But in Much Ado, Hero’s fidelity is proved and Don John’s villainy is exposed, and we have a comedy. But Shakespeare’s Iago is more dangerous still: a human, with clearly human attributes and intellect, who nevertheless derives great pleasure from causing harm to others purely because … well, because it gives him pleasure.Ĭompare, in this connection, Iago’s role in Othello with that of the villainous Don John in the earlier comedy, Much Ado about Nothing (a play we have analysed here). Like Iago, Don John wants to wreck the (upcoming) marriage between Claudio and Hero, and sets about convincing Claudio that his bride-to-be cannot be trusted. In Shakespeare’s source material for the play, a novella by the Italian author Cinthio, Iago is straightforwardly evil and devilish, intent on destroying Othello’s life, and with a clear motive. We cannot be sure why he is doing what he is doing.īut this does not mean that he is not being driven by anything. Yet Shakespeare puts into Iago’s mouth several plausible ‘motives’ for wreaking the confusion and chaos that causes Othello’s downfall and Desdemona’s death, and in providing multiple motives, Iago emerges as ‘motiveless’, to use Coleridge’s famous description (Coleridge described Iago as being possessed of ‘ motiveless malignity’). If the first rule of creative writing class is ‘show don’t tell’, the second or third rule may well be ‘make your characters’ motivations clear’. Indeed, he goes out of his way to make Iago as inscrutable as possible.
And, as usual in Shakespeare, appearance and reality is well developed, with Iago’s manipulations.Second, Shakespeare doesn’t make Iago, the villain, someone whose motives we can understand. Love is examined and there is a sense in which the play can be seen as a tragic romance.
Other themes are deception – Iago uses countless deceptions of all the other characters and the theme is comprehensively explored. The gullibility of Othello as a victim of Othello’s manipulation is another major theme. Themes in Othello: The play is concerned with jealousy, which is the main theme. Other characters are Roderigo, a Venetian who is in love with Desdemona and follows the army to Cyprus Iago’s wife Emilia Bianca, a prostitute in love with Cassio Gratiano, Brabantio’s brother Lodovico, a kinsman of Brabantio, and Montano, the governor of Cyprus. Othello’s standard-bearer, Iago, is a bitter officer who resents being overlooked for promotion in favour of another officer, Cassio, and vows revenge, both on Cassio and Othello. He falls in love with Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, an influential senator, and secretly marries her. Othello Characters: Othello is a black general in the army of the Duke of Venice. Genre classification: Othello is regarded as a tragedy.
The action moves to Cyprus, an unruly place with rough inhabitants, drunks and prostitutes, where crime and violence are the norm. The Othello play begins in Venice, Italy where there is a wealthy, well ordered and well-behaved community, controlled by strong laws and established conventions.
Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order.
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