Othello

Second lecture

The “Othello music” cont.• See his “love aria” to Desdemona when they

meet on Cyprus: II, 1, 182ff. • And Iago’s reply: “But I’ll set down the pegs that

make this music.”• And the poetry of his soldiering in Othello’s

farewell to his profession: III, 3, 347ff. • Or 453, where the beauty of the lines gives a

kind of horror to his vow of constancy in his “bloody thoughts.”

• The effect of giving Othello such eloquence? • And what happens to the “Othello music” at IV,

1, 35ff?

Othello and Desdemona• What to make of their love/marriage?• “She loved me for the dangers I had passed.”• “And I loved her that she did pity them.”• And what she says at I, 3, 248-254.• “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind.” • Doesn’t cancel out the sexual attraction, but does it

make it more complex, more brainy?• Do we doubt the potent character of their love?• Her boldness in eloping with him is clearly a factor in our

judgment of that.• She’s taking an immense chance; clearly no meek

Venetian girl. • But each of these elements is challenged -- by Iago’s

formulations. • So how do we judge the matter?

“Motiveless malignancy”• Coleridge’s description of Iago.• We noted that Shakespeare subtracted motivation from

his source in Giraldi Cintio.• Iago does of course express some motivation:• His being passed over for the position of lieutenant, the

first thing he mentions.• In soliloquy at I, 3, he says “And it is thought abroad that

‘twixt my sheets/ He has done my office.” • Then admits he has no idea if it’s true, but will act as if

it’s true “for mere suspicion.”• But how likely does it seem that Othello has been having

an affair with Emilia? • No one else ever mentions it.• How much of this “motivation” seems plausible or

sufficient for what Iago does?

“Motiveless malignancy” cont. • Besides Othello and Desdemona, we see Iago

destroying Roderigo, killing Emilia, ruining Cassio’s reputation.

• Others? Poisoning Brabantio’s mind. Mocking Bianca.• He’s the spokesman for and the purveyor of the racism

against Othello we saw in the first scene. • And he turns things inside out: tells Roderigo that

Desdemona fell in love with Othello “for bragging and telling her fantastical lies” (II, 2, 222).

• And he cannot find the words to praise a good woman – Desdemona? – in the little game he plays with her and Emilia at II, 1, 148ff.

• His language: the opposite of the “Othello music.”• Interestingly, Sh. seems uninterested in Iago’s

motivation. Iago seems to represent a sort of evil pure and simple.

Who/what is Iago?• At end, when Iago is brought back, under arrest, Othello says, “I

look down towards his feet – but that’s a fable./ If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee” (V, 2, 286f)

• And he tries, but doesn’t kill him: “I bleed, sir, but not killed.”• Othello calls him a “demidevil” who has ensnared his soul and body.• But Iago refuses to answer and retreats into silence: “From this time

forth I will never speak word” (l. 304)• Obviously Iago is not the devil. • But is there a kind of negation in him?• Back to I, 1: “It is as sure as you are Roderigo,/ Were I the Moor, I

would not be Iago.” • And “I am not what I am” (l. 64).• Which makes no sense . . .• . . . but expresses a kind of nothingness in him. • There was a theory of evil that the renaissance inherited from

medieval philosophy that called evil the “privation of good,” the total lack of goodness.

• At one level Iago seems to be the human privation of goodness, a person of total cynicism, total malevolence.

Iago as “Vice”• We notice that Iago is the character who most often

speaks in soliloquy (end of I, 1; end of II, 1; II, 3, 324ff, and 369ff; III, 3, 321-329; IV, 1, 44-47 (perhaps an aside?), 93-99), V, 1, 11-22.

• By comparison, Othello has only a couple of soliloquies, only one major one (V, 2, 1-22).

• But more than just soliloquies, Iago’s speeches take the audience into his confidence.

• He seems to engage the audience at II, 3, 324, as if he’s reading our minds . . .

• . . . and making us in a sense complicit in what he’s doing.

• Clips of Branagh and of Bob Hoskins. • Which followed the tradition of the Vice character in the

allegorical morality plays that were a part of the theater in England from the 15th century to the latter half of the 16th century.

The Vice• In the morality plays, the Vice was a character who came

onstage to tempt the central character. • Usually quite funny – lots of capering about, sometimes

singing, lots of joking, scatalogical humor. • And most often in disguise as far as the characters

onstage are concerned.• Always established a close relationship with the

audience, often addressing audience directly. • Only the audience can see what the Vice is doing. • Purpose of the Vice is to corrupt the main character, to

draw him (yes, always him) to destruction, to damnation. • The moralities were thus a kind of psychomachia, that is,

a battle for the soul.• Sometimes the Virtue character saved the hero,

sometimes the Vice drew him to ruin, sometimes to death and damnation.

Iago and Cassio• What do we make of Cassio? • Iago tells us he’s a Florentine, and so also something of

an outsider to Venice. • Full of “courtesy,” or courtliness. • Somewhat idealizing? See II, 1, 74ff. • See how Iago tries to draw Cassio to possible lust for

Desdemona: II, 3, 14ff.• Which Cassio parries and rejects.• And Iago immediately shifts his ground.• And tempts Cassio to drunkenness. • This time successfully – and enables us to see the non-

courtly side of Cassio.• It becomes a miniature morality play . . .• . . . on the dangers and result of drunkenness. • And Cassio’s career and reputation appear ruined. • And so Iago has performed, in miniature, the role of the

Vice.

Iago and Othello• Iago’s temptation of Othello: one long scene, III, 3:

Othello’s “psychomachia,” the contest for his soul.• Which implicates theater itself, since theater is a matter

of appearances. • Iago aims at a totalizing of Othello’s understanding,

experience. • His entire experience of love is falsified and overturned.• Which Iago accomplishes – except for one moment: • III, 3, 277: “Look where she comes./ If she be false, O

then heaven mocks itself./ I’ll not believe’t!”• For this one moment, Othello seems poised on the

fulcrum of good and evil, heaven and hell. • And the next action seems decisive – and occurs without

Iago.

The handkerchief• At III, 3, 284, Othello performs an act of Iago-like

fantasy: he pretends a “pain” on his forehead, that is, that he has grown a cuckhold’s horns.

• Which Desdemona, innocent of his fantasy, tries to touch, to bind with her handkerchief –

• A figure of health-giving love, trying to touch his head/mind.

• And Othello’s hand, pushes hers away, causing the handkerchief to fall.

• And he forbids her to pick it up. • Thus forbidding her to touch his head and mind

and insuring that the handkerchief will become a malevolent thing.

• This is a moment at the dead center of the play.

Othello + Iago• Othello asks for “proof” – is “proof” of goodness/honesty

ever possible? (III, 3, 383ff.)• Rather than “proof,” Iago feeds him with only more

fantasy:• The fantasy image of Desdemona’s sexual relation with

Cassio and the handkerchief as love token.• Which Othello accepts without question. • And vows himself to Iago’s love.• Which Iago accepts in what appears a mock marriage

vow: Othello kneels at l. 460.• And Iago too kneels and vows himself to Othello.• “Now thou art my lieutenant.”• And Iago replies, “I am thine own forever.”• The “marriage” essentially replaces and cancels

Othello’s marriage to Desdemona.

The handkerchief again• At III, 4, Othello makes of the handkerchief a fetish.• That is, an object of superstition, of conjuration. • Instead of a gift of love, a neutral object that takes its

meaning from the act of gift,• It becomes an object with alleged intrinsic power.• “There’s magic in the web of it.” • A 200-year-old sibyl wove it of silk from holy silk worms,

and died it in “mummy” from maidens’ hearts. • Its effect is to compel love (which cannot be

compelled?).• Desdemona recoils in horror from what Othello has now

made of the handkerchief: “Then would to God I had never seen’t!”