Discussing how iago, roderigo, brabantio and Othello are presented in the opening scene of the play Othello.

COURSEWORK OTHELLO BY: ADABEL.

In this essay I will be discussing how iago, roderigo, brabantio and Othello are presented in the opening scene of the play OTHELLO. I will also be discussing the stage directions, and how I as a director will direct the play.

In act 1 scene 1 we are first introduced to iago and roderigo. The scene is started with an argument between them. Roderigo is furious because iago has not performed his duty by preventing Desdemona from being with Othello. Roderigo loves Desdemona but she loves Othello so roderigo hates Othello and wants to ruin their relationship. Iago on the other hand hates Othello because he did not make him lieutenant; instead he gave the post to Michael Cassio.

These two characters dislike Othello and decide to ruin his reputation and hes relationship with Desdemona by telling her father, brabantio who does not know about his daughter and Othello. They go outside his house one night and tell him about his daughter’s secret relationship with Othello. This makes him very angry with Othello and his precious Desdemona. This is a brief intro of what happens in this scene.

The directors of this play gives it an explosive start by starting off with a very big argument between iago and roderigo, this argument gives us a brief history on why Othello is very much hated by roderigo and iago this technique is exposition because we now know what is going on and why it is happening, from this we get our first impressions of the characters in this scene. We obtain our first impressions of the characters by observing the way they speak, act and what they do.

This first scene has given us quite a negative approach and impression on iago. He seems very determined to ruin the life of Othello; he seems to be much smarter than roderigo, during the conversation with him and roderigo he says;

“I follow him to serve my turn upon him “

this shows the length that iago has decided to go just to have his revenge on him, the means that he will pretend to be his noble follower but behind his back he is an enemy. Another quote that illustrates this is

“Were I the moor, I would not be iago; in following him,

I follow but myself”.

This again suggest the same meaning, it means that when his with Othello he will not be himself, (the backstabbing, ruthless iago), but his doing it for himself, to get his revenge. Iago has many reasons for acting the way he does, his reasons may not be right or logical but he believes in them so strongly that he is willing to kill and destroy people’s lives in the process of completing them. His entire motives stem from one thing, jealousy, all of Iago’s motives are due to this single feeling. His revenge comes from wanting to avenge the people he is jealous of. He seems to elaborate on these initial ideas until he think that every body has slept with his wife, for this he wants further revenge. In his quest for revenge he uses Roderigo for money and the strangest reason of all; he seems to enjoy what he is doing!

Iago becomes very jealous of Othello because of his position in the Venetian Army. Iago feels that black men cannot rise above him because they are black. Iago frequently refers to Othello as the 'Moor´ and the 'Black Ram´, with these statements Iago is implying that Othello is worse than white people and because of his race he should not hold the position he does in the army. Out of this racism also extents the jealousy of Othello´ wife, Desdemona. He seems to have reason to want revenge for Othello over looking him for promotion and giving it to Cassio ...

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His jealously is also for Cassio too, and this is because he feels he should have been promoted to Lieutenant and not Cassio, he also insults cassio for this

“that never set a squadron in the field, nor the division of a a battle knows more than a spinster”

He is saying that Cassio has never fought in a real battle and he refers to him as a spinster, a woman. From these observations we can see that iago is a Machiavellian, through his cunning, scheming and scrupulous behaviours.

Roderigo, another character we meet at the beginning of this scene, he also dislikes Othello because of Desdemona, and he pays iago money to ruin their relationship, because he is in love with Desdemona. This also is an act of jealousy towards Othello because he is married to the woman he loves. In this scene, roderigo is very furious and anxious to ruin their relationship, he tells Brabantio about his daughter’s secret relationship with Othello. Roderigo with all the anger and hatred built up in him, describes Othello using a lot of bad words and racist comment, we can also tell that he is not happy with his life,

“What a full fortune does the thick lip owe?”

This shows that he is jealous and racist. He not only calls him thick lips, he also comments on the fortune that he has, this is probably another reason why he’s jealous of Othello. We get the impression that Roderigo not only hates Othello but probably wants him dead when he says;

“By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman”

Now we get the impression that although roderigo is more anxious and hateful toward Macbeth than Iago, he is also malcontent, his not satisfied with what he has and wants more by ruining Othello.

ADABEL OKI

In this scene, we also see that Roderigo’s level of hatred just doesn’t stop there, he and Iago set of to get Brabantio, Desdemona’s father to hate Othello also by telling him his daughter is with Othello and also describing to Brabantio using very negative and racist comments, giving him a bad impression of Othello, “lascivious moor” this is a bad comment made by Roderigo to give Brabantio a bad impression on Othello.

Brabantio, last character we meet in this scene he is portrayed as a very irritable and authoritative old man. when he was woken by Iago and Roderigo, to inform him about his daughter, he got annoyed and said “what is the reason for this terrible summons?” this shows that he is indeed an irritable man, and also he did not believe what they said about his daughter and Othello, and called Roderigo a villain “thou art a villain” this shows that he didn’t believe what they said at first .This can also show that he has trust for his daughter. After much persuasion, brabantio believed them and realised that his daughter was not home. His attitude then changes and he becomes really angry at his daughter and the trust he had for her had gone he said

“For hence, trust not your daughter mind”

From this we see that Brabantio is a credulous man, from listening to iago and roderigo, he now believes that Othello is a wicked man and he only wants his daughter for sexual reasons.

Othello was not present in this scene, but we get our impressions of him, by judging from the way he is presented by iago and roderigo. They have portrayed him as a very wicked, and others suggesting animal imagery like 'Barbary Horse'. Iago refers to Othello's race only, which takes away his individuality as a person. Iago provokes Brabantio by telling him graphic stories about Othello and Desdemona. No father wants to hear about their daughter like that so it is obvious by telling Brabantio it is going to get him angry at Othello, which is what Iago wants as it will help in his plan to destroy Othello. This creates a negative view of Othello, but also somewhat makes the audience feel sorry for him as Iago is in the process of demolishing his reputation as a good person.

Iago uses vulgar, sexual and animal imagery to describe both Othello and Desdemona when he says" an old black ram is tupping your white ewe". This line has both the effect of upsetting Brabantio and also making the audience think of Othello as a very base and lecherous character because it is implied that he is only with Desdemona for sexual gratification. Roderigo also describes Othello as "lascivious" which reiterates Iago's view of Othello only being interested in sexual fulfilment and he describes him as "an extravagant and wheeling stranger of here and everywhere". The latter view hints at the fact that Othello is not fully accepted into Venetian society and is considered a "stranger".

This unflattering first picture of Othello is then worsened by the obvious contempt Brabantio shows for him when he is told of Othello's marriage to his daughter Desdemona. Overall we can see that although Othello has not being portrayed as a good person, the audience might have another impression of him because we know now, the kind of people Iago and Roderigo are. ADABEL OKI

Haven watched the movie version of Othello; I have noticed that it is more effective than reading the book because it has various techniques used to create a mood and the atmosphere. It is more effective because we can see the facial expressions of the characters, good stage directions, stage lights to add effects and emphasise different moods etc. as I director, I would use all this various techniques.

The play starts at night, two men (Iago and Roderigo) having an argument about Othello, to give the audience an impression that iago and roderigo are evil I will give the background dark and dim lights like red, I will also add a little bit of smoke to the background to really emphasise the level of evil created within this two people also this will immediately catch the audiences attention making them concentrate more. When iago and roderigo refer to Othello using negative comments and racist words,

“By heaven I rather would have been his hang man”

I will focus the dim red light on Roderigo’s face to show the level of hate he has for Othello, I will also advice him to show a lot of anger and jealousy in his facial expression. To let the audience know the kind of character he is.

When iago says:

“Where I the moor, I would not be iago; in following him, I fol follow but myself”.

He would not emphasise anger like roderigo, he will show a lot of evil, envy and enjoyment to show that although he hates Othello, he also enjoys what he is doing and planning to do. Overall, I will advice each character to use a lot of facial expressions to show how thy feel and their different emotions. The character playing Brabantio must have a very loud and royal voice to show that he is authoritative and when he says

“What is the reason of this terrible summons?”

He should shout a little bit to show he’s very irritable. For sound effects, I will use sounds of owls and crickets to show that its night when roderigo and iago start arguing and plotting against Othello, I will use sounds of wind to show the presence of evil. As we go deep into the scenes, I will use tensed music to create tension and other dramatic music to suit the mood and atmosphere. For the settings of act I scene 1 , I will put iago and roderigo behind a castle ( brabantio house), they will be standing behind a tree to show that the are having a secret meeting. When Brabantio is summoned, I will have him stand at a window looking down at roderigo but not iago as he is still hiding behind the tree.

I will use appropriate costumes for the characters depending on what version of the film is being made. If its an old version, they will wear clothes worn in those days, but if it’s a modern version, I will direct them to wear dark coloured clothes.

ADABEL OKI