The duke and the senators discuss the movements of the Turkish fleet and conclude that its target is, indeed, Cyprus…. The Turkish fleet is destroyed in a storm, while Cassio and then Desdemona, Emilia, and Iago arrive safely at Cyprus….
Iago gets Cassio drunk, making it easy for Roderigo to provoke Cassio into a brawl, first with Roderigo, then with…. Cassio arrives with musicians to honor Othello and Desdemona. As Iago has recommended, Cassio asks Emilia to arrange a meeting…. Cassio leaves hastily in order to avoid speaking…. Desdemona, still actively seeking to have Cassio reinstated, is worried about the loss of her handkerchief.
Her anxiety about it…. Othello falls into an epileptic seizure. Othello, walking with Lodovico, orders Desdemona to go to bed and to dismiss Emilia. As Emilia helps Desdemona prepare for…. In the dark streets of Cyprus, Roderigo attacks Cassio, who, uninjured, stabs Roderigo. Iago then wounds Cassio in the leg…. Desdemona is asleep in bed when Othello enters. He kisses her and wakes her and once again charges her with….
I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely, but too well.
Here's my thing: Who am I supposed to root for? Who doesn't seem to know how to communicate with anyone? He gets so jealous and infuriated by conjecture about his wife of less than a week, I believe that he has a seizure. Then proceeds to treat said wife absolutely horribly? In her first speech, she defends her marriage to Othello then does nothing else. She seemed constantly determined to please everyone. Joking with Iago, defending Cassio, repeatedly proclaiming her love for Here's my thing: Who am I supposed to root for?
Joking with Iago, defending Cassio, repeatedly proclaiming her love for Othello-- she never had any motivation outside of the happiness of whoever she was with. Who doesn't have any personality outside of reacting the exact way Iago predicts he will?
The 14th century "nice-guy" who complains about being "friend-zoned" the entire play, and seems incapable of thinking for himself? I couldn't even root for the villain. Iago all-but admits he has no clear-cut motive, and he spends large amounts of time detracting from the plot to illustrate the reasons he hates women.
I guess I still prefer Shakespeare's comedies to his tragedies. While this clearly was a well-constructed situation and a true tragedy-- I just didn't care at all?
Also, my childish brain went to this every time I read Iago's name View all 4 comments. Jan 07, James rated it really liked it Shelves: 3-written-preth-century , 1-fiction. When it comes to writing a thorough review about this Shakespearean work of art, it could take weeks and days to craft perfection; however, I've already stumbled upon a few across Goodreads, and the world doesn't need another interpretation by a middle-aged white guy.
Nor does it need my opinion about what this says of a person's ethnic background, skin color or personality traits. But what the world does need to hear from me If you haven't, shame on you All sarcasm aside, my commentary on Othello is going to purely reflect my thoughts on three characters: Desdemona, Othello and Iago. Your non-classic classic triangle. A battle of good versus evil.
Issues of trust in a marriage. All themes that have been explored countless times in literature. What captivates my attention in this play, over years old, is the connection between Desdemona and Othello. A pure love tortured by all the games people play.
Desdemona is an enigma. She is a beautiful woman. A Greek goddess by any other means. She has it all. But she still falls prey to another's claws. We've all been there. Doubt will always pervade our minds. Sometimes it's just a momentary twitch. Others, you stalk the person until you are convinced chastity remains. He's strong and faithful.
He is powerful. But he is weak. As are we all. We allow ourselves to get into these positions, all because of experience and hearsay and tunnel vision. He is flawed, but he is every single one of us. Iago, of course, the villain. Perhaps he simply has his own needs and wants. Maybe he is trying to meet his own objectives in some strange manner.
But he is what so many future evil characters are based upon. Reading this story in play format would be hard by today's standards. But Shakespeare made it glisten during his time, and for me, it does so now, as well. I love this story for all the hidden gems. It has more complexities than most of his other works, though many would argue it's a basic story of love, betrayal, revenge and confusion.
At first glance, yes. But when you dig deeper, you'll find all the treasures. I promised short I've gone overboard. But hopefully your eyes are tearing from boredom. Read it please. And let's converse, friends. About Me For those new to me or my reviews I write A LOT. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. A nemesis who was so twisted by hate and even acknowledged that he had no good reason for wanting to destroy the hero.
Iago is the archetype for so many modern villains. View all 5 comments. Over breakfast this morning, Not and I invented a new game. It's called Insensitive! My first entry is below. Not will be posting hers in due course.
Othello Italian bitch with learning disability and daddy issues gets involved with mentally unstable armed forces type and becomes another victim of black-on-white domestic violence.
I'm not quite sure how many groups are referenced in an Insensitive! View all 48 comments. May 15, Duane rated it really liked it Shelves: book-challenge , english-calssics , rated-books , plays-theater , reviewed-books. I have now read Shakespeare's Sonnets and 9 of his 38 plays, mostly the better known ones, slowly working my way through his canon.
Othello was, compared to some of the others, an easy read. The themes running through the play are familiar ones with jealously being primary. But interracial prejudice and racism is what sets this play apart from the others, and probably defines it for most modern day readers. Dec 09, Emily May rated it it was amazing Shelves: classics , plays. Othello and Macbeth have long been competing for the title of my favourite Shakespeare play. I'm still not sure.
The protagonists are similar in that they both instigate their own downfall through fear and paranoia and jealousy - that's what makes their tales so wonderfully tragic. The fantasy aspect of Macbeth works in its favour, but then, it doesn't have Iago.
It's a difficult one. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners. He owns the stage. It is like Shakespeare scraped every rotten grain off the soiled shoe of humanity and mixed it with beautiful prose.
Iago isn't a monster because he is foreign to us, he is a perfect monster because he so closely resembles the worst in all of us. Wicked man. Wicked us. Othello, while not as interesting to me is still a great character. His decent into madness, his fits, his passion, his otherness, his race, etc. Enough to balance Iago, but not enough in the end to beat him. It seems like every couple steps society takes forward, we fall hard back at least one.
Shelves: r-r-rs , favorites , shakespeare. It turned out to be a good decision to start with the New Cambridge edition. I was considering this reading as an academic reading of the bard and it generally took me almost 3 hours of constant reading to get through one average sized pages scene! Even after reading every scene three times - once aloud and twice normally - I still never felt I had enough of it, and moved on to the next only du I decided to start my mission to read all 38 of The Complete Plays of Shakespeare with Othello.
Even after reading every scene three times - once aloud and twice normally - I still never felt I had enough of it, and moved on to the next only due to the suspense. What genius, what lovely wordplays and what sense of drama and malice. I can't believe I never had this joy in shakespeare till now. All in all, it took much longer than originally planned But then that is the drawback of reading annotated works - had to read every scene three times.
Anyway, these New Cambridge Editions are gold mines of information, will stick with them for the other plays also. I hope my mission will not take years to complete at this rate One closing statement: Iago is my favorite literary character after Don Quixote. Apr 30, E. View 1 comment. How does one begin to review a play by Shakespeare!?
Honestly, I haven't enough words in my vocabulary to do his work justice and find myself repeatedly blown away by both the depth of emotion I experience whilst reading him and overwhelmed at joining the generations whose long-lasting adoration hasn't allowed his name to become relegated to history. Whilst I have still only read a small selection of his work, I have found that Shakespeare has managed this ageless devotion due to the themes that How does one begin to review a play by Shakespeare!?
Whilst I have still only read a small selection of his work, I have found that Shakespeare has managed this ageless devotion due to the themes that permeate his writing. His plays are actually little about what the synopsis will tell you and are, instead, about the perpetual, driving machinations of the human psyche. Hence the timelessness. We are not such evolved creatures as we thought.
Apr 02, Khush rated it it was amazing. Great works survive because they remain relevant and timeless. They deal with those fundamental aspects of human life that do not change. In jealousy, Othello, the protagonist, kills his innocent wife, Desdemona. Iago, his crooked subordinate, poisons Othello's mind.
Gripped by jealousy and suspicion, Othello eventually strangles Desdemona. It is fascinating that right at the beginning of the play, Desdemona's father warns Othello that she will betray him. Othello, on h Great works survive because they remain relevant and timeless.
Othello, on his part, remarks it. Why does her father say so? And insists that Othello pay attention to it. Ironically, it is Othello who consumed by jealousy betrays her in the most brutal way possible. Usually, jealousy wrecks lives when there are additional more subdued and inscrutable problems lurking underneath. These problems are so close that one cannot even see them, and yet these are immensely crucial to the survival and well being of human lives, like air.
In more ordinary circumstances, lovers usually do not go that far— that one has to kill the other. They can always talk and resolve issues. However, when jealousy takes Frankenstein propositions, there is more going on than just jealousy. In the case of Othello and Desdemona, it could be 'race. In Iago, for instance, these forces play more ferocious and fierce dance.
Othello is resented for his cultural, and more importantly, visual difference even though race, at the time Othello was written, has not yet been institutionalized as we know of it today. It plays a decisive role, though. Race lurks in the play. On two occasions the word barbarian is used to describe Othello. In the last act, when Emilia, Desdemona's closest friend, castigates Othello for murdering his wife, she refers to his act in a color-coded way. Shakespeare, I suppose was not dealing with 'racism' as we understand it today, but as something that exists.
Something that human beings practice to guard and accentuate their self interests. The 'so called' others are created so that they can be exploited. In the context of the play, Iago resents Othello for his success, especially because of his visual difference. However, at the time, the tool of racism were not that developed and he did not have the vocabulary, the rhetoric, and tricks that he could use against Othello.
So he uses a somewhat different strategy to annihilate Othello. Ever since mankind has technologically progressed immensely, but when it comes to basic human self, concepts such as love, desire, anger, intolerance, jealousy, hatred; it seems like nothing has changed since Aristotle. Not only in regards to how we are as people on individual level, but even in the field of philosophical discipline that examines human proclivities.
On a serious note; it feels bizarre to award stars to Shakespeare. Mar 09, Jill rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Probably my second favorite Shakespeare play behind King Lear :. View all 3 comments. Jul 27, Paul Bryant rated it it was amazing Shelves: true-crime. Interpolation in the original text recently discovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England.
Believed to be by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. That handkerchief Did an Egyptian to my mother give; She was a charmer Interpolation in the original text recently discovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England. That handkerchief Did an Egyptian to my mother give; She was a charmer, and could almost read The thoughts of people: she told her, while she kept it, 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father Entirely to her love, but if she lost it Or made gift of it, my father's eye Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt After new fancies: she, dying, gave it me; And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, To give it her.
Iago reassures Roderigo that he hates Othello. As he waits for an opportunity to further his own self-interest, Iago only pretends to serve Othello. Brabanzio begins to take what he hears seriously and decides to search for his daughter. Seeing the success of his plan, Iago leaves Roderigo alone and goes to attend on Othello. As Iago departs, Brabanzio comes out of his house, furious that his daughter has left him.
Othello sees a party of men approaching, and Iago, thinking that Brabanzio and his followers have arrived, counsels Othello to retreat indoors. Othello stands his ground, but the party turns out to be Cassio and officers from the Venetian court. They bring Othello the message that he is wanted by the duke of Venice about a matter concerning Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea controlled by Venice. Brabanzio orders his men to attack and subdue Othello. Hearing that the duke has summoned Othello to the court, Brabanzio decides to bring his cause before the duke himself.
In the first place, Roderigo is clearly a pathetic and jealous character. The fact that Iago immediately paints himself as the villain also prepares us to be sympathetic to Othello. Iago explicitly delights in his villainy, always tipping the audience off about his plotting.
Once Brabanzio has been roused, Iago also tells Roderigo where he can meet Othello. In many ways, Iago is the driving force behind the plot, a playwright of sorts whose machinations inspire the action of the play.
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