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Ilyssa Silfen
5/12/09
Professor Goodland
ENH 217
It is Too Late – An Analysis of the Character Othello
Upon meeting Othello, you would never imagine that his fate was to become one
of the most tragic of Shakespeare’s characters. Because he is the general of the Venetian
army, he is highly regarded by the Venetians, particularly those of the higher class. In
particular, he is favored by Brabantio, a Venetian senator, and in turn becomes favored
by Brabantio’s daughter, Desdemona. Eventually, the two fall in love with each other
and decide to elope. This angers Brabantio, who attempts to arrest Othello for
bewitching his daughter into falling in love with him; however, Othello convinces the
court that he used no witchcraft, and that he used his stories of hardship to win
Desdemona’s love. At first, he and his wife are quite happy with each other. It is hard to
tell whether or not they have consummated the relationship, but they are quite obviously
very much in love nevertheless; therefore, Iago, Othello’s ancient, takes it upon himself
to plant seeds of doubt into Othello’s head, such as stealing the handkerchief that he
[Othello] gave Desdemona and indirectly placing it in Cassio’s possession, warning
Othello that her exuberant solicitations on Cassio’s behalf after his drunken brawl at
Cyprus were signs of infidelity, and placing lewd, sexual images of he [Cassio] and
Desdemona in bed together, in order to make him think that Desdemona has been
unfaithful. At the beginning of the play, Othello is courageous, not easily angered,
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confident, calm, collected, logical, and completely sure of his love for Desdemona and
her faithfulness to him: such is the way of a man in love, and such is the way of the
warrior, especially of a general, and it is these personality traits that may cause us to
wonder why, and how, Othello would fall for Iago’s deception so easily. We come to
find out over the course of the play that this is the first time that Othello has ever been in
love, and not only that, but that he is not a native of Venice: he is a Moor, a North
African Muslim, converted to Christianity. These two qualities could very well explain
the quickness with which Othello falls for Iago’s tricks. Because he knows nothing about
women, much less Venetian women, because his heart is so vulnerable, and because he is
a stranger in a strange land, he is very trusting, especially towards Iago, and he is very
open to deceit and trickery. Ultimately, Othello’s trust in Desdemona is destroyed and, in
the end, this causes Othello to murder Desdemona, and he finds out his gross error only
too late.
In the first act of the play, Iago, who has roused Brabantio and told him of the
“old black ram…tupping your white ewe (Othello 1.1:85-86),” returns to Othello’s side,
tells him of Brabantio’s rantings and ravings, and warns him that Brabantio is more than
willing to eke out as harsh a punishment for him as he possibly can. Othello replies with
what can only amount to “Let him try,” using logic and reasoning to prove his point that
Brabantio will not be able to punish him in any way, shape or form:
Iago: He will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint or grievance
The law, with all his might to enforce it on,
Will give him cable.
Othello:
Let him do his spite.
My services which I have done the Signiory
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Shall out-tongue his complaints. (Othello 1.2:13-19)
Othello shows no restraint in his words here: he knows full well that he has done a great
service for the rulers of Venice (N17), and that the fact that he has married Brabantio’s
daughter would hardly be cause to throw their most respected and skilled warrior into
prison. His courage and confidence is further displayed when Cassio and the officers
show up and Iago tells him that he should run inside the Sagittary:
Iago: Those are the raisèd father and his friends.
You were best go in.
Othello:
Not I, I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. (Othello 1.2:28-32)
This conversation between Iago and Othello displays the latter’s total confidence that he
will not be punished, not only because of his title as general of the Venetian army, but
because of his clear, unflawed conscience (N30); he is absolutely certain that he has
done no wrong, and he believes that the truth will ultimately set him free. Therefore, he
has absolutely nothing to fear. Brabantio himself eventually confronts him, and Othello’s
actions and words in response to Brabantio’s initial attack, whereupon he calls on
Roderigo and his officers to draw their swords and dispatch on Othello, further display
his calm, collected demeanor:
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will
rust them.
Good signior, you shall more command with years
Than with your weapons. (Othello 1.2:58-60)
Rather than allowing himself to become enraged, Othello chooses to take the high road
and respond to Brabantio’s attacks by trying to persuade him to talk the situation over in
a responsible manner. Of course, Brabantio’s response to this is to accuse Othello of
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using witchcraft on Desdemona in order to make her fall in love with him; in fact, he
even goes so far as to say that it wouldn’t make sense for her to have fallen in love with
him otherwise. At the end of his tirade, Brabantio demands that Othello be arrested for
practicing “arts inhibited and out of warrant (Othello 1.2:78),” or black magic (N78).
Othello’s response to this tirade is very telling of his personality at the beginning of the
play. Rather than responding to his charges violently, he simply responds:
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. (Othello 1.2:80-84)
Brabantio’s tirade was quite long and quite argumentative, so it might even seem out of
character for a person of Othello’s station to act so calmly in the face of conflict.
However, it is precisely his station that causes him to act so calmly; Othello knows that
they cannot throw him in prison because he is the general of the Venetian army, and they
are right in the middle of a war. He is also relying on his clear conscience, and the truth,
to get him and Desdemona out of trouble.
After Othello and Desdemona testify before the court and receive permission to
remain together, Brabantio indirectly begins to plant the seeds of deception in Othello’s
mind, at which point Othello gives in a single line what might seem like a premonition of
future events:
Brabantio: Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father, and may thee.
Othello: My life upon her faith! (Othello 1.3:287-289)
Here, in this single phrase, we see just how devoted he is to Desdemona and just how
much trust he places in her; his life is, quite literally, as we come to find out, dangling on
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Desdemona’s fidelity, and he is more than willing to bet his life upon it. Of course, in
the scene that I am about to mention, his reaction to Iago’s speech is quite the opposite of
that he had to Brabantio’s warning.
In Act 3, scene 3, Iago begins his relentless onslaught on Othello, using his gifts
of deception and trickery in order to pique Othello’s interest in what he has to say. He
begins to speak, yet, right when he’s about to reveal his thoughts, out of “love,” he
decides that he must protect Othello and refuses to speak further (obviously, we know
that he’s only doing this to taunt Othello). When Othello has reached the end of his
patience with Iago, which is when Iago insinuates that he is being cuckolded, he
demands:
Why? Why is this?
Think’st thou I’d make a life of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No! To be once in doubt
Is to be resolved. (Othello 3.3:177-179)
At this point, his interest is piqued, and he wants to know Iago’s thoughts, but at the same
time, he has not yet been corrupted to the point of blind jealousy that he experiences after
Iago’s poison begins to take hold. Later on in the same speech, he continues with this
theme of refusing to believe Iago, and therefore maintaining his trust in Desdemona, by
saying:
I’ll see before I doubt; where I doubt, prove;
And on the proof there is no more but this:
Away at once with love or jealousy! (Othello 3.3:190-192)
Othello’s trust in Desdemona is remaining intact thus far, and by demanding proof from
Iago rather than blindly believing his insinuations that he is being cuckolded, we can see
that his resolve is strong, at least at the moment.
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At this point, Iago tells Othello to observe Desdemona carefully when she is with
Cassio, and he tells Othello that Venetian women’s morality does not forbid adultery, but
it does forbid being found out (N203-4). To cement this idea, Iago reminds Othello that
she deceived her father by marrying him. One would think that Othello’s love for
Desdemona would keep him from falling for Iago’s tricks; however, being as vulnerable
as he is, despite the fact that he’s a general, that is exactly what happens. As I mentioned
earlier in this essay, Othello is not a native of Venice; he is blind, as it were, to the
customs of the Venetian people, so when Iago tells him that Venetian women find it apt
to cuckold their husbands as long as they are not caught, he [Othello] has no proof to
refute that claim, and since he trusts Iago so much, he believes him:
This fellow’s of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a learnèd spirit
Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,
I’d whistle her off and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune. Haply for I am black
And have not these soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declined
Into the vale of years—yet that’s not much—
She’s gone. I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her. (Othello 3.3:257-267)
Over the course of this passage, not much time has passed at all: the time that has passed
between when Iago first spoke his thoughts to Othello and left him to ponder it over is
not much in the least. Keep in mind that Iago has not yet outright said that Desdemona
was false to Othello; he has only implied it. And yet, Othello, left to his own devices,
declares that Iago is an honest fellow and knows the ways of humans well, and he
believes that Iago’s observations can only mean one thing: that Desdemona has been
unfaithful.
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Othello mentions briefly in the previous soliloquy that he is not a native of this
culture. It should be pointed out that the word “black” does not reference his skin color,
but rather his disposition; as he says, he does not have the gentle qualities and manners
(N263) of the courtiers, or perhaps seducers (N264), and this, I believe, plays a large role
in his willingness to believe Iago’s deception. He feels insecure about Desdemona, due
to the fact that he is much older than she is, and I believe that he already had an innate
fear of her cuckolding him due to that fact; it is possible that Iago’s “observations”
simply fed a fire that was already sparking in Othello’s mind. The quickness with which
Iago’s words infect Othello’s faith in Desdemona seems to add credence to that fact,
particularly when Othello returns to speak in the same scene:
I had been happy if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O now, forever
Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content! (Othello 3.3:342-345)
Judging by Othello’s dramatic choice of speech, Iago’s words have really gotten to him.
Othello knows that even if Desdemona is truly faithful, he will never again be able to be
truly content because he’ll have Iago’s words echoing in his brain, and he is
acknowledging that the part of him that was calm and collected is now gone forever. This
is exactly what Iago wants; he is breaking down what little defenses Othello had in the
first place and is using that to his advantage. Othello’s once calm and collected
demeanor is now gone, replaced by passionate, unbridled emotions and near-hysteria:
Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore!
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof;
Or by the worth of mine eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath! (Othello 3.3:356-359)
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Iago is more than happy to oblige, and he proceeds to tell Othello of Cassio’s possession
of the handkerchief, and places the lewd images of Cassio topping Desdemona in
Othello’s brain, along with the image of Cassio grasping onto him and dreaming of his
sexual encounters with Desdemona. As it is spoken in the quote, Othello demanded
specifically visual proof; however, Iago finds a loophole in the images that he describes
in impeccable detail, giving Othello the ocular proof by burning the images into his head.
Othello’s once cool demeanor, if any of it was left at that point, vanishes upon imagining
Desdemona with Cassio, and he is transformed into the completely jealous and
emotionally and mentally unhinged man that we see killing Desdemona at the end:
I’ll tear her all to pieces! (Othello 3.3:428)
Othello’s sudden transformation is quite obvious to everyone around him,
particularly Desdemona and Emilia. Desdemona cannot understand why Othello would
act this way towards her, but Emilia believes that she knows, as is displayed in a brief
exchange between the two of them after Othello confronts Desdemona about the loss of
the handkerchief:
Emilia: Is not this man jealous?
Desdemona: I nev’r saw this before.
Sure there’s some wonder in this handkerchief;
I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
Emilia: ‘Tis not a year or two shows us a man.
They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us. (Othello 3.4:99-106)
Desdemona acknowledged earlier, before this encounter, that the loss of the handkerchief
might cause Othello to think ill thoughts; she believes that it is simply the loss that has
Othello upset. However, her reaction to his behavior, stating that she has never seen him
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behave in that manner before, says to me that his behavior has changed quite drastically
from what she might have expected. Emilia makes quite a different analysis of his
behavior: she proclaims that he has merely grown tired of Desdemona, like any other
man would after one or two years. We know that this is not the case; Othello does
indeed still love Desdemona, but because he believes her to be false, his manner and his
behavior towards her has become irreparably altered. As Desdemona relates to Cassio,
(of course, without the knowledge of Othello’s suspicions):
My lord is not my lord; nor should I know him
Were he in favor as in humor altered. (Othello 3.4:124-125)
Othello’s countenance is not the only thing that changes over the course of the
play: his actions, too, become irrevocably altered. At the beginning of the play, when
Brabantio and his men draw their swords upon him, he refuses to battle, and instead uses
his words to relieve himself of trouble. However, “that’s not so good now (Othello
4.1:23).” His actions move from a place of peace and rationality to a place of utter
violence and instability; a perfect example of this is when he and Iago plot Desdemona’s
murder:
Othello: I will chop her into messes! Cuckold me!
Iago: O, ‘tis foul in her.
Othello: With mine officer!
Iago: That’s fouler.
Othello: Get me some poison, Iago, this night. I’ll not
expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty
unprovide my mind again. This night, Iago!
Iago: Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed,
even the bed she hath contaminated.
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Othello: Good, good! The justice of it pleases. Very
good! (Othello 4.1:202-212)
In the past, an encounter like this between Othello and Iago would never have taken
place; however, now that Othello is in the irrational, violent state that he is, a
conversation like this, for him, is nothing out of the ordinary. What’s particularly
striking is the nonchalance with which he replaces his own idea of poisoning Desdemona
with Iago’s idea of strangling her to death; this is not a man who is in his right mind,
when he will so calmly speak of murder. This is, indeed, a man with few mental and
emotional resources, even though, as we will find out, this condition is temporary.
However, in the moment, it is this lack that causes him to taunt and strike Desdemona
during Lodovico’s visit; these are not things that the Othello from the first few acts
would have ever even thought about doing to his beloved wife, and yet now, they are acts
that he is more than willing to commit.
In the last act, we come to see that Othello is completely committed to the murder
of Desdemona. However, rather than seeing it as a heinous crime, he sees the murder as
more of a sacrifice in the name of the men that she would betray in the future if she were
kept alive. He sees himself as the protector of all the men that Desdemona might have
betrayed; therefore, it would not be enough to simply banish her or divorce her, because
then she could simply skip off and cuckold other men. Another aspect of this act
includes the fact that being cuckolded was considered shameful, because then it meant
that the man was so weak that he was unable to control his woman. Keeping that in
mind, it is very possible that Othello kills Desdemona in a bid to regain his reputation and
control: if Desdemona is dead, and by his own hand, then he has, in a sense, regained
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control of her, and not only that, but he’s protected all the men that she might have
betrayed from his fate:
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men. (Othello 5.2:6)
Despite the fact that he feels he is doing the right thing by killing Desdemona, he still
loves her very much, and he is still captivated by her beauty. While acknowledging her
beauty and his love for her, he also acknowledges that, although he is killing her in order
to cleanse her of her sins, once he kills her, he can never bring her back:
Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as alabaster. (Othello 5.2:3-5)
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore,
Should I repent me; but once put out thy light,
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. (Othello 5.2:7-13)
Othello, at this point in his speech, doesn’t seem very upset about the fact that she will
never be restored once she is dead. However, further on in his speech, we become privy
to the complexity of his feelings. He still loves Desdemona, and he does not truly wish to
see her dead, but at the same time, he feels that her death is necessary because of what
she has done and what she might do if she remains alive:
O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword. One more, one more!
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after. One more, and that’s the last!
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly;
It strikes where it doth love. (Othello 5.2:16-22)
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Othello’s emotional oscillations are particularly visible when he speaks to Desdemona
right before he kills her. Even though he does ultimately kill her, her denials and
pleadings cause his resolve to weaken:
O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart,
And mak’st me call what I intend to do
A murder, which I thought a sacrifice. (Othello 5.2:63-65)
Upon the revelation of Iago’s role in the entire scenario, it almost seems like
Othello snaps back to his original personality traits, albeit somewhat changed, of course.
He no longer believes that Desdemona was unfaithful, because he now knows the truth:
that “honest Iago” was indeed a villain, as it is noted in the character list for the play:
Are there no stones in heaven
But what serves for the thunder? Precious villain! (Othello 5.2:231-232)
At this point, he runs at Iago with his sword drawn; it is this act that shows us that his
personality has not returned completely to normal. Although he has regained his
complete and total love for Desdemona, his anger, which no longer seems so irrational,
becomes directed towards Iago. However, when it hits Othello just what he has done, he
returns to his calm, collected state, perhaps out of shock, especially when relating his
final speech to those who have witnessed the events, and he, for all intents and purposes,
gives a summary of how his character had changed over the course of said events:
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down in aught or malice. Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought;
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued
eyes,
Albeit unusèd to the melting mood,
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Drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their med’cinable gum. Set you down this.
Othello acknowledges that he was new to love and that he was not easily made jealous;
he did not love “wisely,” but instead loved Desdemona so much that he became
vulnerable and therefore too easily manipulated by someone such as Iago. He also
acknowledges the realization of what he has done, which was to kill the one woman who
loved him unconditionally and truly. After looking over everything that Othello had been
through, it was not so much out of character for him to decide to kill himself in order to
be with his beloved wife; there was no way he was going to come out of this unscathed,
and he acknowledges this with his final words:
I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. (Othello 5.2:354-355)
Although many of the events in Othello were readily explained by the text, such
as Othello’s easy manipulation by Iago, there is one question that is never answered: did
Othello and Desdemona consummate their marriage? This seems like a non-issue when
you look at it at first, but I feel that the answer to this question is extremely important in
interpreting Othello’s actions. There is really no way to answer this question,
unfortunately, since the evidence in the text is miniscule at best and seems to back up
both possible answers to the question. If I were playing the character of Othello, I would
interpret the answer to be yes, that they did consummate their marriage. As a woman
who has been cuckolded in her past, I know the kind of rage that goes through you when
you find out that someone whom you’ve shared your body with decides to graze on
greener grasses, and someone like Othello, a man who loved Desdemona dearly, would
hold sexual intercourse with her to a very high standard; rather than being a purely carnal
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experience, it would be a spiritual and emotional experience as well. To have
Desdemona share something that he found so important, especially something like sex,
with someone else would be a statement about how little she actually loved him; if she
truly felt anything for him, she would share her body with him and only him. If they had
not yet consummated the marriage, I truly don’t think that Othello would have gone off
the deep end like he did. Unfortunately for both him and Desdemona, it doesn’t really
matter; they were both the victims of a horrid manipulation, and one that could have
easily been avoided, at that.
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Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Edited by Alvin Kernan. New York: New American
Library, 1998.
Alvin Kernan. Notes, Othello. Edited by Alvin Kernan. New York: New American
Library, 1998.