Othello by William Shakespeare
- Musleh Saadi
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
The Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1603. It revolves around the themes of love, jealousy, betrayal, and racial prejudice.
Act I: The Seeds of Malice
The play begins in Venice. The villain, Iago, a bitter ensign, resents his general, Othello, a Moorish nobleman in the Venetian military service, for promoting the young Michael Cassio over him to be his lieutenant.
Iago manipulates the wealthy, lovesick Venetian gentleman Roderigo, who is infatuated with Desdemona, Othello's new wife. Iago and Roderigo wake up Brabantio, a Venetian senator and Desdemona's father, to inform him that his daughter has secretly married Othello.
Brabantio is outraged and accuses Othello of using witchcraft to win his daughter's affection. Othello successfully defends himself before the Duke of Venice and the senators, confirming that Desdemona married him out of genuine love, admiring his tales of adventure and danger. Othello is immediately ordered to Cyprus to command the Venetian forces against the imminent Turkish attack. Desdemona insists on accompanying him.
Act II: Arrival in Cyprus
Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Emilia (Iago's wife and Desdemona's attendant), Cassio, and Roderigo all arrive in Cyprus. The Turkish fleet is destroyed by a storm before the battle can begin, turning the mission into a celebration.
Iago begins his plot. He gets Cassio drunk and then provokes Roderigo to fight him. In the ensuing commotion, Othello is awakened and, seeing the disorder, dismisses Cassio from his lieutenancy.
Iago then advises Cassio to appeal to Desdemona, suggesting she can persuade Othello to reinstate him, thus using Desdemona's kindness as a tool in his scheme.
Act III: The Green-Eyed Monster
This is the pivotal act where Iago poisons Othello's mind.
Iago's Suggestions: When Othello sees Cassio leaving after speaking with Desdemona, Iago subtly suggests that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair. Iago warns Othello to beware of the "green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on" (jealousy).
The Handkerchief: Othello demands "proof." Desdemona drops a prized handkerchief—Othello’s first gift to her—which Emilia picks up and, without knowing its significance, gives to Iago, who has repeatedly asked her to steal it.
The Planting: Iago immediately takes the handkerchief and plants it in Cassio's lodging.
Othello's Vow: Iago then tells Othello that he saw Cassio wiping his beard with the handkerchief and that he overheard Cassio talking in his sleep, confessing to the affair. Othello is convinced. In a frenzy, he promotes Iago to be his new lieutenant and vows to seek vengeance on both Desdemona and Cassio.
Act IV: Escalating Madness
Othello's jealousy transforms him into a raging tyrant.
The Interrogation: Othello confronts Desdemona about the handkerchief, but she truthfully denies knowing where it is.
The Misinterpreted Conversation: Iago arranges for Othello to hide and overhear a conversation between himself and Cassio. Iago directs the conversation to Cassio's affair with Bianca, a courtesan, but Othello, consumed by Iago's earlier insinuations, believes Cassio is discussing his affair with Desdemona.
The Final Decision: Bianca appears and throws the handkerchief back at Cassio, protesting that it must belong to another woman. This is Othello's final "proof." He decides to murder Desdemona and orders Iago to kill Cassio. Othello physically strikes Desdemona in front of Venetian dignitaries.
Act V: Tragedy and Revelation
The play reaches its tragic climax:
The Attack: Iago wounds Cassio in an ambush but uses the opportunity to kill Roderigo, who has grown impatient with Iago's schemes.
The Murder: Othello goes to the bedroom, finds Desdemona asleep, and, convinced of her guilt, smothers her with a pillow.
The Revelation: Immediately after the murder, Emilia enters and is horrified. When Othello tells her he killed Desdemona because of her affair with Cassio, and cites Iago as his source, Emilia reveals the truth about the handkerchief, exposing Iago's villainy.
The Aftermath: In a rage, Iago stabs and kills his wife, Emilia, to silence her, and then attempts to flee but is captured. When Othello realizes the terrible mistake he has made, he stabs himself and dies next to Desdemona.
The End: Cassio is appointed as the new governor of Cyprus. Iago is taken away to be tortured, refusing to reveal his motives, stating, "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word." The play ends with the Moor's honor restored but his life, and the life of his innocent wife, tragically lost.
Paragraph 1: Act I – The Architecture of ResentmentAct I
of Othello masterfully establishes the central conflicts and characters. Set in Venice, the act opens with Iago's bitter resentment towards Othello for promoting Cassio, a man he considers a theoretical soldier without practical experience, to the lieutenancy. This professional jealousy is the seed from which the entire tragedy grows. Iago reveals his duplicitous nature in his soliloquy, stating, "I am not what I am," and immediately enlists the lovesick Roderigo in his scheme. By waking Brabantio with crude, racist imagery ("an old black ram / Is topping your white ewe"), Iago weaponizes societal prejudice against Othello, the Moor. However, before the Duke, Othello displays immense dignity and composure, defending his marriage not with witchcraft but with the powerful story of his life, which won Desdemona's love. This act sets up the core dramatic irony: the state trusts Othello completely with its military security, while Iago begins his assault on Othello's personal security. The swift transition from Venice to the war-threatened island of Cyprus shifts the play from a civilized, ordered society to an isolated, volatile setting ripe for manipulation.
Paragraph 2: Act II – The Illusion of Peace and the Genesis of the PlotAct II
sees the characters transported to Cyprus, where the external threat of the Turkish fleet is miraculously dissolved by a storm. This creates a false sense of peace and celebration, a vacuum that Iago quickly fills with his own malevolent chaos. His plot begins in earnest as he exploits Cassio's weakness for drink and Roderigo's gullibility. By orchestrating a brawl that results in Cassio's public disgrace and dismissal, Iago achieves his first major goal. His subsequent advice to Cassio—to seek Desdemona's intercession—is the masterstroke of his plan, as it creates the very appearance of an illicit relationship he will later describe to Othello. This act demonstrates Iago's understanding of human psychology; he manipulates each character's specific flaw: Cassio's concern for reputation, Roderigo's desperate love, and Desdemona's inherent kindness. The celebration of military victory and marital bliss is thus undercut by the sinister machinery of Iago's scheme, perfectly setting the stage for the tragedy to come.
Paragraph 3: Act III – The Poisoning of a Mind and the PeripeteiaAct III
Is the play's turning point (peripeteia), where Iago's insinuations successfully transform Othello from a confident, loving husband into a man consumed by the "green-eyed monster." Shakespeare builds the tension masterfully. Iago never outright accuses Desdemona; he uses hesitation, rhetorical questions, and feigned concern to make Othello construct the accusation himself. The loss of the handkerchief—a symbol of Othello's love and their vow—is the tangible "proof" Iago needs. When Othello witnesses Cassio with the handkerchief (though it is, in fact, with Bianca), his transformation is complete. His vow of revenge—"Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!"—and his promotion of Iago to lieutenant mark his tragic fall from grace. This act is a profound exploration of how jealousy, once planted in a mind unaccustomed to it, can rapidly corrupt reason and perception, fulfilling the classical tragic element where a great man begins his downfall due to a fatal flaw, in this case, a trusting nature that becomes a capacity for obsessive doubt.
Paragraph 4: Act IV – The Unraveling and Descent into TyrannyIn Act IV,
Othello's internal chaos manifests externally. The noble general is reduced to a trance, public humiliation of his wife, and physical violence. Iago's manipulation becomes more overt and cruel, as seen in the carefully staged conversation with Cassio about Bianca, which Othello misinterprets. Othello's language deteriorates into brutal, visceral imagery, referring to Desdemona as a "weed" and plotting her murder in her "contaminated" bed. The arrival of Lodovico from Venice serves as a crucial contrast, highlighting how far Othello has deviated from the composed leader the Senate knew. This act deepens the themes of appearance versus reality, as Othello is completely ensnared by Iago's fabricated reality, and the destruction of identity, as Othello's self-image as a worthy husband and valiant general is utterly shattered. His order for Iago to kill Cassio and his resolution to murder Desdemona show the tragic point of no return has been reached.
Paragraph 5: Act V – The Tragic Climax and CatharsisAct V
Delivers the play's devastating climax. The chaos in the streets, where Iago's schemes culminate in the botched murder of Cassio and the death of Roderigo, mirrors the moral chaos within Othello. The murder of Desdemona is one of Shakespeare's most heartbreaking scenes, filled with terrible irony as the innocent wife pleads for her life while her husband, convinced he is an agent of justice, carries out the brutal act. The anagnorisis, or tragic recognition, comes too late. Emilia's courageous revelation of the truth about the handkerchief exposes Iago's entire plot, leading to a swift and violent cascade of consequences: Iago murders Emilia, Othello kills himself, and Iago is left silent, his motives ultimately inscrutable. The ending provides a catharsis—the evil is exposed and order is restored with Cassio's governance—but the cost is immense. The deaths of the noble Moor and his virtuous wife leave the audience with a profound sense of waste and sorrow, key to the tragic experience.
Paragraph 6: Themes and Dramatic Context
Othello is rich with enduring themes: the destructive power of jealousy, the clash between appearance and reality, the corrosive nature of racial otherness, and the vulnerability of love in a cynical world. Shakespeare's original concept was to place a fundamentally good, albeit emotionally insecure, man at the mercy of a motiveless malignity—Iago's "motiveless malignancy" as coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In the context of classical and early modern drama, Othello fulfills the Aristotelian elements of tragedy perfectly. It features a noble hero (Othello) with a hamartia (a trusting nature that leads to crippling jealousy), a complex and gripping plot driven by Iago's machinations, a powerful peripeteia and anagnorisis, and a final scene that evokes pity and fear. As a pillar of BS English Literature, the play exemplifies the shift in early modern drama from solely fate-driven plots to tragedies centered on complex, psychologically realistic characters whose own flaws, manipulated by external forces, lead to their downfall. Its exploration of race, identity, and evil remains profoundly relevant, securing its status as a timeless masterpiece of the Western canon.
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