BACKGROUND TO

OTHELLO
 DATE

• Othello was likely written in 1604,

after Hamlet and before King Lear. It
was performed at court in Whitehall
for King James I in November 1604,
but may have been previously
performed at the Globe.
• The play was not published in
Shakespeare's lifetime but appeared in
a Quarto in 1622, the First Folio in
1623, and a second Quarto in 1630.
 SOURCES
The play is based on a novella in Giraldi
Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi in 1565, which was
possibly read in a 1584 French translation.
Shakespeare follows Cinthio΄s plot quite closely,
except in the original, Othello returns to Venice
to be murdered by his wife’s family. Shakespeare
also invented the character of Roderigo.
However, the moral of Cinthio’s cautionary tale
about the sad end that waits young women who
disobey their parents is completely transformed
in Shakespeare’s play.
THEMES
Othello is the story of a General in the Venetian army who is
targeted by Iago, a trusted soldier who enacts his revenge on
him over the course of the play with tragic results.
The reasons behind Iago’s actions and jealousy are subject to
lots of debate. There are lots of themes in Othello, including:
• Jealousy
• Revenge
• Importance of Reputation
• Deception / Honesty (Appearance vs Reality)
• Prejudice
• Mistrust of Women (Misogyny)
• Love and Marriage
GENRE: OTHELLO – A DOMESTIC
TRAGEDY
• Othello encompasses elements of tragedies such as:
• It ends with the death/catastrophe of numerous characters
including the title character
• The protagonist is a venerable general, but deeply flawed
• Free will is insisted upon –the protagonist makes choices
that lead to his fall
• Yet, unlike classical tragedy, Othello is set in a domestic
environment and built around protagonists of more modest
status than traditional tragic subjects, who are of kingly or
aristocratic rank. Domestic tragedy was a subgenre that
flourished on the Renaissance stage from 1580-1620. 
IS OTHELLO A TRAGIC HERO OR A FOOL?
Tragic flaw: a defect in the protagonist that brings about
his or her downfall or an error of judgment (according
to Aristotle ‘s Poetics).
Tragic hero: the main character of great importance to his
state or culture and who is conventionally of noble
birth and high social station, the ruler or an important
leader in his society. Does Othello belong in that
category? Does his fall provoke the emotions of pity
and fear (Aristotle)?
Hubris: derived from the Greek word hybris, it means
“excessive pride.” In Greek tragedy, hubris is often
viewed as the flaw/error that leads to the downfall of
the tragic hero.
 THE SETTING
Setting (time) · Late sixteenth century, during the
wars between Venice and Turkey
Setting (place) · Venice in Act I; the island of Cyprus
Cyprus is an exotic and strange country not only to the
audience but also to most of the characters, who go
there to fight against the Turkish fleet.
VENICE: DOES IT REPRESENT ORDER/RULE OF REASON?

http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcitaly.htm
 • CYPRUS: DISORDER/RULE OF
16th century map
PASSION?
of Cyprus

Cyprus is a war zone, a place

of violence, where the
characters’ attitudes and
behaviour changes.
Venetian dominions such as
Cyprus were like Venice itself
peopled with representatives
of diverse nations. We know
from contemporary accounts
that Venetians, Cypriots, Jews
and Turks lived on the island,
which had been culturally
diverse since the medieval
period.
THE CHARACTERS
• Kiernan Ryan:
In a country where few people outside London would
ever have seen a black person, and centuries before the
problems that fuel the tragedy became as ubiquitous and
pressing as they are today, Shakespeare produced
in Othello a searing critique of racial and sexual injustice.
VENETIANS AND THE MOOR
Venetians
• Noblemen and women (Brabantio, Desdemona, Roderigo)
• Soldiers (Cassio [from Florence], Iago [possibly from Spain])
• The nobles’ servants (Emilia)
Othello is a Moor
• Discriminated against because of his race (black)
• Othello has been accepted in some ways because he is a
Christian and a great general
• Yet his marriage to Desdemona exposes the prejudice against
him.
• Othello’s vulnerability as a black outsider, who unconsciously shares
the white perception of his blackness, is inseparable from his
subjection to a patriarchal concept of masculinity and a misogynistic
concept of marriage that are just as endemic as racism in Venetian
culture,
OTHELLO
• Moors: Muslim people of Arab and Berber descent
from northwest Africa. The term Moor comes from
the Greek work mauros meaning dark or very black.
In the Renaissance, the term has also been used in
Europe in a broader sense to refer to anyone
of Arab or African descent, whether living in Spain
or North Africa. Renaissance representations of the
Moor were vague, varied, inconsistent, and
contradictory. As critics have established, the term
“Moor” referred to dark-skinned people in general,
used interchangeably with similarly ambiguous
terms as African, Ethiopian and even Indian to
designate a figure from Africa (or beyond), an Other
SO, IS OTHELLO NORTH AFRICAN OR A SUB-
SAHARAN AFRICAN?
• The play is often discussed about as being about race, provoking
lots of debates whenever it is performed. The word Moor is used
a lot in the play and Othello is referred to as a "Barbary horse"
(1.1.113), a "lascivious Moor" (1.1.127), and "the devil" (1.1.91).
In Renaissance drama, Moors often represented the Other, the
opposite of the European “civilized” self.
• Most critics today suggest that the racial identity of the character
of Othello fit more clearly as a man from Sub-Saharan Africa than
from North Africa (Barbary). Roderigo’s description of Othello
having "thick lips" was a racial stereotype used by 16th century
explorers for southern Africans. ]Modern-day readers and theatre
directors lean away from a North African Moorish interpretation.
IAGO
• Iago is one of Shakespeare’s
most sinister villains, often
considered so because of the
unique trust Othello puts in
him, which he betrays while
maintaining his reputation of
honesty and dedication.
• Iago is a malcontent – he has a
bitter and cynical view of the
world around him.
• Conscienceless, and amused by
his own cunning. Related to
Vice, the figure of personified
evil, from the medieval
morality play whose role is to
lure humankind away from
virtue.
• Takes audience into his
confidence, boasts of his
cleverness, exults in the
triumph of evil, and
improvises plans with
resourcefulness
• The name Iago is a shortened
version of the Spanish name
“Santiago” or “St James”.
• Saint James of Spain was also
known as “St James the Moor
Killer” which seems
appropriate within the play.
IMAGERY AND SYMBOL
• Images are focused on the natural world. Important patterns –
contrast of light and dark, black and white.
• Many animal images: goats, monkeys, wolves, baboons, guinea
hens, wildcats, spiders, flies, asses, dogs, horses, sheep, serpents,
and
• The handkerchief: One of the things Iago is very good at doing in
this play is controlling other people. He even manages to make
Othello think Desdemona has stopped loving him and is in love
with Cassio. One of the reasons Othello starts to believe this is
because of a handkerchief which he had from his mother and
offered as a present to Desdemona.
LOVE-MARRIAGE-MISOGYNY

Cultural background
THE WIFE’S STATUS
• The husband, in the
accepted role as head of
the household, gives
moral direction to his
wife and children--who
sit obediently listening.

A typical wife receiving her

instruction
EVIL WOMEN The men in the play have differing
In the Elizabethan period views of women – from Othello who
there was a long and well idolizes/idealizes his wife
established tradition of (Desdemona) to Iago who sees love as
what we would call "merely a lust of the blood and a
misogyny – women were permission of the will“.
distrusted simply because
they were women. At the The attitudes of the audience at the
time it was assumed that time are likely to have been varied too.
women would cheat – it
was part of their nature… Iago: Look to her, Moor, if thou
hast eyes to see; / She has
deceived her father, and may thee’
(1.3.292-3).
THE CUCKOLD
Any man whose wife It was highly humiliating for a
cheated on him was husband to be considered a cuckold.
known as a cuckold.
Cuckolds were often described as
The word derives from
having horns – a hangover from the
“cuckoo” – the bird
known for laying their days when a cuckold was forced to
eggs in another’s nest. parade around his town wearing
antlers as a sign of his wife’s
infidelity.
Othello's dread of cuckoldry and the
misogyny that feeds it are perfectly
in tune with the patriarchal culture
of a city where his colour makes
him feel like an alien, but where
he’s entirely at home as a man.
JEALOUSY
• Jealousy was viewed as something irrational and
linked to the deadly sin of envy.
• It was considered a sudden infection against which
there was no prevention or cure.
• It was thought of as eroding trust and it dissolved
the bonds holding together marriages, families
and social frameworks.
• Being jealous could let in evil and chaos and it was
a state greatly feared by Shakespeare’s audiences.
DECEPTION AND SELF-DECEPTION
1) Iago - describing Othello: “loving his own pride and
purposes”
2) Iago - speaking about his relationship with Othello: “I follow
him to serve my turn upon him”
3) Iago - speaking about himself: “I am not what I am”.
4) Othello - speaking about himself: “My parts, my title and my
perfect soul shall manifest me rightly”
5) Othello - about Iago: “A man he is of honesty and trust”.
Seeming vs being (repetition of verb to seem
throughout)
 PAST PRODUCTIONS

• The first actor to play the title role in Othello was Richard Burbage,
who along with William Shakespeare, was a leading member of the
King’s Men theatre company. Burbage was amazing in the role
according to tributes made after his death in 1615. 
• After the Restoration and the re-opening of the theatres, Margaret
Hughes became the first recorded woman to perform on the English
stage, when she played Desdemona on 8 December 1660.
• In the 19th century , Othello was usually performed as an Arab Moor,
starting with Edmund Kean's production of 1814. Not until the 1830s
did a black actor play the title role when Ira Aldridge toured Europe to
great acclaim. Nearly 100 years later, the black singer, activist and
actor Paul Robeson was a memorable Othello.
• Paul Robeson, the son of a run – away slave,
was a very successful Othello-- 296
performances in Broadway alone (1943).
This production was the first ever in
America to feature a black actor playing
Othello with an otherwise all-white cast
(there had been all-black productions of the
play before). Before productions in London
and New York, there was tension at the
prospect of an African–American man
kissing a white woman (Peggy Ashcroft as
Desdemona in the London production and
Uta Hagen in the New York one).
 
• In 1997, Patrick Stewart took the role with
the Shakespeare Theatre
Company (Washington, D.C.) in a race-
bending performance, in a "photo
negative" production of a
white Othello with an otherwise all-black
cast. 
• In 2015 Iqbal Khan’s ground-breaking
production of Othello was the first RSC
production to cast a black actor, Lucian
Msamati, as Iago.