OTHELLO
Context:
Othello was first performed by the King’s Men at the court of King James I on
November 1, 1604.
Written during Shakespeare’s great tragic period, which also included the
composition of Hamlet (1600), King Lear (1604–5), Macbeth (1606), and Antony and
Cleopatra (1606–7), Othello is set against the backdrop of the wars between Venice
and Turkey that raged in the latter part of the sixteenth century.
Italy in the 17th century had what Norman Sanders called a “double image”. On the
one hand, it was a land of refinement and romance, a model of civilisation. Venice,
Europe’s centre of capitalism, was a free state, and renowned as one of the most
beautiful cities in Italy. On the other hand, Italy was associated with decadence,
villainy and vice. Venice itself was suspect, because it was, as Norman Sanders put it,
“a racial and religious melting pot.”
A fact that was well known, even in England at the time, was that Venice was the
“pleasure capital of Europe, especially in its sexual tolerance” (Honigmann, Arden
edition), to the point that Byron was shocked when he visited.
Cyprus, which is the setting for most of the action, was a Venetian outpost attacked
by the Turks in 1570 and conquered the following year.
By setting Othello during the War of Cyprus, Shakespeare has amplified the tensions
of an intimate drama by placing them in relation to a political crisis from recent
historical memory. The continued instability in the play’s domestic drama may be
said to mirror the tensions between the Venetians and Ottomans, which continued
well into the eighteenth century.
Shakespeare’s information on the Venetian-Turkish conflict probably derives from
The History of the Turks by Richard Knolles, which was published in England in the
autumn of 1603.
The story of Othello is also derived from another source—an Italian prose tale
written in 1565 by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinzio (usually referred to as Cinthio).
The question of Othello’s exact race is open to some debate. The word ‘Moor’ now
refers to the Islamic Arabic inhabitants of North Africa who conquered Spain in the
eighth century, but the term was used rather broadly in the period and was
sometimes applied to Africans from other regions.
Othello’s darkness or blackness is alluded to many times in the play, but Shakespeare
and other Elizabethans frequently described brunette or darker than average
Europeans as black.
The opposition of black and white imagery that runs throughout Othello is certainly a
marker of difference between Othello and his European peers, but the difference is
never quite so racially specific as a modern reader might imagine it to be.
Othello, however, is a noble figure of great authority, respected and admired by the
duke and senate of Venice as well as by those who serve him. Only Iago voices an
, explicitly stereotypical view of Othello, depicting him from the beginning as an
animalistic, barbarous, foolish outsider.
While the original meaning of Othello’s blackness has grown obscure, the
provocative and timeless nature of the play’s subject matter make it fit for countless
interpretations as notions of racial identity continue to evolve.
The nationalism of the English Renaissance was reinforced by Protestantism. Henry
VIII had broken with Rome in the 1530s and in Shakespeare’s time there was an
independent Protestant state church. Othello has converted to Christianity and the
preoccupation with good and evil in the play suggests its religious context.
Female subordination: although questions were being asked about the social
hierarchy, women remained in subordinate roles, their lives controlled by patriarchy
during the Renaissance.
Women were expected to be ruled by men, as Desdemona’s submission to Othello
demonstrates. Women had few legal rights. They were entitled to inherit property,
but if they married, everything they owned passed to their husbands. Many men saw
women as possessions, and fathers expected to choose husbands for their
daughters, as Brabantio does in Othello.
Intellectually, women were thought to be inferior to men, and incapable of rational
thought. They rarely received an education. Assertive and argumentative women
were seen as a threat to social order and were punished for their behaviour with
forms of torture.
However, European visitors to England commented that English women had more
freedom than was the case in many other European countries.
Shakespeare’s audiences included women, and he wrote a large number of parts for
strong-minded female characters, like Desdemona and Emilia.
Character summaries
Othello
Beginning with the opening lines of the play, Othello remains at a distance from
much of the action that concerns itself and affects himself.
Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio refer to Othello with racial epithets, including “the
Moor”, “the thick lips”, “an old black ram” and a “Barbary horse”.
We do not hear his name until well into Act 1, scene 3.
Othello’s status as an outsider may be the reason he is such easy prey for Iago.
Although Othello is a cultural and racial outsider in Venice, his skill as a soldier and
leader is nevertheless valuable and necessary to the state, and he is an integral part
of Venetian civic society. He is in great demand by the duke and Senate, as
evidenced by Cassio’s comment that the senate “sent several quests” to look for
Othello (I.ii); the Venetian government trusts Othello enough to put him in full
command of Cyprus.
Those who consider Othello their social and civic peer, such as Desdemona and
Brabantio, nevertheless seem drawn to him because of his exotic qualities. Othello
admits as much when he tells the duke about his friendship with Brabantio. He says,
, “[Desdemona’s] father loved me, oft invited me, / Still questioned me the story of
my life / From year to year” (I.iii).
Othello is also able to captivate his peers with his speech. The duke’s reply to
Othello’s speech about how he wooed Desdemona with his tales of adventure is: “I
think this tale would win my daughter too” (I.iii).
Othello sometimes makes a point of presenting himself as an outsider, whether
because he recognises his exotic appeal or because he is self-conscious of and
defensive about his difference from other Venetians. For example, in spite of his
obvious eloquence in Act I, scene iii, he protests, “Rude am I in my speech, / And
little blessed with the soft phrase of peace” (I.iii).
As the play goes on, Othello’s eloquence is compromised by Iago’s plots.
It is the tension between Othello’s victimization at the hands of a foreign culture and
his own willingness to torment himself that makes him a tragic figure rather than
simply Iago’s ridiculous puppet.
Iago
Iago resembles a vice figure- derived from medieval morality places; their function to
hinder the main character.
Possibly the most heinous villain in Shakespeare, Iago is fascinating for his most
terrible characteristic: his utter lack of convincing motivation for his actions. In the
first scene, he claims to be angry at Othello for having passed him over for the
position of lieutenant (“I know my price, I am worth no worse a place”). However, at
the end of Act I, scene 3, Iago says he thinks Othello may have slept with his wife,
Emilia: “It is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets / He has done my office”- none of
these claims seems to adequately explain Iago’s deep hatred of Othello, and Iago’s
lack of motivation.
The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge described Iago as acting with “motiveless
malignity”.
He is willing to take revenge on anyone—Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo,
even Emilia—at the slightest provocation and revelling in the pain and damage he
causes- for this reason, he can be described as a sadist.
It is Iago’s talent for understanding and manipulating the desires of those around
him that makes him both a powerful and a compelling figure.
He deceives all of the characters in the play; he is repeatedly referred to as “honest”
and “good” > dramatic irony.
Iago’s murder of Emilia could also stem from the general hatred of women that he
displays. Some readers have suggested that Iago’s true, underlying motive for
persecuting Othello is his homosexual love for the general. He certainly seems to
take great pleasure in preventing Othello from enjoying marital happiness, and he
expresses his love for Othello frequently and effusively.
