Othello themes Flashcards
The Incompatibility of Military Heroism & Love
Moreover, she is unperturbed by the tempest or Turks that threatened their crossing, and genuinely curious rather than irate when she is roused from bed by the drunken brawl in Act II, scene iii.
The military also provides Othello with a means to gain acceptance in Venetian society. While the Venetians in the play are generally fearful of the prospect of Othello’s social entrance into white society through his marriage to Desdemona, all Venetians respect and honor him as a soldier. Mercenary Moors were, in fact, commonplace at the time. Othello predicates his success in love on his success as a soldier, wooing Desdemona with tales of his military travels and battles. Once the Turks are drowned—by natural rather than military might—Othello is left without anything to do: the last act of military administration we see him perform is the viewing of fortifications in the extremely short second scene of Act III.
No longer having a means of proving his manhood or honor in a public setting such as the court or the battlefield, Othello begins to feel uneasy with his footing in a private setting, the bedroom. Iago capitalizes on this uneasiness, calling Othello’s epileptic fit in Act IV, scene i, “[a] passion most unsuiting such a man.” In other words, Iago is calling Othello unsoldierly. Iago also takes care to mention that Cassio, whom Othello believes to be his competitor, saw him in his emasculating trance (IV.i.75).
Desperate to cling to the security of his former identity as a soldier while his current identity as a lover crumbles, Othello begins to confuse the one with the other. His expression of his jealousy quickly devolves from the conventional—“Farewell the tranquil mind”—to the absurd:
Personal v Private
it interferes too much
The Danger of Isolation
The action of Othello moves from the metropolis of Venice to the island of Cyprus. Protected by military fortifications as well as by the forces of nature, Cyprus faces little threat from external forces. Once Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia, and Roderigo have come to Cyprus, they have nothing to do but prey upon one another.
Isolation enables many of the play’s most important effects: Iago frequently speaks in soliloquies; Othello stands apart while Iago talks with Cassio in Act IV, scene i, and is left alone onstage with the bodies of Emilia and Desdemona for a few moments in Act V, scene ii; Roderigo seems attached to no one in the play except Iago. And, most prominently, Othello is visibly isolated from the other characters by his physical stature and the color of his skin.
Iago is an expert at manipulating the distance between characters, isolating his victims so that they fall prey to their own obsessions. At the same time, Iago, of necessity always standing apart, falls prey to his own obsession with revenge. The characters cannot be islands, the play seems to say: self-isolation as an act of self-preservation leads ultimately to self-destruction. Such self-isolation leads to the deaths of Roderigo, Iago, Othello, and even Emilia.
Love
Othello is a domestic tragedy in which love is destroyed by hate.
Iago’s false love subverts and replaces Desdemona’s true love.
Iago is incapable of love and driven by hate.
Emilia’s loving tribute to Desdemona when she dies reaffirms the value of true love.
Jealousy
Jealousy motivates the central conflicts of Othello: Iago’s resentment of Othello, and Othello’s suspicion of Desdemona. Iago is immediately revealed as a jealous character: in the first scene, he complains that Cassio has been promoted instead of him even though “I am worth no worse a place” (1.1.).
He also later implies that his hatred of Othello is rooted in jealousy, since there are rumors of Othello having slept with Emilia. As Iago explains, even the hint of this possibility enrages him: “I know not if’t be true / But I for mere suspicion in that kind / Will do as if for surety” (1.3.). It seems that his jealousy is so intense that he does not need proof of this infidelity before punishing Othello for it.
In Othello, Othello simultaneously believes he is being deceived by characters who are honest while failing to see the deceit and treachery of characters who are tricking him. Othello refers to Iago as “honest” multiple times, showing that he is totally blind to the way Iago is tricking and manipulating him. Othello is so deceived by Iago, he believes Iago is actually incapable of lying: “I know thou’rt full of love and honesty / And weigh’st thy words before thou giv’st them breath” (3.3.).
Deception
While Othello is naively unable to see that Iago is deceiving him every step of the way, he is also stubbornly convinced that Desdemona is deceiving him even when she is being totally honest. Once Othello makes up his mind that Desdemona is guilty, all her claims of innocence only enrage him further because he is convinced that “this is a subtle whore / A closet lock and key of villainous secrets” (4.2.). Everything Desdemona does to prove her innocence comes across to Othello as further proof of her guilt.
Othello’s inability to correctly identify who is and is not deceiving him makes him act rashly and ultimately lead to violence and tragedy.Appropriately, Iago decides to seek revenge by using jealousy as a weapon against Othello, “practicing upon his peace and quiet / Even to madness” (2.1.). Iago knows, perhaps from his own experience, that jealousy is a form of psychological torture which will constantly torment Othello. By making Othello feel the torments of jealousy towards Desdemona and her supposed lover, Iago causes Othello to suffer as much as he does.
Justice
In Othello, characters justify their actions on the basis of deserving justice. The first character we see seeking justice is Brabantio, who is outraged that his daughter has married a man of a different race, and decides that Othello must have bewitched her. Brabantio asserts “I therefore apprehend and do attach thee” (1.2.77), seeking legal restitution for the perceived violation to himself and his honor. However, Brabantio’s apparent demand for justice is rooted in his racial prejudice against Othello, and his sense that he is owed obedience from his daughter. He only feels entitled to justice because social structures have placed him in a position of racial superiority to Othello and gender superiority to Desdemona. What Brabantio envisions as justice is the reassertion of his racial and gendered dominance and power over others.
As Othello becomes increasingly convinced that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him, he also feels entitled to seek a form of bloody, self-administered justice. As he tells Iago, “my bloody thoughts with violent pace / Shall ne’er look back, ne’er ebb to humble love / Till that a capable and wide revenge / Swallow them up” (3.3.). While there would have been legal procedures in place at this time for bringing charges of adultery against a spouse, Othello is not interested in seeking official forms of justice. He wants to punish his wife himself, and feels entitled to do so. When Iago suggests that Othello strangle Desdemona rather than poisoning her, Othello notes “Good, good—the justice of it pleases!”(4.1.). Othello’s violent plan to achieve justice is rooted in his sense that he has complete ownership and control over his wife, and that he can literally decide whether she lives or dies. Othello’s notion of justice depends on a system that is fundamentally unjust toward women, leaving them vulnerable to false accusation and violent actions.
Prejudice
The most prominent form of prejudice on display in Othello is racial prejudice. In the very first scene, Roderigo and Iago disparage Othello in explicitly racial terms, calling him, among other things, “Barbary horse” and “thick lips.” In nearly every case, the prejudiced characters use terms that describe Othello as an animal or beast. In other words, they use racist language to try to define Othello not only as an outsider to white Venetian society, but as being less human and therefore less deserving of respect.
Othello himself seems to have internalized this prejudice. On a number of occasions he describes himself in similarly unflattering racial terms. And when he believes that he has lost his honor and manhood through Desdemona’s supposed unfaithfulness, he quickly becomes the kind of un-rational animal or monster that the white Venetians accuse him of being.
Yet racial prejudice is not the only prejudice on display in Othello. Many characters in the play also exhibit misogyny, or hatred of women, primarily focused on women’s honesty or dishonesty about their sexuality.
Several times, Othello’s age is also a reason for insulting him. In all of these cases, the characters displaying prejudice seek to control and define another person or group who frighten them. In other words, prejudice works as a kind of strategy to identify outsiders and insiders and to place yourself within the dominant group. And Othello himself seems to understand this—he concludes his suicide speech by boasting that he, a Christian, once killed a Muslim Turk, a “circumcised dog” (5.2.355) who had murdered a Venetian citizen. Othello tries to use religious prejudice against Muslims to cement his place within mainstream Christian Venetian society
Appearance v Reality
The tragic plot of Othello hinges on the ability of the villain, Iago, to mislead other characters, particularly Roderigo and Othello, by encouraging them to misinterpret what they see. Othello is susceptible to Iago’s ploys because he himself is so honest and straightforward. As Iago puts it: “the Moor is of a free and open nature/ That thinks men honest that but seem to be so; and will as tenderly be led by th’ nose/ As asses are”
In Othello, Shakespeare plays with the idea of unreliable reality in a number of ways.
The language of the play, which time and again refers to dreams, trances, and vision, constantly highlights the way in which what seems to be real may actually be fake.
In addition, Shakespeare extends the theme of appearance vs. reality to include the art of playwriting and acting. As he develops his plot against Othello, Iago creates scenes within scenes. He sets up encounters between two characters and putting a third in the position of a spectator. For instance, he has Othello watch Cassio and Desdemona speak, and he has Othello watch him speak with Cassio about Bianca. In each case, Iago manipulates Othello so that Othello sees the appearance that Iago wants him to see, rather than the reality of what is actually happening. In this way, Iago becomes a kind of “director”—he even directly addresses the audience through his many soliloquies—and Shakespeare draws attention to the way that a playwright and actors create an appearance onstage that tricks the audience into seeing something other than reality.
Manhood and honour
Throughout the play, various male figures seek to assert and protect their manhood and their honor. Based on the Duke’s regard for him in 1.3, it is clear that Othello has attained political power through his military might.
The subplot in which Iago gets Cassio drunk and causes him to humiliate himself, also indicates the importance of “reputation, reputation, reputation.” In fact, Cassio asserts that reputation is all that makes you human (“I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial” [2.3.252-3]). Iago asserts—however genuinely or disingenuously—that reputation is more valuable than anything in the world: “good name in man and woman […] is the immediate jewel of their souls” (3.3.156).
Though military exploits are one way for men to build their honor, when not in war the primary means by which men define their honor is their ability to command the faithfulness of their women.
In 1.1, Iago and Roderigo call Brabantio’s honor into question because he hasn’t been able to control the romantic or sexual impulses of his daughter, Desdemona. Later, Iago drives Othello to question his own manhood—indeed, his very humanity—by making him doubt whether he has power over his wife. In despair over his suspicions about his wife’s faithfulness, Othello laments of himself: “A horned man’s a monster and a beast” (4.2.62). That is, in his view, to lose control of the woman in his life is to lose everything that makes him human. In other words, without his honor, he sees himself in the same terms that the prejudiced characters see him: as an animal
Womanhood and sexuality
Two contrasting images of womanhood dominate Othello: the virtuous and loyal woman, and the whore. Yet over the course of the play, it becomes clear that these two different ways of describing women don’t actually apply to real women. Instead, they are male fantasies imposed on women—ideals that men want woman to fulfill, and roles that women therefore purposefully play for men.
For instance, Desdemona often describes her devotion to Othello in front of other people, underscoring that, even though she does love him very deeply, she is to a certain extent playing the role of the virtuous wife. Iago then stokes Othello’s jealousy in part by forcing Othello to realize that there is no way for a man to tell the difference between a truly virtuous wife and one who is just playing the role of virtuous wife while actually acting as a whore and being unfaithful.
Meanwhile, Iago’s wife, Emilia, complicates the simple contract. Initially, she wants to please her husband—and does so by stealing Desdemona’s handkerchief, knowing that he has long hankered after it.
Yet she is not wholly loyal, and even tells Desdemona in 4.3 that she believes many women, including she herself, would cheat on their husbands under certain circumstances. And, finally, she proves her own, independent virtue by defending Desdemona’s virtue and revealing her husband’s crimes in the process. So while womanhood in Othello is, therefore, often defined by men in terms of pure virtue or voracious and deceptive sexuality, the play ultimately shows that real women are far more complex.
Obsession
Iago’s obsession with revenge drives the main plot forward.
Othello’s obsession with his masculine honour leads him to destruction.
Cassio’s obsession with his reputation leads him to act dishonourably when he asks Desdemona to plead his cause.
The female characters are all powerless in the face of male obsession.
Male - female relationships
The male characters – fathers, husbands, lovers – all expect their women to submit to their authority.
Initially Desdemona and Othello share a more equal relationship than the other couples; each was ‘half the wooer’.
The female characters are objectified by the men, prized for their beauty or derided as whores.
Female fidelity is a key part of masculine honour in the play.
Revenge
Revenge is presented as dishonourable throughout the play.
Othello is degraded when he seeks revenge and he begins to act like a violent stereotype from Revenge Tragedy.
Iago’s desire for revenge is presented as destructive, unnatural and egotistical.
It is disturbing that the revenger, Iago, survives at the end of the play
The symbol of the handkerchief
The handkerchief is the most significant symbol in Othello, as its meaning changes depending on how each character perceives it.
For Othello, the handkerchief is initially a symbol of his love and affection for Desdemona. However, the handkerchief eventually comes to symbolize (to Othello) Desdemona’s betrayal, which is of course a lie made up by Iago.
Finally, for Iago, the handkerchief symbolizes the fragility of Othello’s own relationship with Desdemona, as he is easily able to manipulate Othello by stoking his jealousy.
