Study+Guide+for+Othello


 * Othello Study Guide**




 * Main Characters:**
 * Othello** ˇ General in the Venice Military & Married to Desdemona
 * Iago** ˇ Ensign in the Venice Military & A Villain
 * Cassio** ˇ An Honorable Lieutenant in the Military Service of Venice
 * Desdemona** ˇ Wife of Othello & Daughter of Barbantio
 * Emilia** ˇ Lady-in-Waiting to Desdemona, Married to Iago
 * Montano** ˇ Governor of Cypress before Othello
 * Roderigo** ˇ A Gentlemen gulled by Iago
 * Bianca** ˇ A Courtesan
 * Barbantio** ˇ Senator in Venice Government & Father of Desdemona
 * Lodovico** ˇ Kinsmen to Barbantio
 * Duke of Venice**


 * Plot Summary:**

In Venice, Iago and Roderigo are having a heated discussion about the recent secret marriage of Othello and Desdemona. Iago is especially mad that he was passed over for a much- deserved promotion in favor of Michel Cassio, an inferior soldier. They go off to tell Barbantio, Desdemona's father and Venetian senator, of his daughter's treachery. He is upset at the news and orders Othello be brought before the Duke for questioning. Before the Duke, Othello explains that he won Desdemona through stories of his daring exploits; Desdemona enters and confirms that she loves Othello deeply. The Duke clears Othello of any wrongdoing. He then sends Othello, who is one of his best generals, to the island of Cypress, because a Turkish fleet is advancing to attack the island.
 * Act I**

On Cypress, news comes to Othello and his party that the Turkish fleet has sunk in a recent storm. Everyone is overjoyed and heads off to celebrate. Iago talks with Roderigo, and convinces him that Desdemona's love for Othello will soon fade. Thus the only thing standing in the way of Roderigo wooing Desdemona is Cassio. Iago tells Roderigo that if he were to get Cassio into a fight then Othello would fire Cassio, leaving him with time to court Desdemona.
 * Act II**

At the party, Iago begins pushing wine at Cassio, who has no head for drinking. After much protesting, Cassio finally has a few. He gets very drunk, very quickly. He heads outside to get some fresh air. No sooner is he gone than a shout is heard outside. Roderigo runs in, pursued by Cassio. Montano, governor of Cypress, tries to stop the combatants, but is wounded by Cassio as Roderigo runs off. Othello enters and Iago recounts the whole tale. Othello strips Cassio of command, then helps Montano to the doctor. Cassio, distraught over the fight and its outcome, begs Iago for advice. Iago tells him to seek out Desdemona and get her to speak to Othello on his behalf.

Cassio pleads with Desdemona to help him get his position back. Iago and Othello, who have been checking the battlements, enter just as Cassio leaves. Iago says, "I like not that," and begins to allude to an affair between Desdemona and Cassio. Iago is vague enough that Othello cannot deny his words.
 * Act III**

When Desdemona comes to call Othello to dinner, he says he has a headache. Desdemona brings out a handkerchief, a present from Othello which she holds dear, to try to help her husband. Othello knocks it from her hand as his jealousy begins to take hold. After they exit, Iagoˆs wife Emilia enters. She picks up the handkerchief saying that Iago has asked her many times to steal it. When he gives it to Iago, he tells her to speak to no one of this. Once she is gone, he tells the audience that he is going to plant it on Cassio. Othello comes in, demanding proof of Desdemonaˆs unfaithfulness. Iago tells him that he has seen a handkerchief in Cassio's hand that looks like the one that Othello gave to Desdemona. Othello, thinking Iago's intentions to be honest, believes every word.

Othello sets off to find Desdemona. When he does he demands to see the handkerchief. When Desdemona can't produce it, Othello says that it is enchanted. That it will keep a lover faithful as long as they have it, but if it is lost or given away, all bets are off. When she still can't produce the handkerchief, Othello takes it as proof that Desdemona is cheating on him.

The very end of the act has Cassio entering talking to Bianca, a prostitute with whom he has a relationship. He gives her a handkerchief that he found in his room and asks her to copy its pattern for him. Bianca asks if it if from another woman; Cassio says he doesn’t know where it came from.

Othello doesn’t want to believe that Desdemona is cheating on him and demands more proof of Iago. Iago has Othello hide nearby as Cassio enters. Iago questions him about his love for Bianca in such a way that Othello overhears only enough to believe that they are talking about Desdemona. Once Cassio leaves, Othello vows that he will kill both Cassio and Desdemona. Iago, ever the true friend, pledges to help Othello in every way. Iago goes to Roderigo and says that all Roderigo has to do to win Desdemona is to kill Cassio. Roderigo resists at first, but eventually goes along with Iago, warily. Othello accuses Desdemona openly of her affair. She denies it, of course. Othello is too far along to believe anything and tells her to go to bed and await him there. He goes out for a walk.
 * Act IV**

Outside the tavern where Bianca is staying, Roderigo attacks Cassio. However, he is not very good with a sword, and Cassio wounds him. Iago darts out from the shadows, stabs Cassio in the leg, and flees before he is seen. Cassio yells out in pain. Othello, a few streets over hears this and believes that Iago has killed Cassio, he heads off to Desdemona's bed.
 * Act V**

Iago runs to Cassioˆs side, saying he came running at the sound of Cassio's yelling. Cassio points out Roderigo as one who attacked him, Iago quickly stabs Roderigo, killing him. Emilia enters and asks what happened. Iago sends her to Desdemona. Othello enters sleeping Desdemonaˆs bedchamber. She awakes and Othello questions her as to any unconfessed sins she may still have. She says she has none. Othello accuses her of adultery again, and again she denies it. Because she wouldn’t confess to the affair, Othello kills her by smothering her with a pillow. Emilia enters and after seeing what has been done, tells Othello that her husband has been leading him astray. Then she begins calling out for help because Othello has killed Desdemona. Iago, Montano, Cassio, and Lodovico, a politician from Venice, enter. Emilia rats out Iago and Othello tries to kill him but is restrained. Iago uses the chance to stabs Emilia, killing her. Othello tries to kill Iago again and only wounds him. Rather than bee taken back to Venice for a trial, Othello decides it would be better if he killed himself, and does so. He dies next to Desdemona after a last kiss.

Lodovico gives away Othello's possessions, gives governorship of Cypress to Montano, and sentences Iago to death. He then says that he is going back to Venice with this unhappy news.

While we may like to believe that this is an original story created by Shakespeare, it is not. The source for this play is an Italian prose work written by Giovanni Cinthio. This book, called Hecatommithi, was published in 1565. In his text, Shakespeare compresses time (remember that the entire play takes place in about 3 nights). Shakespeare also changes some of the details of the story: Othello and Iago kill Desdemona in Cinthio's text; Othello is not a nobleman; Iago loves Desdemona, and this provokes his jealousy; Desdemona loves Cassio; Othello is banished from Venice and later killed by one of Desdemona's kinsmen. Shakespeare's tale is also different because his story is about the tragic downfall of a heroic man blinded by jealousy. Cinthio's Moor is a story designed to discourage Italian women from marrying men of different ethnic origin.
 * Shakespeare and his Sources:**

The King’s Men first performed Othello in 1604. The first publication of the play was in 1622, six years after Shakespeare's death, in a quarto edition. This text is also the basis for the First Folio edition, which corrected some of the errors found in the quarto edition.
 * Publication History:**

Othello is a play of strong dualities, opposites that co-exist. The characters in the play do not explore the ambiguous, gray areas of life; they tend to divide things into black and white, beginning with the title character. Othello is a black man living in a white manˆs world. Historically, the color black has often been associated with evil, while the color white has often been associated with good, yet in this play, the black Othello is the hero, while the white Iago is the villain. The play inhabits a world in which it is difficult to know what is truth and what is a lie. A world where seeming friends may in fact be dire enemies. A world where acts of honor may destroy the innocent. Other elements of this duality are explored more fully below. As you watch the play, watch for these, and other, fascinating opposites.
 * THEMES**:
 * Duality**

In the play Othello, Iago weaves a web of innuendo and suggestion to entrap and confuse Othello. Likewise, Shakespeare, in writing Othello, carefully doles out bits and pieces of information in such a manner that the audience can easily be misled. And again it is Iago who often feeds us information, which may or may not be true. For example, when Othello falls into a trance, Iago claims it is an epileptic seizure, and that it has happened before. Should we believe this diagnosis? It is Iago who describes Bianca as a whore, although we see nothing that necessarily proves that assertion. The Othello we meet in the second scene of the play is completely unlike the Othello described in the first scene of the play. In the third scene, the Senators receive letters about the Turkish fleet that contradict each other. Throughout the play, Shakespeare warns us not to believe everything we hear.
 * Who Can You Trust?**

The concept of time is not always what it seems to be in Othello. On the surface, the story seems to happen very quickly. The action in Venice plays almost in real time, less than an hour from the time Brabantio is awakened to the end of the Senate meeting. In Cyprus, it seems that barely 24 hours pass: the ships arrive late in the day; Cassio is demoted late that night; Iago arouses Othelloˆs jealousy the next morning; Lodovico arrives that afternoon; and by late that night the play is ended. Yet a closer examination reveals discrepancies in this schedule. More than one character makes comments that suggest they have been in Cyprus for quite some time. Bianca berates Cassio for avoiding her for a week. Emilia notes that Iago has asked her to steal Desdemonaˆs handkerchief "a hundred times." And certainly it would take days, if not weeks, for the news of the Turks' defeat to reach Venice and for Lodovico to then sail to Cyprus. This "double time" scheme has fascinated scholars for centuries. Perhaps Shakespeare wished to compress the story to heighten the drama, with little care for the loss of logic. Perhaps he played with the concept of time to suggest the gradual dissolution of Othelloˆs reason. Perhaps he wanted certain elements of the play itself to be as untrustworthy as Iago. Whatever his reasoning, in Othello Shakespeare expands and contracts both the clock and the calendar to suit his own needs.
 * Time**

Othello is a Moor in Venice, a black man in a world of white men. At the time Shakespeare wrote the play, Queen Elizabeth was negotiating with the Moors to fight against the Spanish. Moorish ambassadors commanded a certain amount of respect in London. But when the black population grew uncomfortably large, white Englishmen had no qualms about rounding them up and shipping them off, just as they did Jews and other minorities. Even though Othello is a highly respected and honored public figure, he is not immune to the common racial prejudices of Shakespeareˆs day. A person who is thwarted in his desires often lashes out at those who are perceived to be different, "the other." Angered at being passed over for promotion, Iago not only disparages Othelloˆs color, he notes that Cassio is a Florentine, an out-of-towner. Other characters make assumptions about Othello based on racial stereotypes, assumptions that turn out to be false. Once again, Shakespeare warns us not to accept things at face value.
 * Racism, Hatred Of "The Other"**

Unlike other Shakespearean tragedies, whose central issue is often concerned with the royal line of succession, who will be the next king? Othello focuses on a complex web of interpersonal relationships. The play begins with an elopement and an angry father. In the midst of a national emergency, the invasion of the Turkish fleet, the Venetian Senate stops and deals first with this family matter before returning to affairs of state.
 * Relationships**

That Desdemona accompanies her husband literally to the front lines of battle is extraordinary, to say the least. Remember, Cyprus is a frontier outpost, an army garrison. It is a fortress filled with soldiers, men, and the presence of women such as Desdemona and Emilia must be unusual in the extreme. It is not surprising that tensions arise around these two women who are, frankly, in a place where they donˆt belong. Remember, also, that with the Turkish fleet drowned in the storm, the war is over even before it begins. Now Cyprus is a fort full of soldiers primed for battle, with nothing to do. Again, it is not surprising that trouble breeds in such a ripe atmosphere. The plot of Othello becomes a succession of secret conversations, misunderstandings, innuendos, and trifles as seemingly insignificant as who gives a handkerchief to whom. Yet from these trifles, which are not matters for a king or a prince, but rather the stuff of everyday life, Shakespeare creates a powerful and affecting tragedy.

In Shakespeare's day, the Italian city-state of Venice was seen as the epitome of an ordered, rational republic. Its government, with a ruling Duke and a body Senators, was similar to England's government of Queen and Parliament. The beauty of Veniceˆs architecture and the romance of its canals were unequalled in the world. In many ways, proud England saw Venice as a "sister", an equal in the world.
 * VENICE & CYPRESS:**
 * Venice**

But there were differences. England was a Protestant nation, while Venice was Catholic. (The loss of the Turkish fleet in Othello would have reminded London audiences of their defeat of the [Catholic] Spanish Armada less than twenty years earlier.) Venice also had a reputation as a pleasure center, rather like Las Vegas today. There was much gambling. Prostitution was condoned on the theory that it protected the virginity of the daughters of wealth. Venetian businessmen had a reputation for ruthless greed.

For centuries, Cyprus was the last outpost of western civilization, important both strategically and symbolically for its protection of trade routes. Beyond Cyprus to the east was the Turkish Empire. At the time Othello was written, just after 1600, white, Christian, Europe defined itself in opposition to the brown, Moslem, Turkish Empire. The Turks were hated and feared in England. The Turkish army had a reputation for fierceness, cruelty, and valor, and they were felt as a genuine threat should there be a shift in the balance of power.
 * Cyprus**

In 1571, after years of Venetian rule, Cyprus had fallen to the Turks. Shakespeare's audience, watching Othello, would have seen the play, even though it is fictional, in the context of that recent historic event (much as an audience today would view a fictional story set during the fall of Saigon). The tragic end of Othello, governor of Cyprus, would have repercussions beyond its affect on the lives of the characters in the play. Due to the strategic importance of Cyprus and the precariousness of peace, these are events that would have global implications.


 * OTHELLO Reading Questions**


 * Act One**

1. What is Iago's complaint in Scene I? 2. Who is Brabantio, and why do Iago and Roderigo awaken him in the middle of the night? 3. What is Roderigo’s previous relationship with Brabantio and Desdemona? What is Brabantio's reaction to Othello's marriage to Desdemona? 4. Why does the Duke send for Othello? 5. What danger is Cyprus facing? 6. Brabantio complains to the Duke about Othello's marriage to Desdemona. After listening to both sides of the story, what is the Duke's reply? 7. What is Roderigo's complaint, and what is Iago's reply to it? 8. Who is Othello, and why is he so respected by the Duke? 9. What warning does Brabantio give to Othello? 10. What does Iago say must happen to Desdemona? 11. Why does Iago “hate the Moor”?


 * Act Two**

1. Where are we as Act 2 begins? What is the situation at sea? 2. What has happened to the Turkish fleet? 3. Which ship from Venice arrives first? 4. Which ship arrives second? Why is it surprising that it arrives before Othello’s? 5. What does the discussion between Desdemona and Emilia tell us about their relationship? 6. Who is Emilia? 7. How does Cassio greet Desdemona and Emilia? 8. Why does Iago want Roderigo to anger Cassio? 9. What is the purpose of Iago's plan? 10. What keeps Roderigo from seeing the truth instead of Iago’s lies? 11. What emotion seems to be governing Iago’s thoughts and actions? 12. How does Iago see Desdemona, and how does Cassio see Desdemona? 13. Why does Iago want Cassio to drink more wine? 14. What lie does Iago tell Montano about Cassio? 15. Why does Othello strip Cassio of his rank? 16. Why does Iago want Cassio to ask Desdemona for help in restoring Othello's faith in Cassio? 17. How does Iago get back in Othello’s good graces? 18. What is Roderigo’s complaint, and how does Iago answer it?


 * Act Three**

1. Why does Cassio bring musicians? What is Othello’s response to them? 2. What does Emilia tell Cassio that Desdemona is already doing for him? 3. What responses do Iago and Othello have to seeing Cassio leave Desdemona? 4. How successfully does Desdemona plead for Cassio? What is Othello's response to Desdemona as she leaves? 5. Why doesn't Iago simply tell Othello right away that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair? 6. What thing does Emilia find and give to Iago? What does Iago intend to do with it? 7. What is Iago's reply when Othello demanded proof of his wife's disloyalty? 8. What does Othello decide and command at the end of Scene 3 ? 9. What is Emilia's relationship with Iago? Desdemona? 10. What, according to Othello, is the history of the handkerchief 11. What is Emilia's view of men? 12. Who is Bianca? What is her relationship to Cassio? What does he ask her to do? What is her emotional response? How does Cassio get the handkerchief? 13. Who had the handkerchief at the end of Act 3? Why?


 * Act Four**

1. After Iago lied and told Othello that Cassio confessed going to bed with Desdemona, what advice does he give the overwhelmed Othello? 2. What happens to Othello in Scene 1? How does Iago respond? 3. How does Iago trick Othello into thinking Cassio is gloating and bragging about his affair with Desdemona? 4. Why is Bianca angry with Cassio? 5. How does Bianca's return with the handkerchief help Iago? 6. Why does Othello hit Desdemona? 7. Who is Lodovico, and why has he come to Venice? 8. What is Lodovico's reaction to Othello's behavior towards Desdemona? How does Iago later explain Othello's behavior to Lodovico? 9. Why does Othello ask Emilia about Cassio's affair with Desdemona, and what is her reply? 10. To whom does Desdemona turn for help after Othello calls her a strumpet? 11. Why does Iago tell Rodriego to kill Cassio? Why does Roderigo consent to think about it? 12. If Roderigo kills Iago, what promise has Iago taken care of?


 * Act Five**

1. How would Iago gain from Roderigo's death? Cassio's? 2. What happens when Roderigo attacks Cassio? Who actually wounds Cassio? 3. What does Othello assume has happened? Is he correct? 4. Who will get the blame for the attack on Cassio if Iago has his way? 5. What justification does Othello try to give the murder of Desdemona in Scene 2? 6. How does Othello kill Desdemona? What interruption occurs while he is doing it? 7. Whom does Desdemona blame for her death? Does Emilia believe her? 8. What is Emilio’s reaction when Othello tells her that Iago has revealed Desdemona's affair with Cassio to him? 9. Why does Othello attack Iago? 10. What is Othello’s reaction to having his sword taken away? 11. How does Othello use the second sword his finds in the room? 12. How do Roderigo’s pockets conveniently help to clarify much of what has happened? 13. What happens to Othello, Iago and Cassio in the end? Who gets Othello’s estate? Why?