Othello

Act V Notes

Act V Scene 1• Read V.1.1144-1146

• Iago has Roderigo poised and ready to pounce on Cassio, and kill him; if either of them is killed, it is to Iago's benefit

• Roderigo and Cassio fight, and both are injured

• Othello hears the scuffle, is pleased, and then leaves to finish off Desdemona.

• Iago enters, pretending that he knows nothing of the scuffle

• Roderigo is still alive, so Iago feigns a quarrel, and finishes him off.

• Cassio is carried away, and Roderigo is already dead.

• Emilia also comes in, and pins more blame on Bianca; she has done nothing, but Iago has some quick work to do if he is to exonerate himself in this mess.

• Watch movie scene

Analysis• Iago addresses the audience directly about his intentions,

and his actions

• Iago is only truly honest with the audience like Richard III

• This creates an undercurrent of dramatic irony throughout the play, since the audience knows all of his plans, and individual characters know little or nothing

• Although Othello is the title character of the play, Iago has more lines and more interaction with the audience as well.

• It is Othello's tragedy that is the focus of the play, but Iago succeeds in stealing the show he is more interesting than any of the protagonists in the play.

• Iago proves himself a consummate actor:

– appearance vs. reality

– Iago claims to know nothing of this battle

– Iago is many selves in this act

– he is friend and advisor to Roderigo

– betrayer and murderer of Roderigo

– consoler of Cassio

– the lead officer in this

Act V Scene 2• Read V.2.1146-1150

• Othello enters Desdemona's room while she is asleep; and still is determined to kill her.

• He justifies this with images, metaphors, and ideas of her rebirth after death

• Desdemona awakens, and he tells her to repent of any sins before she dies

• Othello tells her that he found her handkerchief with Cassio, though Desdemona insists it must not be true

• She pleads with Othello not to kill her right then, but he begins to smother her.

• Emilia knocks, curious about what is going on

• Othello lets her in, but tries to conceal Desdemona, who he thinks is already dead.

• Emilia brings the news of Roderigo's death, and Cassio's wounding.

Act V Scene 2• Emilia soon finds out that Desdemona is nearly dead, by

Othello's hand

• Desdemona speaks her last words, and then Emilia pounces on Othello for committing this horrible crime.

• Othello is not convinced of his folly until Iago confesses his part, and Cassio speaks of the use of the handkerchief

• Othello is overcome with grief.

• Iago stabs Emilia for telling all about his plots, and then Emilia dies

• Venetian nobles reveal that Brabantio, Desdemona's father, is dead, and so cannot be grieved by this tragedy now.

• Othello stabs Iago when he is brought back in

• Othello then tells all present to remember him how he is, and kills himself.

• Cassio becomes temporary leader of the troops at Cyprus

• Iago is taken into custody, and his crimes will be judged back in Venice.

• Watch movie scene

Analysis: Literary Terms• Othello's farewell to Desdemona is a return to his

former eloquence

• Though he believes Desdemona's soul to be black, he can only focus on her whiteness; he pledges not to mar "that whiter skin of hers than snow"

• The metaphor highlights Desdemona's innocence, as does comparing her to a "light" to be put out.

• There is irony in Othello's references to Desdemona here:

– he describes her with words that suggest her brightness and innocence

– he is determined to condemn and kill her.

• She is also "the rose" to Othello, another beautiful image

• Othello's allusion to Prometheus explains his wish to put out Desdemona's light in order to restore her former innocence.

• Before Othello felt only hatred and anger, now he is forced to feel his love, along with his mistaken determination to see Desdemona die.

Analysis: Lines

• Desdemona's last words are especially

cryptic

• When asked who killed her, she remarks:

– "nobody, I myself commend me to my kind lord."

• This could be seen as a kind of

condemnation of Othello for killing her

• She might be trying to absolve her husband

of blame with her last breath

• If this is so, it certainly does not sit well

with her line:

– "falsely, falsely murdered," which seems to refer

both to Desdemona's death, as to Emilia's

mention of the death of Roderigo and wounding

of Cassio.

Analysis: Parallelism

• Emilia's fate is parallel to Desdemona's:– She was more realistic than Desdemona

– She too was betrayed by her husband

– She died through other's wrongs.

• Desdemona might be a more central figure in the play, but Emilia is the conscience

• Emilia knows how human nature works

• She knows of husbands' jealousies, of how men believe women are less human, of how people are naturally prone to folly.

• She is the sole voice of reason in the play, the only besides Desdemona who is uncorrupted by Iago's manipulations.

Analysis: Oxymoron

• Othello insists that he is an "honorable

murderer”

– Iago was surely killed out of anger

– Desdemona out of jealousy and offended

pride.

• Othello still denies the flaws in himself that

have led him to this end.

• Iago was definitely the catalyst for

Desdemona's death and Othello's jealous rages;

but the seeds of jealousy and suspicion were

already inherent in Othello

• It certainly makes the resolution of the play

more neat to believe that Othello is returned to

his nobility

• Since he still denies the deep wrong he has

Analysis: Conclusion

• Of course, all threads are wrapped up

in this last scene of the play:

– Letters are produced that expose Iago's

part in these unfortunate events

– These letters have not been mentioned or

shown earlier in the play.

– Cassio seems to have been kept alive

merely to testify about his part in this

whole debacle

Tragedies Excite

• Shakespeare was as good a philosopher as

he was a poet

• He understood the love of power and

mischief and that these loves were natural

to man

• Why are tragedies so interesting to people?

• Why do they read the newspaper and watch

the news to hear about “the latest Iago”?

Characterization of Iago

• Great analyst Harold Goddard noted:

– Iago is always at war

– He is a moral pyromaniac setting fire to all

reality

– He was passed up by Cassio because he cannot

stop fighting

• Since Othello is thought of as the God of

War, he is Iago’s only god

• Othello is everything to Iago because war is

everything

Characterization of Iago

• Iago rejects a Christian God in a way

when he says:

– “I am not what I am”

– This is contradictory to St. Paul’s “I am

what I am”

• Iago sets about to destroy his god:

– Uses mastery of timing to plot using

openings

– Employs a “grand program of uncreation”

Characterization of Iago

• Iago went unchanged during revisions

of Desdemona, Emilia, and Othello

between the Quarto and First Folio

• He speaks eight soliloquies and

Othello only three

Theme of Marriage

• Marriage is a problem of grand

proportions:

– Emila is a martyr

– Iago says: “A fellow almost damend in a

fair wife”

– Othello and Desdemona never

consummate their marriage

– This makes it easier for Iago

– Marriage is damnation

Tragedy Characteristics

• There is no conscience in Othello

• Shakespeare had a tragic obcession with the idea of a good name living on after the protagonist’s death:– Horatio to discuss Hamlet

– Cassio to tell of Othello

• Tragedies, literary or human, depend on imperfect knowledge

• Shakespeare came naturally to histories, comedies and romances, but tragedies took work

• The tragedies especially are not religious in any reguard

• No killer kills in the name of any god, ever

• War is the religion in Othello, Macbeth, Lear, and Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt)

Tragedy Characteristics

• Many critics rate Othello below

Macbeth and Hamlet because:

– There is no extrinsic force operating Iago

– The evil is too pure

– There is no remorse shown

– Humans are too evil

• What do you think?

Characterization of Othello

• Even in his final suicide speech he does not achieve atonement

• Audience is more like Iago than Othello so he cannot be forgiven

• Othello does not have the power of expression of Hamlet or Macbeth:– He is distinct, divided and flawed

• Has a Julius Caesar complex:– Ambiguous

– Hard to tell when they are being arrogant or just stating facts

– Both refer to themselves in the third person

Characterization of Othello

• He is Iago’s antitheses until he starts to come undone

• He should be a character in a romance, like Claudio or Benedick

• He is the wrong character in the right play

• Othello, analyst Brower believes, would have come apart from Desdemona without Iago

• Nothing in Othello is marriage material

Analyzing the Clowns

• The clowns scarcely come onto the

stage and the play excludes all

laughter

– Unlike the drunken porter in Macbeth

– The asp-bringer in Antony and Cleopatra

Tragic Flaw?

• “It is the cause, it is the cause, my

soul,--

Let me not name it to you, you

chaste stars!--

It is the cause…” (V.ii.1-3)

What is it?

What is the cause?

• Infidelity?

• Insanity?

• Sexuality?

• Love?

• Honor?

• Blood?

• Sin?

• Soul?

• Interior?

• Exterior?

Desdemona’s Last Words

OTHELLO: Think on thy sins.

DESDEMONA: They

are loves I bear to you.

OTHELLO: Ay, and for that thou diest.

(V.ii.40-41)

Desdemona’s Last Words

• Othello admits that he is killing

Desdemona for the love that she has

for him

• Oedipal Complex

• Othello is playing the role of the father

Desdemona’s Last Words

• (V.ii.118-126)

DESDEMONA: A guiltless death I die.

EMILIA: O, who hath done this deed?

DESDEMONA: Nobody; I myself.

Desdemona’s Last Words

• Who is responsible for Desdemona’s death?

• Guiltless versus Guilty

• Guiltless

– Innocent because of loyalty?

• Guilty

– Desdemona has gotten herself into a quandary

– Doppelganger

Othello’s Death Speech

• (V.ii.260-282)

• (V.ii.338-356)

• Do we believe his speech?

• Emphasis on his service to the state

– Gives him the justification to make a final

speech

Othello’s Death Speech

• Honor

– “honorable murderer”

– “that loved not wisely but too well”

• Switching between 1st and 3rd Person

• Oedipal Complex

– One point of view is the father

– One point of view is the husband

Iago’s Last Words

• “Demand me nothing: what you

know, you know:

From this time forth I never will

speak word.”

(V.ii.303-304)

Iago’s Last Words

• Notice the absence of a couplet

• Suggests a lack of closure

• We will never know exactly why Iago

did what he did

Sources of Othello

• Shakespeare’s source is Cinthio but he changed a few things:– Iago is Shakespeare’s own invention

– Cinthio’s Ensign is Iago’s basis but:• Ensign falls in love with Desdemona

• She shuns him in favor of Othello

• Ensign blames it all on Cassio

• Ensign beats Desdemona to death

• The characters were flat, not round, and the shock and inwardness of a rejected solider is absent