After Lago’s rumours and hints about Desdemona though, I should want the audience’s opinion of Othello to change. Instead of appearing calm and confident, I would like the actor playing Othello to stutter and repeat words, and appear as if he loses confidence about himself. Acting like this, the actor playing Othello, will now panic instead of staying cool, and speak unconfidently instead of his normal poetic and fluent style. In the middle of sentences, he will stop to think about what he is going to say, because he is unconfident of his own ability to choose the right words. This will show the audience how just one flaw in your character, can deteriorate your life away, until you do not believe in yourself. This is what happened to Othello.
At the beginning of the play, in Act 1 Scene 2, Othello is confronted by Brabantio, this is because Brabantio thinks that Othello has been ‘tupping’ his daughter, Desdemona. This scene shows how calm Othello can be under pressure, as he reacts to Brabantio's abuse, in a chilled out way. He says “Where it my cue to fight, I would have known it without a prompter”, this emphasizes just how controlled Othello is, and to show this, I would want the actor playing Othello to say these words very lightly and calmly, and with this the audience should see quite clearly that Othello has a very controlled personality. Othello also shows how calmly he acts under pressure, when he instructs the soldiers accompanying Brabantio to “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew may rust them”, this is another great example of how in control Othello is, because instead of reacting like any other person, and threatening Brabantio, he instantly deflates the atmosphere with these words. With this, comes a very effective direct response to Brabantio. This is shown well when he states, “Good signor you shall more command with years than your weapons”. With this line, Othello makes it clear that he has a lot of respect for Brabantio, even though Brabantio had very recently insulted Othello with abuse such as “That thou hast practis’d on her with foul charms”, and “Abus’d her delicate youth with drugs and minerals”. During this scene I should want the audience to see the good side of Othello. I would want them to see that Othello can be a very controlled and clever person, the person playing Othello should show this by keeping his lines fluent and poetic, and using light gestures and body language, in order to keep the situation between him and Brabantio from spilling over. He should seem to pick his words carefully, so that he could not possibly give one reason for Brabantio to feel at all threatened or mad with him.
In this scene Act 3 Scene 3, Lago is planting the seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind, regarding Desdemona, and her actions behind Othello’s back. With this, Othello’s mood changes, and so he becomes uncertain and acceptant of Desdemona’s actions. Then, at the end of the scene, Lago has told Othello so many lies, that he explodes in anger, and threatens Desdemona’s life. The audience should then see the contrast in personalities of Othello, and the deterioration in which they have taken throughout the last two scenes. The actor playing Othello repeating words unnecessarily, and stuttering in the middle of sentences should show this. At the start of this scene, Lago can sense that his ploy his working, “The moor already changes with my poison”. This shows that Lago has detected a change in personality of Othello, and that the poison he has injected into Othello may well spread to be even more violent. Othello then enters the scene, and instantly the audience should be able to see the difference in the way in which he acts.
One of his first sections speeches contains the word “farewell” no more than three times. This shows that Othello is suffering under the stress of Lago’s rumours, and so is beginning to repeat words over and over again. Just before that Othello had broken into a traumatised speech, “I swear ‘tis better to be much abus’d than but to know’t little”. This means that he would rather be beaten, than know only a part of what Desdemona is doing behind is back. This shows how much he fears that Desdemona is having an affair.
At this point the audience should be seeing the despairing side of Othello, his language has now changed from calm and poetic, “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly”, into a desperate cry for help and certainty, “I think my wife be honest, I think she is not”.
He then grows to accept the rumours, and so becomes aggressive, “Villain, be sure to prove my love a whore”. This shows that now Othello thinks Desdemona is cheating on him, he must prove her guilty, this is a sign of acceptance from Othello, and so now he will believe virtually anything Lago tells him. Lago takes this opportunity to anger Othello further with an even bigger lie than before, he goes on to say that he “lay with Cassio”, and during his sleep Cassio cried out, “Sweet Desdemona, let us be wary, let us hide our love”. Then he says that Cassio “kissed me hard, as if he plucked up kisses by the root”. Othello then reacts to this lie with some imagery, “O monstrous, monstrous!” and “I’ll tear her pieces!” This shows that Othello has believed everything Lago told him, and is now even angrier than before.
Then Lago tells his final lie, this will finish off Othello, and make him so that he will never love Desdemona again, it is about Othello’s prized possession, a red handkerchief. Lago tells Othello that he has seen the handkerchief in the possession of Cassio. This causes Othello to react ruefully, “If that be…” he says. This shows that Othello has had enough of Desdemona, even though he has not witnessed any of these ‘happenings’.
He says that line, leaving the audience to wonder what Othello could well do to Desdemona. And then, in his anger and confusion, he says the line “O blood, blood, blood”. Repeating the word blood over and over again, can only make the audience think of what is on his mind.
The actor playing Othello should use strong body language when angry, bold gestures could be used to indicate that Othello is feeling very mad, and is liable to over-heat at any given time.
In this scene Othello discovers that Lago has being lying all of the time, but he has already killed Desdemona. Othello, at first, believes the rumours about Desdemona, “She was false as water”, where true. Then Othello confronts Emilia about her husbands actions, at first he accuses Lago, “Thy husband knew it all”, but then, Othello realises that Lago is his best friend, and so convinces himself that Lago was telling the truth, “My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Lago”.
At this point in the play, Othello is feeling sorrow for himself, and how badly his relationship with Desdemona is deteriorating. To show this to the audience, the actor playing Othello must speak unconfidently, and in a quiet voice, this way the audience should be able to see how Othello’s mood has changed from the start of the play, when he has confident and calm.
Now that Othello has discovered Lago’s lies, he feels a strong remorse towards him, “Are there no stones in heaven but what serves for the thunder? Precious Villain!”
Othello should now acting as with remorse towards Lago. For the audience to see this, the actor playing Othello should, when talking about Lago, curse his words, and become aggressive, snappy and violent. The audience should now be seeing how aggressive Othello could be, this a big difference from the quiet Othello that they have just witnessed minutes previously.
Now that Othello has realises what he has done, he pleads the demons of hell for torture, “O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils”. With this implied, Othello now counts himself as the most unfortunate of men, “That’s he that was Othello”.
Even being an army general, Othello cannot find it in himself to kill Lago, “If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee”. This shows the audience just how good friends Othello and Lago used to be. Even though Lago has ruined Othello’s life completely, Othello still cannot kill Lago. Still though, Othello mourns the death of Desdemona, saying “For in my sense ‘tis happiness to die.”
Cassio then tells Othello of how “he himself confessed”, talking about Lago steeling Desdemona’s handkerchief. Othello cannot believe himself, that he thought Lago’s story to be true, he replies “O fool, fool, fool!”, referring to his own mistake.
Othello is now in a state of devastation, and with this he says, “I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee; no way but this, killing myself to die upon a kiss”. With this, Othello gives the corpse of Desdemona one, final kiss, and kills himself, falling upon Desdemona in peace.
At the end of the play, the audience should be feeling sorry for Othello, because of the tragedy he has been lured into. With the drama and sadness that his final line brings, this is the only possible feeling that the audience could possibly have towards Othello. His action throughout the final phase of the play, should have been acted out with no energy, because at this time in the play, Othello has been mentally and physically drained. The audience should be able that, through no fault of his own, the fatal flaw in his character was exposed.
