By William Shakespeare
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Late sixteenth century, during the wars
between Venice and Turkey
Venice in Act I; the island of Cyprus thereafter
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The author William Spakespeare is the person
telling the story the point of view .
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Othello : A Christian Moor and general of the armies of Venice, Othello is an eloquent
and physically powerful figure, respected by all those around him. In spite of his
elevated status, he is nevertheless easy prey to insecurities because of his age, his life as a
soldier, and his race. He possesses a “free and open nature,” which his ensign Iago uses
to twist his love for his wife, Desdemona, into a powerful and destructive jealousy
Desdemona: The daughter of the Venetian senator Brabanzio. Desdemona and Othello
are secretly married before the play begins. Desdemona is also determined and selfpossessed. She is equally capable of defending her marriage, jesting bawdily with Iago,
and responding with dignity to Othello’s
Iago: Iago is twenty-eight years old. While his ostensible reason for desiring Othello’s
demise is that he has been passed over for promotion to lieutenant, Iago’s motivations
are never very clearly expressed and seem to originate in an obsessive, almost aesthetic
delight in manipulation and destruction.
Michael Cassio : Othello’s lieutenant. Cassio is a young and inexperienced soldier,
whose high position is much resented by Iago. Truly devoted to Othello, Cassio is
extremely ashamed after being implicated in a drunken brawl on Cyprus and losing his
place as lieutenant. Iago uses Cassio’s youth, good looks, and friendship with
Desdemona to play on Othello’s mind
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Man vs. Society
At this time in society racial differences are not
commonly accepted in regards to marriage. They both
must overcome society’s expectations and culture to
continue with a strong lasting relationship.
Man Vs. Man
After being overlooked by Othello for a promotion to
lieutenant that was given to an inexperienced Michael
Cassio, Iago feels hatred towards Othello. It is clear
that Iago enjoys taking pleasure away from Othello
and is willing to take revenge on Othello no matter
what. In the end Iago spoils Othello’s marriage and
gives Othello a lot of trouble throughout the play.
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The “willow” song foreshadows desdomonas
death
Othello’s description of his past and of his
wooing of Desdemona foreshadow his suicide
Othello and Desdemona’s speeches about love
foreshadow the disaster to come
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Since the handkerchief was the first gift
Desdemona received from Othello, she keeps it
about her constantly as a symbol of Othello's
love.
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Cassio was the one Iago wanted dead or out of
his position. At the end of the play, Cassio was
the only one that did not die and Othello
actually promoted him to a higher position.
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The story of William Shakespeare's Othello is set in 16th-century Venice and Cyprus. Othello the Moor, a noble black warrior in the Venetian army,
has secretly married a beautiful white woman called Desdemona, the daughter of a prominent senator, Brabantio. When he finds out, he is outraged,
and promptly disowns her.
Othello’s ensign, Iago, harbours a secret jealousy and resentment towards the Moor, partly because another soldier, lieutenant Cassio, has been
promoted ahead of him, and also because he suspects that Othello has had an affair with his wife. Intent on revenge, Iago hatches a devious plan to
plant suspicions in Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Cassio. He orchestrates a street fight, for which Cassio is
wrongly blamed, and is then dismissed from his post by Othello. Desdemona takes up Cassio’s case with her husband, which only further inflames
his suspicions that the pair are lovers.
In the meantime, Iago manages to procure a treasured handkerchief from Desdemona that was given to her by Othello. He plants it on Cassio so that
Othello sees it, then concludes that it is proof of their affair. Maddened by jealousy, he orders Iago to murder Cassio, and then he strangles
Desdemona. Immediately afterwards her innocence is revealed, and Iago’s treachery exposed. In a fit of grief and remorse Othello kills himself. Iago
is taken into custody by the Venetian authorities.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE STORY
Written against the backdrop of the bubonic plague and the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Othello is thought to have been completed sometime in
early 1604. Shakespeare appropriated the basic plot and story from Geraldi Cinthio’s popular book, Hundred Stories, the first sentence of which
reads, “There was a Moor in Venice”. There were also other books that he probably used to shape the plots details, such as John Leo Africanus’s
Geographical History of Africa, published in November 1600, Lewis Lewkenor’s book on the Constitution of Venice, and Philemon Holland’s
translation of Pliny’s History of the World.
Peter Ackroyd, author of Shakespeare – The Biography, argues for an additional background source to the plot. He writes of a story about Philip II,
the King of Spain, who was allegedly of a very jealous nature, and was said to have strangled his wife in bed after she had inadvertently dropped
her handkerchief. If this tale is true, it is too close to the plot of Othello to be a coincidence.
Real life encounters also fed into the play’s storyline. Shakespeare would have come into contact with members of London’s African community,
who would have figured in his daily life around the streets of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, Silver Street and Turnmill Street, where he lived and
socialised. He would have interacted with them as servants, musicians, entertainers and even prostitutes. He would have been aware of their
struggles within Elizabethan society, and the racism they endured.
In 1600 Shakespeare may also have met Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun — the olive-skinned Moorish ambassador to the
Arab King of Barbary — who is often cited as the inspiration for Othello. He visited the court of Queen Elizabeth, and sat for a portrait. Some
suggest that Shakespeare and his troupe perhaps performed for him.