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Chapter 1
Introduction to Part 1
The word 'Renaissance' means 'rebirth'; it refers to a cultural
and educational movement which began in Italy in the
fourteenth century and was dedicated to the revival in
Europe of the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.
- In England during the Renaissance the most remarkable
outpouring of literary creativity took place in the theatre.
Treatment of love and death
These two themes provide profitable angles from which to
view the literature of the Renaissance (this is shown in
Othello, tragedy)
OTHELLO is a tragedy.
 Tragedy is a rather slippery literary term which tends to
change its meaning in different historical periods.
Tragedies end with the death of the protagonist, who in
Renaissance drama is usually a man of high birth and
exceptional abilities.
 The death of the tragic protagonist is brought about by a
conflict: tragedies stage a conflict between a remarkable
individual — the tragic hero - and some powerful shaping
force — fate, God, established authority — which limits his
aspirations and finally destroys him.
Context:
Elizabethans and Jacobeans lived in a society that was highly
stratified, where political power was concentrated in the
hands of the monarch and a small ruling elite, and where
authorities liked to preach the virtues of 'knowing your place'
in the social hierarchy.
This play suggests that tragedies in general fulfilled an
important social and political function in late sixteenth- and
early seventeenth-century England, staging widespread
communal tensions and anxieties generated by the society in
which they were written.
Othello is examined by the conventions of revenge tragedy. It
also has another subgenre, the domestic tragedy, so-called
because its focus is the domestic sphere, the realm of the
family and marriage.
The theme of love:
Othello is a tragedy concerned with love.
Othello concerned with married love, in which sexual desire
plays a crucial part.
What a marriage ought to be:
Tragedies in this period focus on the upper classes, and it was
this social group that was most preoccupied with marriage as
an economic and political transaction between families, in
which the wishes and feelings of the bride and groom meant
little.
But by the sixteenth century, this idea had to compete with
other powerful cultural trends, such as the Protestant view
that marriage constituted the fount of human happiness and
so needed to be based upon mutual affection and desire if it
was to fulfil its exalted purpose.
Othello is informed by such contemporary questions and
debates about the nature and function of marriage. Marriage
for love in this play involves not just defying familial authority
but marrying outside one's race or class. This love matches,
with their bold challenges to social norms and expectations,
prove to be desperately fragile, either because of their own
internal weaknesses or because of external pressures. Unable
to trigger the happy resolution, they mark instead the start of
a tragic cycle of decline culminating in death.
The treatment of the themes of love and death in this
Renaissance tragedy
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Introduction

Love, and the impediments to love, makes up one of the
great themes of literature.

In Othello the love of the two characters at its centre is
met by jealousy, hate, treachery and finally death.
___________________________________________
Reading the play
Act 1, Scene 1: making a start
Full title: The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice.
- A tragedy: the term signified a play involving the death of a
great or noble person
- The main character, or tragic hero, is called Othello, who is
a Moor. The Moors were the Muslim inhabitants of North
Africa, mainly Morocco and Algeria.
- The term 'blackamoor' came to be used derogatorily of any
person considered black-skinned.
___________________________________________
Activity 1 (read the Questions in your book) ‫للفهم‬
 Roderigo is dependent on lago, who has been using his
money for some purpose not yet made clear, lago also
appears to rely on Roderigo in some way.
 lago has been passed over for promotion ('election' (i.
26)), and consequently feels both angry and humiliated.
This is perhaps the most obviously important thing to
emerge from the opening moments of the play.
 lago's tone is sarcastic or mocking, and hardly respectful.
When you think that he is apparently referring to his
army superior as 'his Moorship', a pun on 'his worship',
you can see that he is undermining the conventional
sense of the term for someone of higher status.
 We have been prepared for some kind of conspiracy and
disruption -we gather one has already been set afoot - as
lago eggs Roderigo on to 'incense' Brabantio (I. 69), who
is 'her' father (we do not know who 'she' is yet).
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Roderigo addresses lago as 'thou', while lago uses the 'you'
form of the personal pronoun to Roderigo.
- That is, lago addresses Roderigo in the polite form, as
someone of an inferior rank should (he also calls him 'sir'),
while at the same time it becomes clear that lago is
actually the dominant force in these exchanges, which
have to do with some kind of betrayal regarding Roderigo's
money.
lago's behaviour and character traits:
lago seems to be adept at manipulating those around him,
and his expression of resentment at being passed over by 'his
Moorship' highlights his disdain, as well as his verbal
inventiveness. Shakespeare shows this by contrasting lago's
quickness with Roderigo's brief and rather dim responses.
From the start, then, lago seems to be presented to us as a
bluff and somewhat cynical soldier, who sets up the duffer
Roderigo to play a prank on old Brabantio. We are also led by
the opening speeches to appreciate lago's alertness, and his
readiness to attack those who he believes have been given
preference over him — notably Cassio. Cassio is referred to as
an 'arithmetician' (1. 18), meaning someone who knows
about the abstract theory of war rather than the practicalities
of soldiering — which Iago suggests he himself is skilled in,
and therefore more deserving of advancement. The
dismissive, alliterative phrase 'Mere prattle without practice'
(1. 25) is memorable, sounding like a cleverly damning remark
about Cassio, the Florentine (citizen of Florence).
Since lago's language is at times quite complex and obscure, is
that this obscurity in itself seems to be an aspect of
Shakespeare's characterisation of him.
'I am not what I am' (11. 43-65).
- He is someone who seems to be saying he will not show
everyone who and what he is, thereby pursuing his
'peculiar end' (1. 60), that is, his own specific aims and
ambitions 'I am not what I am' is a key remark, coming at
the end of a speech in which, through a variety of
expressions, Iago has effectively announced the kind of
person he is: by his wit and energy he invites us to admire
him before we realise what the outcome of his behaviour
might be.
Such speeches do much more than simply engage us with the
plot.
How devious Iago is, and also how cleverly he manages to
project himself and to dominate Roderigo, how manipulative
he is.
What is Iago saying when he opposes the 'native act and figure
of my heart' to 'outward action' (11. 62, 61)? Simply put, he is
saying that if his outward behaviour were to become a
reflection of his innermost feelings and intentions, then he
would in effect be wearing his heart on his sleeve, 'For daws to
peck at' (1. 65); that is, dangerously exposing his inner self to
everyone.
The familiar proverbial expression 'wearing your heart on your
sleeve' is itself a figurative or metaphorical way of putting it.
Figurative language is language used in a non-literal way. No
one ever really wears their heart on their sleeve; what the
expression conveys is how it can feel to open one's heart to
others unreservedly. Shakespeare uses a proverbial
expression at this point in the play to convey to his audience
an important feature of Iago's character: that he is intent on
hiding his inner self from others.
The opening, or exposition of the play:
there is a racist element in Iago's repeated references to
Othello not by name but as 'the Moor', the negative
undertones of which are immediately picked up by Roderigo
when he refers coarsely to 'the thick-lips' (1. 66), a remark
that we find Brabantio repeating later in the scene. These are
hints of what will become increasingly evident: that 'the
Moor' is being identified as an outsider by these Venetians, as
someone different in ways that will be exploited later.
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The entrance of Othello
The play starts in Venice, the great centre of civilisation of the
time in Europe, and a city state at the heart of a vast
commercial empire reliant on military strength drawn where
necessary from outsiders and mercenaries like Othello.
Othello is called a domestic tragedy precisely because its
action remains strictly within this domestic sphere.
___________________________________________
Activity 2 = important about race and the close reading
The language used by lago and Roderigo as they try to
provoke Brabantio: the imagery in lines 86-116
Discussion
 The imagery and figurative language is extremely
unpleasant; a register of animalistic sexual activity which,
you may have observed, is first introduced by lago and
then picked up by Roderigo.
 lago suggests to Brabantio that 'an old black ram / Is
tupping your white ewe' (1.1.88-9).
 As Neill points out: the ram was associated with lust and
sexual potency, its blackness here additionally associating




it with a traditional image of the devil.
The allusion to Othello as 'old' - the first of several hints to
the effect that he is substantially older than his wife.
Othello's race is being connected - through Shakespeare's
use of a metaphor - with rampant sexuality, darkness and
evil. Metaphors establish an identity between two
apparently dissimilar things: Othello is identified with an
'old black ram', Desdemona with a 'white ewe' and the
sexual act with 'tupping', or animal intercourse (1.1.88,
89).
lago uses language to suggest that Brabantio's daughter is
being sexually defiled and worse: she has not simply been
stolen or abducted; rather, she is, according to his fevered
imagination, being 'covered' by a 'Barbary horse' (1.1.111),
the word 'Barbary' referring to North Africa.
lago makes a bad joke out of these implications by
remarking that the resulting progeny will be 'nephews
[who] neigh to you' (1.1.112).
___________________________________________
This thread of inflammatory suggestion is then picked up by
Roderigo, who exclaims that Brabantio's daughter is subject
to 'the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor' (1.1.125).
The alliteration in Roderigo's phrasing: the V sounds adding to
the resonance of his utterance, encouraging the actor almost
to spit the words out in disgust. This emphasises the
unpleasantness of 'lascivious' in particular, a word which
reinforces the association of Moors with unbridled sexuality.
Iago's way of representing love: love for him means animal
lust, and when it combines with the idea of racial difference,
the standard imagery of racial hatred taken to an extreme, to
violence, is very near the surface.
The potential for violence and intrigue generated by lago and
Roderigo at the start of the play is contrasted with and
opposed by the order and control invoked by the older
Venetian.
___________________________________________
Othello's language = important
Othello says that his services 'Shall out-tongue his complaints'
(1.2.19). This is a striking metaphor that conveys in a vivid and
compact way that his known virtues and achievements shall
speak more loudly than Brabantio's accusations.
His origins, he says, are 'royal' (1.2.22). He says it would be
boasting to announce his royal status publicly, yet it is a part
of what counteracts the accusations that might be made
against him.
The love theme is introduced at this point, as we learn of
Othello's love for Desdemona, who is also now named for the
first time.
Feature of his language: the high-flown, daring comparisons
that signal a man of large scope and imagination.
It becomes even clearer as the play proceeds that Othello's
language has a rhythm and idiom that contrasts sharply with
those of many of the characters around him, not merely with
Iago. His characteristic rhetoric gives an impression of space
and vastness; this is conveyed here by the use of pairs of
joined nouns or adjectives which are variations on the same
meaning, such as 'circumscription and confine' (1.2.27). 'very
noble and approved good masters' (1.3.78) and 'the flinty and
steel couch' (1.3.229).
The word 'unhoused'. Why is this so striking?
As Neill notes, this word describing Othello's 'condition'
reflects the fact that he is not a citizen of Venice, unlike the
firmly 'housed' Brabantio: he is a soldier employed by the
state. The main characters in this play are all to a greater or
lesser extent loosed from the ties of property, being soldiers,
mercenaries or their womenfolk; and all will move further
away from 'home' as the setting changes to Cyprus.
What Othello's speech also begins to reveal is how his sense
of who he is comes from a profound sense of his difference
from those around him, in a number of ways: as we have just
seen, 'free' is a hint of his awareness that he was once a slave.
It feels quite natural that he should use the imagery of the
sea: it is, after all, a sea-bound republic that he serves, and he
will soon be upon the seas again. (later speeches in the play, it
is characteristic of Othello to create an image of himself as
linked to the forces of nature - sea and sky and deserts and
mountains — rather than to the order and manners of the city
and civilisation.
___________________________________________
Act 1, Scene 3: a lover's 'music'?
Othello's calm and majestic appearance: the appearance of
the protagonist, his noble manner of speech and action.
Othello can be played as mannered and self-regarding, or
foolish, almost petty.
It is important to notice that in his defence against Brabantio's
charges, Othello launches into a powerful and dignified
speech that, if anything, amplifies our growing sense of the
importance of the position he holds in the Venetian republic.
At the same time, we are introduced to what has been aptly
called 'the Othello music' — a phrase first introduced by the
Shakespearean critic G. Wilson Knight as a way of describing
Othello's characteristically heroic mode of speech
'Most potent, grave, and reverend signors' (1.3.77) begins the
first of Othello's truly grand speeches, followed by his account
of wooing Desdemona, referred to already (1.3.128-70). The
claim that he lacks eloquence ('Rude am I in my speech'
(1.3.82)) is the conventional modest disclaimer, but also a
reminder that he is a soldier, not accustomed to matters of
domestic interest such as love and marriage — a lack of
experience that we may feel turns out to have fatal
consequences. Then he launches into his defence against
Brabantio's repeated charge of abduction through witchcraft
or magic.
___________________________________________
Activity 4 Othello character
What emerges about the presentation of Othello's character
from his defence (which is also his life story)? And what clues
do we have about the nature of Desdemona? Consider both
her father's and her husband's remarks about her in this part
of the scene.
Discussion
How much deeper and broader is Othello's life experience and
history than that of the Venetians around him, including lago.
He has passed a lifetime of action in the field and had wild
adventures in strange and unknown regions. What he says
about his earlier life of adventure in 'deserts idle' and of 'hairbreadth scapes' from battle (1.3.140, 136) gives us glimpses of
a life led far away, subject to circumstances the Venetians
around him would not know of, including of course
Desdemona, whom it has so impressed.
The sheer richness of Othello's language is surely something
that impacts upon us - not only the wonders of his exotic life
story, but such phrases as 'She'd ... with a greedy ear/ Devour
up my discourse' (1.3.149-50). Some soldier, this, and hardly
an 'unvarnished' tale that he tells (as he claimed in line 91),
either about himself or about how he impressed Desdemona.
Desdemona, in her father's eyes, is a 'maiden never bold'
(1.3.95), the epitome of feminine modesty. To Othello, she
seemed somewhat more forward than her father's view,
giving him hints, he says, of her willingness to be wooed.
At the very least, his account of his life, and the range of
wonderful, exotic creatures he has come across, from
cannibals to 'Anthropophagi' (1.3.144), seem designed to
intrigue his listeners, if not bewitch Desdemona
It feels both moving and natural that a young woman who has
been kept closely confined by her father, and certainly has
had the limited life experience of a patrician female, should
love Othello 'for the dangers' he 'had passed', and for him to
love her 'that she did pity them' (1.3.167—8).
Desdemona has been ventriloquised by Othello at the end of
his long speech, but she can and does speak for herself too,
rather crucially, in this early scene. Her speech in response to
the Duke's somewhat ham-fisted attempts to reconcile the
parties creates for her a space in the audience's feelings, and
one she begins to occupy with increasing strength. Here is a
woman in love, who has been fascinated by the exotic
stranger, whom she will follow to Cyprus whatever her father
or the Duke may say.
Desdemona's responses in Act 1, Scene 3 are unquestionably
powerful —which stressed her frailty and innocence rather
than her challenging quality.
This is defiant compared with her more careful, and carefully
judged, reaction to her father's call on her loyalties, when she
explains that the duty she owed him she now must, like her
mother before her, transfer to her chosen husband (1.3.180—
8) And this is despite her insistence (as if to meet any racist
implications) that she saw Othello's 'visage in his mind'
(1.3.250). This wife wants to be with her husband, in every
sense.
Marrying Desdemona takes him into intimate connection with
Venice, whereas before he was their admired mercenary quite a different relationship.
___________________________________________
Discordance: lago's first soliloquy
As the major characters have been introduced, and their
interaction developed, we have also been introduced to the
variety of perceptions and significances that enrich the theme
of love in the play. That death is to follow is anticipated by the
final exchanges of Act 1, Scene 3 between Roderigo and Iago,
which set in motion the counter-movement leading in the
final fatal direction of the tragedy. Brabantio's warning to
Othello will echo throughout what follows: 'She has deceived
her father, and may thee' (1.3.291).
In many of Shakespeare's plays, there is an opposing voice,
acting as a kind of foil to the hero. In Othello, this role is
played by Iago. Iago is not interested in how anybody else
sees love, reducing even Desdemona's love for Othello to the
level of simple physical gratification: 'when she is sated with
his body she will find the errors of her choice' (1.3.343—4).
The belief that there is something more than bodily
satisfaction in love presents a challenge to the brutal view of
life he endorses, which is, we presume, one reason why he
must undermine the idea of love as more than merely a
matter of physical attraction whenever he can.
Soliloquy — one of the most important techniques of the
early modern theatre.
Activity 5
The function of lago's soliloquy
Discussion
It reveals to us lago's motivation and his plan to use Cassio to
bring Othello down. Iago exposes his hatred for Othello, and
the fact that he thinks Othello has cuckolded him (that is,
slept with his wife Emilia). His plan is to use Othello's 'free
and open nature' (1.3.388) and Cassio's smooth appearance
and manners against them. we are surely drawn into sharing
his viewpoint and inner thoughts, maybe even to feeling
complicit with his plotting.
___________________________________________
Soliloquies and asides — encourage us to share that
character's viewpoint, potentially to sympathise with them,
but not necessarily to agree with what they say. lago's
soliloquy certainly seems aimed at making us co-conspirators.
Iago resents Othello's choice of Cassio for his lieutenant; now
he appears to find another motive for hating him -his fear that
Othello has cuckolded him. Does this suggest that he is
actually searching for reasons to injure Othello?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
According to Coleridge, lago was driven by his 'malignity', or
pure destructive wickedness, rather than by any clear,
comprehensible motive.
As the play progresses and he shares his thoughts with us in
subsequent soliloquies, there appear to pop into Iago's head,
only to leave it again, suspicions and ideas he uses to justify
his purposes. Later, he says it is Cassio's 'daily beauty' that
makes him want to have him murdered (5.1.19).
lago is: a devious 'machiavel', or manipulator:
lago constructs plots by knowing others better than they
know themselves. His words also serve to underline the
contrast between himself and Othello, whose 'free and open
nature' will, he says, lead him to think men 'honest that but
seem to be so'.
'Honest':
It picks up and ironically echoes Othello's earlier use of it to
describe lago as a man of 'honesty and trust' to whom he will
give the job of conducting Desdemona to Cyprus.
The word is then repeated many times through the play. each
time with a slightly different twist
The word was used to mean honourable, trustworthy or
faithful, worthy, forthright and, regarding women, chaste.
Playing with the meanings of a word, often in a punning
though, was much in favour at the time, especially when the
word might have sexual overtones.