Othello:Written in 1604
First published in 1623 as part of
First Folio
Major Characters
Duke of Venice
Othello: Moor, married to
Desdemona
Iago: Solider in Othello’s army
Cassio: Lieutenant in Othello’s
army
Desdemona: Othello’s wife
Emilia: Iago’s wife
Roderigo: Solider, loves
Desdemona
Othello:
Setting (time) · Late sixteenth
century, during the wars
between Venice and Turkey
Setting (place) · Venice in Act
I; the island of Cyprus
thereafter
Characters






Lodovico
Gratiano
Iago
Michael Cassio
Roderigo
Othello





Bianca
Emilia
Desdemona
Brananzio
Montano
Story of Othello
•Othello is a Moor in Venice, who has
attained success as a renowned
general and has married fair
Desdemona. Iago, his ancient, envies
him and resents the fact that Cassio
has been named Othello's lieutenant.
They are all sent to Cyprus to defend
the island from an attack that never
comes.
Story of Othello
•There, Iago plots against Othello,
cunningly making him believe that
Desdemona is having an affair with
Cassio.
Iago is constantly maneuvering other
characters and makes an ideal villain,
so clever and cynical, as well as close
to his victim.
Major Conflict

Othello and Desdemona marry and
attempt to build a life together, despite
their differences in age, race, and
experience. Their marriage is sabotaged
by the envious Iago, who convinces
Othello that Desdemona is unfaithful.
Acts I & II
The Play took place in Venice and the Island Cyprus in early 16th century.
Othello has secretly married Desdemona, the younger daughter of the
Senator Brabantio. Iago, who once loved Desdemona and told her so
didn’t get her love in return, so he wanted revenge. He also didn’t get the
position as Othello’s Lieutenant like he wanted. He then had his
inexperienced follower, Roderigo, to inform Desdemona’s father of the
scandelous marriage. One he found out he went to Othello’s house, but
violence was post poned because of the report of an attack on cyprus
from armed Turkish Galleys.
Act III

Iago’s plan turned now to
lies, he saw that Roderigo
his partner had a “thing”
for Desdemona, Iago told
Roderigo that he could
get Desdemona to love
him back. He also said
that Cassio was
Desdemona’s latest love,
so Roderigo needed to kill
Cassio.
Act IV
That night Iago got Cassio drunk and a brawl
turned into a riot. After Othello heard about the
riot he demoted Cassio from lieutenant.
Desdemona tried to get Cassie and Othello to be
friends again. That gave Iago another idea, a
way to convince the Moor of her “natural
attraction” to Florentine.
 Over time Othello got very jealous.

Act V

Iago killed Cassio and
Rodergio. Later that night
Othello spilled out all the
information to Desdemona
about hearing about her
cheating on him. He also told
her about Cassio being dead,
she burst into tears and that
made Othello mad, so he
smothered her with a pillow.
Later on, he finds out that
what Iago had said and done
was all a huge lie. Feeling so
guilty, Othello raised his
dagger and stabbed himself in
the heart.
Othello and his tragic flaws
•This view of himself will prove troublesome
when he is hard pressed to recognize his
jealousy and his lust
•His inability to reconcile himself with these two
aspects of his personality means that his
comeuppance is almost certain.
•Othello's lack of self-knowledge means that
he will be unable to stop himself once Iago
begins to ignite his jealousy
Othello and his tragic flaws
•There is no conscience in Othello
•Shakespeare had a tragic obsession with the idea of a
good name living on after the protagonist’s death:
•Tragedies, literary or human, depend on imperfect
knowledge
•Shakespeare came naturally to histories, comedies
and romances, but tragedies took work
•The tragedies especially are not religious in any
regard
•No killer kills in the name of any god, ever
•War is the religion in Othello, Macbeth, Lear, and
Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt)
Othello and his tragic flaws
•The only magic that Othello possesses is in
his power of language.
•His language shows his pride in his
achievements
•Othello portrays himself as a tested,
honorable warrior, and indeed is such.
Iago
Iago’s purpose is to take revenge on the world. He is
consumed by hatred.
The catalyst for this arises from his revulsion when
Othello awards a promotion to Cassio that, in Iago’s
view, should have rightly gone to himself.
Iago displays himself as an honest and trustworthy
character, but at every juncture conducts himself with
cunning and malicious intent.
Iago is himself consumed by his own hatred as
illustrated when he slays his own wife, Emilia.
Iago
Iago is able to maintain a façade of honesty and
dependability because:
•He relies on his past reputation
•He recognises the faults in the other characters and
acts to widen those faults
•He has excellent rhetorical and verbal skills and
always twists and mixes truth with lies
•He leads the other characters down paths but then
allows the characters to reach their own
conclusions, based on Iago’s understanding of
their own faults
Themes in Othello
Appearance vs. reality: Especially relevant to
the issue of Iago's character; for although he is
called "honest" by almost everyone in the play,
he is treacherous, deceitful, and manipulative.
Also applies to Desdemona, as Othello
believes that she is deceitful and impure,
although she is really blameless and innocent.
Themes in Othello
Race: Race is an extremely important theme; it has a
great amount of influence on how people regard
Othello.
Race also determines how Othello perceives himself
as a rough outsider, though he is nothing of the sort.
Othello's race sets him apart, and makes him very selfconscious; it makes him work hard and look carefully
after his reputation, so he is regarded as equal to the
white people that surround him.
.
Themes in Othello
Magic: Usually has something to do with Othello's
heritage. Othello is charged with using magic to woo
Desdemona, merely because he is black, and
therefore, "pagan."
Yet, Othello does have real magic, in the words he
uses and the stories he tells.
Magic also reappears when Desdemona's
handkerchief cannot be found; Othello has too much
trust in the symbolism and charm of the handkerchief,
which is why the object is so significant to him.
Themes in Othello
Pride: Especially important with regards to Othello;
Othello is defensively proud of himself and his
achievements, and especially proud of the honorable
appearance he presents.
The allegations of Desdemona's affair hurt his pride
even more than they inflame his vanity and jealousy.
Othello wants to appear powerful, accomplished, and
moral at every possible instance, and when this is
denied to him, his wounded pride becomes especially
powerful and leads to catastrophic results..
Themes in Othello
Honesty: Although the word "honest" is usually used
in an ironic way throughout the text, most characters in
the play go through a crisis of learning who and who
not to trust.
Most of them, unfortunately, trust in Iago's honesty.
This leads to the downfall of many characters, as this
trust in Iago's "honesty" became a crucial contributor to
their undoing.
Themes in Othello
Order vs. chaos: As Othello begins to abandon
reason and language, chaos takes over. His world
begins to be ruled by chaotic emotions and shady
allegations, with order pushed to one side. This chaos
rushes him into tragedy, and once Othello has sunk
into it, he is unable to stop his fate from taking him
over.
Self-knowledge: Othello's lack of self-knowledge
makes him easy prey for Iago. Once Iago inflames
Othello's jealousy and gets the darker aspects of
Othello's nature into action, there is nothing Othello
can do to stop it, since he cannot even admit that he
has these darker traits.
Themes in Othello
Misrepresentation: This also allows Iago to gain trust
and manipulate other people; misrepresentation
means that Iago is able to appear to be "honest," in
order to deceive and misdirect people. Othello also
misrepresents himself, as being simple and plainspoken; this is not for deceptive effect, but also is used
to present an image of himself which is not exactly the
truth.
Themes in Othello
Good vs. Evil: Though there is much grey area
between these two, Iago's battle against Othello and
Cassio certainly counts as an embodiment of this
theme.
Iago battles to corrupt and turn the flawed natures of
other characters against themselves.
However, by the end of the play neither has won as
Desdemona and Emilia are both dead and Iago
revealed and punished.
Themes in Othello
Misrepresentation: This also allows Iago to gain
trust and manipulate other people.
Misrepresentation means that Iago is able to appear
to be "honest," in order to deceive and misdirect
people.
Othello also misrepresents himself, as being simple
and plain-spoken.
This is not for deceptive effect, but also is used to
present an image of himself which is not exactly the
truth.
Themes in Othello
Jealousy and Human Nature
Human nature is easily manipulated and Jealousy is
like a disease.
Through the combination of manipulation and disease
humans are prone to extreme circumstances including
a failure to recognise their own failures coupled with a
misunderstanding of the faults of other. Humans can
have a terribly dark and cunning side.