OTHELLO

SHAKESPEARE

DID I LIKE IT?

• Yes
• Why?
• The main antagonist, Iago
• Renowned as the greatest villain of all time
• Possibly lead to inspiration for The Joker of Batman

PLACE

• Venice
• Cyprus

TIME

• Between 1489-1571

OTHELLO

• Black Moor, greatest general in Venice, protagonist
• Built, Tall, Muscular
• Intelligent, very honorable, courageous, daring, jealous
• Married to Desdemona, manipulated by Iago

IAGO

• Our protagonist, a white military officer under Othello
• Average build, not very muscular but not skinny, taller than average by a bit
• Evil, manipulative, paranoid, (gay jealousy?), incredibly sadistic
• Married to Emilia

BEGINNING SIT(CH)

• Iago stirs up trouble by telling Brabantio Desdemona has run off with Othello
• Iago, Roderigo (former suitor of Des), and Brabantio run off after the couple
• Iago enflames Brabantio, knowing he is a bigot, Brabantio claims Othello used spells on Des
• Othello tells them to bring Des here, placing his military service on the fact that she will say she truly loves him
• Des arrives, says she truly does love Othello, and they got married mutually, Othello goes to ward off invaders

MAIN EXTERNAL CONFLICT

• Iago is mad Cassio was promoted by Othello instead of him
• To resolve this, Iago inflicts as much indirect pain as he can on everyone
• He does this by manipulating the others, this causes people to murder, accuse, and steal
• He also causes them to do immoral things that they know are wrong through perusasion
• Once everyone finds out Iago is behind everything, he is killed in the end for his actions

IAGO'S PICKLE

• Iago is outraged that Othello promoted Cassio instead of him
• This doesn't seem to change his behavior, right at the start he is portrayed as evil
• Though he doesn't seem very changed, his plots do seem to become much worse
• Eventually escalating to Othello killing his own wife out of blind jealous rage
• He feels no remorse for his actions, none whatsoever, it feels creepy while reading

CONNECTIONS

• The title of the book is obviously connected to Othello
• But, the story follows Iago more than Othello, Iago seems like the main char
• The title could do with the tradegy that becomes of Othello, through Iago's ploys
• Relates to book's theme - Jealousy, which seems to be what Iago exploits the most
• Othello loves Des so much he gets jealous easily, Iago always uses this against him

QUOTE

• She, in spite of nature, of years, of country, credit, everything
• To fall in love with what she feared to look on!
• It is a judgment maimed and most imperfect
• That will confess perfection so could ever against all rules of nature
• Act I, Scene 3, Page 5, Lines 100-104 (Brabantio and Racism)