The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice

Never. She is not only never unfaithful to him in the sexual sense, but she does not blame him or start to hate him even when, due to the jealousy Iago has raised in him, he insults her and strikes her in public. Even then she remains true to him.

Some plays have characters whose names mean things, like Everyman or Middleton's Revenger's tragedy (where the one who wants revenge is called Vindice and the stupid one is called Supervacuo). Shakespeare sometimes did this too: In Two Gentlemen of Verona Proteus is changeable and Valentine is the true lover. But Othello is not one of those plays. Iago is just the Italian version of Jim and that's all. It doesn't mean anything.

The phrase comes from Prospero's famous speech in The Tempest, as follows: "These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air". It means to disappear without a trace.

Othello is neither a Turk nor a Spaniard. The most specific description of Othello given throughout the play is that he is a Moor. A Moor typically describes someone who is black or Arab and has descended from North Africa. Europeans applied the term 'Moor' loosely to people who were black or Middle Eastern in appearance, and thus, not much can be determined about Othello's race or appearance from this description.

No. It's difficult to see how a story of passion and politics, love and betrayal can have a racial connotation. Do you ask this question because the main character is black? It's necessary to understand that in Shakespeare's time racial divisions were not as we see them today. Another answer: I would hold that the play is oddly both racist and accepting of racial differences. It does contain some of what I would call racist remarks, such as when Iago tells Brabantio that "even now, very now, an old black ram [Othello] is topping your white ewe [Desdemona]." Such passages would seem to refute critics who say that the play treats Othello's race as ambiguous, i.e., perhaps only swarthy as a Moorish North African -- ethnically Arab or Berber -- might be expected to look. It seems to me more likely that Shakespeare and his audience were prone to confuse Africans' physical features and races and treat "Moor" as synonymous with black Africans, as reflected in the term "blackamoor." On the other hand, I think there may be some attestation for their use of "black" to mean simply anyone who wasn't blond. Even so, aside from a general tendency by other characters to treat Othello as "other," referring to him usually simply as "the Moor," he is accepted as an equal, even respected for his military rank. So much so that apart from Iago's ribald jesting, no one seems to think his being married to Desdemona in any way remarkable. So it seems to me that Elizabethans, for all their racial and class distinctions, hadn't yet come to abhor miscegenation. I suspect this is because segregation in its full force became ingrained in the Western mind only as a symptom and enablement of the swelling tide of enslavement of Africans after the time Othello was written around 1600.

Iago is, although he is more likely to get others to do bad things than to do them himself. He does murder Roderigo, after egging him on to kill Cassio. He also induces Othello to murder Desdemona.
The villain in Othello is Iago as he twists Othello's mind and gets him to kill Desdemona, steals from Roderigo and kills him, kills Emilia, wounds Cassio and ruins his job.

Brabantio is Desdemona's father. He becomes very upset when Desdemona elopes with Othello and accuses Othello of committing witchcraft in order to woo his daughter. Othello denies any wrongdoing and Brabantio warns Othello that if Desdemona deceived her father, she can deceive Othello as well. Brabantio dies from a broken-heart resulting from Desdemona's marriage.

The main conflict is the internal one within Othello, between his love of Desdemona and his fear that Iago is right about her being an adultress.

Iago tells Cassio that he must persuade Othello to reinstate him. He says "the general's wife is now our general" and so the best way to persuade Othello is to get Desdemona to plead on Cassio's behalf. Since Iago has also told Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair, the harder Desdemona pleads, the worse it is going to look for both her and Cassio.

Othello defends himself by explaining that Desdemona was impressed by his stories of military adventures and exploits. As he is explaining that her love for him involves no witchcraft, Desdemona suddenly appears and confirms her genuine love for the Moor.

Not because he is mean; he is not at heart a cruel man. But he has been so tortured by jealousy that he is angry with Desdemona all the while he still desperately loves her. The outrage is not only that he hits her (that's bad enough) but he hits her in public. Nobody who knew them in Venice can believe it.

Othello insists the men put away their swords (1). He defends himself in his marriage to Desdemona (2). He demands Desdemona be brought to him (3). He insists arrangements be made for his wife to be made comfortable (4). He sends his ensign to accompany his wife (5).

Barbantio's reaction to Othello and Desdemona's marriage was he thought that Othello used magic on Desdemona. He couldn't believe his daughter, a Venetian woman would love a dark Moor without Othello using magic.

He is one of the commanders but raised in position by othello as liutenant.

He is Othello's ensign and the villain. He is selfish, narcissistic, extremely intelligent, two-faced, and deceitful.

Iago says, "Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated." Iago's advice is to kill her in her bed, not to use the bedsheet (you could strangle someone that way, but that's not what Iago says). Othello responds with "Good, good! The justice of it pleases! Very good!"

Brabantio disapproves of Othello and the relationship he has with Brabantio's daughter Desdemona. This is not because Othello is not worthy of Desdemona because he is a much respected officer, but because he is a Moor (in that time an African) and therefore considered beneath the Italian people.

In Act II Scene 3, Iago knows that Cassio's weakness is unable to tolerate alcohol therefore he targets this weakness and persuades Cassio to drink with him. At first Cassio said no to Iago's offer because he was assigned to be on duty at night however, he ends up drinking anyways because of Iago's persistent persuasion. Iago's plan was slowly progressing. After a great amount of alcohol consumption, Cassio became drunk and went to the washroom by himself. While he was doing his business, an unknown man which was Roderigo disguised with a beard, pushed him from behind. This action angers Cassio therefore he chases the "unknown man". At the same time, Iago was talking to Montano about Cassio's drinking problem. Cassio runs into Iago and Montano, a fight occurs and Montano gets injured as Iago stabs him without anyone else noticing. The fight causes Othello to appear and strips Cassio of his rank because "he" injured Montano.

There are a few different interpretations about why Iago hates Othello so much he is intent on destroying him. The most obvious is explained in the very first scene, where Iago is talking to Roderigo and expresses his anger at how Othello gave the position of lieutenant to Cassio and not Iago which he believes is unjust, since Cassio only knows "bookish theoric."

However later in the play one of Iago's soliloquies explains his (likely paranoid) suspicions that Othello had "bedded Emilia," his wife. There are also theories that Iago is actually in love with Othello so is jealous and hates him for marrying Desdemona, but I would think that the first interpretation would be your best bet.

Cassio is still alive by the end ofOthello. This is the only area in which Iago fails in his scheme. It was intended by Iago that Cassio die and he uses Roderigo to try and accomplish this but Roderigo fails (though he severely wounds Cassio). The concept demonstrates that not everything can be coldly calculated. Life is extremely unpredictable.

Iago opposes Othello because Othello chose to promote Cassio to lieutenant instead of Iago. Also, Iago is prejudice against Othello for his skin colour. Othello was a victim of the time he lived in.