Michael “Ben” Burton Othello- response #6

The play “Othello”(1603-04), is one of the masterpiece tragedies written by William Shakespeare

(1564-1616) during the English Renaissance. My first time reading the story left me feeling depressed

which was partially due to unanswered questions. Othello’s positive themes of love, honor, hope,

passion, and heroism are replaced with negative themes of manipulation, sexual jealously, insecurity,

hatred, deception, racism, murder, remorselessness, distrust, and vengeance. My opinion is the purpose

of the story is to warn the reader- you better be sure of something before making a decision you might

regret. I found the text in itself to be easy to read, clear and well-written, and nothing bad to criticize.

One problem I have is storywise some of the character’s behavior doesn’t seem to be humanly possible

or it isn’t explained enough or at all. The story held my attention whether the parts were filled with

good or bad events. The storyline is exciting. Here are some of the main characters:

Othello is a strong military hero, a moor (North African), an outsider, his black skin sticks out in the

pale white society. He loves his wife but off the battlefield he is insecure and easily manipulated. He

is somehow convinced by Iago that his wife is having sexual relations with the innocent Cassio.

Without any incriminating evidence Othello kills Desdemona his faithful and loving wife. Once he

ignorantly believed Iago’s twisted lies he wouldn’t listen to her at all. Othello goes from being deeply

in love with Desdemona to transforming into a murderous lunatic. I think that it’s too much drama with

too little reasoning.

Desdemona is Othello’s wife and she is a pale, young beauty. She is strongly in love with her

husband. A loyal and devoted wife. There isn’t any reason to think Desdemona is unfaithful. How could

Othello be blinded so easily to kill his partner? The text doesn’t have a rational reason in my opinion. I

think something needed to be added in the plot to make the conclusion believable. She never gets upset

when anybody would in those circumstances. She doesn’t leave, she stays, and waits to be killed?

Brabantio is Desdemona’s father. He is rich and he is a self-important senator. He displays racism

and misogyny and is angry because his daughter got married to Othello without his permission. He
thinks Desdemona must have been drugged or had a spell put on her to marry Othello a black man.

Brabantio sees his daughter as a possession and marriage as a business transaction. He liked Othello

until his daughter was stolen from him. I don’t think drugs or black magic are reasons that racists

blame for the existence of interracial marriages.

Iago (the villian) is Othello’s ensign and supposed close friend. He is loved and trusted by others but

he is an evil manipulator set out to destroy Othello and Cassio. He enjoys ruining people’s lives. Iago’s

reasons for revenge are unclear and sometimes they change. I wish his motivations were specific or

there was a mention of child/adulthood trauma. How did he master the art of lying and manipulation

and why was he weak with the evidence. The talk and just a handkerchief causing all the death and

destruction in the story makes me think it’s missing details and action that builds up to the end.

Cassio is Othello’s lieutenant who is academically trained, handsome, charismatic, young, and a

ladies man. Cassio was given the promotion Iago was expecting to get from Othello. He is easy for

Iago to read and Iago uses this to make Othello jealous. Cassio kisses Emilia in front of Iago. He’s not

very smart and he has a bad habit of overly flirting with women.

Emilia is a strong woman and Iago’s wife. She has a feminist perspective, has a good friendship

with Desdemona, and in the end she is not one of Iago’s puppets. She tells everyone about her

husband’s evil plots, when he threatens her to quit talking she ignores him, Iago then stabs Emilia and

she joins Desmodena in death.

Roderigo is Iago’s naive sidekick who is in love with Desdemona. He is unintelligent, rich, and he

falls for Iago’s lies. Iago promises to help him with Desmodena. Roderigo was planning on marrying

her and is upset she secretly married a black man. Iago and Roderigo refer to Othello with racist and

disparaging names. Roderigo agreed to kill Cassio when Iago told him Desmodena and Cassio might be

sleeping together. Iago ends up stabbing him in the back killing him. Overall, with all my complaints I

still enjoyed the story and I will recommend it to avid readers.