Othello Character Analysis

Othello: The General & The Wife

Othello is one of the typical Shakespearean plays in that it deals with the tragic hero. Othello is convinced that his wife, Desdemona, is cheating on him with Cassio. Beginning with the aperture lines of the play, Othello remains at a distance from much of the action that concerns and affects him. Roderigo and Iago refer equivocally to a “he” or “him” for much of the first scene. When they commence to designate whom they are verbalizing about, especially once they stand beneath Brabanzio’s window, they do so with racial epithets, not designations. These include “the Moor” , “the thick-lips” , “an old ebony ram”, and “a Barbary horse” (Cite). Although Othello appears at the commencement of the second scene, we do not hear him called by his name until well into Act I, scene 3. Later, Othello’s will be the last of the three ships to arrive at Cyprus in Act II, scene 1; Othello will stand apart while Cassio and Iago suppositious discuss Desdemona in Act IV, scene 1; Othello will postulate that Cassio is dead without being present when the fight takes place in Act V, scene 1. Othello’s status as an outsider may be the reason he is such easy prey for Iago.

Although Othello is a cultural and racial outsider in Venice, his adeptness as a soldier and bellwether is nevertheless valuable and indispensable to the state, and he is an integral part of Venetian civic society. He is in great demand by the duke and senate, as evidenced by Cassio’s comment that the senate “sent about three several quests” to probe for Othello (Cite). The Venetian regime trusts Othello enough to put him in full martial and political command of Cyprus; indeed, in his dying verbalization, Othello reminds the Venetians of the “service” ...

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...f her imminent death. She, not Othello, asks Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed, and she asks Emilia to bury her in these sheets should she die first. The last time we visually perceive Desdemona afore she arouses to find Othello standing over her with murder in his ocular perceivers, she sings a musical composition she learned from her mother’s maid: “She was in love; and he proved mad / And did forsake her. She had a musical composition of willow. / . . . / And she died singing it. That musical composition tonight / Will not go from my mind” (IV.iii.27–30). Like the audience, Desdemona seems able only to visually examine as her husband is driven insane with jealousy. Though she maintains to the cessation that she is “guiltless,” Desdemona additionally forgives her husband (V.ii.133). Her forgiveness of Othello may avail the audience to forgive him as well.