The second step to this break up was Iago. Shakespeare needed someone to poison this relationship and chose Iago for it. Iago plays around with Othello and Brabantio’s mind. Firstly he portrays Desdemona to be having an affair with Cassio. “The moor is of a free and open nature that thinks men honest that but seem to think so...” He shows us that Othello is of a very open nature and will believe whatever he is told. Iago takes advantage of this and his actions show us he is evil and sly. Secondly, Iago tries to make Brabantio more furious about this relationship by trying to stir between Desdemona and Othello’s relationship. “The devil will make a grandsire of you. Arise, I say!” this tells us that Iago is trying to make Brabantio think that Othello is not a human but a ‘devil’ and if he doesn’t do anything about it, Othello will get Desdemona pregnant. This makes things more complicated and Brabantio takes action. By Shakespeare having this scene at night time, he is showing us how low Iago can stoop and how cunning and evil he really is.
Throughout the whole play, none of the characters call Othello by his name but refer to him as animal and other negative references. At the beginning of the play, Roderigo refers to Othello as being “thick-lips”. This is a stereotype of black people and he is also showing racism and hatred towards Othello. By using this language, Shakespeare is showing us how much Othello is being looked down on by other characters throughout the play. By using the term “Barbary horse”, Shakespeare is telling the audience that Othello is an outsider as Barbary means exotic. Referring him to a horse, shows us that Iago has no respect for Othello and is using racist animal imagery. The term “wheeling stranger” tells the audience that Othello is thought to be an outsider. Another example would also be “moor”. Although Othello is a respectable high up man, he is being treated as an outsider and is being insulted in many ways. Othello knows he is being treated as an outsider and tells stories to everyone to make himself look normal and like everyone else. “The anthropophagi, man whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders” By Shakespeare using this, he makes Othello’s character look quite normal in front of everyone else’s. Shakespeare also uses a range of vocabulary and language to show the other characters that Othello is of high class and is very intelligent and sophisticated.
Othello had a major part in the break up of their relationship as well. Trust is the most important factor in true love and that is what lacked from Othello’s’ side; trust. “She has deceived her father and may thee” By Brabantio saying this to Othello, he is saying that if she can deceive her father, she can deceive anybody; including Othello. This got him thinking, could this be true? “She’s a whore” by saying this, Othello had lost complete trust in his love and started to believe everything Iago had told him. Iago was up to no good and kept on leading Othello to believe that something was going on with Desdemona and Cassio. When Cassio gets sacked, Desdemona defends him and this sounds like she is defending him for a certain reason. This causes Othello to believe that there is something going on between them. This also shows us that Brabantio’s description of Desdemona being “a maid so tender, fair and happy” wasn’t true as she isn’t tender and fair after all.
Another step to this disastrous marriage is the age difference. Desdemona is this young girl who has just began her life as a woman and on the other hand, there’s Othello who’s been through so much in life, from “deadly” to “disastrous”. On one hand, there’s Desdemona, she who wants more than just marriage, she who wants “the rites for which I love him are bereft me”, the rights of sex. On the other hand, Othello won’t let love get in the way of his duty. “To help the palate of my appetite, nor to comply with heat the young affects in my distinct and proper satisfaction, but to be free and bounteous to her mind”. Othello wants Desdemona’s company for her happiness, not her body. Could Desdemona want completely different things in a relationship? Are they really made for each other?
How was Othello and Desdemona’s relationship doomed from the opening of the play? Well in many ways. The main cause was the misunderstanding between Othello and Desdemona, cause by Iago. Iago did everything possible to break them up and he succeeded. Shakespeare starts the play in the darkness to show all the secrets of the characters. This was the perfect time for him to introduce Iago and his cunning and villainous character. Brabantio is also part of the break up and tries his best to split them up; with the Duke’s help. He doesn’t want to ruin his reputation as the father whose daughter got married to a black man. “Her father loved me” This shows us that Brabantio’s feelings for Othello changed as soon as he found out that he is married to his daughter. This shows the audience that Brabantio was against this relationship from the very beginning. Another reason to why it was doomed from the start was because the relationship wasn’t built on a basis of trust. Othello doubted Desdemona throughout the play, when he shouldn’t have; if he really loved her. Their relationship was also doomed from the start as they were both different races and it wasn’t common for people to marry different races in the time the play was set. Othello was black and Desdemona was white. In those times, it was wrong for black and white people to be together. So was Othello and Desdemona’s relationship doomed from the start of the play? Yes, it was.
