Desdemona: A native of Venice, Brabantio’s daughter. Her strength, intelligence and spirit capture Othello’s heart, and they are secretly married. As the marriage starts to unravel, she loses her potency and slowly reverts into what is functionally a second childhood.
Iago: A Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. He has worked his way through the ranks of the Marine Corps, from Private to Sergeant, but he loses a key promotion as Othello’s second-in-command to Cassio. A master manipulator, cunning and utterly ruthless, he has complex motivations for the devastation he wreaks.
Cassio: Lieutenant Colonel in the American Marines, Othello’s second-in-command. Born to a military family, he went to Officer’s School instead of working his way through the ranks as Iago did. His tactical genius and friendship with Othello led to his rise through the ranks and into his current position.
Roderigo: Young, rich, a dilettante of Venetian high society, very much accustomed to getting whatever he wants. His love for Desdemona, comparable to Romeo's love for Rosaline, goes unrequited and drives his actions for the rest of the play. Roderigo is frequently played as a feckless idiot, and frankly that's uninteresting
OTHELLO
Act 1, Scene 1:
The play opens on a warm Venetian night, where a conversation is underway between Roderigo, a gentleman, and Iago, a soldier.
Like other Shakespeare plays, Othello opens with a scene that sets the tone for the rest of the play. The playwright is intentionally vague in the details of the conversation between two men with one exception: line 2 reveals that one of the men is called Iago (the master mind behind this tragic). The first man is complaining that Iago has spent his money freely and is very upset that Iago knows about this. As the conversation continues, we learn that Iago hates him because he has passed over Iago for promotion to lieutenant, choosing instead Michael Cassio a Florentine.
This first act shows that the devious manipulator Iago has a plan that looks to be the central plot of the whole play and this done by him manipulating Roderigo to do his dirty work. The first act in Othello is vital to the character development of Iago, Othello, and Desdemona. Here we are told the motive behind Iago's hatred of the Moor, and we receive our first impression of Othello as a noble, rational, and intelligent leader. Similarly, through the dialogue in the first act we come to understand that Desdemona will not be parted from Othello under any circumstances, and that her love for him is stronger than even her love for her father. Without this act, the horrible events that follow would make much less of an impact.
Act 5, Scene 2:
The last two scenes of the play bring all the plot elements together in the final spiral of destruction of most of the people we have had under observation for four acts. Iago has convinced a reluctant, and we might think hopeless, Roderigo to kill an unsuspecting Cassio with his help. To Iago, however, Roderigo is the one who must be killed in addition to Cassio, because Iago has robbed Roderigo of a fortune that Iago cannot possibly repay. Furthermore, if Cassio lives, Iago risks being exposed to Othello for the conniving villain he is. Roderigo attacks Cassio, but misses. Cassio stabs Roderigo, and Iago follows suit by wounding Cassio in the leg. As the scene draws to an end Lodovico enters and stands beside the wounded Cassio and at the end all the central characters: Othello, Desdemona, Iago and Emilia all lying in the same bed dead.
In this last scene shows that Iago’s plan did work by Lodovico saying:
“Oh spartan dog, more fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea: Look on this bed. This is thy work” this sentence basically explains what tragic destruction Iago has done
The important factors about act 1 and act 5 is they both open and close the plot of the film/story Othello. By this I mean in the viewers know something big is going to happen and it does at the end.
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OTHELLO
Conclusion:
Shakespeare has shown Othello as a tragic hero.
Shakespeare’s intention on Othello is to show a play about racism and domestic violence. On a more subtle level it is a play of lies, greed, intolerance and deception. These qualities are brought to the play through Iago, the Villain, who illustrates these issues, chiefly, through his soliloquies. These soliloquies are most useful in this situation as they show Iago’s true feelings. Iago, as a character, is constantly presenting himself to the audience through his soliloquies, illustrating to us a choice of ‘motives’ to justify his actions, consequently the soliloquy becomes the key to what it is that makes Iago tick.
My first impressions of Othello in this play are of him as a noble a courageous man. He is portrayed as a simple soldier. He also seems to have a very positive relationship with Iago. Along side those positive images Shakespeare prepares us for the evil deeds that Othello will commit later in the play. For example, if he were a more moral man then he would have ignored Iago when he was trying to exploit the deceit of Desdemona’s father:
“She deceived me and may well you”
Brabantio said this to Othello when he found out Desdemona had picked Othello over her father; Iago overheard this and decided to exploit it in his own plotting manner.
Another example of the courageousness of Othello when he is urged to hide from the outraged father, he refuses to run away; he feels secure in the rightness of his position:
“My parts, my title, and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly.”
Love is something new to Othello, and his reaction to Desdemona has a mature intensity that is almost frightening in its richness.
