Furthermore, Othello’s naivety in matters concerning love makes him vulnerable to Iago’s verbal predation. He is quick to believe what Iago tells him, even to Iago’s surprise who states that “the Moor already changes with my poison”. It is Othello’s occupation as a soldier that causes this, as the milieu of soldiers was virile and male-dominated. The soldier’s life in Shakespearean times was lacking in female contact as long durations of time were spent in the company of soldier’s alone. Iago’s occupation as a soldier also contributes to the readiness at which Othello believes him. A Venetian, Iago states he knows the women of Venice “well”. Venice was infamous for its courtesans, and Iago easily convinces Othello that Desdemona is no different than the untrustworthy and seductive women of Venice. This knowledge inevitably arises from his career, as soldiers were infamous for womanizing.
Another important aspect to a soldier that is important to the tragedy is honour and “reputation, reputation reputation!” The significance of honour to Othello’s central characters mobilizes the tragic outcome as Renaissance soldiers’ lives were dominated by it, especially since it was still the age when chivalry majorly contributed to the rules and discipline of the army. Othello demonstrates the desire to preserve his honour when he dismisses Cassio after his drunken brawl. Othello rather solemnly states he is “no more” his lieutenant, suggesting that those that lose their honour must be dismissed as a customary practice. Othello states he will make Cassio “an example”, despite the close relationship the two formerly shared. Cassio’s drunkenness is not without significance, as there was rules against drunkenness on duty, and Thomas Digges’ Stratioticos clearly states that “dronkennes doth turn men into beasts.” Othello aligns himself with this view as he enters in the barrack room, declaring his soldiers have “turned Turk” – Turks being associated with brutal and animalistic behaviour. It is Cassio’s lost honour as a soldier that causes his dismissal and continues to mobilize the plot.
Othello’s brutal sense of honour is also demonstrated in a scene crucial to the tragedy when Othello decides to murder Desdemona. He says “the justice of it pleases me”, chillingly suggesting that strangling her is the moral and honourable thing to do. Othello constructs himself as a romantic and chivalric knight, and a characteristic of this identity was winning a damsel of a higher social station. If this woman was to lose her status, Othello’s self-fashioned status was also in jeopardy. Thus when Edmund Spenser’s Red Crosse Knight discovers the fair Fidelia is really the foul whore Duessa, he is emasculated. When Othello becomes convinced that Desdemona is equally foul, his “occupation” is “gone”. The chivalric ideal upon which he has built his military vocation is destroyed and his reputation gone, and thus he decides that it is just to destroy her. Iago also plays upon this ontological insecurity when he says “He that filches… makes me poor indeed”, suggesting that wronging someone’s name is the worst offence of all.
A soldier’s propensity to seek revenge is also crucial to the tragic plot. It is this that plays a large part in Othello’s decision to kill Desdemona. This is due to vengeance being a principal element in a soldier’s life, as many wars are fought on the basis of vengeance; a soldier learns to retaliate subsequent to being wronged, and thus Othello sees this as a natural medium of correcting Desdemona’s apparent transgression, causing it to be somewhat explanatory of Othello’s merciless killing of her, the woman he loves. When discussing the murder with Iago, Othello speaks in prose showing the systematic approach to revenge, as would be common in the devising of military plans. Yet, his speech is also punctuated with short sharp utterances to reflect how his passion is beginning to prevail over his military reasoning: “O tis foul in her… with mine officer! … That’s fouler”. Elizabethan military treatises agree that the careful selection of subordinates was a General’s most important duty. For Othello, that Desdemona would be “topped” by his handpicked is ignominious and degrading, and far more subversive than Desdemona being unfaithful with another. Thus Othello’s quest for revenge is rooted in the desire to uphold his reputation as a great general: a way of being a black man in a white man’s world.
It is also essential to the development of the play’s tragic situation that the male protagonists are soldiers as it allows the incorporation of professional jealousy – one of Iago’s apparent motivations. Although Coleridge stated that Iago was a “motive-hunting malignity”, there are instances in the play that signal a tension between those in different military positions. Iago’s initial complaint against Othello is regarding his selection of officers. As Giles Clayton in 1591 stated, a lieutenant must be “a man of great experience and knowledge in service.” It is on this basis that Iago deems Cassio, a “bookish theoric” as unfit for the position. Another of Iago’s grievances regarding Cassio’s appointment is that “letter and affection” obtained it. However, the audience learns that Iago has also tried to attain the office by persuading “three great ones of the city” to make personal requests to Othello, showing that Iago is just as guilty of trying to attain this office by “letter and affection.” It is also clear that Cassio was also chosen a more legitimate basis as he knew Othello well enough to serve as a go-between during his courtship of Desdemona and also “knew” of their love, a shock even to Desdemona’s father. Furthermore, he is trusted enough by the Senate to be made governor of Cyprus. However, although Cassio is a valid choice for lieutenant, he does remind Iago rather snidely of his position, saying the “lieutenant is to be sav'd before the ancient”.
In regard to Iago, his position as an ensign allows the audience to see the duplicity of his character and increases the irony surrounding his falseness. Readers of Othello have noted the verbal irony in the noun phrase “honest Iago” that reverberates throughout the play. However, the Ensign, as Elizabethan military treatises agree, must have been selected because of his upright and honest character. This is because the Ensign carried the flag, an emblem of the nobility of war and a representation of the country. Therefore, he must have been trustworthy enough for the soldiers to follow into battle. Garrard insisted that the Ensign must be a “man of good account”. Iago is hardly honest, however. He professes his lack of loyalty to his superior officer: “not I for love and duty / But seeming so for my peculiar end… I am not what I am”. This supposed honesty that Iago should possess as the Ensign perhaps accounts for Othello’s propensity to trust him. This is also due to the close relationship the Ensign and General were intended to hold. This proclivity to have confidence in Iago mobilizes the tragic situation, as Othello disregards pleas from his innocent wife even on her deathbed.
Lastly, global struggle between West and East, Venice and Turkey is dramatized in the final act in the psychological battle within Othello. His last speech is central, as when he kills himself, it is in the same manner as he once killed the Turk who had beaten the Venetian in Aleppo. Therefore, Othello is reasserting the myth of Venice as a rational and ordered place on the outside, but having a corrupt internal structure; his rational and virtuous self destroys the irrational and cruel Turk within. Through this suicide, he is also acknowledging that he is both Venetian and Turk. Thus, the play’s domestic conflicts also dramatize the conflict between places and cultures, as the West felt itself to be in contact with the barbarous East. The precarious ness of a nation’s identity is expressed through the tragedy of Othello.
In conclusion, without the Othello being firmly founded on a military basis, the tragic plot could not be effectively mobilized. The milieu of the soldiers also allows the attitudes and relationships in the play to unfold, and also show how the desired characteristics of a soldier are in direct opposition to acting in a civilized and rational way in situations away from the battlefield.
