Notes on Othello
- a study in jealousy; asks what makes us jealous, how do we become jealous,
are some more prone to jealousy than others, and who best can cause us
to be jealous.
- Othello, the character, is the greatest poet of all Shakespeare's tragic
heroes; note his beautiful and powerful use of language.
- Othello's failure is that of understanding (reason), not passion.
- the play plumbs as well the depths of evil as portrayed by Iago; indeed,
among all Shakespearean villains, he is the least conscience-stricken,
the most revenge-fed, the most purely evil; ironically, he is referred
to throughout as "honest Iago."
- though titled Othello, Iago is the focal character; only he
is totally aware of all that is going on, and only he has a relationship
with each of the important characters.
- Iago's success is explained partly because he is a master manipulator;
indeed, he manipulates people, events, and even chance; until the very
end, he is the right person in the right place at the right time in terms
of carrying out his stratagems; another way to say this is that Iago is
the one character who has the most knowledge, and he uses it to destroy
as many of the other characters as he can.
- some critics argue that every literary villain since Iago is a descendant
in the direct line of Shakespeare's masterful creation.
- Desdemona, while as potentially interesting as Rosalind, Beatrice,
or Portia, is fundamentally different: unlike these earlier heroines who
are active and take-charge, she is almost entirely passive. She permits
what happens to her to occur though this is partly mitigated because of
her love and devotion to Othello.
- if in the comedies love eventually overcomes the potential catastrophe
introduced at the beginning, here in the tragedies love becomes obsessive,
possessive, and destructive; that which was once redemptive is shown also
to be deadly.
- note the dominant color imagery in the play.