The audience response to Othello’s character is very different when comparing a modern day and 16th century audience. The fact that Iago paints himself as he villain early in this play creates sympathy for Othello, never In my opinion, a modern day audience would admire Othello and have sympathy for the situation Brabantio has put him in with ludicrous accusations of witchcraft and so on. I believe this because a modern day society with a lot less tolerance for racism, so that in these circumstances they would sympathise with Othello and find the charges to be ridiculous because, it is most likely that they wouldn’t believe in witchcraft. However, a 16th century audience may accept Brabantio’s reasons for taking Othello to court. This is because they would be living at a time when large numbers of people believed in ideas such as witchcraft. Of course not all people within an audience would agree, there may be people in a modern day audience who would agree with how the majority of a 16th century audience would respond and vice versa.
In act 2 scene 1, the setting changes to Cyprus and a flourish of trumpets signify the safe arrival of Othello. He comes and takes his wife in his arms, saying ‘it gives me wonder great as my content to see you here before me. O, my soul’s joy!’ This shows how much he loves his wife and has missed her while he has been away fighting, that she is the joy of his soul.
We learn that Othello is now not afraid to show his love for Desdemona in public. Very different to how he has been more reserved in earlier scenes, now he feels he is able to show his love in public.
Further in act 2 scene 3, Iago manages to get Cassio drunk enough to start fighting with Roderigo. When the governor steps in, he is wounded by Cassio. Othello is then woken by an alarm bell rung by Iago and when he arrives at the scene, Iago blames Cassio wholly. Othello is enraged and eventually says ‘Cassio, I love thee, But nevermore be officer of mine’ and he dismisses him.
This scene reveals one of Othello’s tragic flaws, his trust in Iago. It is quite clear that he is using this to bring Othello to his downfall.
Audience responses would be pretty similar to this scene because all Othello does is make a rash decision. Some audiences may see this as a trick by Iago where others may see it as Othello becoming abusive of his power and not giving Cassio a fair hearing. I don’t think this opinion would differ depending on the whether the audience was 16th century or modern, rather than how the audience feel about Othello’s character at this point in the play.
In act 3 scene 3 Othello finds himself being persuaded to reinstate Cassio by Desdemona. She insists that she is only begging him to reinstate Cassio for his own good, but her insistence irritates Othello. He however, assures her that he will ‘deny her nothing’ and then politely asks her to leave him alone for the time being.
We learn in this scene that Othello’s mind is full of military matters, and he does not have time for his wife’s pleadings. He grows impatient with continued, naïve insistence and sends her away, but not until after he says he will do whatever she wants. Desdemona therefore succeeds in obliging Cassio’s request, but in the process she innocently falls into the trap being set by Iago.
At this point, Othello is very confused, he feels that’s his wife may be cheating on him with Cassio and this reveals his second and most important flaw, his sexual jealousy. He is jealous of the fictitious love affair between Desdemona and Cassio that has been created in his mind by Iago.
In this scene, I believe both 16th century audiences and modern day audiences would have the same response. Now that Iago’s plan to plot everyone’s downfall is underway, you can see that any evil committed or shown by Othello has been created by Iago. Most audiences can see that at this point, the main theme of the story is jealousy and that the origin of this jealousy is within Iago.
Once Desdemona has left the scene Othello recovers somewhat: “Excellent wretch!” he says affectionately. “Perdition catch my soul but I do love thee! And when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.” Othello seems far more comfortable to express his love when she is absent now. This may be because he is more in love with some image of Desdemona than he is with Desdemona herself. The lines quoted indicate just how much this image may mean to him.
To a modern audience these lines seem over exaggerated and make Othello seem feeble, but to a 16th century audience it would be understood in a different way. In Elizabethan times it was thought that before creation there was chaos and when God completed the world order developed. They feared the end of the humanity when chaos would reign again. The hyperbole used would help them to comprehend how significant a thing losing Desdemona would be. The use of cosmic imagery shows the audience how defenceless and little Othello feels right now.
The end of act III, scene iii, is the climax of Othello. Convinced of his wife’s corruption, Othello makes a sacred oath never to change his mind about her or to soften his feelings toward her until he enacts a violent revenge. At this point, Othello is fixed in his course, and the disastrous ending of the play is unavoidable. Othello engages Iago in a perverse marriage ceremony, in which each kneels and solemnly pledges to the other to take vengeance on Desdemona and Cassio. Just as the play replaces the security of peace with the anxiety of domestic strife, Othello replaces the security of his marriage with the hateful paranoia of an alliance with Iago. Iago’s final words in this scene chillingly mock the language of love and marriage: “I am your own forever”.
Othello’s brief appearance in act V, scene 1, is particularly horrifying. Joyfully supposing Cassio to be dead, Othello proceeds to his bedchamber with great fervour, crying, “Strumpet, I come. Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted. Thy bed, lust-stained, shall with lust’s blood be spotted”. When he promises that the bed shall “with lust’s blood be spotted,” he means that when he kills Desdemona, her guilty blood of “lust” will spot the sheets.
Act III, scene 4 assumes the bizarre shape of a perverted trial. From the moment he enters, Othello plays the role of the prosecutor, demanding that Desdemona produce the handkerchief and accusing her of being a whore. Instead of defending herself against her husband’s accusations, Desdemona responds by advocating Cassio’s case, appealing to Othello as a judge of Cassio’s character. The result is a shouting match, wherein husband and wife completely fail to communicate, Othello repeatedly screaming “The handkerchief!” while Desdemona enumerates Cassio’s noble qualities, all of which Othello takes as testimony against her. He points to her moist hand as evidence of her inherently lustful nature. Finally, the handkerchief itself is the strong circumstantial proof that Iago promised him.
By this point, the plot unfolds without any further assistance from Iago, although he is still involved in manipulating it in some way. We can see how Othello has changed; his jealousy has changed him into a man capable of ending innocent life. Although, the audience know that Desdemona is innocent, Othello doesn’t. This can create mixed responses amongst audiences. Some may have sympathy for Othello who has been put in this state of jealousy as part of Iago’s evilness whereas others may just see him as weak and foolish for being susceptible to Iago’s claims.
Before he kills himself, Othello invokes his earlier services to the state, asking Lodovico and the other Venetians to listen to him for a moment. At this point, he is set on to dieing, and his concern is with how he will be remembered. When he appeals to his listeners to describe him as he actually is, neither better nor worse, the audience may or may not agree with his description of himself as one not easily made jealous, or as one who loved “not wisely but too well”. As he continues, though, he addresses an important problem: will his crime be remembered as the fall from grace of a Venetian Christian, or an assault on Venice by an ethnic and cultural outsider? He stresses his outsider status in a way that he does not do earlier in the play, comparing himself to a “base Indian” who cast away a pearl worth more than all of his tribe. Finally, he recalls a time in which he defended Venice by smiting an enemy Turk, and then stabs himself in a re-enactment of his earlier act, thereby casting himself as both insider and outsider, enemy of the state and defender of the state.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare cultivates Othello’s undecided status as insider and outsider. Othello identifies himself strongly with Christian culture, yet his belief in fate and the charmed handkerchief suggest ties to a pagan heritage. Despite the fact that his Christianity seems slightly hazy, Shakespeare repeatedly casts Othello as Christ and Iago as Judas. These echoes of the Gospel suggest that Othello and his tragedy are somehow central to the Christian world of Venice. Furthermore, while most up to date editions of the play include the words “base Indian”, the First Folio edition actually says “base Iudean” (i.e. Judean); possibly implying that Othello compares himself to Judas. The play’s rich biblical references suggest that Othello is both Christ and Judas, a man who sacrifices himself to compensate the Venetians’ guilt as well as his own.
I think that both 16th century and modern day audiences would react similarly to Othello’s actions in this scene. They would see him as a tragic hero, who falls as a result of Iago’s evil plans. Due to the fact that kills himself, it automatically creates some sympathy for him because most people would see that he feels his life has gone so bad and that he has done so wrong, that there is no choice but to end it. He may have killed an innocent woman, but it was clear that he had been made to think that she was not by Iago. Now he is sorry for his actions but nothing can undo what he has done. Although this may be a common response for the audience, there would also be others that disagree. Is it right to kill someone for adultery? Some would argue that Othello was a man who couldn’t just ‘swallow his pride’, and instead had to kill his wife. Then he took the easy way out, instead of facing the consequences by killing himself.
In conclusion, I believe that Othello sometimes makes a point of presenting himself as an outsider, whether because he recognizes his exotic appeal or because he is self-conscious of and defensive about his difference from other Venetians. For example, in spite of his obvious eloquence in Act I, scene iii, he protests, “Rude am I in my speech, and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace”. While Othello is never rude in his speech, he does allow his eloquence to suffer as he is put under increasing strain by Iago’s plots. In the final moments of the play, Othello regains his composure and, once again, seduces both his onstage and offstage audiences with his words. The speech that precedes his suicide is a tale that could woo almost anyone. It is the tension between Othello’s persecution at the hands of a foreign culture and his own willingness to torment himself that makes him a tragic figure rather than simply Iago’s ridiculous puppet. I feel Othello is very unsure about himself and how he is perceived amongst his peers. This becomes obvious in the final stages of the play, whereas earlier he seems to be in control until he allows his jealousy to gain control of his mind. I am sympathetic towards Othello and the situation he has been put in, yet I feel he has acted very foolishly because of him assuming that Iago’s words are truthful.
