William Shakespeare's Othello

Intro

Othello is a play by William Shakespeare about jealousy, race, manipulation, and hate among many other themes written between 1600 and 1605 between the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the beginning of King James I reign. Fundamentally, it is a play about the danger of favourites- Othello, the play’s tragic hero, original favourite is his lieutenant but over the course of the play Iago is able to convince Othello that Cassio, his lieutenant, is having an affair with Othello’s wife Desdemona and Iago becomes Othello’s favourite. In the courts of both Elizabeth and James, the monarchs had favourites like Iago. But in Othello, Iago turns out to be untrustworthy. This could have acted as a warning to the monarch at the time against

Iago from Othello is a central character and understanding him is key to understanding Shakespeare's entire play, Othello - not least because he holds the longest part in the play: 1,070 lines. Othello is set in Venice in 1603, but the plot soon moves to Cyprus. Throughout the 1500s-1700s, Venice was prosperous Italian city and a symbol of law and civilisation and this can be seen through the early representation of Othello, who embodies law and civilisation. Venice also happens to be renowned for its courtesans. When the English thought about Venice, they often imagined it to be a city chock full of promiscuous women. This is also represented through the changes in Othello’s character, it’s quite a “coincidence”, given that Othello's plot hinges on Othello's suspicions about his wife's fidelity. Eventually, action moves to a military encampment in Cyprus, an island sacred to Venus, the goddess of love. On the island of love, away from civilization and rationality, all hell breaks loose and Iago is able to convince Othello that Desdemona has been cheating on him. Shakespeare uses the parallels between Othello and the place he is in, and the juxtaposition of Iago to both love, law, and civilisation, in Iago’s character to show the true malevolence of Iago and to further

In Othello, William Shakespeare uses certain recurring image clusters to present the character of Iago. One such example is the constant poison and disease imagery, portraying Iago as a poisoner and able to drip poison, or in this case his words, into other character’s heads. Fear of being poisoned was particularly prevalent at the time of Shakespeare because of the sheer easiness of it. In fact, there was even a very recent case that Shakespeare would have heard of- Rodrigo Lopez, Elizabeth I’s doctor, who was accused of trying to kill Elizabeth I. Disease could also have been used to reflect the supposed corruption of Venetian society and over the course of the play became a metaphor for the corruption of Othello’s mind by Iago. Even in the very first scene, when Iago is being introduced to the readers, Iago says “poison his delight”. This is even more significant as it is the first insight into Iago’s inherently evil nature and his cunning plan as he is instructing Roderigo in the first step of his plan to bring about the downfall of Othello. Even by Iago, Iago’s words are often presented as poisonous and corrosive, “I'll pour this pestilence into his ear”. Moreover, the use of the word “pestilence”, one of the four horsemen, brings yet another biblical translation to the original Christian audience- Iago isn’t just interested in bringing about