Subsequently I read the speech in the book out loud to myself a few times to familiarize myself with it. The same was done with my justification. By doing this it will mentally prepare me so that I feel more confident and comfortable when reading to an audience.
The speech is placed right at the end of Act 1. It concludes the act and definitely sets the plot of the entire play. This pivotal speech informs the audience of the basic story line, gives them a sense of knowing and makes them feel part of the play. Everything that happens next is based on this speech. This also lays the foundations for dramatic irony to be used further on in the play. Its positioning intrigues the audience and keeps their attention. They want to know what’s going to happen; if Iago’s evil plan is given the chance to succeed and if he has enough power to achieve what he has planned.
It also shows Iago to be an influential character, some one who has the ability to meddle, corrupt and even destroy other peoples lives all because he is ego centric and only looks out for himself. He is capable of distorting the other characters perceptions and good judgment for the worst. From his speech the audience are able to see his duplicity. This is mainly seen through his treatment to Roderigo and how he is taking his money and him for a fool. There is a little empathy here as the audience may possibly feel that they would do the same if given control of someone’s money.
This speech confirms the audience’s suspicions of him and they can now establish him as a villain who intends to destroy others to satisfy his own ambition. The speech pervades the whole play and the dramatic irony created with it shows its self to be a very effective and important dramatic device.
The last one and a half lines are reminiscent of “Macbeth”. They talk about doing evil things under darkness, which show Iago’s evil qualities. Iago is prepared to see people killed – Desdemona, Roderigo, Othello and even his wife just to satisfy his own ambition. He doesn’t even have any real justification for doing it all we are told is that he has heard that Othello has slept with his wife and that he wants Cassio’s job. So why he is creating all these deaths seems to be a mystery, maybe he was addicted to the thrill of not getting caught. He even refuses to justify his actions when his death is on the cards, leaving the audience still in a state of frustrated unknowness.
There are 2 main themes involved in the historical context and these are the original sin and racism. We can see that women are portrayed to be less than men and this has been derived from the original sin committed by eve tempting Adam to eat the fruit. This is largely shown through Desdemona. Her father sees her as a possession – his to direct and control. For her to disobey him by marrying Othello is a very unusual thing to do during the time period that it was set. By marrying Othello she becomes his chattel and Desdemona sees this too as she puts up little fight when Othello accuses her of disloyalty. She feels Othello has the right to do as he pleases. Emilia shows this as well. She’s Iago’s wife and therefore does what he tells her to. For example she takes Desdemona’s handkerchief for him even though its against her better judgment. At the end of the play she defies Iago and tells the truth. Which shows her to be quite a strong woman although she has disobeyed her husband.
In the play we can tell that Shakespeare himself isn’t racist although he shows Iago to be. Shakespeare shows Othello to be an honorable man in a position of authority. He’s depicted as being respectable and good at his job, not like a stereotypical black man of the time. Why he’s in such a high position of authority is a good question and judging by the thinking of the time it was probably because people didn’t mind if he died. On the other hand Iago is racist we can perceive this from the comments he makes. For instance. ‘black ram tupping your white ewe’. The animal imagery doesn’t present a pleasant thought further showing his dislike. This gives him more of an underlying reason as to why he is going to ruin his life; a black man is in a higher position than him, a white man. It is apparent that he is very jealous of Othello and he has the life and woman that he wants.
Historical context is also shown by the fact that although the characters are important women play a small part in the play. This was purposefully done because men would play women’s parts.