Othello -- the play
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Distinctive aspects of Othello
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It has the strongest, most focused plot of all the tragedies.
It has the fewest characters.
Like Romeo and Juliet, its action is rapid.
It is a domestic tragedy, but unlike Romeo and Juliet, it is a tragedy of a
great leader.
 Shakespeare didn’t make up the story of Othello.
The story of an older man cuckolded by his young wife was a popular story and source
of drama from classical Greece and Rome on. [To be cuckolded is to have one's wife be
unfaithful without one's knowledge. One then becomes the butt of jokes behind one's
back. The sign of the cuckold is horns – like the horns on a deer. People would put horns
up behind your head and laugh at you.] As Harold Bloom points out, a man's fear of
being cuckolded and being sexually inadequate is the fear of his mortality.
Shakespeare's general source for the outline of Othello is an Italian story by a man named
Giraldi Cinthio from 1565 (about 40 years before Shakespeare wrote this play). Here are
the major parallels and differences between the two (summarized from Harley GranvilleBarker):
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In Cinthio, Desdemona, a young white woman, is married to Othello, an
older black Moor (Muslim) for some time. Shakespeare changes this
longer relationship to Desdemona and Othello eloping.
In Cinthio, Desdemona fails to requite the Moor’s love and so he tries to
take revenge on her, whereas in Shakespeare, Desdemona clearly loves
Othello.
In Cinthio, Othello plots with the ensign (lieutenant) to kill Desdemona
whereas in Shakespeare, the lieutenant Iago plants the seed but Othello
does the deed.
In Cinthio, the ensign beats Desdemona to death with a stocking filled
with sand, while Othello watches, whereas in Shakespeare, Othello
smothers Desdemona.
In Cinthio, characters are uncomplicated, the moral is clear, punishment is
correct. Desdemona’s relatives kill the moor. In Shakespeare all is
ambiguous and Othello punishes himself.
In Cinthio, Desdemona is an open and sexual woman, whereas in
Shakespeare, while Desdemona is vivacious, her youthful modesty is
prominent.
In Cinthio, Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is sexually
experienced, and Iago’s arguments are plausible, whereas in Shakespeare,
Iago's allegations are less believable except to Othello. In Shakespeare,
Desdemona does not seem to be sexually experienced, and, in fact, the
question of whether Desdemona and Othello consummate the marriage is
significant.
The familiar and the strange: the play is set in far-away Venice and on the
island of Cyprus.
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Shakespeare never left England, and England hardly had any blacks or
Jews for Shakespeare to meet. Venice, on the other hand, was
cosmopolitan and a principal capital of the world at the time. Venice,
located on the eastern coast of Italy, received visitors from the orient and
from Africa constantly and had a diverse population. This Venetian citystate captured Shakespeare's imagination. He situated not just this play
there but also the Merchant of Venice, with its memorable Jew, Shylock.
Venice: While Shakespeare never went there, it fascinated him and other
English people. It is a place for him both recognizable and similar to his
own England in its Christianity, its place as a sea power, and its economic
strength. Yet it was exotic to Shakespeare in its location as a path to the
eastern Mediterranean and Byzantine Empire, and to Africa. Although
thoroughly western and European in outlook, Venice's location on the east
coast of Italy puts it as an outpost facing the remnants of the Ottoman
Empire. As a sea power, Venice was always patrolling the eastern
Mediterranean. While Shakespeare was growing up, Venice was at war
against the Turks and, in fact, lost Cyprus to the Turks in 1572.
Venice a republic, not a monarchy: Despite never having left Tudor
England with its strong monarchy, Shakespeare was able to imagine an
entirely different, more progressive republican form of government in
Venice. In contrast to his experience in England's more homogenous
society, Shakespeare could plumb the challenges of the heterogeneous
society of Venice in which an outsider must negotiate his way among
insiders. What more challenging plot than for a black African to assume
the command of a nation's military and marry into the closed Venetian
society.
The Turks: The Turks were despicable creatures to the Venetians and to
Europeans in general. The "Holy" Crusades were fought against them. In
Othello, Shakespeare has the Turks defeated by the Venetians.
Moors: Moors are Africans. The play is ambiguous about how black
Othello is. At times, his blackness is emphasized; at other times he seems
more northern African. Either way, he is exotic, strange, and "the other." It
is significant that the white Venetians hire him to be their general. If you
think of the Venetians as the Wall Street bankers of their day, they are
hiring Othello to do their dirty work of fighting.
Iago's malignity. Iago's motivation
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Iago's name is pronounced ee-a-go, with the vowels pronounced as in "we
want go" and the accent on the second syllable. Iago is an ensign, or third
in command.
Shakespeare has created great villains. We'll be reading some of his best:
Iago, Richard III, and Edmund. Iago has baffled many because of the
difficulty of determining motivation. One critic talked of Iago's
"motiveless malignity," a "diabolism so intense as to defy rational
explanation." Another sees him as a particularly virulent form of a type
called a trickster.
The first motivation Iago states is that he has been passed over for
promotion, but we don't know if Iago could have become an officer in the
first place. If he couldn't, then the reason he gives to Rodrigo is specious.
Iago's revenge is beautiful in its artistry. Iago conducts himself with such
gusto and self-delight. Othello, great military commander that he is, is
outclassed by Iago's strategic planning.
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The critic Harold Bloom sees Iago as an artist, an improviser. Iago is a
great creator or destroyer. Is the destruction of Othello a masterwork, as
you experience the play?
As you enter into the experience of the play (not as you reflect on his
morality outside the theater of your imagination), how do you regard Iago?
Who is Othello? Othello's view of what he did
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Although the play Othello is one of Shakespeare's most direct and
uncomplicated in plot, the character of Othello is hard to assess.
He is painted as a character of great stature and command. A total
outsider, yet he wins the command of the richest state in the word, but
does he become an insider? Although working in the republic of Venice,
he strikes one more as a princely figure and seems to regard his position
not as a job but as a vocation.
Othello has long trusted Iago in military matters and seems to know him
well. His wife, from our perspective, is most innocent, yet since Othello
knows Iago so much better than he knows Desdemona, it is plausible that
he trusts Iago. How do we regard this trusting as we experience the play?
It is important to examine carefully why he killed Desdemona from his
own perspective. Once we accept that he was duped by Iago and totally
mistaken, we need to go back and examine carefully his reasons for killing
her in 4.2 and 5.2. "It is the cause." What is the cause he speaks of? (5.2.1)
Once his perspective is understood, then we are better able to understand
his final actions and words, once he finds out how wrong he was. Does he
see his execution of Desdemona as heroic? (5.2.345 to the end) How do
we regard this execution of her as we experience the play?
The radical women of the play. Women in Othello
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In previous plays, we have seen how Shakespeare portrayed the
subservient and traditional relationships of Lady Capulet and the
nurse to Capulet. We also observed how Juliet subverted her
father's control through subterfuge.
While Venice may be a liberal republic and not a monarchy,
observe how possessively Brabantio speaks of and treats his
daughter, Desdemona, and how dictatorially Iago treats his wife,
Emilia. Are you surprised then by how these two women negotiate
their dealings with their husbands?
How would you describe Desdemona's attitudes in 1.3, how she
addresses her father and the council?
How do your interpret Emilia's conversations with Desdemona in
4.2, 4.3, and 5.1?
How would you describe Desdemona's actions within her
marriage?
How does Emilia break from her restraints in 5.2?
We clearly have portrayed here complex and nuanced gender
politics. Try to put into words some of the complexity you observe.
Othello
Study Questions by David Wilbern
1. In a recent story by Salman Rushdie (The New Yorker, July 2001), a character makes the following
remarks about Othello:
Othello doesn't love Desdemona. . . . He says he does, but it can't be true. Because if he loves her, the
murder makes no sense. For me, Desdemona is Othello's trophy wife, his most valuable and status-giving
possession, the physical proof of his risen standing in a white man's world. You see? He loves that about
her, but not her. . . . Desdemona's death is an "honor killing." She didn't have to be guilty; the accusation
was enough. The attack on her virtue was incompatible with Othello's honor. She's not even a person to
him. He has reified her. She's his Oscar-Barbie statuette. His doll.
Do you think this is a valuable commentary on the character? Why or why not?
3. [Discussion Group Topic] The question of Iago's motivation reverberates through the play and the
history of its criticism. How do you understand the character's motives? Are his stated explanations
sufficient? Here's a related question: Does Iago intend the fatal consequences from the beginning, or is he
making it up as he goes along? In the early 19th century, Samuel Taylor Coleridge made a famous remark
about "the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity" that you may want to consider:
A Note on "The Motive-Hunting of Motiveless Malignity"
The famous phrase, "The motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity," occurs in a note Samuel Taylor
Coleridge wrote in his copy of Shakespeare, as he was preparing a series of lectures delivered in the winter
of 1818-1819. The note concerns the end of Act 1, Scene 3 of Othello in which Iago takes leave of
Roderigo, saying, "Go to, farewell. Put money enough in your purse," and then delivers the soliloquy
beginning "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse." Here is Coleridge's note:
The triumph! again, put money after the effect has been fully produced. -- The last Speech, the motivehunting of motiveless Malignity -- how awful! In itself fiendish -- while yet he was allowed to bear the
divine image, too fiendish for his own steady View. -- A being next to Devil -- only not quite Devil -- &
this Shakespeare has attempted -- executed -- without disgust, without Scandal! -(Lectures 1808-1819 On
Literature 2: 315)
Coleridge's phrase is often taken to mean that Iago has no real motive and does evil only because he is evil.
This is not far from what Coleridge meant, but he almost certainly wasn't using the word "motive" in the
same way as it's now used. We use it to mean "an emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse
that acts as an incitement to action" ("Motive"). This definition equates "motive" and "impulse"; Coleridge,
however, thought the two quite different. He makes this distinction in an entry he wrote for Omniana, a
collection of sayings assembled by his friend Robert Southey and published in 1812. Here is what
Coleridge wrote:
4. In Act Two, Scene One, Iago instructs Roderigo on how to read "courtesy" as "lechery, ... an index and
prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts" (2.1.252-258). Do you think Iago has a point here, first in
the play, and then in general? If you do, how would you describe the kind of thinking you engage in when
you take Iago's point?
6. Why does Othello believe Iago? There are many doorways into this question; one of them is at the end,
when Iago says, "I told him what I thought, and told no more / Than what he found himself was apt and
true" (5.2.178-179).
7. In Act Four, Scene Three, Desdemona and Emilia have a conversation about men and women, marriage,
and fidelity. What does this scene indicate about the character of Desdemona? How can you relate this
scene to central issues in the play?
8. Various critics have noticed that Desdemona apparently lies more than once in the play: e.g., when
Othello asks her about the handkerchief, or when she briefly comes to life at the end to absolve Othello of
her murder. Do you consider these moments to be lies, and if so, how do you understand them?
9. Othello's death scene is superbly staged. Shakespeare gives the character a powerful final speech.
Reading it (or hearing it), do you think this tragic hero has learned anything from his experience, or is he
continuing to sustain his illusions?
1.1.1-6 ("Tush, never tell me!")
play opens with nonverbal sound, unreferenced pronoun, & denial
Iago's technique of denying his thoughts
introduction of "dream" & "abhor"
1.1.80-117 ("What ho, Brabantio!")
"What is the reason?"
base reduction of marriage to bestial copulation
1.1.142-143 ("This accident ...")
"accident ... dream ... belief ..."
- external event coincides with internal fantasy to produce belief & "oppression"
model for Iago's manipulation-seduction of Othello
1.1.169-172 ("O heaven ...")
paternal doubt = disbelief
- vision of daughter similar to Othello's later vision of wife
1.3 (Duke's war council)
question of encountering "the Turk": Study Question 2: Who is the Turk?
last effective use of reason acting upon evidence
= "pageant / To keep us in false gaze" (1.3.17-19)
1.3.94-108 ("A maiden never bold ...)"
a father's patriarchal assumptions & idealizations
problem of "unnatural" attraction
issue of witchcraft & conjuration
Duke notes difference between accusation & proof
- "poor likelihoods of modern seeming"
-- i.e., frailty of superficial assumptions
1.3.127-172 ("Say it, Othello.")
Desdemona won (& lost) by fabulous stories
1.3.318-372 ("Virtue? a fig!")
natural metaphor of garden + will as gardener
- early-modern meanings of "will" as irrational desire (lust) + intention
-- look up "will" (noun) in the OED
"... the balance [beam] of our lives ..." = apply to entire play, esp. Othello
- reason v. sensuality
- love as "lust of blood & permission of will"
1.3.381-402 ("Thus do I ever ...")
Question of Iago's motivation ("I hate the Moor")
- jealousy of Othello & Emilia
- revenge for Cassio's promotion
- envy of Othello & Cassio
- desire for Desdemona
- (unconscious) attraction to Othello? to Cassio?
- "motiveless malignity" (S.T. Coleridge)
See Study Question 3
2.1.77-80 ("Great Jove, Othello guard ...")
note sexual imagery / relate to Cassius?
- instance of tendency to eroticize language (recall Measure for Measure)
2.1.181-192 ("Lo, where he comes!")
extremities of love & idealization
2.1.247-258 ("I cannot believe ...")
ideal undone ("blest")
issue of courtesy v. lechery (see Study Question 4)
3.3 ("The Temptation Scene")
Giotto, Invidia (Envy) ,
Allegories of the Virtues
and Vices (c. 1305)
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"Ha! I like not that. ... Nothing, my lord."
- Iago's relentless technique of suggestion + denial
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"Be as your fancies teach you ..." (irony)
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"When I love thee not, / Chaos is come again."
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"... he echoes me ... monster in his thought..."
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"Where's that palace ... foul things ..."
- structure of ideal / purity + pollution
- psychology of idealization + denial
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Iago's "jealousy" / note initial meaning of word
-- then "the green-eyed monster"
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"... once in doubt ... once to be resolved"
- 2 ways of understanding line: rational & irrational
- compare Iago at 1.3.370-372 ("I know not if 't be true ...")
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"I do not think but Desdemona's honest."
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"Let me be thought too busy ... (As worthy cause I have ...)"
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"O curse of marriage ..."
- issue of masculine ownership + feminine appetite
- "a corner in the thing I love" [see 4.2.58-63]
- figures of objectification
- metaphors of architecture + anatomy
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"Villain, be sure thou prove ..."
- Othello orders Iago to continue his scheme
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"Give me a living reason ..."
- Iago answers request for logic with story of dream ("I lay with Cassio lately...")
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kneeling + "sacred vow" + "witness" = "marriage" of Othello + Iago
Lawrence Fishburne
& Kenneth Branagh in 1995 film
3.4.53-73 ("That's a fault ...")
story of handkerchief = Is it true? [See 5.2.217-218]
- indication of Othello's ideas of love + marriage
figure of handkerchief as symbol
-"spotted with strawberries" (3.3.441)
4.1.32-43 ("What hath he said? ...")
dramatic demonstration of irrational passion
"Nature would not invest .. It is not words ..."
- psychology of emotion / "instruction" / story
- generated by versions of word "lie"
4.1.190-205 ("But yet the pity ...")
love + rage / question of Othello's motives
Karen Kiefer, Monkey on Goat (contemporary American)
4.1.255-259 ("Sir, I obey ...")
public duty v. private passion
- "Cassio shall have my place" = irony
- "Goats and monkeys!" = Cyprus in Othello
4.3.59-105 ("O, these men ...")
play of ethical questions about virtue or "honesty"
unusual conversation between "women" (female characters) about gender
- feminine desires & masculine limitations
- "And have we not affections? / Desires for sport?"
Hypothesis: Othello's rejection of idealized Desdemona may be provoked by his confrontation with her
desire.
What if woman is not an object, but a subject? & a desiring subject?
5.2 "monumental alabaster" = pedestal for ideal + tomb (fatal idealization / objectification)
deathbed = marriage bed (see 4.2.107-108)
- wish to preserve ideal: "Be thus when thou art dead ..."
5.2.339ff ("Soft you, ...") -- Othello's final speech
projection of story as written narrative
"... threw a pearl away ..."
- persistent fantasy of wife as perfect object.
discovery of "to die upon a kiss"