Lecture 2 Othello the Moor of
Venice
The Exposition Scene
Reminder re- Paper 3
Play A
 Read and study Othello the Moor of Venice
by William Shakespeare
in conjunction with
Play B
 A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams
Parallels and Contrasts of characters
Othello the Moor of Venice
 Othello is an immigrant, from North Africa;
 Desdemona; and Emilia
A Streetcar Named Desire
 Stanley Kowalski
 Family background: immigrants, from Poland
 Stella (Stanley’s wife) and Blanche Dubois
Plot summary
Othello is a Moorish general in the service of
the Duke of Venice
(He is in this regard, foreign talent)
 Has secretly married Desdemona,
daughter of the Venetian senator, Brabantio
 Brabantio charges him with her abduction
 However Othello is later cleared of the
charge.
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Plot summary (cont)
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Othello is later sent to Cyprus to defend it
from the Turks.
There Iago, his officer, dupes Othello into
believing that his wife, Desdemona, is having
a love affair with his lieutenant, Cassio.
Deceived and violently jealous, Othello kills
his wife, only to learn later she is innocent,
and then he kills himself.
Some other background points to note
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In Othello, the Venetian state is a mercantile city,
ruled by a duke, not a king.
The play dramatizes the everyday world of men and
women, in spite of the background of high politics
and international conflict;
The focus is more on personal relationships, and on
the fortunes of an ill-starred marriage;
Hence, seen as a domestic tragedy
Rather similar in this respect to
‘A Streetcar Named Desire’
Dramatic Purpose of Act 1 Scene 1?
the Exposition Scene
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1 To set (establish) the scene
2 To strike the keynote of the play; create mood and
tension to capture attention of audience
3 To supply valuable background information
4 To introduce some of the characters, situations,
relationships
5 To prepare the audience to meet Othello,
Desdemona, and Cassio
6 To provoke a sense of intrigue and suspense in
order to arouse and capture the audience’s attention
thus making them want to know more
Setting the scene
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To acquaint his audience with the knowledge
of where the scene is taking place (setting)
It plunges us into the VENICE of 1570
with the news of an impending Turkish attack
on VENICE, this great commercial republic of
the Western world
Time & Setting of Street Car Named Desire ?
City of New Orleans (USA)
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We (as an audience) are reminded of past
wars at Rhodes, at Cyprus and elsewhere
against Christians and Heathens...
We are made aware that the play is taking
place in troublesome times
And are thus prepared for the change in
setting from Venice to Cyprus in Act 2
Striking the keynote of the play;
Enter Roderigo and Iago
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Time of day?
Note the opening scene takes place at night;
Dramatic effect? (Theatrical effect)
This adds to the suspense and urgency of the
atmosphere; and foreshadows the intrigue;
We hear at first subdued, and then angry voices of
Iago and Roderigo on a street,
outside the house of the Senator, Brabantio
Talking earnestly of money, ‘preferment’, and
ancient grudges.
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We learn of Iago’s hatred of Othello and of his
reasons for following him purely as a means of
achieving his own ends
We hear of Brabantio’s “dream” which oppresses
him, and of “treason of the blood”
Atmosphere?
It is an atmosphere of intrigue, of Iago’s doubledealing tactics, of search parties pursuing a missing
couple who have eloped
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The subdued voices of the opening develop
into a discussion full of anger and hatred,
reaching its crescendo in Iago’s devilishly
clever advice to Roderigo to awaken
Brabantio:
“Rouse him, make after him, poison his
delight, // Proclaim him in the street,
incense her kinsmen.”
Creation of Suspense?
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There is a background of mystery
As the audience, we are kept a little in the
dark; How?
We hear two men discussing “this” and “such
a matter” but it is not clearly defined for us
We listen to conversation about a man
referred to impersonally as “he” and “him”, as
the “the Moor”
What is “this” matter?
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Lines 1 - 3 make sense if ‘this” is taken to
refer to Othello’s marriage
Roderigo seems to be rebuking Iago to
whom he has been extremely generous for
not sharing an interesting secret with him
Third line thus needs to be supplemented:
“That thou Iago…shouldst know of this”
(without telling me anything about it)
What do we learn about Othello’s
character in Scene 1?
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We are given an unflattering picture of
Othello as a
proud,
self-centred man,
guilty of favouritism,
determined to have his own way at all costs
He is described as a ‘lascivious,’ ‘thicklipped’ Moor;
What we learn about Othello (cont)
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(Indirectly) that Othello is independent
minded; that he has a mind of his own
E.g. Iago points out he has rejected the
pleadings of three great ones of the city by
appointing instead his own man, Cassio
And that Venice has no one else of ‘his
fathom’ (ability) to lead them in the Cyprus
wars
What Nigerian writer Ben Okri calls—
the chromatic tension of the play
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The different colour, race, and background of Othello
are strongly emphasized;
We are made to dramatically note the incongruity
between the “old black ram” and Brabantio’s
daughter, the “white ewe”. How?
Through the contrasting light / dark imagery;
Concerns?
The subject matter of the opening of the play Othello
the Moor of Venice is the injustice, the unfairness,
the wrongness of the world.
Note the critical significance of the
imagery re- Relationships
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The imagery implies that each character is in
a dependent or manipulative relationship to
others
The emphasis is on taking from people, and
using people
And begging, withholding or granting
favours— e.g. the ‘strings’ of Roderigo’s
‘purse’; ‘great ones’ who ‘capp’d’ or begged
favours from Othello
Introducing Iago;
Appearance and Reality
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Iago has been rejected by the Moor but his
self-interest makes him put on an
appearance of loyalty
Admires only those men who perform their
duties to “do themselves homage” (those
who have a good opinion of themselves)
[As the play develops] we will see the lengths
he will go to in the exercise of his hatred of
Othello and jealousy of Cassio
Re Iago
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Even before we leave Scene 1, we come to
see how he has cheated Roderigo of money
without fulfilling any of his promises.
The promise of keeping Roderigo informed of
Desdemona’s affections and the promise to
press his love suit for him.
Scene 1 gives us some idea of how
accomplished he is as an instigator;
Re Iago the artful Rhetorician
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Of how successful Iago is in manipulating
Roderigo to start trouble in Venice
Notice it is not simply the informing of a
father of the elopement of a daughter –
Rather people must be roused, poisoned,
proclaimed, incensed, and plagued.
Diction and Dramatic effects
Incendiary;
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Iago enjoys bestial humour?
Evident in the picture he paints of the two
runaway lovers;
It is not a picture of pure, romantic love
but of a “daughter cover’d with a Barbary
horse” and
a daughter and a Moor “making the beast
with two backs.”
Iago is
 a skilled deceiver
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an accomplished liar
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an expert in the manipulation of the innocent
Re Iago
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For Iago the world consists solely of fools
and villains (fools such as Roderigo)
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Of those who devour and are devoured
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Perceives people as being very much like
animals—they copulate and eat each other
Foxy Iago
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Iago’s departure from the scene?
Very cleverly Iago timely departs from the senator’s
house before he can be used as a witness against
Othello
Also cleverly realizes that with rumours of war with
Cyprus, the senate will not dismiss Othello for his
marriage, as he is needed to defend Cyprus
Iago’s hypocrisy?
Emphasized in his readiness to support Othello
What we learn of Roderigo
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An aristocratic Venetian
Has been paying court to Desdemona and
has been employing Iago as his substitute in
the courtship
He shows the lowest form of moral
decadence by paying Iago money in the
hope that illicit arrangements can be made
for him.
Roderigo and his character Role
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As he tells Iago: You have had “my purse /
As the strings were thine.”
One of his main faults?
His stupidity.
He is incapable of understanding
the self-interested, individualistic soul of Iago
His role in the play is that of the disappointed
suitor who becomes Iago’s tool and dupe.
Roderigo and Iago
Parallelism and Antithesis
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Here we see him in similar circumstances to
Iago: Iago rejected by the Moor;
Roderigo rejected by the Moor’s wife.
In spite of his weaknesses and because of
them, he stands out in contrast to Iago
Individual and Society?
Iago is a rebel against the social order;
Roderigo accepts the social order willingly.
Characters in Shakespeare are
the language they speak
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Iago uses the bawdy language of the military
barracks and alehouse
Roderigo uses courteous language – when
Brabantio hurls insults at him, he replies in
polite terms calling him “Signior…Patience,
good Sir”
Roderigo has an important role in the play’s
dramatic structure—he helps us to fill in the
character of Iago
Themes / Concerns?
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The Individual in conflict with Society
Jealousy
Resentment
Betrayal of Trust
Good versus Evil
Injustice
Hatred
Appearance and Reality