...
In Renaissance drama a domestic
tragedy is a tragedy in which the protagonists are ordinary middle-class or
lower-class individuals
...


Othello: Structure- Setting

•  There are two principal locations, Venice and Cyprus, but gradually our attention
becomes fixed on a single bedroom, creating a feeling of claustrophobia that is
unique in Shakespeare’s tragedies
...

•  The use of Venice as a location is significant
...
A03
•  The Italians were thought to be worldly and Venice in particular was associated
with everything that was culturally sophisticated
...
A03
•  It is appropriate that the Machiavellian trickster Iago should originate and appear
in an Italian setting before being transported to Cyprus
...
A03
•  The war isolates Desdemona from everything and everyone she knows; similarly,
Othello feels his difference and isolation in Cyprus when he is ‘Perplexed in the
extreme’ (V
...
344)
...

•  The storm helps to establish and reflect the fear and violence that the characters
will experience in Cyprus, while also being a symbol of the love of Othello and
Desdemona
...
In particular, foreign visitors noticed the way in
which young men were brought up to have loose morals
...


A SENSE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA:

•  The sense of claustrophobia is heightened by the fact that there is no
real subplot in Othello
...
2
...

•  Even the characters who seem to have other ‘lives’ are closely linked
to the married couple: Roderigo’s foolish hopes and Cassio’s
relationship with Bianca provide points of comparison with the
Othello–Desdemona match
...

•  Iago threatens the order and harmony of the network because he is
able to manipulate the most powerful group member
...

PROGRESS BOOSTER: A02
•  When writing about Othello it is important to remember that you are
writing about a play
...
g
...


Othello: Structure
STUDY FOCUS: LONG AND SHORT SCENES A02
•  The construction of scenes is extremely effective in Othello
...

•  Act III Scene 3 is a good example of how Shakespeare structures a scene for
maximum theatrical impact
...
Iago takes full advantage of the awkwardness that already exists between
the married couple
...
When he knows he has hooked Othello, Iago exits
...
Othello’s first moment of isolation shows his agony
...
3
...

•  After further awkward exchanges between the major characters, Othello is back
in Iago’s clutches
...

•  By the end of the scene Othello’s ‘fair warrior’ (II
...
179) has become ‘the fair
devil’ (III
...
481)
...


KEY INTERPRETATION: “HONEST IAGO” A05
•  All the main characters (with the exception of his wife, interestingly) call Iago
‘honest’, and the ensign makes extensive use of the word himself when deceiving
his victims
...
3
...

•  For comments about the fifty-two uses of the word ‘honest’ in the play, see
William Empson in John Wain (ed
...


REVERSAL AND REPETITION: A02

•  The structure of the play relies on reversal and repetition
...

•  In Act I he is the underdog, overlooked and irrelevant except as an
escort for Desdemona
...

•  Conversely, Othello is at his most secure in Acts I and II, when he
defends and then consummates his marriage
...
In Act V, Othello
sinks further when he smothers Desdemona
...
At the end of the
play the tragic protagonist is partially redeemed when he recognises
his folly and chooses to destroy himself, while Iago’s downfall is
assured when he is revealed as a scoundrel
...
3
...
In Act III Scene 4,
Bianca complains to Cassio that he has stayed away from her a week, and Othello
himself says that he believes Desdemona has committed adultery with Cassio ‘A
thousand times’ (V
...
210)
...

•  These statements which suggest ‘long time’ are primarily designed to increase
the plausibility of Othello’s jealousy
...
The play would be less dramatic if Iago loosened his grip on his
victim once he was in his grasp
...
How would you
argue for or against Gardner’s viewpoint?
Double time scheme:
The theory of a ‘double time scheme’ in Othello dates from the middle of the
nineteenth century
...
It appears that the disintegration of Othello’s mind and
marriage occurs extremely fast and Iago recognises that he must move quickly if his
plots are to remain concealed; at the same time the characters make statements
that suggest time is moving quite slowly
...

•  The opening scene occurs in the street in Venice at night, and the
play ends in Othello’s bedroom in Cyprus at night
...

•  In Act V he is wounded by Iago in the street at night
...
What
significance does this have? Because Iago is present or has
instigated all the violent events that occur at night, we know that
night-time is associated with his evil progress
...

•  However, because so much of Othello occurs at night, it can be
argued that there is never any doubt that evil will triumph over
goodness
...
The first act of Othello
takes place in one night
...
The characters land just before ‘this present hour of five’ (II
...
9–10), the wedding celebrations occur that evening, Cassio is
dismissed from his post the same night and we see Iago packing
Roderigo off to bed at dawn the following morning
...
Iago sees his chance and moves into action immediately
...
It is this relentlessness that grips us
in the theatre, where we do not notice the inconsistencies
...
Perhaps Shakespeare uses his time
scheme to show us how powerful and unreasonable jealousy is
...
A05

Othello: Language- Styles of Speech
•  From his opening speeches in Act I Scenes 2 and 3 it is clear that Othello’s
characteristic idiom is dignified, measured blank verse
...

•  Othello’s speeches demonstrate authority in Act I Scene 2
...

•  Shakespeare makes us aware that Othello is an impressive character and a
powerful speaker
...

•  If Othello does not speak persuasively the ‘bloody book of law’ (I
...
68) may
deprive him of his wife
...

•  Desdemona uses the same dignified and purposeful idiom that Othello employs
...
The lovers are, as Iago expresses it,
‘well tuned’ (II
...
198) at this point
...
Comment closely on specific examples of Othello’s ‘styles’
and explore what they mean, and why Othello’s speech style change
KEY INTERPRETATION: A05
•  G
...
He also suggests that Othello’s speech displays a
‘uniquely soldierly precision’ and ‘serenity of thought’
...
2
...


STUDY FOCUS: THE POWER OF LANGUAGE IN OTHELLO

•  Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists used language to establish and
build dramatic atmosphere, to define time, place and character
...

•  Othello ‘falls’ because he believes Iago, whose every utterance is
deceptive
• 
...

•  When Othello is taken in by false words, tragedy is the result
...


OTHELLO THE POET- FIRST IMPRESSIN A02

•  Many of Othello’s long speeches can be compared to poems,
expressing the nobility and romance we come to associate with the
tragic protagonist
...

•  But Othello does not just speak of his love poetically; he speaks of his
career as a soldier in the same vein, establishing himself as a great
military man
...

•  Because of his measured speech style, we accept the poetic hero as
both soldier and husband in the first act of the play
...
At his lowest point, just before he falls down in a fit, Othello’s
words convey his agitation
...
He exclaims ‘handkerchief!’
three times
...
His speech ends with these lines: ‘It is not words that shakes me
thus
...
Is’t possible? Confess? handkerchief! O
devil!’ (IV
...
41–3)
...
The events of the play and the violence of his outburst
suggest that words are destroying Othello
...
Othello also uses oaths, such as ‘Zounds’ (II
...
203),
which are associated with Iago
...
To
what extent do you agree with this interpretation?
KEY INTERPRETATION: A05
•  An aesthetic critique of the play might consider the ways in which
Shakespeare’s use of language and imagery contributes to the artistic
merit of Othello
...
The production ends with the sound of Iago’s echoing laughter as he
is taken away for torture
...


PROGRESS BOOSTER: LANGUAGE AND DISINTEGRATION: A02

•  Notice how from Act III onwards Othello and Desdemona struggle to understand
one another’s language
...
4
...

•  By this point Othello misconstrues everything Desdemona says
...

•  When confronted with the truth Othello then recovers, returning to the majestic
idiom of his earlier speeches at the end of Act V
...
Now he compares himself to ‘the base Indian’
and ‘the circumcised dog’ (V
...
345 and 353)
...
It is full of colloquialisms and oaths, befitting a cynical soldier
...
The villain slips between prose and verse, adapting his style to suit his different
audiences and purposes
...
Most
worryingly, Othello begins to use Iago’s base idiom when he decides to revenge
himself on Desdemona, showing Iago’s increasing authority over him
...
The villain is able not
only to direct but also to comment on the action of the play
...

•  Iago speaks his soliloquies first, drawing the audience in as he outlines his
intentions
...
Iago’s soliloquies and asides are also
a source of a great deal of the dramatic irony of Othello, which increases
dramatic tension
...
3
...
By appearing
reluctant to talk, Iago gains the opportunity to speak at length and poison
Othello’s mind
...
It is
both ironic and appropriate that Iago is unmasked by Emilia, whose powers of
speech he has ignored
...
1
...

•  Iago’s jealousy of the Moor is so strong that it ‘Doth like a poisonous
mineral gnaw my inwards’ (II
...
295)
...
3
...
These references to poison are
appropriate to Iago, whose actions are swift and deadly
...
Iago is gleeful as he describes how his
poison will ‘Burn like the mines of sulphur’ (see III
...
329–32)
...
3
...
The most chilling
reference to poison comes in Act IV Scene 1 when Othello decides to
murder Desdemona:A02
OTHELLO: Get me some poison, Iago, this night
...
This night, Iago
...
(IV
...
201–5)
•  His mind poisoned with foul thoughts, Othello now seeks to kill
Desdemona in the bed that he thinks she has poisoned with her lust
...
Iago’s power is underlined at the end of the play
when Lodovico looks at the ‘tragic loading’ of bodies on Othello’s bed,
commenting that it ‘poisons sight’
...

2
...
An aesthetic approach to Othello might focus
on the linguistic beauty of the play
...
What does the imagery he uses in these
scenes reveal about the development of his characterisation as a tragic
hero?

HELL AND THE DEVIL:A02
•  Shakespeare’s use of imagery of hell and the devil subverts the negative
stereotype of the evil black man and links Iago firmly to the figure of the vice
from medieval drama
...
He
makes the link himself at the end of his soliloquy in Act I Scene 3
...
3
...
Later there is the oxymoron, ‘Divinity of hell!’, followed
by these lines:
•  When devils will their blackest sins put on
•  They do suggest at first with heavenly shows
•  As I do now
...
3
...
Iago revels in evil
...
1
...
Elsewhere Iago comments on the Moor’s natural goodness, which makes his
(Iago’s) work easier
...
Othello makes a ‘sacred vow’ (III
...
464) to wreak
vengeance on her ‘by yond marble heaven’ (III
...
463), convincing himself that
Desdemona is damned and must be stopped in her life of sin
...
2
...
As he leaves in disgust, Othello turns to Emilia and accuses her too; she
‘keeps the gates of hell’ for Desdemona (IV
...
94)
...
2
...
But it is Iago who is revealed as the true devil, where he is described as a
‘hellish villain’ (V
...
366)
...
He asks, ‘Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil/ Why he hath
ensnared my soul and body?’ (V
...
298–9)
...
Several images suggest how much the villain despises his victims
...
1
...
When he describes Othello’s match with Desdemona Iago uses crude animal imagery: ‘an old black
ram/ Is tupping your white ewe!’ he informs Brabantio(I
...
87–8); his daughter has been ‘covered’ with ‘a Barbary horse’ (I
...
110); the couple are ‘making the
beast with two backs’ (I
...
115)
...
Iago is confident that the Moor will ‘tenderly be led by th’ nose/ As asses are’ (I
...
400–1), and
made ‘egregiously an ass’ (II
...
307)
...

1
...

•  Othello is infected by this imagery
...
In Act III Scene 3,
Othello says:
•  I had rather be a toad
•  And live upon this vapour of a dungeon
•  Than keep a corner in a thing I love
•  For others’ uses
...
3
...
Othello is mortified
by corruption
...
2
...
)
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Iago maintains Othello’s jealousy with images of bestial lust
...
3
...
1
...
Othello has become the ‘monster, and a beast’ he described earlier in the same scene (IV
...
62)
...
1
...
Appropriately,
the last animal images in the play are applied to Iago, whose evil makes him an ‘inhuman dog’ (V
...
62) and a ‘Spartan dog’ (V
...
359)
...

As he prepares to take his own life Othello refers to his military career, but
also recognises that he has reached ‘my journey’s end, here is my butt/ And
very sea-mark of my utmost sail’ (V
...
265–6)
...
By reverting to the noble imagery associated with him earlier in
the play Othello is able to raise himself again in our esteem
...
Do you agree with
Othello’s assessment of himself as a ‘monster’?

Othello: Language- Imagery
THE SEA AND MILITARY HEROISM:
In stark contrast to the imagery associated with Iago, the imagery
commonly associated with the noble Othello of the first half of the play is
suggestive of power and bravery
...
Othello describes his illustrious career with dignity in Act I Scene
3 (see lines 82–90 and 129–46)
...
My heart’s subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord …
(I
...
250–2)
By using the terminology of war to describe her love we see that
Desdemona is ‘well tuned’ (II
...
198) with her husband
...
1
...
Later,
when Othello feels their marital harmony has been destroyed, we sense
how deeply he feels Desdemona’s supposed betrayal as he spurs himself
on to revenge, the imagery suggesting the violence to come:

Like to the Pontic sea
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne’er feels retiring ebb but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont:
Even so my bloody thoughts with violent pace
Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love
(III
...
456–61)
PROGRESS BOOSTER:
• 
Watch out for the imagery of blood in Othello
...
For example, Othello
repeatedly uses the word ‘blood’ when his mind is infected and he
starts to play the role of revenger
...
In
Antony and Cleopatra, another of Shakespeare’s tragedies which focuses
on doomed love, both the major characters kill themselves: Antony runs
himself through with a sword and dies in his lover’s arms, while Cleopatra
poisons herself with an asp (a snake)
...
There are also images of light and
darkness, heaven and hell (see Hell and the Devil)
...
3
...
When Iago blackens Desdemona’s character, Othello feels his
honour is threatened; he expresses his dismay by referring to his own blackness
in a negative way
...
Now we sense that the ‘black’ (in the sense of angry, violent) Othello
will supersede the ‘fair’ Othello:
•  I’ll havE some proof
...

•  (III
...
389–91)
• 
...
3
...
Here Othello seems to link
himself to hell and darkness, even though he also feels that he is serving heaven
by making ‘a sacrifice’ (V
...
65) of Desdemona
...

•  Desdemona is associated with images of light, divinity and perfection throughout
the play
...
2
...
As he
prepares to kill her Othello cannot quite believe that Desdemona was false; the
metaphor ‘Put out the light, and then put out the light!’ (V
...
7) expresses this
idea clearly
...
Notice how many of the key scenes or events occur
at night (see Structure: The Timescale)
...

Has the Moor fulfilled his tragic destiny when he snuffs out the light in
Desdemona and himself?

Othello: Language- Irony
IRONY AND IAGO
•  There are various types of irony in Othello, which relies heavily on dramatic irony
for its effects
...
Iago is the primary source of dramatic irony
...
The audience knows more than the characters, increasing the
tension
...
We may marvel at his ingenuity and skill but we cannot approve of
Iago
...
T
•  here is considerable irony in the use of the word ‘love’ in this play too
...
Iago’s use
of the word ‘love’ is particularly chilling in the scenes in which we watch the true
love of Othello and Desdemona being destroyed by the false and empty love Iago
pretends to feel
...
He thinks that
he is a cunning villain, who can arrogantly conceal his true self and remain aloof
while all around him ‘lose their cool’, but is he not driven by passion? Iago’s
downfall is ironic
...
Emilia destroys Iago’s reputation as an honest man
and Roderigo’s letters condemn him to torture
...
In Act II Scene 3,
Iago leads the singing of a bawdy drinking song as part of his strategy to get
Cassio drunk
...
In Act IV Scene
3, Desdemona sings the melancholy willow song
...


IRONY AND OTHELLO:
•  Othello’s military strengths – decisiveness and ruthlessness – are
weaknesses in his personal life
...

•  Othello falls at the very moment that he feels he has reached the
height of his success by marrying the ‘divine Desdemona’ (II
...
73)
...

•  Othello finds that his heroic past counts for nothing: he is forced into
the role of villain by the ‘inhuman dog’ Iago (V
...
62)
...
2
...

•  For her own part, Desdemona expects to consummate her marriage in
Cyprus, but her marriage bed is transformed into her deathbed
...

•  Cassio gains promotion only to be disgraced for drunken brawling;
•  Roderigo hopes to kill Cassio and supplant him in Desdemona’s
affections, but is instead murdered by the man who urged him on to the
vile deed, a man whose friendship he believed in
...

•  None of the characters truly recognises the real honesty or depravity of
those they interact with
...


Othello: Context and Interpretations
KEY INTERPRETATION:A05
• 
In ‘Othello and the Radical Question’, 1998, Ania Loomba writes,
‘England was increasingly hostile to foreigners, both officially and at
a popular level, and London had witnessed several major riots
against foreign residents and artisans
...

•  Leo was a Moor who had been brought up in Barbary
...


•  Shakespeare’s drama is innovative and challenging in exactly the way of the
Renaissance
...
And although his plays conclude in
a restoration of order and stability, Shakespeare subverts traditional values, as
we see in Othello, where the tragic hero is a black man and the heroine an
assertive young woman
...
Are characters like Iago given subversive views to
discredit them, or were they the only ones through whom a voice could be given
to radical and dissident ideas? Was Shakespeare a conservative or a
revolutionary?
•  Because of censorship, any criticism Shakespeare makes of the way those in
authority behave, or questions he asks about race and nobility, had to be muted
or oblique
...
This has something to do with why Shakespeare’s plays are
always set either in the past, or abroad, as is the case with Othello
...
Italy had what Norman Sanders has
called a ‘double image’
...
Venice, Europe’s centre of capitalism, was a
free state, and renowned as one of the most beautiful cities in Italy
...
Venice itself was suspect, because it was, as Norman Sanders puts it, ‘a
racial and religious melting pot’
...
Elizabeth I issued edicts
demanding their removal from England because they were considered an
‘annoyance’
...


Othello: Interpretations
EARLY VIEWS
•  Thomas Rymer, one of the play’s most
negative critics, wrote a commentary on
Othello in A Short View of Tragedy (1693)
...
Rymer suggested that Othello might
serve only as ‘a caution’ to maidens not to
run away with ‘blackamoors’ without their
parents’ consent
...

•  In Johnson’s view Othello was
‘magnanimous, artless, and credulous,
boundless in his confidence, ardent in his
affection, inflexible in his resolution, and
obdurate in his revenge’
...

KEY INTERPRETATION
•  Thomas Rymer was as dismissive of the
implausible characters as the plot: Othello
was a ‘Jealous Booby’, Iago too villainous to
be believed, and Desdemona a woman
without sense because she married a
‘blackamoor’
...
He argued that Iago is ‘A being next to the devil’, driven by ‘motiveless malignity’
...
Many critics have
commented on his skill as a ‘dramatist’
...
At the end of the century Swinburne argued that Othello must be seen as ‘the noblest man of man’s
making’
...
C
...
For Bradley,
Othello was ‘the most romantic figure among Shakespeare’s heroes’
...
Bradley also argued that the newness of his marriage makes
Othello’s jealousy credible
...
Two influential critics rejected Bradley’s positive
analysis of Othello
...
S
...
For Eliot this speech is a ‘terrible exposure of human weakness’
...
R
...
Othello’s love is dismissed
...


Since the 1950s there have been a number of suggestions that Iago is driven by latent homosexuality
...
Several twentiethcentury critics were preoccupied by the Christianity of Othello
...
g
...
2
...
2
...
Some critics have suggested that Othello is damned when he
commits suicide because he has sinned against God’s law; he has also been accused of other soul-destroying
sins; murder, despair and entering into a compact with the devil (Iago)
...


Desdemona received a good deal of critical attention during the twentieth century
...
Many
critics commented on Desdemona’s commitment to love
...


Othello: Context and Interpretations
CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

FEMINIST READINGS OF DESDEMONA

Feminist readings of the play explore the gender politics of Othello
...
Many
feminist critics have noted how female characters in Jacobean tragedies
are victims who have limited power and are punished for their sexuality
...
In spite of her
assertiveness in choosing her own husband, French suggests Desdemona
‘accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males’ and is
‘self-denying in the extreme’ when she dies
...
She suggests that the stage
world of Jacobean drama is wholly masculine and argues that there is
only a male viewpoint on offer
...
Because of her
waywardness she is punished by patriarchy
...


KEY INTERPRETATION
Performance criticism considers the ways in which readers and
audiences receive and react to Othello
...
Marxist critics also
examine the relationships between masters and their servants
...
, Marxist Shakespeares, 2001)
...


KEY INTERPRETATION
A Marxist reading of Iago may consider whether his subversion of the social order in
the play is politically justified
...


Othello: Interpretations
•  NEW HISTORICIST READINGS
•  New Historicist critics seek to consider Othello in relation to its social and historical context, looking at the play
in relation to the ideology and beliefs of Shakespeare’s society
...
Commenting on the violence
against female characters in drama of the Jacobean period, Leonard Tennenhouse (see Power on Display, 1986)
asserts the view that ‘Jacobean tragedies offer up their scenes of excessive punishment as if mutilating the
female could somehow correct political corruption
...
’ Tennenhouse suggests
Desdemona has to be destroyed because she is subversive
...

•  Frances Dolan (see ‘Revolutions, Petty Tyranny and the Murderous Husband’ in Kate Chedgzogy, ed
...
She notes how
in Shakespeare’s society, murdering one’s spouse was considered a threat to the social order
...
Dolan says that Othello can be linked to all these
‘spectres of disorder’
...
She
also suggests Othello is in an ambiguous position because of his race
...
For Dolan, Othello’s race would have
undermined his heroism: ‘By making his protagonist black, Shakespeare prepares his original audience to
question Othello’s authority, to suspect that he might misuse it groundlessly
...
He
suggests that Iago represents a new way of thinking about the world
...
He wants to get his own back on a society that thwarts
him
...
By way of contrast, Othello ‘often conjures the
magnificence of a traditional, military order and medieval ideals, such as honour
...
’
•  KEY INTERPRETATION
•  In ‘Othello’s Real Tragedy’ (1987), Caryl Phillips offers a reading of Othello informed by historicist approaches
...
He says Othello is fully aware of his
‘tenuous’ position and that his tragedy is caused when he ‘begins to forget that he is black’
...


PATRIARCHY:
In Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama (1987), Ania Loomba suggests the central conflict in Othello is ‘between the racism of a white patriarchy and the threat
posed to it by both a black man and a white woman’
...
Loomba argues that Othello has a split
consciousness and is ‘a near schizophrenic hero’; his final speech ‘graphically portrays the split – he becomes simultaneously the Christian and the Infidel, the
Venetian and the Turk, the keeper of the state and its opponent’
...
Loomba insists, however, that Othello ‘should
not be read as a patriarchal, authoritative and racist spectacle’
...



RACIAL AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCES:
Karen Newman (see ‘“And Wash the Ethiop White”: Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello’, in Andrew Hadfield, ed
...
Newman argues the white male characters in Othello ,
especially Iago, feel threatened by the ‘power and potency of a different and monstrous sexuality’ which Othello represents
...
Shakespeare’s contemporaries feared ‘the black man had the power to
subjugate his partner’s whiteness’
...
However, Newman suggests ‘by making the black Othello a hero, and by making
Desdemona’s love for Othello … sympathetic’, Shakespeare’s play challenges the racist, sexist and colonialist views of his society
...
Lester adds that
Othello’s marriage ‘increases his status in Venice’
...
Sean Benson has argued that because it is a ‘domestic tragedy’,
Othello is of less worth than tragedies which deal with the fate of nations and state
affairs

---