As the first critical black character in English literature, Othello’s Moorish complexion, which evidently was intended to be of black African origin, would have had an instantaneous impact on the white Elizabethan audiences. Shakespeare knew that many of them would be chauvinistic and would have associated a Moor with savageness, stupidity, evil and sexual immortality. The character of Othello had both validated and denied these biased expectations of him in a number of significant ways. Although he is black and therefore magnetising the Elizabethan audience’s traditional suspicion of Moors, we see Othello is in fact sympathetically drawn. . Central to the tragedy of the play is the transformation of our noble character, in front of our eyes, into an irrational murderer under the evil influence of the jealous Iago. Also central is what many have seen as Othello’s almost passive role in the traditional mould of the so-called “Shakespearean tragic hero”; someone like Hamlet, for example, who understands and accepts his tragic fate. It is the scheming, malevolent Iago who appears on the surface as the honest and trustworthy servant, but who is in reality the depiction of all evil. It is Othello who is the highly promoted and respected general at the start of the play, at first, a man of calm decency, a dutiful and loving husband to the younger, white Desdemona, a pillar of Venetian society
. By the time we meet Othello (in Act 1, scene 2) we have had a considerable amount of information about him from others, mostly unflattering. We have been told that “the Moor”, who is also called “the thick lips”, is proud and bombastic and is an “old black ram” and “the devil.” Although these views come from Iago and Roderigo, both of whom have cause to resent Othello and thus create a negative impression in the mind of the audience. On the other hand, the duke of Venice clearly thinks a great deal of Othello as a General and leader of others, entrusting him with the defence of Cyprus. The previous Governor, Montano, is also an early admirer of his “full soldier.” It is possible to see the character of Othello from two opposite extremes: as the noble, heroic, loving innocent trapped and destroyed by the malign Iago, or as the self-admiring, vicious, weak, cruel and arrogant upstart who loves no one as much as himself and who fully deserves his comeuppance
His solemn character, his charismatic presence, his exotic backgrounds and his wide experiences of the world affect our own first impressions of Othello. But we should note that his experience of the world is based largely on military business, thus his skin colour and lack of social skills prevents him from dealing with daily social predicaments and politics which exist outside the military sphere thus an invisible mental wall is built between himself and upper-class society.
As Iago’s work on Othello begins to stoke up a flame in the furnace of jealousy, we see a change in Othello’s behaviour and sense of judgement. Even after the murder of Desdemona, however, we can appreciate the sincerity of the character which allows him to accept full responsibility of what he has done and then to deliberately take his own life in self punishment. However, we might review our initial impressions of Othello as we witness his later actions and be more aware of the possibility that it is his pride, which is his ultimate undoing, not his innocence or Iago’s malevolence. From this perspective it is easier to see Othello as a traditional Shakespearean tragic hero; an almost perfect character who, through one fatal mistake, finds himself in circumstances which propel him from the height of fortune and regard to complete destruction, and through which he achieves part redemption.
The character of Desdemona (ironically the name means “unhappy” or “evil fated”) is the most consistent in the play. She does not change (even to her dying moments), symbolising the values of helpless good and wronged innocence throughout the whole play. Although she is spoken of as a girl and is at first thought even by her own father to have innocently fallen pray to Othello’s lust and charms, when we first meet her she seems a mature, confident and perceptive woman who is fully aware of her own feelings and is deeply in love with her husband. However some critics find Desdemona’s goodness to be overdone – somewhat too good to be true – and one should consider the extent to which this seems a fair criticism. Iago’s perception of Venetian woman is certainly very different, as we see in his conversations with Roderigo and Othello, where Iago suggest that they are unfaithful and corrupt and that Desdemona is worse than a common prostitute. Her relationship with other characters is the most important part of her, although she is a credible person in her own right in the play, not a two-dimensional caricature like Iago. She is mature and balanced in her views: she sees divided duty between her father and her husband at the start of the play; she is sympathetic to the situation of others, like Cassio. She is concerned for Othello when he feels unwell and for his safety when his ship is delayed; she expresses an interest in the opinion of others, like Emilia, but is tactful when they are different.
Black and white is applied to skin pigmentation in a subtle way in the play. Iago has the black heart whilst the Moorish Othello, by his own admission, has a heart which “lov’d not wisely, but too well.” In contrasts to this, a more straightforward role is taken by literal darkness and light in the play, also subtle, for it is connected to the other image of Black/White and angel and devil. Notice, for example, that although three of the five acts occur during darkness or at night- with only act 3 and 4 being in bright daylight – it is during the daylight acts that the deceptions take place. During broad daylight, when Othello is certain that he is seeing things most clearly, the conversation between Iago and Cassio convinces him that Desdemona has been false to him, when in fact the two men are talking about an altogether different woman- Cassio’s admirer, Bianca. The play opens amidst confusion and darkness, confusion which Iago is at pains to increase. At the council, Othello’s charismatic presence, together with the Duke’s judicious carefulness, is enough to resolve the rising domestic and military disorder. But by the time we reach Act 5, however, the clear judgement and measured manner of Othello has been destroyed, and the Duke is far away in Venice.
The contrasts between the way things are and the way they seem to be, runs through many Shakespeare’s plays: in Othello this exploration expands to encompass issues of conflict between good and evil which draw in almost all the characters. Until Iago poisons his mind, Othello seems to regard appearance and reality as identical. From the start, we find this set against the chameleon-like ability of Iago to blind others to his real nature; he comments to Roderigo “I am not what I am”. Whilst Othello’s “perfect soul” lives behind a black face, Iago’s black heart hides behind a smiling and seemingly honest white face. Only Iago truly seem to know the nature of the man within Othello, although he makes a fatal error in thinking that it was possible to keep hidden his own designs. As the tragedy unfolds, the darkness within Othello’s soul comes increasingly to echo that of his appearance. Iago ironically describes himself as “honest”, but he is well aware of the kind of creature he is – unlike Othello, Cassio or the others, who think they see a genuinely honest figure in Iago.
Amongst the major characters, only in Desdemona do we see outward appearance reflecting inner character, appearance and reality as one, although she is continually suspected of being false. It is by persuading Othello of the likely hood of differences between appearance and reality that Iago steers him to the final tragedy. As Othello’s suspicions about his wife grow, his sense judgement declines and he becomes more willing to condemn and think ill of others. The construction of stereotypes and the corrosive effect they have on individual human judgement once they become accepted is one of the central issues of the play. Equally the play concerns itself with many accepts of extreme “opposites”, such as darkness and light, cruelty and kindness, love and hate, greed and guilt and innocence.
An important concern of the play is with the way love, jealousy and hatred can sometimes be so closely related that an individual’s feelings can move from one to the other, whether their relationship are those of husband and wife or lady in waiting and mistress. Desdemona’s feelings for Othello are straightforward and unchanging, but those of Othello himself are examined when under pressure from Iago.
When Cassio gives Bianca a handkerchief to work on, she at once becomes jealous and accuses him of having loved another. Emilia is uncompromising in her comments about the attractions of infidelity, of which the jealous Iago already suspects her. Othello becomes insanely jealous. All three relationships have in common the handkerchief and the central role played by the complete lack of actual evidence to support these feeling of betrayal. The relationships between Cassio and Bianca, and between Emilia and Iago, are characterised by the man’s evident lack of complete regard for the woman throughout the play (unlike the relationship of Othello and Desdemona which is, at least at first, characterised by mutual love and respect).
Much of the play addresses itself to notions about the forces of good and evil, the way characters have within them aspects of angel and devil, and the relationships of these to Elizabethan notions of heaven and hell. At the start of the play the imagery used by other characters seeks to link Othello’s actions with those of the devil- his appearance, his motives, even his use of witchcraft to win Desdemona’s love. However, we see in Iago soliloquy in Act 1 that he seeks to bring about the “divinity of hell”. This is a common idea in Shakespeare: evil spreads by the destruction of good, by the poisoning of what is pure. Act 2, scene 3, Iago says of Desdemona that he will “Turn her Virtue into pitch.”
Iago is the cause of all the tragedy which comes to pass as the play progresses. Iago is the antagonist of the play, but rather than being the direct opponent to the tragic hero, Iago is a manipulator, opposing Othello not directly but through other characters whom he tricks into acting for him. In the first scene of the play, Iago gives the audience warning that he is not all that he seems when he says, "I am not what I am." He is first seen in this scene appearing to help Roderigo, a suitor to Desdemona, who has run off with Othello, the Moorish general of the Venetian army. Iago hates Othello for another reason. Instead of choosing him to be his lieutenant, Othello chose Cassio, another foreigner, and relegated Iago to the position of his ancient. When Roderigo asks why Iago continues to serve Othello, in spite of how the general has treated him, Iago replies, "I follow him to serve my turn upon him." He goes on to give an example of how he intends to serve him, by acting like the perfect servant, while secretly enriching himself, and later says, "In following him, I follow but myself." From this, one might think that he is still fairly straightforward in his plans, that he merely intends to betray Othello at some later date.
However, in the third scene, he shows the audience his ability to manipulate people, when he convinces Roderigo to follow him to Cyprus and to bring all of his money, presumably to win back Desdemona. After Roderigo has left to do what Iago has suggested, Iago says, "Thus do I ever make my fool my purse." Later, in Act IV, we find that Roderigo has been giving jewels to Iago to give to Desdemona, which Iago, it is implied, has sold for his own uses. Thus, it is seen that Iago is merely using Roderigo to further his own ends, just as he said he was only serving Othello to serve himself. Also at the end of the third scene, Iago sets forth his plan to take Cassio's position, by telling Othello that his lieutenant ". . . is too familiar with his wife." It also comes out in this speech that he suspects Othello of committing adultery with his wife. Near the end of the first scene of the second act, Iago convinces Roderigo, who was observing Cassio's enthusiastic greeting of Desdemona, that Cassio and Desdemona are concealing something between them. Thus manipulating Roderigo through his passion for Desdemona, Iago convinces him to provoke Cassio to anger, so that the lieutenant will be discredited in Othello's eyes and Iago can take his position. At the end of this scene, he again makes reference to his role not being what it seems: "Knavery's plain face is never seen till us'd.” In the last scene, after Othello has killed Desdemona, all of Iago's schemes are revealed by his wife, who was his unwitting accomplice in his schemes. After she has betrayed him, he kills her and flees, only to be caught and brought to justice. Othello's flaw, as Iago pointed out, was that he was "… of a free and open nature,/That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,/And will as tenderly be led by the nose/As asses are." Thus, Iago's scheming and role-playing character made it easy for him to manipulate Othello, which led to Othello's fall. From his actions in the play, one sees that Iago is a gifted manipulator of other people who uses underhanded schemes, manipulation of others, and betrayal at appropriate times. Thus, one could say that the whole play is a parable showing the "vile success" such tactics bring, and also showing the reward awaiting those who use them. Hence, Iago in Othello is a schemer and manipulator, who causes the deaths of all of the virtuous characters in the play while attempting to advance his position and revenge himself upon Othello for a rumoured affair with his wife. He is portrayed by Shakespeare as a completely unsympathetic character.
By Ridwaan Amir
Bibliography
Cambridge School- Shakespeare: Othello
Edited by: Jane coles
Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. ©
1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
and
"Shakespeare, William," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.