{"id":4398,"date":"2024-11-03T18:57:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T18:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/?p=4398"},"modified":"2025-03-29T17:16:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T17:16:33","slug":"othello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/2024\/11\/03\/othello\/","title":{"rendered":"Othello"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

November 2024<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading as part of the Fall 2024 Shakespeare course \u2014 see general notes for more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although its a famous play, and does indeed contain some striking things — particularly Iago’s manipulation of Othello, and also the use of the hankerchief as symbol of fidelity and betrayal – I was not that keen on this play. Give me some comedy, or at least a little more magic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Precis of the play<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Othello, a famous general fighting for Venice, has just married Desdemona, to the dismay of her father. Othello is black, and an outsider, and knows little of the customs or society of Venice \u2013 but he is valued due to his military prowess, especially as the Turks seem about to attack. He has chosen the polished and bookish Cassio as his lieutenant, much to the distress and anger of Iago, who has spent his life in the field and believes he has earned the postion. Iago decides to get revenge, and aims to destroy Cassio and Desdemona and, through her, Othello. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this, the play unfolds in a straightforward way. Iago subtly raises questions about Desdemona\u2019s faithfulness \u2013 all the while pretending that he is reluctant to speak and is unsure of the truth of what he is saying \u2013 and in a famous scene transforms Othello\u2019s trust of Desdemona into suspicion, suggesting that she is having an affair with Cassio. Iago is one of Shakespeare\u2019s most famous villians \u2013 Coleridge referred to him as having \u201cmotiveless malignity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Othello wants visible proof, and here Desdemona\u2019s hankerchief comes into play. It was her first gift from Othello, and it was woven by a fortune teller with magical properties. Iago secrets Desdemona\u2019s hankerchief (which she had lost and Emilia found and given to Iago) in Cassio\u2019s quarters. Cassio finds the hankerchief and gives it to the courtesian Bianca to copy \u2013 Othello watches this from a distance, and believes it proof of Desdemona\u2019s infidelity. Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio, and Othello strangles Desdemona. When it is revealed that Desdemona was innocent, Othello kills himself.<\/p>\n

Views: 24<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2024 Reading as part of the Fall 2024 Shakespeare course \u2014 see general notes for more. Although its a famous play, and does indeed contain some striking things — particularly Iago’s manipulation of Othello, and also the use of the hankerchief as symbol of fidelity and betrayal – I was not that keen on this … Continue reading Othello<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,47,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-notes","category-fiction","category-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4398"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4571,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4398\/revisions\/4571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}