My line references refer to the Arden edition, Third Series, edited by E.A.J. Honigmann. If you have a different edition, you may well find the line numbers differ slightly from the Arden edition.

The play opens with Roderigo complaining that Iago, despite his free access to Roderigo’s money, has withheld some import information from him. Iago denies this. Roderigo then refers to a man that Iago said he hated. Iago insists that he does hate this man. This man is soon to be revealed as Othello, or, as he is known somewhat contemptuously by Iago and Roderigo, ‘the Moor’, a powerful professional soldier employed by Venice to protect their trading interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Iago explains that despite “three great ones of the city” (Venice) recommending Iago for promotion to be Othello’s lieutenant, Othello chose a less experienced soldier called Michael Cassio, a Florentine, whom Iago despises. Iago remains as Othello’s “ancient”, clearly a lesser rank than lieutenant. When describing Othello’s verbal response to the three “great ones”, Iago characterises Othello as someone “as loving his own pride and purpose” and that Othello’s answer to their recommendation was delivered “with a bombast circumstance/Horribly stuffed with epithets of war”. One does not expect someone with a grudge against someone to give a reliable account of that person’s character, nevertheless, it is worth keeping Iago’s judgement in mind – even if only to assess how fair or unfair it is.

In response to Roderigo’s “I would not follow him then”, Iago tells Roderigo, “I follow him to serve my turn upon him”. He expands on his strategy of seeming to be a loyal follower whilst secretly pursuing his own goals. He has nothing but contempt for submissive, servile followers. He stands with those who though “trimmed in forms and visages of duty/Keep their hearts attending on themselves”. In following “the Moor” he says that he follows “but myself”. He will always ensure that his “outward action” does not reveal his inner thoughts and feelings. He ends his general strategy statement with “I am not what I am”. This is puzzling: how can you not be what you are? Perhaps the least puzzling way to read this is to take it as, ‘I am not what I seem to be”. Or, ‘I am not the ‘I’, the person, that people take me to be’ . There is a paradox here: the man who does not reveal his true identity is revealing the fact that he does not reveal himself. This shows how confident he is that Roderigo can offer no challenge.

It is still not clear what information Roderigo accuses Iago of keeping back from him.. Having rather passively listened to Iago expressing his strategy as an apparent follower, Roderigo switches the subject back to the “this” (see line 3), the information that Iago had been keeping back. We will soon discover that ‘this’ is the fact that ‘the Moor”, namely Othello, has married Desdemona, the only daughter of a Venetian nobleman. Roderigo refers to the marriage when he says ,“What a full fortune the thick-lips owe/If he can carry’t thus”. The “thick-lips” refers to the Moor. Moors as an ethnic group belonged to North Africa and would be of a “tawny” colour rather than black. Roderigo’s “thick lips” suggests someone from sub-Saharan Africa but the contemptuous way he puts it could just be an abusive term he would apply to any dark-skinned non-European. Can the ‘black or tawny?’ question be settled from other evidence from the play? Here, I will jump ahead to references which occur later in the play. We have Iago’s contemptuous reference to Othello as an “old black ram” (1.1.87) ; we have the Duke’s consolatory comment to Brabantio, “Your son-in-law is far more fair than black” (1.3.291); there is Iago’s, ”a brace/Of Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure to/ The health of black Othello” (2.3.29); and we have Othello’s “haply for I am black” (3.3.267). Given Othello’s “I am black”, that seems to settle it. However, Elizabethan usage of ‘black’ covers a range of colour from dark skin to black and so could include ‘tawny’. E.A.J. Honigmann, the editor of the Arden edition of Othello, argues that since the various places mentioned by Othello and others – Rhodes, Barbary, Egypt, Pontic and Propontic Seas, Mauretania, Jerusalem, Aleppo – are all in the North African and Mediterranean world, then this suggests that Shakespeare thought of them as Othello’s ‘home ground’ and, therefore, that he thought of Othello as a tawny North African Moor. To support this, Honigmann refers to the presence of the Moorish Ambassador to Queen Eizabeth. This Ambassador was a guest in the Elizabethan court for six months from August 1600. Whilst there, he had his portrait painted and, being an unusual presence, he drew a lot of attention. Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, acted before the court in the Christmas season of 1600/1601. The ambassador may well have been present. Perhaps he was somewhere in Shakespeare’s mind when he was writing Othello , which is usually dated to 1602. Finally, one concludes that the question cannot be decided with certainty; nevertheless, many productions of Othello have featured a black actor. One effect of having a black actor in the part is that it tends to bring to the fore questions of racism and prompts one to ask how far the attitudes of other characters towards Othello are shaped by colour prejudice. One can also ask (a) how far Shakespeare’s portrayal of Othello is predetermined by certain stereotypical ideas of how Moors as an ethnic group are likely to behave, and (b) in what ways does the play interrogate this form of determinism.

We now discover why Iago has brought Roderigo with him late at night, or in the early hours of the morning, to stand in the street outside the house of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father. They are there to alert Brabantio to the fact that his daughter, Desdemona, has, without her father’s knowledge, during the course of the evening and night, eloped and married Othello. Presumably, Iago, as Othello’s ancient, knew that the marriage was going to take place but hadonly just revealed this to Roderigo. It soon becomes clear that Roderigo wanted to marry Desdemona but Brabantio would not allow this and Desdemona herself had rejected him and other suitable Venetian nobles. Roderigo, however, continues to think that he can, by some means, win Desdemona (marry her or just sexually possess her?). Iago is keen to keep this hope alive in Roderigo.

They stand outside Brabantio's house and shout to wake him up. Roderigo asks Brabantio if his family is within – his family being his daughter as Brabantio is a widower. Iago keeps his own identity hidden in the street’s darkness though Roderigo is visible. Iago encourages a noisier awakening and, using animal sexual images, shouts out to Brabantio what could now be taking place between his daughter and “an old black ram”. They could be, “making the beast with two backs”. Roderigo tells Brabantio about his daughter having been “transported” by a gondolier into “the gross clasps 0f a lascivious Moor” and so “Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes/In an extravagant and wheeling stranger/Of here and everywhere”. In other words, that she has married this “stranger”, this Moor. Brabantio, having discovered that his daughter is not in the house, prepares to come down with all his “people” to take appropriate action. Meanwhile, Iago explains to Roderigo that he must leave as he does not want to be known as the source of information on Othello’s marriage. He also adds some further points that show how well informed and ahead of events he is. He is confident that Brabantio will not be able to persuade the Venetian Senate to undo his daughter’s marriage because Othello as military commander is so highly valued. In fact, his service as commander is urgently needed since he is about to be “embarked” to Cyprus to defend the island against the Turks. Just before he slips away, Iago tells Roderigo to lead Brabantio and his men to the “Sagittary” (an inn with the sign of Sagittarius – the Centaur in the signs of the zodiac) where they will find Othello and Desdemona – and Iago, who will have already made his own way there.

Once in the street alongside Roderigo, Brabantio bitterly complains about his daughter’s deception. He also wonders if “the Moor” has used some “charm” or magical powers to win over his daughter. Roderigo leads them away to the Sagittary.

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Act 1

Scene 2

Outside the Saggitary

Iago tells Othello that Roderigo (or is he referring to Brabantio?) claims that he knows about Othello’s marriage and “spoke such scurvy and provoking terms/Against your honour” that Iago was on the verge of stabbing him. Iago asks for confirmation of the marriage and then warns Othello that “the magnifico”, Brabantio, is a powerful man and will be able to “divorce” (in Catholic Venice?) Othello or use the law to put him under “restraint” (prison?). Othello is unperturbed since he is confident that the services he has done for Venice will “out-tongue” any complaints. He also proudly states that he is a man of royal pedigree with the implication that aristocratic Desdemona has not married beneath herself. But, beyond matters of social rank, the most important thing is that he loves Desdemona which is proved by the very fact that he, a man not given to being tied down by marriage, has married her. At this point, Cassio and various officers arrive to order Othello to go to the Duke’s where consuls have gathered to discuss the military emergency in Cyprus. Othello excuses himself, saying that he needs to “spend a word here in the house” (to Desdemona?) before he goes. Whilst he is briefly absent, Iago tells Cassio that Othello has just married – characteristically he describes the marriage in unromantic, materialistic terms when he says, in effect, that Othello, as if he were a pirate, has landed a rich prize. He then states it plainly with, “He’s married”. Cassio responds with, “To whom”. Later in the play, when we learn that Cassio served as a go-between in Othello’s courtship of Desdemona, we may think it was disingenuous of Cassio to ask this question. Perhaps the point is that whilst he knew of the courtship, and whilst he must think that Desdemona is the most likely bride, he may still react with a degree of shock (inwardly thinking, ‘Gosh, has he really gone so far as to defy all conventions and marry her?’)

Just as Othello comes back, Brabantio and Roderigo arrive with armed men to arrest Othello for bewitching Desdemona. With weapons drawn by both sides (Brabantio and his men v. Othello, Iago, Cassio and others), Othello orders both sides to sheathe their weapons (“Keep up your bright swords for the dew will rust them”) and speaks directly to Brabantio. Brabantio accuses him of casting a spell on his daughter. He says that magic powers of some kind would be needed to draw Desdemona since it defies all reason that she would be attracted “to the sooty bosom/Of such a thing as thou”. Brabantio calls for Othello to be arrested. Othello says he has been called urgently to the duke’s council. Brabantio has to give way to this, though he expresses confidence that once they are all before the council, the Duke and “brothers of the state” will support him in taking action against Othello.

Act 1

Scene 3

The Council Chamber of the Venetian Senate

The Senate are discussing the threat to Cyprus posed by the Turkish fleet. Brabantio, Othello, Cassio, Iago and Roderigo arrive. Brabantio tells the Duke that Othello has bewitched his daughter, saying she is “abused, stolen from me and corrupted”. Although he says of himself, “Rude am I in my speech” Othello responds in characteristically dignified, eloquent language. He describes himself as a seasoned soldier, a man not given to “the soft phrase of peace”, who will, nevertheless, “a round unvarnished tale deliver/Of my whole course of love”. Brabantio interrupts with a description of his daughter as a meek, retiring girl who could not possibly do something so against nature as “To fall in love with what she feared to look on.” He insists that she must have been won by a magic potion. To defend himself against this charge, Othello asks for Desdemona to be brought before the Duke. The Duke agrees and she is sent for. Othello then describes how he won the love of Desdemona. Somewhat surprisingly, given his current reaction to Othello, it seems that Brabantio often invited Othello to his house in order to hear of his fantastic adventures as soldier and explorer. Although busy with household affairs (her mother is deceased), Desdemona would also listen to these tales and she was keen to hear more. When she heard of “some distressful stroke” Othello suffered in his youth, she wept and was full of pity. Othello summarises what took place between them in this way: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed/And I loved her that she did pity them”. That, he insists, was only witchcraft that he used.

Desdemona is called for and she tells the Senate she married Othello for love and her duty is now to him rather than her father. Brabantio accepts that he has lost his only daughter and bids the Duke to “proceed to th’affairs of state”. The Duke wants Othello to go to Cyprus and Othello agrees. Desdemona asks for permission to go with Othello. She adds to her reasons for choosing Othello when she says, “I saw his visage in his mind”. In other words, she looked beyond his physical appearances and the ‘face’ (visage) that she saw was his “mind”, his inner self. She is convinced that she knows his true inner self and that her love is at a higher level than a purely physical attraction. She was brave enough to defy convention and, without parental approval, to marry a Moor. She describes her break with convention as “My downright violence and scorn of fortunes”. In the same brave spirit she is willing to go with her husband to what is likely to be a ‘war zone’. Othello calls on the council to approve her request. He adds that he does not want her simply to satisfy his sexual appetite, such “heat” being in him now “defunct”. Theirs is a meeting of minds. Furthermore he will not allow his relationship to interfere with or cloud his military duties. It is decided that she will go to Cyprus. Othello must go tonight and Desdemona will go tomorrow with Iago. Before the council breaks up, Brabantio warns Othello with, “She has deceived her Father, and may thee”. Othello asks Iago to bring his wife, Emilia, to Cyprus to ‘attend on’ Desdemona.

Alone with Roderigo, Iago has to talk Roderigo out of the despair he feels at losing Desdemona. Iago expands on his life philosophy. We make ourselves what we are. We do not need to be subjected to overwhelming feelings of love and despair. We have reason “to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted [unrestrained] lusts”. Once we ‘man up’ and see that we can take control of our lives, then there is no reason to fall into despair. Iago then urges Roderigo to draw upon his financial resources (“Put money in thy purse”) and “follow thou the wars”. He predicts that Othello and Desdemona’s love will not last long. As we have noted, both Othello and Desdemona see their marriage as a meeting of minds, a union of souls, but Iago, as he tells Roderigo, sees it purely in terms of lust. Once each has had his/her fill of the other’s body, then he will turn from her and she “must change for youth”. Iago reassures Roderigo of his support in efforts to ‘win’ Desdemona (to have her for a brief affair or as his mistress or even his wife?). They are united in a common cause in that Iago hates the Moor and wants to see him cuckolded and Roderigo wants, in some sense, to ‘win’ Desdemona and therefore cuckold Othello. Roderigo is persuaded, and he goes off to put money in his purse by selling off his land.

Alone, Iago reveals a further reason for hating the Moor since it is “thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets/He’s done my office”. He does not know if the rumour is true but “mere suspicion” is good enough for him since it further fuels his hostility. He then improvises a plan. He will “abuse Othello’s ear” with suggestions that Cassio is “too familiar with his wife”. In this way he will provoke feelings of jealousy in Othello which will lead to Cassio being stripped of his rank and the promotion of Iago. He then describes Othello’s character as follows: “The Moor is of a free and open nature/That thinks men honest that but seem to be so”. Assuming that Iago is right in this characterisation and with further events in mind, one can ask whether such a nature makes Othello more or less prone to jealousy. This is a question that we need to keep in mind as the play proceeds. One response to the question runs as follows. Given that Othello always thinks the best of men (he “thinks men honest”), he would not be inclined to be suspicious of his lieutenant. However, if he could be persuaded that Cassio is being “familiar” with Desdemona, then, fuelled by a sense that his own good nature has been exploited, feelings of jealousy could well be significantly intensified.

Iago ends his scheming with this rhyming couplet, “I have’t, it is engendered! Hell and night/Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.” This analogy makes Iago the begetter of what Hell will give birth to and so makes Iago into an agent of Hell, and so a form of devil. A search in the online Shakespeare concordance reveals that the word “Hell” is used 66 times in Othello . Its nearest ‘competitors’ are Hamlet where it occurs 14 times and Richard III, where it also occurs 14 times.

Act 2

Scene 1

Cyprus, near a cape with a view of the sea

This is the day when Cassio, Desdemona, Emilia, Iago and Othello arrive in their respective ships. It can be regarded as day one of the play’s actions.

Montano, the governor of Cyprus, soon to be replaced by Othello, is discussing with two gentlemen the action of a storm at sea. The second gentleman gives a striking description of the storm in which the waves are so immense that they seem to dash themelves on the night sky: “The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane/Seems to cast water on the burning bear/And quench the guards of th’ever fixed pole”. These images could be described as apocalyptic An apocalypse is a prophetic revelation of a catastrophic future event (often seen in terms of an imminent future) that will involve the earth in momentous upheavals that usually mark the end of the world. When we say something is ‘apocalyptic’ we mean that it gives a prophetic description of the destruction of the world. It can also be used in a looser sense to describe some event or events as momentous and catastrophic. In the New Testament, in St. Luke’s gospel, one finds Jesus saying this: “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves” (Luke 21:25 RSV). According to Jesus’s prophecy, these signs will actually occur at the end of the world. In Othello , the gentleman’s account is an imaginative version of what seemed to occur. Nevertheless, it has an apocalyptic character in its suggestion of a fantastic, unprecedented event, one that involves the sea and, in the “monstrous mane” image, suggests a huge monster that upsets the cosmic order (“the guards of th’ever fixed pole”). What is the dramatic significance in Othello of seeing the storm in this way? The storm itself can be seen as standing between the world of Venice and Cyprus and so marking a form of perilous frontier between the two worlds, the known and relatively safe world of Venice and, given the Turkish threat, the potentially dangerous world of Cyprus. In addition, a storm seen in this fantastic, apocalyptic way can act as a dire portent of a future catastrophe.

In fact, it has proved to be a present catastrophe for the Turkish fleet. Montano is sure that the fleet can not withstand such seas and this is confirmed when a third gentleman brings the news that “our wars are done” since most of the Turkish fleet has been shipwrecked. He also brings news of the arrival of Michael Cassio, “lieutenant to the warlike Moor”, whilst the Moor himself is still at sea heading for Cyprus. The next ship to arrive carries Desdemona, Iago and Emilia. Cassio says that they have arrived seven nights earlier than they were expected. Cassio describes Desdemona as “a maid/ That paragons description and wild fame”. He also says that the rough seas have given safe passage to Desdemona because she is “divine”. For Cassio, their early arrival shows the work of a divine providence. (pagan rather than Christian since it sees Desdemona as divine, as a goddess). However, given how events will unfold, one could also see the swift arrival of her ship as the working of a dark fate carrying its victim through the storm to her terrible death.

As Desdemona enters, Cassio greets her very affectionately with a courtier’s eloquence. As opposed to Othello’s heroic, martial style, Cassio has what Othello has described as “the soft phrase of peace”. He reassures her that Othello will land safely, whereupon a sail is sighted. Cassio sends for news and then greets Iago and Emilia. Iago is addressed as “Good Iago”. “Good” here could be seen as a marker of a superior person talking down to a socially inferior person (as in a stereotypical superior English gent saying to a workman, ‘Now look here, my good man’). Cassio then greets Iago’s wife, Emilia, with a kiss and, as he does so, says, “Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,/That I extend my manners. ‘Tis my breeding/That gives me this bold show of courtesy”. In other words, ‘Don’t be annoyed, good Iago, it’s just my superior breeding that brings out my courtly manners’. Typically, Iago hides his feelings, but he probably resents Cassio’s for this patronising “good Iago” and his display of ‘superior’ courtly manners. This kind of resentment is expressed in Act 5, when, in soliloquy, he says of Cassio, “He hath a daily beauty in his life/Which makes me ugly” (5.1.19/20). Perhaps some of his ill-feeling comes out when he responds to Cassio with some bitter remarks on Emilia whom he describes as a scold. Emilia defends herself from Iago’s charge with, “You have little cause to say so.” This leads him to further misogynistic remarks on which Desdemona challenges him. Desdemona’s questions prompt him to give witty but cynical remarks on women’s motives. Desdemona tells Emilia “not to learn of him” and then asks Cassio his opinion of Iago’s ideas. Cassio acknowledges Iago’s cynical realism when he says “He strikes home, madam”, but places such realist remarks as those of a blunt soldier rather than a sophisticated scholar (“you may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar”). This ‘striking home’, this blunt realism, is a large part of what others mean when they dub Iago as “honest Iago” – the man who ‘tells it like it is’. This ‘honest’ characterisation (‘good old honest Iago’) probably feels like something of a patronising pat on the head by his social superiors, but, nevertheless, Iago is quick to exploit his reputation for honesty.

Cassio and Desdemona then turn their attention away from Iago and to each other. Iago, in an aside, comments on Cassio’s courtly behaviour towards Desdemona. He sees that Cassio takes her “by the palm” and smiles at her. He sees in this form of behaviour an opportunity to bring about Cassio’s downfall. We know that before leaving for Cyprus he was developing plans to “abuse Othello’s ears” with stories that Cassio is “too familiar” with Desdemona. He now sees that Cassio, a handsome young man with courtly manners, is particularly suited to suggestions that he is being “too familiar” with Desdemona. As soon as he hears the trumpet that announces the arrival of Othello, Iago instantly snaps out of his inner scheming and acts like the alert, dutiful ‘ancient’ by calling out, seconds before Cassio realises it, “The Moor! I know his trumpet.”

Othello greets Desdemona as “my fair warrior” (remember, she has gone to a possible war zone with him). At 3.4.152, Desdemona critically refers to herself as “unhandsome warrior”. There is a further warrior-like identification of Desdemona, albeit in an ambiguous line, when, at 1.3.164, Othello reports that, after hearing of his epic warrior and adventurer exploits, Desdemona, “wished/That heaven made her such a man”. This is ambiguous: does it mean ‘made her into such a warrior-like man’ or ‘made such a warrior-like man for her’? Either way, it closely identifies her as or with a warrior. Such an identity was exemplified when, with what she calls “downright violence” (1.3.250) , she made a radical break with convention by marrying Othello. As such, her father seems to have, at the very least, an incomplete idea of her character when he describes her as “A maiden never bold” (1.3.95).

Othello continues his greeting with, “O my soul’s joy” before he goes on to see his present moment of joy in terms of the calm weather that has followed the tempest. He then proposes that he would accept extreme, tempestuous weather if it was always followed by the figurative and literal calm he is now enjoying. However, notwithstanding the savouring of ‘calm’, the terms with which he describes the tempests have a marked affinity in their apocalyptic drama with those previously used by the second Gentleman. The winds of the storm Othello describes could blow until “they have wakened death”; the hills of seas could ascend “Olympus high” and their descent would take them down as far as “hell’s from heaven” (as previously noted, Hell is mentioned 66 times in Othello). These towering seas echo those of the second Gentleman who spoke in apocalyptic terms when he summoned up the figure of a huge monster whose “high and monstrous mane/Seems to cast water on the burning bear/And quench the guards of th’ever-fixed pole”. Notwithstanding Othello’s deep contentment (as he eloquently puts it, “My soul hath her content so absolute/That no other comfort like to this/Succeeds in unknown fate”), these echoes, with their mix of the infernal and apocalyptic, ‘re-sound’ the earlier ominous note. Neither the gentleman nor Othello intended to echo each other nor to suggest some form of imminent apocalypse. However, it is as if there is, behind the characters, a ‘deep play’ at work that can, at times, speak through the characters with prophetic clairvoyance. One can hear a similar ominous note in Othello’s reference to “unknown fate”. At the end of the play, with hindsight, we can say that Othello, without realising it, spoke truly in that there was to be no other succeeding (following) “comfort” since what was to come was tragedy. We see this with hindsight, but one could say, once again, that what we could call the ‘deep play’, with prophetic clairvoyance, already knows this, hence its choice of words.

Another point to note in this ‘greeting dialogue’ (2.1.181-197) is Othello’s response to Desdemona’s, “The heavens forbid/But that our loves and comforts should increase/Even as our days do grow” (by “forbid/But that …” she means ‘ensure that’). The “heavens”, notwithstanding the plural, is in keeping with Christian orthodoxy as is Othello’s immediate response which is, “Amen to that” but he adds an invocation to “sweet powers” rather than heaven. These plural powers suggest a pagan polytheism rather than the monotheism of Orthodox Christianity. The question of Othello’s Christianity will be discussed further in the notes to Act 3, Scene 4.

In addition to its apocalyptic and religious dimensions, an erotic subtext can also be seen in this lovers dialogue. Othello’s contrast between “tempest” and “calm” could also suggest the ‘storm’ of sexual passion leading to, what the Elizabethans called, the ‘little death’ of orgasm – note Othello’s “If it were now to die/’Twere now to be most happy”) which then leads to the calm of the post-coital state. Desdemona’s immediate response shifts away from Othello’s emphasis on the ‘perilous seas’ of intense moments of passion to a life-long harmony of increasing “loves and comforts” which are sacralised by calling upon heaven to ensure that this should happen. If we grant that there is a sexual subtext here, we may well recall that their love affair began with a unity of non-physical love, a “soul to soul” (1.3.114) love.

Iago, seeing the harmony between the loving couple – they have just kissed – introduces his own ominous note when he vows, in an aside, to “set down/The pegs that make this music”. Othello, Desdemona and others follow Othello to the castle where he intends to renew his various acquaintances from his previous time in Cyprus.

Iago, left alone with Roderigo, tells him that Desdemona is in love with Cassio. Roderigo needs to be convinced since, as he says, “’tis not possible”. Iago assures him that Desdemona will soon tire of sex with Othello and will seek a handsome young man. “Nature” in her will turn away from the Moor and seek “some second choice”. (Note how this appeal to ‘nature’ echoes Brabantio’s repeated appeals to ‘nature’ when he speaks of the impossibility of ‘nature’ erring “so preposterously” (1.3.63) as to attract, Desdemona to Othello). As for the “second choice”, Cassio fits the bill being , “handsome, young and hath all those requisites in him that folly and green minds look after”. Iago offers evidence when he draws Roderigo’s attention to the way Desdemona did “paddle with the palm” (252) of Cassio’s hand. Roderigo objects that this was just a show of courtesy but Iago, with his characteristic emphasis on sexual lust, insists that it was a form of “Lechery”, a sign of “lust and foul thoughts”. Confident that he has persuaded Roderigo, Iago then outlines a plan. Whilst Cassio is on nightwatch duty, Roderigo should insult him and provoke him to strike Roderigo with his “truncheon” (Cassio does not know Roderigo). Iago will be nearby and he will provoke a number of the local guards to create a noisy fracas. The disturbance will be so loud as to awaken Othello and the authorities and Cassio will be “cashiered” for a failure to keep order. This will, so Iago argues, get Cassio out of Desdemona’s life and deprive him of his rank. Roderigo agrees and makes his exit.

Left alone, Iago, in a soliloquy, broods over his feelings and plans. He says he ‘loves’ Desdemona, partly out of lust but chiefly because she is the means to avenge himself both on Cassio (he is mentioned towards the end of this soliloquy) and on the “lusty Moor” whom he suspects of having an affair with Emilia. He has mentioned this suspicion earlier (1.3.386/7), though without describing the intense effect that he now says that this thought has on him. It is like “a poisonous mineral’ that doth “gnaw my inwards”. Nothing will content him until he is “evened” with Othello, “wife for wife” (in what sense “wife for wife”? Othello caused Iago’s wife to cuckold Iago, even if only by rumour, so Iago will make it seem that Othello’s wife has cuckolded him by virtue of her (rumoured) affair with Cassio?). However the “wife for wife” plan unfolds (note the verbal echo, wife/life, that links it to the famous Old Testament idea of vengeful justice, “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth”), he hopes to put the Moor “into a jealousy so strong/That judgement cannot cure”. He also adds that he “fears Cassio with my night cap too” – however we take “cap” (rather incongruous bedwear for a lusty young lover? Or cap as bawdy slang for vagina?), he means that Cassio has ‘bedded’ Emilia. Thus he has a further reason for avenging himself on Cassio. In making the Moor mad with jealousy he intends to make the Moor “thank me, love me, and reward me”. He then sums up his brand of improvised, opportunistic ‘knavery’ with a closing rhyming couplet, ‘Tis here, but yet confused/Knavery’s plain face is never seen, till used”.

Act 2

Scene 2

(Public Square?) Cyprus

We are still in day one. A Herald reads a proclamation: there is to be an evening of feasting to celebrate both the “perdition” of the Turkish fleet and Othello and Desdemona’s nuptials.

Act 2

Scene 3

Cyprus, outside Othello’s HQ

It is late evening of day one (Iago: “It is not yet ten o’th’clock”). Othello leaves Cassio and Iago in charge of the party and bids Cassio, good night. Othello and Desdemona leave for what must be their wedding night. As he leaves, Othello says, “The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue:/ that profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you.” Iago makes a number of remarks on Desdemona being “full of game” and sexually provocative. Cassio counters this by describing her as “exquisite” and “right modest”. Iago convinces Cassio to share the general revelry by drinking wine even though Cassio protests he has “very poor and unhappy brains for drinking” . He then sends Cassio to fetch some Cyprus gallants who are keen to drink with him. He also discloses, in soliloquy, that he has plied three of the warlike Cypriots with alcohol and that Roderigo has been drinking heavily. He plans that once he gets Cassio drunk, the fracas that Roderigo has been primed to start will be even wilder.

Cassio returns with Montano and various gentlemen. Iago calls for more wine and begins a drinking song which he says he learned in England – a country whose people, according to Iago, are proud of their capacity for drink. It is clear by his comments that the normally sober and well-mannered Cassio is feeling the effects of alcohol. He realises this, though he insists that he is not drunk but this is done in a way that suggests that he is – “Do not think, gentlemen, that I am drunk… this is my right hand, and this is my left”. He then goes off to take up his duties as master of the nightwatch.

Iago then tells Montano that although Cassio is an excellent soldier he does have a serious drink problem which Othello is not aware of. Roderigo briefly appears and Iago immediately sends him off after Cassio. Montano thinks that it would be an “honest action” (that word again; here, as usual, deeply ironic: an honest action prompted by Iago’s lies) to tell Othello about Cassio’s “infirmity”. Iago says he has held back from telling Othello because he loves Cassio and is trying to reform him. At this point there is a shout for help and Roderigo appears being chased by Cassio. A rapid sequence of events follows: Cassio catches Roderigo; Montano steps between; Cassio responds aggressively; Montano says he is drunk; Cassio is incensed and he and Montano start to fight. Iago tells Roderigo to go and “cry a mutiny”. He does. An alarm bell rings. Iago adds to the general hullabaloo with a cry of “Diablo, ho!” and with, “God’s will, lieutenant, hold,/You will be shamed for ever” – notice that he is already blaming Cassio, the man who should be keeping all in order.

Othello and attendants appear and Montano discovers that he has been wounded by Cassio. The recent governor of the island wounded by a drunken officer: clearly, this makes things even worse for Cassio. Othello, appealing to civilised standards of Christian behaviour, poses the rhetorical question, “Are we turned Turks?” and adds, “For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl!” (166/168). Having said, “My blood my safer guides to rule/And passion, having my best judgement collied,/Assays to lead the way”, Othello then threatens death to whoever continues to fight and then asks “Honest Iago” for an account of what happened.

Before continuing with Iago’s account we should consider closely Othello’s lines on his “blood” (his anger) and “passion”. He sees himself as on the edge of being guided by blood and passion rather than by his “safer guides” and by his “best judgement”. His passion is said to have “collied” his judgement. Collied here means blackened or darkened. There is also a punning effect since there is in its sound a suggestion of ‘choler” meaning anger; choler being one of the four humours that the Elizabethans thought governed bodily reactions (the other three humours being phlegm, sangue and melancholia). The editor of the Oxford University Press edition of Othello , Michael Neill, sees in “collied” a suggestion of blackness not just as morally black but racially black. As such “collied” could suggest that Othello’s anger springs from his non-European, black identity. He refers to this usage of “collied” as, to quote his footnote, “ an early instance of a train of images whose cumulative effect is to ‘racialize’ Othello’s impassioned behaviour”. (To propose that Othello’s behaviour is determined by his non-European ethnic and racial background is a controversial idea.) The other point to note in these lines is that Othello shows an awareness of his potential for an angry, possibly violent, reaction – he does issue a threat: “Swounds, if I stir,/Or do but lift this arm, the best of you/Shall sink in my rebuke”. Yet the lines also show that he values his ”safer guides” and his “best judgement”.

Returning to Iago’s account: after claiming that it hurts him to say it, Iago describes both Cassio with drawn sword pursuing a “fellow crying out for help” and Montano’s attempt to intervene whilst Iago ran after the “fellow”. Having been outrun by ‘the fellow’, he returned to find Montano and Cassio “At blow and thrust”. He adds an attempt to mitigate Cassio’s failure to keep order with “men are men” and “surely Cassio … received /… some strange indignity” from the “fellow”. Othello responds by saying that Iago, out of love, is “making it light to Cassio”. He then adds, “Cassio, I love thee,/But never more be officer of mine”. Othello then sees that Desdemona has been “raised up” by the general disturbance and has come to find out what has happened. That his “gentle love” has been disturbed intensifies his annoyance with Cassio. He reassures her, makes provision for Monatano’s wound to be seen to and then leaves with Desdemona.

Cassio bemoans his loss of reputation – he describes it as “the immortal part of me”. Iago reassures him that he can recover his standing with Othello. He questions him about the details of what had happened between himself and ‘he that he followed’ (Roderigo). Iago, of course, knows what happened but, under the guise of concern for Cassio, seems to be taking pleasure in picking over the details of the incident. This leads Iago to say to Cassio, “I think you think, I love you” to which Cassio says, “I have well approved it, sir” which seems to be “I know you do” but “well approved” and the use of “sir” puts a degree of formality and so a little officer class distance between them. Undeterred, Iago shows that he ‘loves’ Cassio by offering further advice – you will have noticed that in this play the use of ‘love’ by one man for another does not necessarily mean gay love. Since the “general’s wife is now the general”, Cassio should importune her help to regain his place with Othello. Cassio thinks that this is good advice and says that “betimes in the morning” he will “beseech the virtuous Desdemona” to take up his case with Othello.

Left alone, Iago preens himself on his good advice which, as he reasons, is based both on Desdemona’s helpful nature and Othello’s love for her which is so strong that he would even be prepared to “renounce his baptism” for her. He puts on a mock innocence with, “How am I then a villain/To counsel Cassio to this parallel course/directly to his good?” (343/345). This ‘innocence’ is immediately followed by a declaration of his true nature when he exclaims, “Divinity of hell!”. He then reveals his intention to suggest to Othello that Desdemona is acting for Cassio because they are lovers. He is confident that she will plead fervently for Cassio. It particularly pleases him to think that his evil intention is based on Desdemona’s goodness: “out of her own goodness” he will “make a net/That shall enmesh them all”. Like a true devil, he is the enemy of goodness.

Roderigo then enters. He complains that his pursuit of Desdemona is fruitless, that his “money is almost spent” and that he has ended up “exceedingly well cudgelled”. He now intends to return to Venice. Unperturbed by this, Iago counsels patience and points to the cashiering of Cassio as a mark of their initial success. Ever resourceful in his use of language, Iago uses alliteration to good effect when he persuasively says, “We work by wit and not by witchcraft” and, as he adds, “wit depends on dilatory time”. He then draws upon proverbial wisdom when he says, “Though other things grow fair against the sun/Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe”. Having talked Roderigo into an acquiescent state, he tells him to go to bed (it is now almost morning).

Left alone, Iago develops his plan further: he must order Emilia to persuade Desdemona to plead to Othello for Cassio. He, Iago, will then find a way to draw the Moor “apart” and then “bring him jump when he may Cassio find/Soliciting his wife”.

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Act 3

Scene 1

Cyprus, outside Othello’s HQ

This is day two, the morning after the fight. Cassio brings some musicians to play “something brief’ that will act as a aubade, that is a traditional dawn song in which lovers lament the coming of day since they must leave their bed. Cassio must regard it as appropriate for the newly weds. The Clown seems to be one of Othello’s servants who has been sent to pay the musicians on condition that they stop playing. He says that “to hear music the general does not greatly care”. He makes a number of bawdy jokes involving noses and tails. Naples was associated with venereal disease which could damage the nose. By “tail” he means penis and his play on “wind instrument” refers to farting. Cassio gives him money to persuade him to tell Emilia that Cassio is outside and wants to speak to her. He agrees and exits.

Iago enters and Cassio explains his wish to speak to Emilia. Iago says he will bring her out presently and he will find a way to “draw the Moor/Out of the way that your converse and business/May be more free”. Emilia comes out and expresses sympathy for Cassio. She says that Desdemona is speaking up for him but Othello insists that injuring such an important person as Montano cannot go unpunished. She also says that Othello “protests” that he “loves” Cassio and, in time, will restore him to favour. Cassio would still like to speak to Desdemona to encourage her further to speak on his behalf.

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Act 3

Scene 2

Cyprus, outside Othello’s HQ

Othello passes through, talking to Iago and others about affairs of state.

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Act 3

Scene 3

(Often called ‘The Temptation Scene’)
Cyprus, inside Othello’s HQ

We are still in day two. Enter Desdemona, Emilia and Cassio. Desdemona reassures Cassio that she will continue to speak to Othello on his behalf. Emilia encourages her to do so adding that Cassio’s cashiering “grieves” her husband “as if the cause were his”. This is another indication of how successfully Iago has kept his true self from his wife. Desdemona adds, referring to Iago, “that’s an honest fellow”. She says, “Do not doubt, Cassio, but I will have my lord and you again as friendly as you were”. Her assurances become ever stronger. Her lord shall never rest; she will talk him out of patience; his “bed shall seem a school”; she will “intermingle everything he does/With Cassio’s suit”. In the light of further developments, it seems particularly ill-fated for Desdemona to promise to turn the marital bed into a place in which she will ‘school’ Othello into restoring Cassio to favour. It also suggests that her ‘schooling’ could displace their sexual intimacy. Given the bed context, ‘intermingling’ everything “With Cassio’s suit” is also unwittingly suggestive.

At this point, I want to consider further Desdemona’s character. We have already noted the spirited, warrior-like Desdemona who is prepared to break with social convention. We also know that she is young and attractive: the “wealthy curled darlings” of Venice, the fashionable young men, have pursued her. Iago, in 2.3, in dialogue with Cassio, sees her as sexually attractive and passionate (“I’ll warrant her full of game”) He also sees her as being deliberately enticing (her eye, “sounds a parley to provocation”). Cassio counters this with, “An inviting eye, and yet methinks right modest”. An actor playing the part of Desdemona has to strike a subtle balance between being unwittingly “inviting” and yet “right modest”. There needs to be just enough of the “inviting”, though not deliberately deployed, to fuel Othello’s belief that she is capable of conducting an affair.

Iago seems to have managed to return just as Cassio was leaving and so makes sure that Othello sees the end of the Cassio, Desdemona conversation. As it happens, Cassio leaves promptly as soon as he sees both Othello and Iago returning. This swift departure together with the ‘lucky’ (or carefully timed? ) return , like so many other circumstances, plays into Iago’s hands. Iago says to Othello that it can’t have been Cassio because, “I cannot think it that he would steal away so guilty-like seeing you coming”. Desdemona then begins to ask for a reconciliation between Othello and Cassio. She persistently presses Othello for an exact time for a meeting with Cassio. Othello, perhaps reluctant to allow his wife to pin down the detail in a matter of military order, fobs her off. Here we recall that Othello, in 1.3., told that the Senate that he would not allow his relationship with Desdemona to interfere with his military duties. Eventually, he concedes with, “Let him come when he will,/I will deny thee nothing”. Just after she, and Emilia, leave, Othello says, in highly charged language with drastic connotations, ‘Perdition catch my soul / but I do love thee! And when I love thee not, / chaos is come again”. (Incidentally, the on-line concordance shows that both ‘perdition’ and ‘chaos’ occur 3 times in Othello , but, two words closely related to perdition, Hell and devil, occur very frequently – ‘Hell’, as previously noted, 66 times and ‘devil’ 24 times, both of which occurrences are far higher than in any other Shakespeare play).

Left alone with Othello, Iago immediately starts to sow seeds of suspicion in Othello’s mind. Notice that Iago begins this process by asking if Cassio knew of the love between Othello and Desdemona and Othello says that, “He did, from first to last” and, furthermore, that he often acted as a go-between. (This seems inconsistent with Cassio’s expression of surprise when Iago tells him that Othello has just been married – see 1.2.50-53. This was discussed in the account of the earlier scene). Having established that Cassio and Desdemona knew each other quite well, (though note that Iago was present during the Desdemona/Othello dialogue when Desdemona said, “What, Michael Cassio/That came a-wooing with you?”), Iago subtly suggests that he is not revealing all that is on his mind concerning Cassio and Desdemona. He also says that he is predisposed to be suspicious and inclined to shape “faults that are not”. Here, on the face of it, Iago is playing down his suspicions whilst knowing that he will be sowing them in Othello’s mind. Clearly, this is calculated to have the opposite effect of making Othello less inclined to give credence to Iago’s suspicions. Iago often uses this technique, which could be called, using a military analogy, a form of ‘tactical retreat’, that is, an apparent giving way whilst falling back to what is known to be a stronger position. Eventually, Othello’s language, normally so grandiloquent and commanding, is reduced by Iago to the exclamatory brevity of “Zounds” (a conflation of ‘God’s wounds’, so pronounce like ‘wounds’), “By heaven”, “Ha!” and “O misery!”. Iago continues boldly, even defiantly, to refuse to reveal what is on his mind. By now it must be clear enough to Othello that Iago suspects that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair. At this point, Iago adds his warning against “the green-eyed monster” jealousy, a warning that is designed to stimulate the very thing he warns against. Facing the prospect of being a betrayed husband, the noble Othello, the alpha male par excellence, rallies and refuses to be preyed upon by suspicions and reduced to a tormented cuckold. His language resumes its grandiloquent power when he refuses to “turn the business of my soul/To such exsufflicate and blown surmises”. He affirms his faith in Desdemona’s virtue. He ends by saying that he will not be subject to doubts. What is required is proof, evidence of infidelity. In saying this, he unwittingly sets an agenda for Iago’s next steps.

Undeterred by Othello’s turning away from suspicion, Iago responds that he is glad that the issue of Desdemona’s infidelity can be frankly referred to. He concedes that he, Iago, has no proof of an affair but counsels Othello to watch his wife carefully. He advises him that Venetian women are inclined to be deceivers. He echoes a warning already given by Brabantio, when he, Brabantio, reasoned that since she deceived her father, she may deceive her husband. Once again, notwithstanding what Othello has just said, Iago’s diabolic subtlety has put doubt back into Othello’s mind. Having reduced Othello, the imperturbable military commander, to a visibly “moved” creature assailed by doubt, Iago plays with added pleasure his malignant game of deception as he asserts that all he says springs from love for Othello and claims that Cassio is his “worthy friend”. When Othello rallies once again, though with a rather weakly asserted, “I do not but think Desdemona’s honest”, Iago makes an even bolder move. With a further echo of Brabantio, he says that her refusal of suitors of “her own clime, complexion and degree” (Brabantio’s “wealthy curled darlings of our nation”), showed how unnatural her choice was and that once her “better judgement” comes into play, she may compare Othello to the young men of Venice and find Othello wanting – remember that Othello is of mature years. At 1.3.261, Othello said of his sexual appetite that the “young affects” (appetites) in him were now “defunct”. At 3.3.269/270 he says, “I am declined/ Into the vale of years”.

Troubled by these thoughts and asking himself, “Why did I marry?”, Othello dismisses Iago. Iago leaves with further subtly deceptive advice. He tells Othello to “scan this thing no further” and praises Cassio for his ability – a typical retreat move – but he then tells Othello to defer for a while any reinstating of Cassio. Notwithstanding the retreat move of ‘scan no further’, he advances again when he advises Othello to note if Desdemona should speak up for Cassio with “any strong or vehement importunity” since “Much will be seen in that”. Meanwhile, retreating again, Othello should regard Iago as being “too busy” in his “fears” and continue to think of Desdemona as innocent. Having achieved so much, Iago takes his leave.

Left alone, in soliloquy, Othello praises Iago for his worldly wisdom. Then, using a falconry metaphor, he threatens dire consequences for Desdemona if he proves her “haggard” (wild, untamed). He considers various reasons why she might have turned her affections towards another. Is it because he is black and lacking in “the soft parts of conversation” or is it because he has “declined/Into the vale of years”? He then turns away from these explanations in a dismissive parenthesis “–Yet that’s not much–”. Does this rapid shift show just how sensitive he is to being black and significantly older than his young bride? He goes on to state a condition, “If I do prove her haggard”. Yet only several lines later, and with no mention of proof, he says, “She’s gone, I am abused”. With his mind in such turmoil, he then turns on marriage itself. He complains it seems to offer a form of ownership of the wife but it cannot control an unfaithful wife’s sexual appetite. He expresses misgivings about marriage at various points in the play. At the end of the recent dialogue with Iago, Othello asks, “Why did I marry?” In another conversation with Iago, see 1.2.26-8, Othello, presents marriage as a potentially confining institution and, had it not been for the exceptional qualities of Desdemona, he would not have allowed the confinement of marriage to jeopardise his “unhoused free condition”. We also notice that Othello is never a man to settle for half measures. His language tends to the grand, the extreme, the uncompromising. In an example recently noted, when speaking of love he invokes “Perdition” and “chaos”. Returning to the context of the present soliloquy, he says he would “rather be a toad/And live upon the vapours of a dungeon/Than keep a corner in the thing I love”. In a later example, he will compare his roused thoughts and feelings to the Pontic sea whose “compulsive course” will never ebb. As the vast landscape conjured up by this image of a powerful sea reminds us, Othello’s established sphere is that of epic adventures in unmapped territories beyond the civilised world. The ‘housed’ world of Venetian intrigues and domestic affairs are, to him, terra incognita. Hence his naïve acknowledgement of Iago as one who “knows all qualities…/Of human dealings”. Thus we have a man, a noble commander, a man of heroic power not naturally given to the confines of marriage and the domestic sphere who feels he is being subjected to betrayal within the confines of an unfamiliar world of romantic intrigue and infidelity. Furthermore, this is a man who, as Iago says, is “of a free and open nature/That thinks men honest that but seem to be so.” Were such a man to feel that his natural tendency to trust others was being exploited then his reactions would surely be all the more intense.

He ends his soliloquy as Desdemona and Emilia return. We have noted his mind in turmoil with its sudden shifts from needing proof to being convinced that he has been betrayed. As Desdemona returns, we see a further shift as he sees in Desdemona a heavenly person who would be incapable of betrayal. He now says of her supposed infidelity, “I’ll not believe it”.

The lines preceding this have a particular bearing on the nature of tragedy. He says of “great ones”, like himself, that they are less privileged than ordinary people, the “base”. It is not entirely clear what he means by this, but I will take it that he means that when a great one is subject to torments such as marital betrayal, the experience is all the more painful since ‘great ones’, as privileged beings, do not expect to be betrayed – they are too great for that. A related aspect is to think of “great ones” as having further to fall when they are, in some way, toppled from their pre-eminence. These considerations are part of a long-standing debate on the nature of Tragedy as a genre. Some question what they see as the skewed idea that tragedy particularly afflicts “great ones”, traditionally Kings and Queens. Surely, they argue, tragedy can happen to all ranks of people? Another aspect of the debate on Tragedy is to consider the role of fate. Is tragedy, as it were, wired into human experience? Are we fated to suffer tragedy? Or is tragedy largely the result of particular personal and social circumstances? As such, steps could be taken to avoid, or at least, ameliorate its results. In lines following on from the lines on “great ones”, Othello gives his own version of tragedy as unavoidable fate. He says of “the plague” that he is suffering that it is “destiny unshunnable” and that “this forked plague is fated to us/When he do quicken” – by “forked” he means marked by the horns that the cuckold, the betrayed husband, is said to wear, and by “quicken” he means from the moment of conception in the womb. In other words, he feels that a great one like himself is destined to suffer the torments of betrayal (“this forked plague”) from the very moment of conception.

On Desdemona’s return, Othello complains, “I have a pain upon my forehead, here” – he is obliquely referring to the place where a cuckold’s horn(s) would be. Desdemona tries to soothe and reassure him with, “Faith, that’s with watching, ‘twill away again”. With that word “watching” she meant seeing to the governance and safety of Cyprus yet she speaks truer than she thought: Othello’s pain comes from the suspicious watching of her behaviour as advised by Iago. She then tries to help him by wrapping her handkerchief around his head. He dismisses this, since, as he says, “Your napkin is too little”. As we will soon discover this “napkin”, which is a handkerchief, carries great significance for Othello and will play a key part as the tragedy develops. I take it the use of “napkin”, rather than “handkerchief”, is designed to suggest that he does not recognise it as the special handkerchief , he thinks it is just some commonplace napkin. I think it is also likely that whilst Desdemona tries to bind his head, he is turning away in some annoyance, since her consolatory words, which dismiss his pain as transient (“Twill pass”), are so at odds with the pain that is tormenting him. As a result of turning away, he does not look directly at the “napkin” which is, in fact, the” handkerchief”.

As Desdemona and Othello leave, she accidentally drops the handkerchief. Left alone, Emilia picks it up and reflects, “My wayward husband hath a hundred times wooed me to steal it”. Notice that she describes him as “wayward”. This, though critical, is far too mild for Iago. It suggests, as has already been noted, that she does not know his true nature. He is so good at keeping up a false front that he can keep his true nature hidden even from his wife. She plans to have it copied and then (presumably) returned. Iago returns, insults Emilia, and, when she presents the handkerchief, he snatches it from her. Emilia had picked up the handkerchief and presented it to Iago, presumably to win some favour (clearly, he shows little affection for his wife). But after his insult and rude snatching, she questions him on his motive for wanting the handkerchief. She now thinks of how upset Desdemona will be over its loss . However, this has little effect upon Iago such is his sense of his ‘ownership’ of his wife. He simply orders her to say nothing about it. He dismisses her and she leaves. He, in his usual improvisatory manner, says that he will plant the handkerchief in Cassio’s room, hoping it will provide further ‘proof’ of Cassio’s affair with Desdemona.

Othello returns, furious at the idea of his wife’s affair with Cassio, saying to Iago “thou hast set me on the rack!” His thoughts are impassioned and inflamed as he dwells upon the thought of Desdemona’s “stolen hours of lust”. He is convinced that this business of marriage and adultery has cost him his previous heroic identity as a general. He demands that Iago provide “ocular proof”’ or else Othello will kill him. This threat is delivered in a fiery manner with one terrible consequence heaped upon another. Iago reacts coolly to this storm of threats by insisting that has simply been honest and does not deserve to be threatened. There follows more interplay between them on the word ‘honest’. Iago then speaks of the difficulty of providing the most damning “ocular proof” which would be catching sight of Desdemona and Cassio having sex. He refers to intercourse in his usual animalistic way and in doing so he is deliberately further igniting Othello’s mind. He then offers some ‘evidence’. “Lately” he was lying awake beside Cassio who was sleeping. (Why was he in the same bed as Cassio? Because of limited military accommodation? Males in the same bed in Elizabethan times not as unusual as now?). Iago says he heard Cassio talking of Desdemona in a dream. He then says that Cassio, still asleep, held his hand and kissed him passionately. This does sound increasingly implausible, but Iago has Othello where he wants him and Othello responds with “O monstrous” and takes it as evidence of what has already happened. Iago then plays his trump card when he adds that he has seen Cassio using Desdemona’s handkerchief to wipe his beard which “speaks against her with the other proofs”. Here we see why it is important that Othello did not recognise the handkerchief only a short time ago when Desdemona tried to use it to soothe his pain. If he had identified it, it seems highly unlikely that he would fail to see that Iago could not have seen it in Cassio’s possession at some earlier point. Notice also that this is a bold move on Iago’s part as, so far, he has not had the opportunity to plant the handkerchief in Cassio’s lodging.

Now convinced by these ‘proofs’, Othello, in characteristically fiery, declamatory language, vows a “wide revenge”. As he does so, he kneels down as if swearing a solemn vow. Iago, joining him in a form of blood-brotherhood, also kneels and swears to act in “wronged Othello’s service”. As he does so, he gives the pact a quasi religious dimension by calling upon the powers of nature as witnesses. Their vows concluded, Othello tells Iago to kill Cassio within three days and plans to kill Desdemona himself. He then promotes Iago to be his lieutenant. Iago responds with, “I am your own forever”.

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Act 3

Scene 4

Othello’s HQ

Later in day two. But, is there a longer gap in time between the preceding scene and this one? This seems unlikely. At line 23, Desdemona asks Emilia where she has lost the handkerchief. This suggests her first awareness of the loss. Since, as Emilia says, she was in the habit of keeping it “evermore about her”, it is very unlikely that any great length of time has elapsed between the moment when she dropped it and her awareness of the loss.

The scene begins with the second appearance of the clown. He is in conversation with Desdemona. She wants to know Cassio’s whereabouts as she wants him to come before Othello. Many productions leave out their dialogue but it does provide a change of mood after the temptation scene. Furthermore, the clown’s humorous play on the various senses of “lie” anticipates the disturbing word play on ‘lie’ in a later scene (4.1.35). She sends the clown to find Cassio.

Desdemona is upset about losing her handkerchief, but Emilia pretends she knows nothing about it. In response to Desdemona’s “Where should I lose that handkerchief?”, she replies, “I know not, madam.” Do we excuse her lie because it shows how much she fears her husband? Clearly, if Emilia had told the truth at this point, Iago’s plot would fail. Desdemona says that were it not for the fact that her husband is not subject to the “baseness” of jealousy, the loss of the handkerchief could put Othello to “ill thinking”. Othello comes in acting strangely. He takes Desdemona’s hand, says it is moist and hot and then plays upon the common idea that a hot, moist hand indicates a lustful nature. However, Desdemona presses him on his promise to speak with Cassio. He then asks to borrow the handkerchief, telling her “there’s magic in the web of it”. He explains that it was given to his mother by an Egyptian. Othello says it was woven by a sibyl with occult powers. It was said to have the power to keep a spouse fathful. Once lost or given to another, the marriage would fail. Othello’s dying mother had given it to him and told him, if he were to marry, to give it to his wife. He warns Desdemona , “To lose’t or give’t away were such perdition/As nothing else could match”.

This is a good point to consider further the use of the word “perdition”. We have already noticed the occurrence of this word and related it to the use of Hell. What does it mean? It comes from a Latin verb perdere , to ruin. Its main meaning is final spiritual ruin, being damned and sent to Hell. It can have a less spiritually specific meaning when it means destruction or ruin. In 2.2, when the herald announces a public feast he is reading out a proclamation, presumably written by Othello, which refers to the “mere perdition of the Turkish fleet” (“mere” here means total). “Perdition” here seems closest to the ‘destruction’ and ‘ruin’ sense of the word. However, there is perhaps a hint of the ‘being damned to Hell’ sense. The Turkish threat could be seen (as it was, historically) as an Islamic threat to Christian Western Europe. To say that its fleet suffered “perdition” could suggest that it has been damned to Hell by divine power for its attempt to conquer the Christian world (God, of course, being on the Christian side!). Given that I have taken it that the herald is quoting Othello, and, accepting that the word could have a ‘damned to Hell’ meaning, then to use it in this way makes Othello speak as a defender of Christian civilisation. The other two uses of “perdition” are both clearly said by Othello. At 3.3.90/91, Othello exclaims, referring to Desdemona, “perdition catch my soul/But I do love thee! And when I love thee not/Chaos is come again”. I take it that “But” here can mean “if … not” and so Othello’s meaning is ‘may I be damned if I don’t love thee’ (here I am following Honigmann’s note on these lines in his Arden edition). Two things are striking here. The first is the extreme consequences of failing to love Desdemona – ‘may I be damned if I don’t love thee’. It prompts one to wonder if equally extreme consequences would follow from their marriage failing and Desdemona failing to love him. The other thing is that he turns to an image drawn from the Christian view of the afterlife which includes Hell as a possible destination. Islam also has a concept of Hell but I take it that, since Othello is a Christian (whether by birth or conversion – probably by conversion? For more on this question, see final comments on 5.2), he is speaking of the Christian Hell. So, in this second consideration of his use of “perdition”, he is, once again, thinking as a Christian. The third use of “perdition” involves the handkerchief. In this case, the loss of the handkerchief involves an extreme of an extreme, a “perdition, that nothing else could match”. This perdition follows from failing to revere and hold in awe an object endowed with magic powers – here we recall Brabantio’s accusation concerning Othello’s use of magic. These powers came from a prophetess, a sybil, who, whilst in a state of “prophetic fury”, had “sewed the work”. In this “prophetic fury” she had prophesied that the world would end in two hundred years: she was, “A sibyl that had numbered in the world/The sun to course two hundred compasses”. Note here, another example of the apocalyptic, the prophesised end of the world, a subject which was discussed in the notes on 2.1. With these three references to the apocalyptic with its dire portents of calamities to come, it is as if the first reference (see 2.1.12-17) came to the surface with the description of the storm and then sank back before surfacing again with Othello’s description of a storm (2.1.184187) followed by a further ‘sinking’ until the apocalyptic surfaces again with the sibyl’s “prophetic fury”. In this way, the play itself, what I have called ‘the deep play’, seems to contain its own prophetic Sybil (if necessary, look up Sibyl on the net) hinting at something terrible to come.

Returning to the handkerchief, Othello gives further details of the silk fabric used. The worms that had spun the silk were specially consecrated for the task. The silk itself was “dyed in mummy” – “mummy” being a medicinal liquid which was made from the hearts of the embalmed bodies (hence ‘mummy’) of maidens. Clearly, the Sibyl and this sort of magic belong to a non-Christian belief system, a form of paganism probably much older than Christianity. The magic instilled in the handkerchief worked like a form of love potion – it made the woman who had it lovable and therefore able to subdue her husband “Entirely to her love”. Note the common element of magic between this and the magic Brabantio thinks Othello has exercised over Desdemona – though there is a difference in that one is used to hold a husband and the other to win a bride. When Othello’s dying mother had given him the handkerchief she had affirmed its powers. The question is, does Othello hold these beliefs, or is he simply describing a form of exotic and occult religion that his ancestors held? Othello’s, “To lose ‘t or give’t away were such perdition/As nothing else could match” certainly seems to be a vehement affirmation of its powers. Given its key role in provoking Othello’s jealousy, it could be said that this primitive ancestral superstition is an example of Othello’s non-Christian, Moorish background determining his behaviour. No doubt Othello’s description of the handkerchief’s occult powers is also designed to terrify Desdemona. And when an astonished (and fearful?) Desdemona responds with, “I’faith, is it true?” Othello affirms, “Most veritable”. Where then does this place Othello’s Christianity? Does it show that within him there is a form of pre-Christian primitivism in the form of an atavistic belief in magic? Has one set of beliefs the power to hold sway over the other? We noticed earlier, in the notes to 2.1., that Othello’s reference to “sweet powers” could indicate a non-Christian belief in a pagan polytheism. However one decides the question of Othello’s beliefs, the story of the occult nature of the handkerchief gives it an ominous, significance that bodes ill.

After Othello says, “Most veritable”, Desdemona responds with, “Then would to God that I had never seen it”. Is she simply saying, ‘Given that you load it with so much significance and that it makes you so upset, I wish you had not given it to me.’? If, however, we take her “would to God” as a genuine appeal to God rather than a purely conventional phrase, is she trying to ward off the sinister power of this magic? As he begins to speak (as she says) “so startingly and rash” and demands to know where the handkerchief is, she exclaims, “Heaven bless us!” Again, is this merely a conventional exclamatory phrase, a form of ‘Good heavens, what’s all the fuss about?’ Could it be both that and a genuine appeal to be blessed by Christian divine power. If one of Othello’s aims was to frighten Desdemona with the story of the handkerchief’s magic, he has limited success. When he becomes tersely and aggressively demanding – “Say you?”, “How?”, “Fetch’t, let me see’t” – she responds with great composure, “Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now”. The use of “sir” in its cool formality very effectively raises her above his heated language. Is she lying when she says she can fetch it? I think we can take it that she thinks it must be mislaid rather than lost and she thinks that after a search it will be found. She then tries to make him talk about Cassio but he keeps talking about “The handkerchief” until he walks off and she is left confused. Emilia has witnessed the handkerchief interrogation and has heard the story of its occult significance. Now that she knows how important its ‘loss’ is to Othello, is she not even more morally obliged to tell the truth? Her question to Desdemona, “Is not this man jealous?” can be seen as a veiled warning prompted by her own guilty conscience over what she may have released in Othello.

Iago returns with Cassio. Cassio urges Desdemona to continue to plead for him to Othello. Desdemona says that Othello is not in a receptive state. She says, “My lord is not my lord, nor should I know him/Were he in favour as in humour altered”. In other words, he is so radically different to the person that she knew, the one whose “mind” she knew, that if his outward appearance (his “favour”) had altered as much as his “humour”, she would not recognise him. Does this suggest that from the beginning she only had a limited understanding of him? Has he changed into another being, a second Othello? Was the potential for this second Othello always there? Iago, hearing Othello was upset, leaves to find him. Desdemona thinks affairs of state must have “puddled his clear spirits”. Emilia thinks he is jealous but Desdemona says “I never gave him cause”. They leave and Bianca arrives.

Bianca is in love with Cassio and is his mistress. He does not truly love her. There is a clear divide in social class between them and Cassio has no intention of marrying her. Some would regard her, as we will see Iago does, as little more than a prostitute. What we see is a woman in love with a man who is prepared to ‘use’ her. She complains bitterly that he has not been to see her recently. Cassio gives her the handkerchief (it must have been planted there by Iago between 3.3 and 3.4) saying, “I found it in my chamber”, and, since he likes the design, he asks her to copy it. She instantly thinks Cassio has been given it by a new mistress. He denies this, and insists that she should get it copied before its owner demands it. He dismisses her on the grounds that he is about to meet with the general and says he does not want “him to see me womanised”. Bianca wants to see him “soon at night”. He says that he will see her “soon”.

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Act 4

Scene 1

Outside Othello’s HQ

In 3.4 Cassio had given Bianca the handkerchief with instructions for her to copy it. In this scene, 4.1, Bianca refers to the handkerchief Cassio gave her “even now” which suggests no significant gap in time between this scene and the last and so this scene also takes place during the same day. Yet you may have noticed that at 3.4.173, Bianca complained that Cassio had kept away from her for a week – yet they do not seem to have been on Cyprus for more than two days.. There are a number of other indications of gaps in time beyond a few days. For example, Emilia says that Iago has asked her a “hundred times” to steal the handkerchief. In 5.2 Othello will say that Desdemona committed “the act of shame”, a ”thousand” times with Cassio. Yet it is hard to find even one occasion when this could be possible. You will find other examples. These discrepancies have led critics to refer to the play’s ‘short time’ and its ‘long time’. What should our response be to this double time scheme? In a performance we are very unlikely to notice it. Even when it has been pointed out to us, it is unlikely to trouble us as we watch any further performances. I think we should also dismiss the idea that this is simply Shakespeare making a mistake. If you want to follow up the ‘problem’ in further detail you should read Honigmann on ‘Double Time’, pp 68-72 in his Arden edition of Othello and Neil on ‘The Time Scheme’ on pp 33-36 of his OUP edition.

This is another scene that begins in medias res (Latin for ‘in the middle things’). You will recall that in 3.3 Iago ‘proved’ to Othello that Desdemona and Cassio were having an affair. The account of Cassio’s supposed dream and Cassio’s possession of the handkerchief provided the ‘proof’ that Othello had called for. In Iago’s account of the dream, Cassio was enacting his sexual intimacy with Desdemona. As this scene begins, they seem to have picked up from the dream’s details of Cassio kissing and lying alongside Desdemona. It seems that Iago has further embellished the affair. He has put into Othello’s head that Desdemona has been naked in bed with Cassio. With his usual strategy of putting an idea in Othello’s head and then seeming to lessen its significance (the ‘tactical retreat’ again), Iago suggests that they could have been naked in bed but not having intercourse. In a similar downplaying of significance, he suggests that Desdemona is free to give away her handkerchief. Furthermore, having the handkerchief does not prove that they had intercourse. Yet after these tactics, Iago now offers more convincing proof. He says that Cassio had confessed to him that he, Cassio, did “lie”, copulate, with Desdemona. Othello, in a frenzied way, plays with lie as intercourse and lie as deception. His language breaks down into sentence fragments that, in a staccato, exclamatory fashion, repeat key words: “Handkerchief! Confessions! handkerchief!” and “Pish! Noses, ears and lips”. Finally, he becomes so disturbed that he falls down in a fit. Iago comments, “Thus credulous fools are caught”.

At this point, Cassio enters and expresses concern over the prostrate Othello. Iago says that Othello has had an epileptic fit and will soon recover. He tells Cassio to “withdraw” but he wants to speak to him once Othello has recovered and left. If Othello had not collapsed just before Cassio’s entry, what might have occurred in an Othello, Cassio confrontation at this point? How might it have undone Iago’s plotting? It is another example of the many occasions when chance and accident play their part in furthering Iago’s plot. When Othello comes round, Iago boldly, even brazenly given that he is addressing a military superior, tells him to “be a man” and, in continued manly fashion, attempts to ‘buck him up’ with the thought that, unlike a lot of cuckolded men, Othello is no longer deceived in his wife since he now knows that she is unfaithful. He then tells Othello that Cassio will soon come to speak to Iago and that Othello should “Stand a while part” to witness what occurs when Iago talks to Cassio about the occasions when he had sex with Desdemona. As Othello stands apart, Iago outlines to himself his plan, “Now will I question Cassio of Bianca”. He is confident that in talking about Bianca, Cassio will not refrain from coarse laughter. Othello, being close enough to hear loud laughter and to see gestures and facial expressions but out of earshot, will assume that Cassio is talking about Desdemona. When Cassio appears and the talk begins, Iago quickly introduces the subject of Bianca, lowering his voice when he mentions her name. Iago refers to a rumour that Cassio intends to marry Bianca which, as intended, provokes loud exclamatory laughter from Cassio. In his verbal response to Iago’s question concerning marriage, “Do you intend it?”, Cassio says, “I Marry! What a customer!”. In other words, he buys sex from Bianca and so he is her “customer”. This may not be true. It could be Cassio’s way of dismissing any idea of marriage, a way of saying, man to man, ‘Come on, who would marry a prostitute?’ Later in the play, Bianca denies being a prostitute, “I am no strumpet” (5.1.121) and, as we shall see, she invites Cassio to supper. This is more suggestive of a romantic, domestic date than selling sex though, of course, Cassio’s may be only interested in Bianca for sex. She may well not be a ‘strumpet’, but he regards her as far too lowly in social standing to consider her as a potential bride.

In another instance of a chance event furthering Iago’s plans, Bianca then arrives angrily returning the handkerchief to Cassio, saying, “This is some minx’s token”. As she leaves, Bianca, despite her anger, invites him to supper tonight. Bianca’s feeling for Cassio is genuine. She is prepared to forgive his inconstancy – up to certain point: after inviting him to supper, she adds, “if you will not, come when you are next prepared for”, which could suggest that she will not ‘prepare’ for him again. Cassio’s casual, inconsiderate, exploitative treatment of Bianca is one example of misogyny. Iago’s oppressive, contemptuous treatment of Emilia is another. After she leaves, Iago asks Cassio if he intends to have supper with her. He says that he does. Iago says that he may chance to see him as he wants to speak with him. Cassio leaves in pursuit of Bianca.

Through what is in effect a form of ‘dumb show’, Iago has convinced Othello that Cassio was laughing about his affair with Desdemona and that she gave him the handkerchief which “he hath given it his whore”. Thus Iago, aided by Bianca’s fortuitous appearance with the handkerchief, has provided Othello with a version of the “ocular proof” that he had called for. Othello is now determined to kill Desdemona that night, though notice the emotional swing from Othello’s, “But yet the pity of it, Iago – O, Iago, the pity of it” to his, “I will chop her into messes”. Iago advises, “strangle her in her bed – even the bed she hath contaminated”.

At this point, Desdemona enters with Lodovico. He brings a letter from Venice telling Othello to travel home and leave Cassio in command of Cyprus. As Othello reads, Desdemona and Lodovico talk about the disagreement between Cassio and Othello. She says that she “would do much/T’atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio”. Hearing this, Othello becomes so angry at Desdemona that he hits her, insults her and yells at her “Out of my sight!” He makes some attempt at observing formalities as he speaks with Ludovico. He welcomes him and invites him to supper. But this is mixed with an exclamatory “Goats and monkeys!”. He then leaves. Lodovico is shocked at Othello’s behaviour asking, “Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate/ Call all in all sufficient?” Iago suggests that Othello’s behaviour has become increasingly unpredictable.

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Act 4

Scene 2

Within Othello’s HQ though it becomes
‘outdoors’ with “Enter Roderigo”

Othello questions Emilia about Desdemona. Emilia defends her saying, “For if she be not honest, chaste and true there’s no man happy”. She assures him that she was always present when Cassio and Desdemona were together and her behaviour was irreproachable. He sends Emilia to fetch Desdemona. When they return, Othello dismisses Emilia in terms that suggest she is an assistant in a brothel – the implication being that Desdemona is a ‘whore’. He then questions Desdemona herself, calling her “Impudent strumpet!” and “cunning whore of Venice”, but does not ask her directly about Cassio or the handkerchief. She says, “By heaven you do me wrong” but he refuses to believe her.

In the process of his accusations and her responses, he considers why he is so hurt by her. He says that he could have withstood physical afflictions. He claims he could have borne public scorn, but he has been hurt “there”, by which he means the place where he has “garnered up” his heart. That is, the place where he has ‘stored’ (“garnered”) all his love for Desdemona. One can go even further and say it is where he has placed his very identity, for he goes on to say of “there” that it is where he “must live or bear no life”. To which he adds the metaphor of the fountain or spring, Desdemona and his love for her being, “The fountain from which my current runs/Or else dries up”. Othello came to Desdemona with a firmly established identity. He was the great general of royal lineage. He was the romantic adventurer with travellers’ tales of wild regions and peoples far beyond the world known to Venice. Until he met Desdemona, he regarded marriage as a place of “circumscription and confine”; not even “the sea’s worth” would persuade him to surrender his “unhoused free condition” (1.2.26/28). She changed his whole outlook and led him to fashion a new identity in marriage. With her his “soul hath her content so absolute/That not another comfort like to this/Succeeds in unknown fate” (2.1.189/191). All of which shows just how much he has invested in this new identity with Desdemona. The marriage can also be seen as the fulfilment of an evolving identity as he has moved from Moor to Christian (assuming conversion), then to Venetian (albeit as servant of the state) and finally, to a higher level of Venetian identity, as husband of the daughter of a Venetian lord.

Unmoved by Desdemona’s denials, Othello ends by referring to her as “that cunning whore of Venice” before he tells Emilia to enter. Again, he treats Emilia as the keeper of a brothel and then leaves. Desdemona tells Emilia to fetch Iago. It seems that she is hoping that Iago can in some way help. When he arrives, he pretends to be sympathetic when Emilia tells him that Othello has called Desdemona a whore. Emilia is convinced that Desdemona has been slandered by “some cogging, cozening slave to get some office”. Emilia goes on to by link this “knave” to the person who made “you” (Iago) suspect her with the Moor. When Emilia refers to “some cogging, cozening slave” who has “devised this slander” is she beginning to suspect Iago? After all, she knows that Iago was very keen to get hold of the handkerchief (“he hath a hundred times /Wooed me to steal it”) and she has seen the impact of its loss. It seems very likely that she must suspect that her husband has played at least some part in the whole affair, though fear of him prevents her probing further. Also, to probe further at this point could reveal her part in the loss of the handkerchief. We can find further support for Emilia’s suspicions if we look ahead to Emilia’s lines at 5.2.187/9 when she admits to herself that she did suspect Iago (“I smell’t, O villainy!/I thought so then”). Yet these lines from Act 5 have to be taken alongside Act 5’s earlier lines when she twice expresses extreme shock (“My husband?”) when Othello tells her that Iago told him of the supposed affair with Cassio.

Iago quickly dismisses Emilia’s words. Desdemona makes a piteous appeal to Iago to go to Othello and discover how she has lost him. Ironically enough, she is asking Iago to help her in her relationship with Othello just as Cassio has asked her to appeal to Othello on his behalf. As her appeal continues, she goes down on her knees to give a form of religious avowal to the affirmation of the steadfast nature of her love for her husband. Her kneeling to affirm her love makes a marked contrast to the kneeling of Othello and Iago as they swear vengeance (3.3.455 and 465).

Is Iago in any way moved by this piteous appeal by this innocent woman? If he is, he gives no immediate sign of it. Instead, he tries to reassure Desdemona with bland words as he blames Othello’s “humour” (his mood) on concerns over state business. Though, if one wanted to argue for Iago being in some way moved or in some way unsettled by Desdemona’s words, I suppose one could read into these reassurances, a need to allay the emotional turbulence of her heartfelt, piteous appeal, an impact that even he is feeling and wants to suppress. When trumpets call for guests to attend the supper put on for the messengers from Venice (Ludovico and his party), Desdemona and Emilia leave. As they go, Iago promises, with further bland words, that, “All things shall be well”.

Roderigo arrives (we now seem to be outdoors), angry that Iago’s promises to help him win Desdemona have come to nothing, despite all the jewels he has given Iago to give to Desdemona (we will later learn that Iago has kept them for himself – see 5.1,15/17). Iago defuses Roderigo’s criticism by praising him for the spirited way that he has challenged him. He then says that tonight provides Roderigo with the opportunity to further his pursuit of Desdemona. He even claims that “the next night following” he will “enjoy” Desdemona (“the next night”!!). Roderigo, dupe that he is, is now prepared to listen. Iago tells him that as the immediate Turkish threat to Cyprus has gone, Othello has been ordered away from Cyprus and Cassio has been appointed to take his place. Roderigo assumes that Othello and Desdemona will be returning to Venice but Iago says that they will be going to Mauretania (homeland of the North African Moors). This is probably a lie which is designed to make Roderigo think that Desdemona will be far beyond his reach. Iago then adds that to keep Othello and Desdemona on Cyprus, Cassio needs to be ‘removed’ tonight. By “removed” he means killed. He outlines his plan. Cassio will be “with a harlotry” (Bianca) tonight and when he leaves Roderigo can ambush and kill him. Iago will be nearby to back him up. Iago ends by urging Roderigo to go with him and he will provide further reasons on just how necessary it is to get rid of Cassio. Roderigo wants to “hear further reason” and so walks off with Iago who assures him that he will be satisfied.

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Act 4

Scene 3

Othello’s HQ

After the supper, Ludovico graciously bids Desdemona good night. Othello tells her to go to bed “On th’instant” and to dismiss her “attendant” (Emilia). He will join her soon. Emilia says she has “laid those sheets you bade me” – these are the wedding sheets, see 4.2.107. As if she has a foreboding of her death, Desdemona asks Emilia to “shroud” her in one of the sheets – a shroud is a white sheet in which a corpse is laid out for burial. Emilia tries to turn her away from such a gloomy thought. However, Desdemona‘s mood is not so easily changed as she begins to sing a mournful song. The song came from Barbary (Barbara) one of her mother’s maids. The maid was forsaken by her lover and in the song the forsaken woman sits sighing by a sycamore tree as she sings what Desdemona calls a “song of willow”. Desdemona says that Barbary died singing this song. This is a very poignant moment as Desdemona sings another woman’s death song which, given Othello’s sworn intention, we know will be her own death song.

Desdemona says she cannot believe that any woman would be unfaithful to her husband, “Beshrew me if I would do such a wrong for the whole world”. Emilia takes a more pragmatic, less ‘virtuous’ attitude when weighing up the sin against gaining the “whole world”. In response to Desdemona’s naïve disbelief that there could be “any such woman” who would commit adultery, Emilia assures her that it commonly happens. However, she blames husbands for wives’ failures. Speaking from what is probably bitter experience, she catalogues adulterous and abusive behaviour by husbands. She clinches her strong feminist argument with a closing rhyming couplet: “Then let them use us well: else let them know/The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.” Demurring from such worldly wisdom, Desdemona prays that she would not copy bad behaviour and wishes Emilia good night.

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Act 5

Scene 1

Cyprus, A dark street

Under cover of darkness, Iago leads a reluctant Roderigo to where he can ambush Cassio. Standing apart from Roderigo, Iago considers the possible outcomes of the attack, “Now, whether he kill Cassio or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, every way makes my gain”. He reasons as follows: If Roderigo survives, he could call for a “restitution large/Of the gold and jewels that I bobbed from him/As gifts to Desdemona”. Therefore, I will have to kill him. If Cassio survives, the Moor could “unfold me” to Cassio. That is, in any follow up to this imminent violent incident the Moor, when questioning Cassio, could cite Iago as his source for Desdemona’s adultery with Cassio. Since Cassio would deny the charge of adultery, this would, at least, call into question the truth of Iago’s testimony. Therefore, Cassio must die.

Roderigo attacks Cassio but his sword thrust is deflected by Cassio’s coat (actual body armour or a thick military coat?). Cassio counters with his sword and wounds Roderigo who is convinced that he is fatally wounded. Iago steps in and, from behind, wounds Cassio in the leg – was this a badly aimed thrust or a recognition that Cassio’s coat would protect his upper body? However, as we shall see, Cassio’s survival is necessary for the plot. Iago then steps away into the darkness. Cassio calls out for help. Othello hears Cassio’s yells and says, “Iago keeps his word”. Thinking that Iago has killed Cassio, Othello goes to kill Desdemona. Lodovico and Gratiano hear the yelling and decide to fetch help. They meet Iago who, with, “What villains have done this?”, pretends to be horrified at Cassio’s injury. Iago secretly finds the injured Roderigo and kills him. Roderigo’s last words are, “O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!” Bianca enters and is distraught at Cassio’s injuries. Iago, with characteristic opportunism, insinuates that she was to blame for the attack. Emilia enters and Iago gives her a version of what has happened, a version in which Cassio was attacked by Roderigo and “fellows that are ‘scaped” – these fellows being needed to account for Cassio’s leg wound (?). Iago tells Emilia to ask Bianca where Cassio supped tonight. Confident of her innocence, Bianca boldly states that he supped at her house. Emilia, upset over the injury to “good Cassio”, draws the conclusion that Bianca is behind the attack on Cassio and scornfully says, “O fie upon thee, strumpet!” Bianca answers with, “I am no strumpet”. Iago then sends Emilia to tell Othello and Desdemona what has happened. Iago ends the scene with, ‘This is the night that either makes me or fordoes me quite’.

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Act 5

Scene 2

Othello’s HQ, The bedroom

Desdemona is asleep on her bed. In soliloquy Othello considers what he is about to do. As listeners/readers we seem to arrive in the midst of an inner dialogue between self and soul – in medias res again! He is addressing his soul and seems to be in the process of justifying why he is about to kill Desdemona: “It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul!”. However, he does not go on to clarify explicitly what the cause” is. Switching his addressee to “you chaste stars”, he seems to imply that the cause is unchastity which cannot be named since it would offend the ‘ears’ of the “chaste stars”. “Cause” here could be that which causes something to happen, or it could be the reason for acting, the principle or ideal that you are upholding. Taking the first sense of cause, Desdemona’s adultery could be that which causes him to act as her killer. Taking the second sense, it seems that the ‘cause’ he is upholding is the ‘principle’ or virtue of chastity. By killing Desdemona, he is defending chastity in that, if he does not kill her, she will continue to be unchaste and so will “betray more men”. Prompted perhaps by a paradoxical combination of thoughts of (sexual) purity and his sensuous appreciation of her beautiful skin, he then says he will not shed her blood or scar her whiter-than-snow skin. Thoughts of her beautiful skin lead to thoughts of the gravity and finality of what he is about to do. A light can be quenched and then re-lit but the beautiful creature that is Desdemona cannot be re-animated. She would be more like the plucked rose which cannot grow again. As Othello develops his thoughts, the example of the rose morphs into the fragrant rose that is Desdemona. He smells her while she is still “on the tree”, that is, still alive. This almost persuades him not to kill her. He smells here again and kisses her. The intensity of his sensuous response to her body is striking here. It will be recalled that their courtship began with a meeting of minds (“I saw Othello’s visage in his mind”, 1.3.253, “But to be free and bounteous to her mind”, 1.3.265). Before he met her, he had regarded himself as a confirmed bachelor and felt that “the young affects” (1.3.264) in him were “defunct”. Nevertheless, on arrival in Cyprus he anticipates what must be their wedding night with (given that Cassio is present) rather surprisingly explicit relish (not to mention the unromantic, commercial parallel): “Come, my dear love,/ The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue:/The profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you”. Their intimacy seems to have transformed him from cerebral to sensuous lover. Perhaps he also discovered that Desdemona has shown more of “appetite” than he had expected. If so, it may have played its part in persuading him of her suspected sexual infidelity.

Othello then says, “Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee/And love thee after”. This could be paraphrased as, ‘If, when you are dead, you will be as beautiful, as fragrant and kissable as you are now, then I will find you lovable even after I have killed you’. This extraordinary statement shows just how intertwined, or, given the complexity of the idea, tangled together, are the lover and the killer in Othello. He ends by casting himself as a heavy-hearted, sorrowful killer: she may be sweet but she is also surpassingly “fatal” and so she has to die. He must weep and yet they are “cruel tears” since he is obliged to kill her. Acting as a minister of justice he must in sorrow kill her he loves. He regards his sorrow as “heavenly”. He has convinced himself that he is about to do the right thing. Heaven is on his side.

When Desdemona wakes up, there follows a dialogue in which Othello, having told her that she is going to die, encourages her to make a death-bed confession. This seems to be motivated by a desire to allow her to prepare for entry into the next world by confessing her sins. One could see an ulterior motive in this: if she were to confess, it would further convince Othello that he is doing the right thing. He wants to cast himself in a priestly role sacrificing his adulterous wife to atone for her sins. That priestly role can also be seen in Othello acting as confessor to the penitent sinner – not that a ‘good confession’ from Desdemona would lead to mercy and forgiveness. Her failure to confess ‘spoils’ his justified role as sacrificial priest, and makes him “call what I intend to do/A murder, which I had thought a sacrifice”. Othello tells her that he knows that she gave his handkerchief to Cassio. He knows because he saw it in Cassio’s hand. Desdemona calls for Cassio to be sent for and Othello tells her that Iago has just killed him. This leads to Desdemona’s exclamation, “Alas, he is betrayed, and I undone”. As well as meaning to prove false to a trust, ‘betray’ can also mean to reveal what was meant to be hidden or secret. Othello takes it in the latter sense and thinks Desdemona means ‘Alas, that Cassio has been revealed as my lover’. This infuriates him: “Out, strumpet, weep’st thou for him to my face?” Despite Desdemona’s pleas for delay, even for time for one prayer, he begins to smother her. Seconds before he begins, she calls out “O Lord! Lord! Lord!” and Emilia, returning with news about the attack on Cassio, calls out for entry into the bedroom.

Othello recognises that Emilia has come with what he thinks will be news of Cassio’s ‘death’. If he lets her in, she will “speak to my wife”. He repeats the word “wife” and ends with an intense realisation that he now has no wife. He sees this in terms of a cosmic event: “Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse/Of sun and moon, and that th’affrighted globe/Should yawn at alteration.” – “yawn” in the sense of gape open. Such a cosmic catastrophe has links with the previously noted apocalyptic imagery connected with the storm at sea and the “prophetic fury” of the Sibyl who sewed the handkerchief. Emilia makes a further appeal for entry and, having drawn the bed curtains, Othello lets her in. She tells him that Cassio killed Roderigo and that Cassio lives. Emilia hears Desdemona calling out. When she finds her she asks, “who hath done this deed?” Desdemona replies, “Nobody. I myself. Farewell./Commend me to my lord. – O, farewell!” and dies. Othello chooses to take this selfless farewell as a further example of Desdemona as a liar and seems convinced that she has gone to “burning hell”. He, boldly and unashamedly, confesses, “Twas I that killed her”, adding as justification that “she was a whore”, “She was false as water” and “Cassio did top her”. Othello then reveals that “Thy husband knew it all” and that “twas he that told me on her first”. Emilia is dismayed and angered at the possibility of her husband’s involvement. She says, “If he say so, may his pernicious soul /Rot half a grain a day! he lies to th’heart”. She condemns Othello who threatens her with his sword. Undeterred, she yells for help and Montano, Gratiano and Iago rush in. Emilia confronts Iago, who admits he told Othello that Desdemona was unfaithful with Cassio. He tries to stop her talking but she says, “I am bound to speak:/ My mistress here lies murdered in her bed”. Othello defends himself saying, “Tis pitiful, but yet Iago knows/ That she with Cassio hath the act of shame/ A thousand times committed” and says that Desdemona gave Othello’s precious handkerchief to Cassio as a love token. Despite Iago’s attempt to stab her after she ignored his commands to “hold your peace!” and “get you home”, Emilia reveals the truth: “O thou dull Moor, that handkerchief thou speak’st of/ I found by fortune and did give my husband”. The question has already been raised of Emilia’s moral failure to tell the truth about the handkerchief. Fear and a culture of obedience and servitude of wives to husbands must have played their part in silencing her. Now, however, devastated by Desdemona’s death and despite facing mortal danger from her husband, she redeems herself by telling the truth.

At last, Othello realises the truth. Iago, full of vengeful fury, stabs and kills Emilia and runs away. Having disarmed Othello of his sword, Montano orders Gratiano to guard “the door without” and, with Othello secured in the bed chamber, he pursues Iago. Emilia, with her dying breath, sings the chorus from the willow song and testifies to Desdemona’s fidelity to Othello. Othello had been disarmed by Montano but he now reveals that he has “another weapon in this chamber/It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook’s temper”. He finds that sword and calls upon Gratiano to release him. There is pathos in the way he addresses Gratiano as “Uncle” (as we would say, ‘uncle-in-law’, he is Brabantio’s brother). To have an uncle who is a Venetian nobleman fits with Othello’s attempt to fashion for himself, through “service to the state” and marriage, a Venetian identity – an identity that he has now lost. When Gratiano refuses to release him, he asks Gratiano to “Look in upon me” which he does. Othello shows his “sword of Spain” and, reverting to his identity as ferocious warrior, recalls how he would wield this weapon to deadly effect through ‘impediments’ (enemies) far more formidable than Gratiano. But this boast of his prowess, this recall of his old identity, is, in the next breath, dismissed as “vain”. He now sees himself as being at “his journey’s end” and offers no threat to Gratiano. Turning to Desdemona he feels that her cold, death pallor will condemn him to Hell at the ”compt” (The Day of Judgement). He calls upon devils to take him into Hell’s torments rather than face the torment of seeing Desdemona’s face.

Shortly after, Lodovico, Montano and Cassio return with Iago as a prisoner. Othello attacks and wounds Iago. Iago is defiant, “I wound sir, but not killed”. In his reply to Ludovico’s question, “What shall be said to thee?”, Othello maintains that he is to be regarded as “An honourable murderer, if you will/For nought I did in hate, but all in honour”. Othello then asks, “Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil/ Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?” Iago replies, “From this time forth I never will speak a word”. From letters found in Roderigo’s possession, Ludovico pieces together the planned attack on Cassio. Cassio explains to Othello how he, Cassio, came to be in possession of the handkerchief. Othello is arrested. He is to be kept “close prisoner” and await the judgement of the Venetian state. Cassio is appointed as the ruler of Cyprus. Iago is to be taken away and tortured for as long as possible before he dies.

In his final speech before committing suicide, Othello states how he wants to be remembered. Although he says that the record should “Nothing extenuate”, he does seek to tone down, to ameliorate the record. He describes the “deeds” as “unlucky”, which can be seen as shirking full personal responsibility. Notice the way he refers to himself as “one”. This has something of an impersonalising effect: Not ‘I’, not ‘me”, but ‘one’. An impersonalising effect which is emphasised by the way his speech is constructed around the repeated, “Of one”. More obviously exculpatory is the neatly balanced sentence in which he asks to be remembered as “one that loved not wisely, but too well.” “Loved too well”? Do you agree? Can you make out a case for this? Or one against? He judges himself to be “one not easily jealous” – plenty of scope for further discussion of this! To weigh against seeing his speech as too involved with self and self-justification, we should consider closely the image of Desdemona as a pearl. Othello speaks of himself (albeit in his ‘one’ guise) as “one whose hand,/Like the base Indian threw a pearl away/Richer than all his tribe”. (The scholars debate whether “Indian” should read Judean – see Honigmann’s note – but I follow Honigman who favours ‘Indian’). “Base” here, and again I am following Honigmann, means of a low social class not morally depraved. Such a lowly Indian could be seen as being unaware of the true value of the pearl that he threw away. As such, it fits with Othello excusing himself. However, and notwithstanding the oriental and non-Christian context of “Indian” and “tribe”, a context that could suggest Renaissance exploration and exploitation of the Orient, I think that for Shakespeare and the Elizabethans, a pearl of superlative value (“Richer than all”) must recall Jesus’s words in St Mathew’s Gospel where the pearl represents the kingdom of heaven: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it". To see Desdemona as, in some sense, comparable to the kingdom of heaven is to see her as a sacred person and, as such, shows a recognition on Othello’s part of the terrible thing that he has done. A recognition of Desdemona as a ‘pearl of great price’, as a heavenly person, runs through the play. When Cassio first arrived in Cyprus he had referred to the “divine Desdemona” (2.1.73). On her arrival he welcomed her with, “Hail to thee, lady, and the grace of heaven,/Before, behind thee, and on every hand/Enwheel thee round (2.1..85/7). These words echo the Catholic prayer, Hail Mary, which begins, “Hail Mary, full of grace”. Before being convinced of her guilt, Othello says, “If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself” (3.3.282), and at 5.2.128 we have Emilia’s “O, the more angel she” and at 5.2.133 her, “O, she was heavenly true”. As has already been noticed, Iago is her complete opposite. He is an agent of Hell for he is supported by “all the tribe of Hell” (1.3.358).

Immediately after Othello’s implicit recognition of what he has done, we have the image of himself weeping copiously, expressing deep sorrow. He then dramatises his suicide by recalling from his martial past an occasion at Aleppo when he killed “a turbaned Turk”. One can see in this a divided self enacting both an existential drama and the West versus East conflict that is present in microcosm in the Othello, Desdemona marriage. Othello the general who sought to fashion a Venetian identity, through his Christian religion, his service to the state and his marriage, is about to destroy the ‘Turkish’ killer in himself. Having stabbed himself, he kisses Desdemona and dies. Note here his use of “circumcised dog” to describe the Turk. Circumcision was an Islamic practice but not a Christian one. To refer to the Turk in this way distinguishes the Turk from himself and so is a further sign that Othello was a Christian. It could suggest that he was born a Christian since if he had converted from Islam he would have been circumcised as a Muslim boy – though his childhood religion could well be the paganism that has previously been suggested in the discission of “sweet powers” – see the notes to 2.1, and the discussion of the handkerchief in the notes on 3.4.

Notwithstanding all that has happened, and perhaps particularly swayed by Othello’s final speech, Cassio’s final judgement is “he was great of heart”. Ludovico closes the play with various practical arrangements and orders Cassio to arrange the punitive tortures of Iago.

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Othello

A Street in Venice outside Brabantio’s house

Act 1

Outside the Saggitary

Act 1

The Council Chamber of the Venetian Senate

Act 2

Cyprus, near a cape with a view of the sea

Act 2

(Public Square?) Cyprus

Act 2

Cyprus, outside Othello’s HQ

Act 3

Cyprus, outside Othello’s HQ

Act 3

Cyprus, outside Othello’s HQ

Act 3

(Often called ‘The Temptation Scene’)Cyprus, inside Othello’s HQ

Act 3

Othello’s HQ

Act 4

Outside Othello’s HQ

Act 4

Within Othello’s HQ though it becomes ‘outdoors’ with “Enter Roderigo”

Act 4

Othello’s HQ

Act 5

Cyprus, A dark street

Act 5

Othello’s HQ, The bedroom

Exploring A-level English Literature

(Often called ‘The Temptation Scene’)
Cyprus, inside Othello’s HQ

Within Othello’s HQ though it becomes
‘outdoors’ with “Enter Roderigo”