The First Senator notes the arrival of Othello and Brabantio with the words:
“Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor.”
He refers to Brabantio by name, but, dismissively, identifies Othello only by his ethnicity. In contrast, the Duke says:
“Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman.”
Immediately, we know that the Duke sees Othello as the man to solve this crisis. He too, uses the adjective ‘valiant’, but makes a point of using Othello’s name. The Duke greets Othello before Brabantio, and he gently scolds Brabantio for being absent from his crisis meeting. This establishes that the Duke has great respect for Othello, and despite the racism shown by other characters in the play, the Duke recognises him as a good man and soldier.
However, the audience is also aware that Othello is there in disgrace: he has eloped with Desdemona, Brabantio’s daughter. Against the convention of the times, he has ‘stolen’ a bride, without her father’s permission. Brabantio is not in the council chamber in his capacity as a Senator, but to denounce Othello for this evil deed. The entrance is extremely dramatic, as Brabantio enters with Othello, Cassio, Iago, Roderigo and Officers: there are many people, and, one would imagine, a lot of noise, shouting and commotion.
Ignoring the political crisis, Brabantio launches straight into his story, and accuses Othello. He says his daughter is:
“… abus’d, stol’n from me and corrupted
by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.”
He shows his racism in this, assuming that the only way Othello could have won Desdemona is through black magic, or drugging her.
After the accusations are laid down by Brabantio, Othello is given the chance to explain himself to the Duke and Senators. To start his speech, he uses three adjectives: “Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,” This emphasises the fact that he is respectful toward the Senate and is making sure he starts his explanation with them thinking well of him. Shakespeare uses Iambic Pentameter in this speech as the rhythm of the verse attracts the attention of the audience more. It almost forces you to listen to the speech as Othello speaks in this metre which makes this passage seem important and vital to the outcome of the scene. The use of alliteration also benefits the emphasis of the speech because the alliterated phrase puts attention on that particular point. It is used when Othello says lines like:
“…feats of broil and battle”
“What conjuration and what mighty magic-”
The use of devices like alliteration add colour to the speech and paint a picture in your mind of what Othello is talking about, in this case either battles he has fought or the power of magic.
When Othello says:
“And little of this great world can I speak
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself.”
This tells us that Othello may know he is uneducated compared to these men and knows nothing but to be a soldier. This of course, as Aristotle said, is his ‘flaw’ which will echo throughout the rest of the play. In situations such as Iago’s plot against him or Desdemona’s unfailing love toward him, he is almost oblivious to the subtleties of human nature – which inevitably will be his downfall. In his speech he tells the Senate about his life, and how he and Brabantio used to be great friends. Othello told them about he used to be invited to Brabantio’s house often and he was asked to tell stories of his various battles and wars, travels and adventures. He also told the Senate that Desdemona used to always listen to his stories and even when “…the house affairs would draw her thence” She would still return and listen some more. Othello states that this was the reason Desdemona fell in love with him.
Brabantio completely and adamantly apposes this. He says how could Desdemona “…fall in love with what she fear’d to look on?” Then he tells the Senate that he is sure Othello must have used magic or drugs to win Desdemona:
“That with some mixtures powerful o’er the blood
Or with some drain conjour’d to this effect
He wrought upon her.”
Obviously this would have made Othello downhearted, but he is seemingly calm in his argument. He tells Iago to go and fetch Desdemona so she will come and speak to Brabantio. He tells the senate:
“If you do find me foul in my report,
The trust, the office, I do hold of you,
Not only take away, but let your sentence
Even fall upon my life.”
He is so sure that Desdemona will verify their love that he bets his position as general and even his life on her statement. At this point the audience are unaware of the situation between Othello and Desdemona and to them it could be possible that Othello could have used magic or drugs, as Brabantio suggests. However, they audience would find this unlikely now that their confidence has won by Othello’s speech. Nevertheless, when Iago is sent to fetch Desdemona, the audience is oblivious to the possible outcome of the scene.
The entrance of Desdemona gives a new perspective to the scene, as we are now able to find out her side of the story. She begins by talking to Brabantio and telling him how much she respects him and how she is bound to him. She then goes on to say that even though she is his daughter and therefore ‘his property’ by the standards of the time, she is now the wife to Othello and therefore must honour him more. In her quote:
“I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband;
And so much duty as my mother show’d
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord.”
Desdemona’s eloquent speech, in verse shows her to be well-spoken and educated. This would have made her argument stand up all the more before the Senate and win the confidence of the audience.
When Desdemona insists on accompanying Othello to Cyprus, not only does it show that she is bound to him wherever he goes, but that she is strong-willed and brave enough to go with to him to this war zone.
In the early 1600s, when Othello is thought to have been written, the attitude towards women was very different to what it is today. They were thought of as merely property and not people in their own right. Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, believes she belongs to him and should show him the utmost respect. When he finds out she has eloped with Othello, he is utterly furious. When he runs into the senate, he says:
“Brabantio: My daughter! O, my daughter!
Senators: Dead?
Brabantio: Ay to me
She is abus’d, stol’n from me, and corrupted”
This shows that Brabantio thinks that just because of her marriage to Othello, he would rather she were dead. When he calls her "abus'd", he's implying that Othello had taken her against her will. Also calling her "corrupted" is implying that his beautiful, virginal daughter, who should have been taken into a good and lawful marraige has been tainted and he can never get her back how she was.
After Othello’s speech, Brabantio does not excuse their marriage, but he acknowledges that there is nothing he can do about it. He tells Othello that he can ‘have’ Desdemona as if she were an object:
“I here do give thee that with all my heart
Which but though hast already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee.”
Brabantio, subsequent to this, disowns Desdemona completely and leaves, not to return for the rest of the play.
At the end of Act One, Scene Three, Iago is left onstage with Roderigo where they have a conversation. Iago, clever as he is, is talking in prose to Roderigo, using much rougher termst o show that he is able to communicate with Roderigo who is a much rougher character. They talk together as two men in any kind of bar or pub would about money and sex which is completely contradicted after Roderigo has exited and Iago is left alone onstage. He speaks for the first time about his plans. He is still bitter that Othello chose Michael Cassio as his lieutenant instead of him and he wants to exact his revenge. He plans to also use Roderigo in his plan, as he knows he is much cleverer than Roderigo and will able to outsmart him whenever the opportunity arises. This is shown when Iago calls Roderigo his “fool”. His plan involves getting Roderigo to give him money in the form of a gift to Desdemona which he will never actually pass on, thus he will make Roderigo “…his purse”.
Iago also believes that both Othello and Cassio have “…done my office ‘twixt my sheets”, meaning he believes both men have slept with his wife. He is unsure as to whether this information is correct but he wants to integrate it in his plan so he says:
“Yet I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will hold it for surety.”
Personally, I don't believe, from what we have seen of Othello's character, he would have done what Iago suggested and slept with Emilia. From what we have seen, Othello seems to be a noble man, and he holds Desdemona as his only love. I also don't believe that even Iago actually believes the rumours about Othello and Emilia, but he needs to make himself belive it to justify his plans to the audeince but most of all to himself.
In these lines:
"Let me see now;
To get his place and plume up my will
In double knavery. How? How? Let's see."
Shakespeare shows Iago is formulating a plan using a number of devices. For example, Iago is questioning, and then answering himself. The form of speech he is using is Stream of Conciousness. He's speaking each new idea as he thinking it, thus giving the audience an idea of the evolution of his plan. When speaking these lines, Iago would probably looking around quickly, and maybe gesticulating quite a lot as his plan unravelled within his mind. His movement might even be quite jerky and skittish as he was taken aback by the ‘brilliance’ of his plan.
When Iago admits that Cassio is a “proper man” and Othello “...is of a free and open nature”, this doesn't mean he doesn’t want to plot against them, no matter how much he respects either of them. He feels his reasons are just enough which, to him, outweighs the fact that both men are noble and good.
The last two lines of Iago's soliloquy at the end of Act One Scene Three are:
"I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light."
These would make the audience excited and apprehensive because the language used by Iago would make the audience think that his plan was going to be so evil and affect so many people, it would change the entire play for every one of the characters.
At the end of the soliloquy by Iago, I felt like I had an idea of how the rest of the play might unfold. Iago had outlined his plans for everyone and it gave me a sense of what effect it would have on each character. During the soliloquy, I did not really “hate” or “fear” Iago, but when he finished, the last two lines of his speech made me understand actually how evil and sadistic his plan was. It was then I felt a sense of disconcertion towards him, even though you could see that the method he used to formulate the plan and the fact that he managed to weave everyone he wanted to hurt into one plan was completely ingenious.
As I said before, Act One Scene Three is a vital scene to the outcome of this play as each character starts on a journey that will lead them through the rest of the plot. As Aristotle said, a tragic hero has a 'fatal flaw' and it is in this scene that Othello's flaw is revealed: his naivety and lack of understanding of human nature means Iago's plan to deceive him will work. This will lead to Othello's suspicions about Desdemona and ultimately her death and his suicide. Othello seems unaware of the racism of the people around him; his innocence of human nature means he assumes people accept him for what he is in the same way he accepts others.
This is the first scene in the play where we truly get to know the character of Othello. He is presented as a brave and noble soldier whose war record is impeccable and who has the trust and admiration of the Duke, his leader. He is eloquent, humble, and we warm to him because of Desdemona's obvious love towards him. In Shakespeare's time, the audience would have been likely to have been inherently racist, by our standards, so Shakespeare presents him as a man above reproach, a man we have no choice but to admire and like.
The scene sets up the circumstances to send everyone to Cyprus. Othello is sent to lead the army which means Cassio, Iago and others must follow him as he is their commander. Desdemona also wishes to accompany Othello and Roderigo follows Desdemona after what he and Iago talked about because he feels he has a chance of winning her.
In conclusion, Act One, Scene Three, a very long scene by Shakespearean standards, sets up the characters and conflicts for the rest of the play, and foreshadows the tragic outcome. In Iago's dark closing couplet, he tells us his plan is "engender'd", or concieved. In the rest of the play, we will see the birth of the monster he creates and the tragedy that will ensue.
by
Matthew Smithies 10M
