Play of about 1603 by William Shakespeare, This article is about the Shakespeare tragedy. [135], In summer 2013, the Royal National Theatre produced the play with Adrian Lester in the title role and Rory Kinnear as Iago. Cassio, distraught, is then persuaded by Iago to ask Desdemona to persuade her husband to reinstate him. In 2007, Othello opened at the Donmar Warehouse in London on 4 December 2007, directed by Michael Grandage, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello, Ewan McGregor as Iago, Tom Hiddleston as Cassio, Kelly Reilly as Desdemona and Michelle Fairley as Emilia. Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, two patent companies (the King's Company and the Duke's Company) were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them: Othello being allocated to the King's Company's repertoire. Iago handles this turn of events by threatening Othello with emotional isolation. Later critics, however, have not been able to overlook the emergence of the "[99], The first professional performances of the play in North America are likely to have been those of the Hallam Company. But with the advent of Iagos plan, one sees Othellos vulnerability who is yet to match the devotion and trust which Desdemona has for him. Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter. Othello Essay | Iago's Love Language: Controlling - GradeSaver Cassio functions mainly to move the plot forward by inadvertently becoming a pawn in Iago's plan. [118], The most significant theatre production in wartime America featured Paul Robeson as Othello. After Cassio has gotten drunk and left for guard duty, Iago tells Montano the lie that Cassio is a habitual drunk. [186] A British TV adaptation by Andrew Davies, screened in 2001, re-set the story among senior officers of the Metropolitan Police. Earlier, their love is not afflicted by the excess of lust which may imbalance it. His rampant deception and cold-blooded plotting leads to misunderstanding, agony over love, and unnecessary death with no definite motivation. With him, it's a tense drama with a devastating conclusion. [211], The play has been a popular source for opera. [Scene Summary], After Othello has berated her about the handkerchief, Cassio appears and again asks Desdemona for her help in getting his job back, so that "I may again / Exist, and be a member of his love / Whom I with all the office of my heart / Entirely honour" (3.4.111-114). Alone with Iago, Roderigo, now in despair of winning Desdemona's love, threatens suicide, but Iago persuades him instead to sell his lands for ready cash and to pursue Desdemona to Cyprus. Alone with Iago, Roderigo, now in despair of winning Desdemona's love, threatens suicide, but Iago persuades him instead to sell his lands for ready cash and to pursue Desdemona to Cyprus. Othello will think that Cassio is laughing about his relationship with Desdemona, and "As he [Cassio] shall smile, Othello shall go mad" (4.1.100) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film" Cambridge University Press, 2000 pp.261-273 at p.269, in turn quoting Olivier's "On Acting". In the play, one gets to see the love of Desdemona and Othello and also the kind of love between Emilia and Iago. [70] And this urgency is underlined by the text: in particular's Iago's concern that if Othello compares notes with anyone else it will become clear that Iago is playing one character against another. Gay, Penny "Women and Shakespearean Performance" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) Othello proceeds to make Desdemona's life miserable and strikes her in front of visiting Venetian nobles. Othello: Plot Summary Considering the love in friendship, one can analyse the friendship between Emilia and Desdemona. He hates the Moor: often with reference to Othello's race. In this production, Othello is played by a white actor wearing make-up. Emilia sacrifices her life for her love. Printed by N. O. exposition of his dramatic art, little attention has been paid to this fact in respect to Othello. Othello Navigator: Themes: Brotherly Love great change in the relationships of these two men, and from this to trace the further development of the Eventually, Othello's jealousy makes him angry at Iago. Stage History of Othello Themes: Later in the same scene we see that brotherly love is sisterly, too. After his usual manner Shakespeare has made the opening conflict, that between Othello and lago, the chief conflict of the play. [154][155] All Night Long reframes the story in a jazz milieu. Shakespeare and Race: The Relationship Between Othello and Desdemona The UK's National Film and Television Archive holds over 25 20th-Century films containing performances, adaptations or extracts from Othello including Anson Dyer's 1920 animated Othello, 1921's Carnival and its 1932 remake, the 1922 German film The Moor, the 1936 Men Are Not Gods, 1941's East of Piccadilly, George Cukor's 1947 A Double Life, Orson Welles in Return to Glennascaul and Welles' own Othello, Sergei Yutkevich's Russian language Othello discussed below, two productions for BBC Television (including Jonathan Miller's for the BBC Television Shakespeare series, discussed below), Basil Dearden's All Night Long, Janet Suzman's 1988 South African TV Othello, a film of Trevor Nunn's RSC production with Willard White and Ian McKellen in the central roles, and True Identity - a crime caper in which Lenny Henry's character Miles lands the role of understudy to James Earl Jones (playing himself) in a production of Othello. He goes on to tell Othello that he should keep his eye on Desdemona because Venetian women can't be trusted, and because Desdemona fooled her father when she fell in love with him. [47], The character's own motives are never made clear, because Iago himself expresses too many motives:[48], These led Samuel Taylor Coleridge to refer to Iago's "motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity". this premium content, Members Only section of the site! The Problem of Time in Othello, Shakespeare and Race: The Relationship Between Othello and Desdemona. Greenhalgh, Susanne "Shakespeare Overheard: Performances, Adaptations, and Citations on Radio" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) (2.3.) The party arrives in Cyprus to find that a storm has destroyed the Turkish fleet. [165] The director saw his film as an opposite of Welles': where Welles began his film with a sequence from the end of the story, highlighting fate, Yutkevitch began with his Othello's back-story, thereby highlighting his characters' free will. 645-657 at p.648. [214], Othello was, with Antony and Cleopatra, one of the two plays which most influenced Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's jazz suite Such Sweet Thunder. (I. i. Othello Navigator: Themes: Jealousy she is a good, honorable woman. Othello is a Moorish military commander who was serving as a general of the Venetian army in defence of Cyprus against invasion by Ottoman Turks. The effect to modern audiences is (in the words of Daniel Rosenthal) "laughably over-the-top"[169] - in keeping with its nature as a filmed stage performance, rather than a performance designed for the screen. [184] The play was abridged to 30 minutes by Leon Garfield, and produced with cel animation for the TV series Shakespeare: The Animated Tales. For some During the scuffle, Iago comes from behind Cassio and badly cuts his leg. Othello was known as a noble [143], In 2017, Ben Naylor directed the play for the Pop-up Globe in Auckland, New Zealand, with Mori actor Te Kohe Tuhaka in the title role, Jasmine Blackborow as Desdemona and Haakon Smestad as Iago. Holland, Peter "Shakespeare Abbreviated" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) Iago refers to Othello not by his name but as 'the Moor', calling him 'the devil' (2.1.216) and 'defective' (2.1.220), a racist portrayal which makes Desdemona's unfaithfulness more believable to Roderigo. Written by William Shakespeare. When Ellen Terry played Desdemona she commented on how much Booth's style helped her: "It is difficult to preserve the simple, heroic blindness of Desdemona to the fact that her lord mistrusts her, if her lord is raving and stamping under her nose. [133], When Antony Sher played Iago for the RSC in 2004, the final moment of the play, before a snap blackout, was for him to look up and stare at the audience. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Cassio is a young and inexperienced soldier, whose high position is much resented by Iago. Power and Control in Othello, Notes on a Scandal and The Collector. They are needy, dependent and nagging. This prediction comes true. As Iago heads for the door, he talks to himself (though loud enough for Othello to hear), telling himself that he's a fool to be so loving and honest. [120] Margaret Webster's 1943 Broadway production was considered a theatrical landmark, with Robeson (in the words of Howard Barnes) "making the Moor the great and terrible figure of tragedy which he has so rarely been on the stage. This is known as blackface. [96] These cuts were not limited to removing violent, religious or sexual content, but extended on different occasions to removing references to eavesdropping, to Othello's fit, to Othello's tears, to the first 200 lines of the fourth act, or to the entire role of Bianca. [196], The Othello story became the rock opera Catch My Soul in 1968, depicting Othello as a charismatic religious cult leader, Desdemona as a naive convert, and Iago as a malcontent cult member who thinks himself to be Satan. 171172. The dramatist has almost completely changed the point of view of the whole story, by inventing an entirely new, and perhaps "[117], In 1930 Stanislavski directed a production of Othello for the Moscow Art Theatre, which was influential in the development of his system. Gillies, 2008, pp. Iago is very popular among the characters in the play. Badger, 1916. But this is a conflict between two men who had up to this time been the nearest and warmest friends, one a great general and the It is the most ideal strength of love where both are afraid of nothing and equally ready to face the world. Othello Character Development Use quote support in your "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. In our attempt to find the explanation of the tragedy in the hero, as assigned by the dramatist, we seem forced to say that now at last, when a crisis comes upon him, the great Moorish general, transplanted from the wilds of his African or Spanish home into the cultured and refined life of Venice, finds himself unable to bear honorably all the great responsibilities of his high position and his new life. Lectures on Othello: Othello's Jealousy this lago now declares his hatred of the pair, and intimates his willingness to join Roderigo in an attempt to harass Othello, and if not too late, to prevent his marriage. Roderigo unsuccessfully attacks Cassio in the street after Cassio leaves Bianca's lodgings, as Cassio wounds Roderigo. Eliot "Othello is anything but noble and endeavours to escape reality." F.R. [170] Subsequent critics have been less sympathetic to Olivier's performance than his contemporary audience had been, tending to read it as racist. [Scene Summary]. [36], In contrast, Emilia revolts against misogyny, defying her husband Iago's demands three times in the final scene. Religious objections to theatre led them to perform Othello as a series of "moral dialogues" at Rhode Island in 1761. In the play, one gets to see the love of Desdemona and Othello and also the kind of love between Emilia and Iago. [202], One of the first full-length plays to be released on vinyl was the Broadway production starring Paul Robeson, Jos Ferrer and Uta Hagen, issued in 1944. With no reason that he dare give, he appoints a wholly inexperienced man in preference to a tried and proven soldier who had fought under his own eyes, "At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds Christen'd and heathen." "Shakespeare in North America" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) [Scene Summary], Lodovico, who has come to deliver messages from the Venetian Senate, inquires about Cassio and learns that Cassio has fallen out of favor with Othello. Othello - Act 2, scene 3 | Folger Shakespeare Library This leads to them fighting one another and Montano being injured. "Oxford Shakespeare Topics: Shakespeare in the Theatre An Anthology of Criticism", Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. In response, Iago jokes, "If thou dost, I shall never love thee after" (1.3.306). [111] His conception of the role was of a barbarian with savage and passionate instincts concealed by a thick veneer of civilisation. [3] It may also be that the Quarto was cut in the printing house to meet a fixed number of pages. Othello confronts a sleeping Desdemona. In 2009, stand-up comedian Lenny Henry played Othello, produced by Northern Broadsides in collaboration with West Yorkshire Playhouse. PDF Love - Themes - Othello - AQA English Literature A-level "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. [Scene Summary]. Howard, Tony "Shakespeare's Cinematic Offshoots" in Jackson, Russell (ed.) Honigmann, 1997, pp.68-72, citing M R Ridley's Arden Second Series edition of the play, at p.69. A complete criticism of the assigned motive of lago, and an attempt at the elaboration of his real state of mind [1][2] The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 6 October 1621, by Thomas Walkley, and was first published in quarto format by him in 1622: Tragdy of Othello, The Moore of Venice. This is the play. line Act 1, scene 3 Scene 3 Synopsis: The duke and the senators discuss the movements of the Turkish fleet and conclude that its target is, indeed, Cyprus. [218], Bob Dylan's song Po' Boy features lyrics in which Desdemona turns the tables on Othello, borrowing the idea of using poisoned wine from the final act of Hamlet. Later in the scene, Iago drops a few hints that start to arouse Othello's jealousy, but craftily pretends that he doesn't want to say much, thus giving the impression that he knows a lot more than he is telling. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Introduction The play Othello portrays various stages of love and how it is bound to the nature of the individuals who experience it. ", Desmet, Chisty "Character Criticism" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen "Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.351-372 at p.357, citing. [166], Laurence Olivier said that the role of Othello demanded "enormously big"[167] acting, and he incorporated what The Spectator described as his "outsize, elaborate, overwhelming"[168] performance into the film of his National Theatre production. [160] And the text is heavily cut: Othello's first words are his speech to the Senators from Act 1 Scene 3. this premium content, Members Only section of the site! Lectures on Othello: Play Construction and the Suffering and Murder of Desdemona Which of these best summarizes Iago's view on women? [195] Indeed racist parodies were common in the aftermath of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK and, later, in the US, for example Maurice Dowling's 1834 Othello Travestie, George W H Griffin's 1870 Othello (Ethiopian Burlesque) and the anonymous Desdemonum An Ethiopian Burlesque of 1874 and Dar's de Money (Othello Burlesque) of 1880. Othello defends himself before the Duke of Venice, Brabantio's kinsmen Lodovico and Gratiano, and various senators. He was dissatisfied with his own performance, later recalling "I was able to reach nothing more than insane strain, spiritual and physical impotence, and the squeezing of tragic emotion out of myself. Lodovico apprehends both Iago and Othello for the murders of Roderigo, Emilia, and Desdemona, but Othello commits suicide. She denies it, saying that she "never loved Cassio / But with such general warranty of heaven / As I might love" (5.2.59-61). Taylor, Gary "Shakespeare Plays on Renaissance Stages" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) 645657, at p.649. "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film" Cambridge University Press, 2000 pp.135-159 at p.144. lago wishes at first only to plague Othello with flies, but the sick fool, Roderigo, stupidly hopes still to become the [81] The whole question is sometimes rejected as "academic nit-picking. Daileader, Celia B. Buhler, Stephen M., "Musical Shakespeares: Attending to Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago. 415435, at p.424. because Cassio is the opposite of Othello. Lois Whitney, "Did Shakespeare Know Leo Africanus? Created by Tenzin_x Terms in this set (6) Iago sees love as lust -Iago takes a reductive stance on the emotion of love, claiming it is 'merely a lust of the blood 'implying that it is a pretty fabrication like 'virtue' or 'reputation'. This he thinks will serve to revenge himself on Othello for both offences at one blow: lago's dominating personality quickly subjects Roderigo to his schemes, and makes him a willing agent in his revenge. "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. Iago is Othello's malevolent ensign, who maliciously stokes his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage. Othello: Q & A Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to th' first. Iago, Othello: A Character Analysis Of Iago - No Sweat Shakespeare Iago contradicts him, asserting that people can choose at will what they want to be. [206] The version of it thought to be most authentic, because it closely matches the lyric given by Shakespeare, is known as "The Poore Soule Sate Sighing"[207] and is one of the most performed pieces of early modern English music. [42], Symbolically the handkerchief represents the bond between Othello and Desdemona, and its loss the breaking of that bond: Othello blames Desdemona for its loss when in fact he casts it aside while she is trying to use it to help him. 20 Aug. 2009. 155173, at p.157. The similarity of the film's ending to the Columbine massacre, which happened while the film was being edited, delayed its release for over two years, until August 2001. [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse, 1622. [156] And Richard Eyre's Stage Beauty depicts a restoration performance of the play. [77][78], Shakespeare's source story in Cinthio takes place entirely in the long time scheme: Shakespeare appears to have introduced the shorter time scheme to increase dramatic tension, while also introducing moments where Iago's plot could fall apart - for example if Emilia had given an honest answer to Desdemona's "Where should I lose that handkerchief? Montano is shocked and says that Othello ought to be told, but Iago responds, "Not I, for this fair island: / I do love Cassio well; and would do much / To cure him of this evil" (2.3.142-144). [126] (The filmed version of this production is discussed under "Screen" below. [45][46], Iago's role is (in Robert Watson's words) "overdetermined in renaissance dramatic convention": he is partly the scheming Machiavel of Renaissance tragedy, partly the vengeful malcontent of revenge tragedy, partly the instigator of jealousy in domestic tragedy and partly the devil incarnate of morality plays. Whenever Roderigo grows desperate at his lack of success, Iago has to revive the gull's impossible hopes, as he does here. But Sher later wrote "I was always clear about it myself in my head this question always rang out:", "You saw what was happening - why didn't you stop it?"[134]. Othello - Act 4, scene 2 | Folger Shakespeare Library Desdemona. Othello, unlike Iago, really does love Cassio, but it's impossible to keep an officer who gets into a drunken brawl while on duty. Emilia reports Othello as saying, "But he protests he loves you / And needs no other suitor but his likings / To take the safest occasion by the front / To bring you in again" (3.1.47-50). Sanders, Julie "Shakespeare and Music Afterlives and Borrowings", Polity Press, 2007, p.103. Austin through Emilias Speech in Othello: Powerfully Feminist or Just Ironic? From this time forth I never will speak word. But Iago, though in close touch with Othello, protests he did not "dream of such a matter," implying that it was as much a surprise to him as to any one. the Moor in his new home in Venice. Enraged and hurt, Othello resolves to kill his wife and tells Iago to kill Cassio. Truly devoted to Othello, Cassio is extremely ashamed after being implicated in a drunken brawl on Cyprus and losing his place as lieutenant. [1] Desdemona is the only named character in Cinthio's tale, with his few other characters identified only as the "Moor", the "Squadron Leader", the "Ensign", and the "Ensign's Wife" (corresponding to the play's Othello, Cassio, Iago, and Emilia). [112] Konstantin Stanislavski admired, and was greatly influenced by, Salvini's Othello, which he saw in 1882. 852 lesson plans, and ad-free surfing in Iago also acts as a friend and his abuse of such a bond of love with Roderigo, Cassio and Othello show us his understanding of it and the capacity of a human being to misuse that. A few moments later, when Othello appears, Desdemona urges him to restore Cassio to his position because Cassio only made a stupid mistake and is "one that truly loves you" (3.3.48). The Theme of Romantic Love in Shakespeare's Othello An annotated list of relevant passages. [8], While supplying the source of the plot, the book offered nothing of the sense of place of Venice or Cyprus. 150174, at pp. Othello arrives and questions the men as to what happened. Boston R.G. Othello, but only to disturb his relations with Desdemona, and to put him into an agony of jealousy. At the end of the scene, when Othello kneels to vow revenge against Desdemona, Iago kneels with him and promises to do everything he can to help him. But it was fatal when one of the disposition of lago was involved, for it turned him at once into an enemy, not only to himself, but to all the The former governor Montano arrives with Gratiano and Iago. He says he will "Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me. [151] Carnival, Men Are Not Gods and A Double Life all feature the plot of an actor playing the title role in Shakespeare's Othello developing murderous jealousy for their Desdemonas. Iagos Love Language: Controlling Emotion through Words in Othello, Iago and Edmund: The Silence and Complexity of Evil, Inevitability and the Nature of Shakespeare's Tragedies, Witchy Women: Female Magic and Otherness in Western Literature, Honesty to Speak: Speech and Silence in "Othello", To Be in the World But Not of the World: Aye, There's the Rub. Two of the key characters are Cassio, Othello's loyal captain, and Roderigo, a man who is love with Othello's wife, Desdemona. [80], The discovery of a double time scheme has been ascribed to articles written by John Wilson in Blackwood's Magazine in 1849 and 1850, although references to the problem predate that. Othello - Act 3, scene 3 | Folger Shakespeare Library If Othello can be capable of such gross violation of all military rules and practices, lago sees that he can no longer trust Othello, and that all confidence between them has virtually ceased to exist, and no longer can he hope for the intimate relationships of former days [219], Aphra Behn's 1688 novel Oroonoko, and its subsequent dramatisation by Thomas Southerne, reset Othello's enslavement in the context of the then-current Atlantic triangle. other his most trusted officer. IS IAGO GAY? But the fact that he makes Othello a Moor, and so designates him throughout the Actually, Iago is playing that very trick, but Othello can't see it because he trusts Iago's love and honesty. a storm. At the end of the same scene, Iago exults in the cleverness of his plan to make Othello jealous. This . Othello does so, and Iago tells us his plan: he will ask Cassio about Bianca, Cassio's prostitute girlfriend, and because Bianca is so crazy in love with him, Cassio will laugh. Othello is convinced by this "proof" and vows to kill Desdemona; Iago agrees to kill Cassio. Iago professes much reluctance, but does provide the requested information, only leaving out the fact that he masterminded the whole thing. After he's been fired, Cassio is ashamed of himself, but Iago persuades him that what he's done isn't so bad and that he can get his job back by appealing to Desdemona. Iago:I have profess'd me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thydeserving with cables of perdurable toughness. [93][94], In Restoration theatres, it was common for Shakespeare's plays to be adapted or rewritten. [119] Robeson had previously played the role in London in 1930 with a cast including Peggy Ashcroft, Sybil Thorndike and Ralph Richardson, and would later take the role for the RSC in 1959 at Stratford-Upon-Avon. to continue. But all at once the "honest" lago becomes the mortal enemy of the "noble" Moor. "[79] or if Roderigo had chosen to denounce Iago. When Iago stabs her, she has nothing to say about him, or about anything except Desdemona. Othello explains that, while he was invited to Brabantio's home, Desdemona became enamoured of him for the sad and compelling stories he told of his life before Venice, not because of any witchcraft. Othellos devotion to Desdemona is supreme too but it is vulnerable and imprudent. What Iago says is damning to Cassio, but Othello thinks that because Iago is Cassio's friend, it could have been more damning. [87], The title role was originally played by Richard Burbage, whose eulogies reveal that he was admired in the role.