The third soliloquy tells the audience that Iago believes he has done nothing wrong by giving advice to Cassio “ And what’s he then to say I play the villain, when this advice is free…” this shows that Iago cannot see what he is doing is wrong. Again, in this soliloquy Iago refers to using people’s good character traits against them. He says that because Othello’s “…soul is so enfettered to her love…” that she will be the downfall of Othello. The rest of the soliloquy goes on to tell of how Iago will get Cassio to plead to Desdemona who will then plead to Othello whilst Iago pours “…this pestilence into his ear...” which will seem to turn her “…virtue into pitch and out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all.”
The events that take place during Act 3 Scenes 3 and 4 can be charted as Othello’s journey from loving Desdemona to hating her due to the intervention of Iago in his life. At the very beginning of the scene lines, one and two we see that Desdemona is going to do everything within her power to try to bring Cassio back in the favour of Othello. The audience can see how this plays right into the hands of Iago, who is wanting to cause as mush damage to their relationship, so therefore brings about dramatic tension because they can see what will happen later on in the play. A little later on in the scene Iago hints that Cassio is acting suspiciously by saying “I like that not” so that Othello hears it but does not quite understand why he is saying it. Throughout lines 54 – 83 Desdemona pleads with her husband to reconsider his judgement on Cassio and to reinstate him into the army, at this time Othello sees nothing wrong with her behaviour and calls her an “excellent wretch” which is actually a compliment towards her, the next thing Othello says carries a huge amount of dramatic irony within the statement. He says “…and when I love thee not chaos is come again.” After that the scene carries on with Iago placing more and more suspicion into Othello’s mind during their conversation, then comes one of the most important events of the play, Desdemona dropping her handkerchief and then Emilia picks it up under the instruction of Iago. Then once Iago knows that he has some proof of the supposed affair he puts more pressure onto Othello so much so that he demands proof of the affair, “make me to see ‘t.” With that comment he has once again played right into the hands of Iago who a little later on suggests that he had seen Cassio with a handkerchief similar to one which Othello gave to Desdemona. This is the final straw for Othello to wish “…that Cassio’s not alive.” To which Iago replies “ My friend is dead. ’Tis done as you request, but let her live.” This is just another example of Iago twisting the truth to suit his situation; this particular attempt earns him the place of lieutenant in the army and more respect from Othello.
Shakespeare has created most of the tension within Othello via the character of Iago; I say this because he stirs everything up within the play. All of the characters lives are going fine until Iago turns up leading to a happily married man killing his wife and then killing himself. Iago’s method of dropping indirect or subtle hints about Desdemona’s relationship with Cassio, “I like that not,” allows the audience to see how his plan is progressing and developing throughout the course of theses scenes. This makes the audience see Othello as being a little stupid by him not seeing what Iago is doing. I believe that a Shakespearean audience would have reacted in the same way as a modern audience to this. Whereas the scenes in which Desdemona is pleading with Othello the two audiences would react differently. A modern audience would be able to empathise with Desdemona, however a Shakespearean audience would be more familiar with a lesser role of women in society so would bring about a lesser reaction from the audience. I say this because at the time no-one person had any individual rights except for the queen who was reigning by the Divine Right of God, so the rest of the population were just following laws that had been created from the word of the bible, and the bible doesn’t stress the importance of women in society.
The tension within scenes 3 and 4 stems from the irony contained in the dialogue of the major character of the play. On good example is the way the way Othello calls Iago “This honest creature…” this creates tension because the audience knows that is not the case. Another source of tension within the play is the audiences hope that the hero of the story, Othello, will realise that he is being played by Iago and will ask Desdemona to forgive him and they all live happily forever after, but he does not because it is a tragedy and tragedies always end in tragedy.
The control Iago asserts over Othello in scene 3 is shown in the way Iago just makes suggestion towards Othello who in turn changes these suggestions into first suspicion, then jealously and then actions; the murder of Cassio. The way Iago plays on Othello’s lack of knowledge about how Venetian culture functions is quite important in the play. Iago builds on Othello’s suspicions by telling him that in Venice, every one is having an affair and Desdemona “…did deceive her father, marrying you.” This is really just saying to Othello “well she tricked her father she will probably trick you.”
The role of then handkerchief in the play is a much-stretched metaphor symbolising Othello’s love for Desdemona. The reason I say that it is much stretched is that Othello uses it as unequivocal evidence of Desdemona’s affair, where it really is not on it’s own but because of all the things Iago previously has said, he thinks it is. The audience would find quite a lot of tension in the section where Othello asks Desdemona about the handkerchief because the audience can see that if she admitted to just dropping it everything would be normal between them.
Looking back at the beginning of scene 3 and comparing the state of Othello there to the end of scene 4 we can see that he has come from loving “sweet Desdemona” to wanting to “…tear her all to pieces.” At the end of the scene the audience are presented with a man seething with anger willing to sentence his best friend to death, this brings about lots of tension because the audience is still willing Othello to reconsider his situation and will realise what has happened to him. The way the pace of the play increases during the two scenes add to this effect, bringing about more dramatic tension because the viewer gets bombarded by more and more information and has to try to understand what’s going on whilst more is happening which focuses all of their attention on the play.
