Act 1

Question 1

What happens in Act 1 Scene 1

Answer 1

• The play opens as Iago is telling Roderigo that he hates Othello because Othello has promoted Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of him, even though Cassio ‘never set a squadron in the field’ and has much less experience.
• Iago tells Roderigo** ‘I follow him to serve my turn upon him’.** The two men stand outside Brabantio’s house and shout to wake him up. From the shadows, they tell him about his daughter’s secret marriage to Othello.
• Iago makes Brabantio angry by describing Othello and Desdemona as ‘making the beast with two backs’ and uses other sexual animal imagery.
• Brabantio doesn’t recognise them at first but eventually sees Roderigo and the scene ends with Roderigo offering to help Brabantio find the married couple to ‘apprehend her and the Moor’.

Question 2

What happens in Act 1 Scene 2

Answer 2

• Iago tells Othello that Brabantio knows about his marriage and ‘spoke such scurvy and provoking terms against your honour’ but Othello dismisses this and says ‘let him do his spite’. and tells Iago ‘I love the gentle Desdemona’.
• Cassio then arrives with a message from the Duke asking Othello to come to the Senate to talk about the war in Cyprus. Just as they are about to leave, Brabantio and Roderigo arrive with soldiers to arrest Othello for bewitching Desdemona.

Question 3

What happens in Act 1 Scene 3

Answer 3

• Brabantio, Othello, Cassio, Iago and Roderigo arrive at the Senate while they are talking about the war. Brabantio tells the Duke that Othello has bewitched his daughter saying she is ‘abused, stolen from me and corrupted’.
• The Duke listens to Othello who explains that she fell in love with him as he told her stories about his life and that ‘she loved me for the dangers I had passed’.
• Desdemona is called for and she tells the Senate she married Othello for love and her duty is now to him rather than her father. Desdemona asks to go with Othello to Cyprus and Brabantio warns Othello ‘she has deceived her Father, and may thee’.
• Othello asks Iago to bring his wife Emilia to Cyprus to ‘attend on’ Desdemona.
• Alone with Roderigo, Iago persuades him to follow them to Cyprus, saying Othello and Desdemona’s love will not last long.
• Alone, Iago tells the audience of his plans to make Othello believe Desdemona is being unfaithful to him with Cassio ‘to get his place, and to plume up my will / In double knavery’.