Man, Shakespeare loves his miscommunication something awful.
Even his comedies feature people
misunderstanding each other, making incorrect assumptions and jumping to conclusions.
And when he writes a tragedy rooted in a failure to communicate, the tragedy is doubled by how easily it could have been prevented.
Othello is the story of one guy who tricks a bunch of people into hating and killing each other for basically no reason and
part of the reason why it's such an effective tragedy is how easily the whole mess could have been prevented if two people would just
talked to each other. And with that, I leave you with the tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice. Othello begins by throwing
us straight into the action with the secret marriage of Othello and Desdemona and the introduction of our two primary
antagonists: this weedy bloke Rodrigo
and this dude Iago. Rodrigo is a whiny idiot in love with Desdemona. Iago is the main villain of the piece and also,
arguably, the main character. He gets far more lines than anybody else, and he's the only character whose inner monologues are vocalized. Anyway,
Iago's motivation is kind of unclear. The only thing we know for certain is that he hates Othello,
but he's really good at disguising this fact and is also an expert manipulator,
so everybody loves him and thinks he's the most straightforward guy around.
In fact, they repeat this point so much that you have to wonder whether Iago is really good at tricking them, or if they're all
just terrible judges of character. Anyway, Iago initially Demonstrates his nefariousness by alerting
Desdemona's Daddy about the marriage in an attempt to get Othello in trouble. Daddy drags Othello before the Duke of Venice and the Duke's
all like, "Ah, just the man I wanted to see. Othello
 
I need you to go to Cyprus to defend them from the Turks or something." And Daddy's like, "But he married my daughter! He probably
used witchcraft or something because who would ever fall in love with someone like that?!?!"
That brings up an interesting side note: Othello's the only Shakespeare character who's explicitly of African origin. Although
there's a lot of scholarly debate over what part of Africa
he's from, his skin color and origin are referenced a lot in the play, usually derogatorily because racism isn't just for Americans kids.
Othello's like "What if I told you that Desdemona fell in love with me because of my intriguing and dangerous past?"
Oh, right, I forgot to mention this Othello's is played by Laurence
Fishburne, also known as Morpheus. And
Desdemona shows up and says, "God dad why you got to embarrass me so much?" So dad, he's like, "Oh, alright,
I guess you have my blessing or whatever." So then the Duke's like, "Okay. Well now that that settled, get your butt to Cyprus."
But Desdemona is like,
"Oh, I want to go too. That active war zone sounds like a great place to consummate my marriage!"
Because this is such a great plan the Duke immediately agrees. Iago persuades Rodrigo to disguise himself and go to Cyprus after the others
supposedly so that Rodrigo can then woo Desdemona. Because Iago's such a good friend, Rodrigo instantly agrees.
Now here's where the play kind of shifts focus.
Iago has a plan to completely destroy Othello's life and happiness, and this is where he starts to put it into effect.
So the plan goes like this:
He's gonna trick Othello into believing that Desdemona is having an affair with Othello's trusted lieutenant, a guy named Cassio.
Then he's going to feed Othello's paranoia until he snaps and kills Desdemona. Why is he doing this you might ask?
Well, I'd kind of like to know that too.
Iago's reason for hating Othello is one of those big questions that hasn't ever been adequately answered. Early on in the play he suggests
that there's a rumor that Othello slept with his wife, Emilia,
but it's never addressed, and there's never any evidence that it's anything close to true. Some theories just suggest that he's racist.
I don't know. Anyway, the crew arrives in Cyprus after a convenient storm wipes out the entire
Turkish fleet. Remember that? The reason they were going there in the first place. And following their arrival Rodrigo shows up too.
So here's where Iago sets the ball rolling on his dastardly plan. he first thing
he does is gets Cassio super drunk at this celebratory
party and then he tricks Rodrigo into picking a fight with Cassio by convincing him that his love Desdemona is going on dewy-eyed over the guy.
Because Rodrigo's an idiot, he gets his butt kicked,
which is somewhat unfortunate because it means that Cassio gets in trouble and Othello strips him of his rank.
Just as planned.
Now, Cassio is heartbroken and goes to cry on his good buddy
Iago's shoulder. Iago suggests that Cassio goes and talks to Desdemona who could then ask Othello to give Cassio another chance.
Cassio is like, "That's a great idea! Oh, you're such a good friend Iago;
I'd trust you with my life."
Just as planned.
So Cassio goes to Desdemona who promises to do everything in her power to convince Othello to give him a second chance.
In fact, she's so
passionate about it that she promises to constantly tell Othello how great Cassio is and how much he deserves another chance.
Iago, meanwhile, begins phase two of his plan. In this part
he starts suggesting to Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are getting busy when he isn't looking and that's why Desdemona is so set on
getting Cassio back in Othello's good graces.
This suggestion will make Othello paranoid and thus more vulnerable so he goes and tracks down Othello to have a little heart-to-heart about
Desdemona and successfully convinces the poor guy that Desdemona might be secretly having an affair.
Unsurprisingly, this seriously wigs Othello out. Iago enters phase three of the plan. For this step
he asked his wife, Emilia, to steal a handkerchief from Desdemona. How nefarious, right? No, no,
this is a special handkerchief. It is, in fact, the first present that Othello gave, Desdemona
and is very important to the both of them.
Luckily for him, Desdemona accidentally drops it so Emilia grabs it and gives it to Iago who goes and planted in Cassio's room.
Over to Othello. Othello's gotten very paranoid and upset from what Iago told him and orders Iago to bring him some real evidence
for his claim or else he'll make him regret it, Morpheus style. Fortunately for Iago
he won't have to face the full fury of Othello's Kung-Fu because, as we know,
he can prove to him that Cassio is in possession of a sign of Desdemona's affection.
Just as planned.
Stage four of the dastardly plan of dastardness: Iago knows that Cassio has been engaging in bedroom
shenanigans with a woman named Bianca and he's rather smitten with her. So, while Othello hides and listens in on their
conversation, Iago strikes up a conversation with Cassio about the beautiful love of his life, that Iago is very careful not the name, so that
Cassio can happily rant about how great she is in bed
and how he plans on marrying her soon. Othello, just as Iago planned, interprets this as a discussion of Desdemona.
Yeah, we get it.
Then Bianca storms in demanding to know why Cassio left another woman's handkerchief in her chambers.
Yep, it's Desdemona's alright.
This scrap of evidence is enough for Othello to believe everything Iago told him and he decides to kill Desdemona for what she's supposedly
done to him. Iago, while they're on the subject, helpfully volunteers to murder Cassio.
But then some plot stuff happens that isn't directly caused by Iago.
Crazy, am I right?
Messengers from Venice arrived with Desdemona in tow to tell Othello that since the Turkish fleet was helpfully sunk by that storm,
he's being called back to Venice tomorrow and Cassio will stay behind to keep track of Cyprus. Othello ignores the messengers and instead confronts
Desdemona calling her all kinds of nasty names before storming off.
Desdemona is, of course, horrified and confused and turns to her dear old friend Iago.
So Iago comforts Desdemona saying that Othello must be tired from all that politics he supposedly had to do.
Just as Desdemona leaves, Rodrigo storms in demanding to know why Iago's win-over-Desdemona-in-just three-days-by-
-growing-a-beard-and-using-all-your- money plan has instead left him broke, pissed and beardy.
So Iago persuades him to go and murder Cassio, which must sound like an amazing idea because Rodrigo runs right out there and tries to stab the poor guy.
Luckily Cassio is still a protagonist and easily,
but non fatally, shanks Rodrigo.
Unfortunately for Cassio, Iago
chooses this moment to stab him in the leg from behind and flee secretly into the night, from which he emerges a moment later looking
appropriately concerned for his health. As soon as he learns who attacked Cassio,
he zips over to Rodrigo and stabs him around 15 times in the chest.
Over to Othello, who's talking to Desdemona. He's like, "Yeah, I'm gonna kill you now,
so you should pray so your soul can go to heaven." And Desdemona is like, "But I haven't even done anything!" And then Othello
suffocates her, but apparently she survives just long enough to give some tragic last words before finally biting it.
Othello justifies his murder to Emilia by explaining that Desdemona had cheated on him and Iago told him everything. And Emilia, of course, is like
"And you listened to him?!?!"
"My husband is a lying a-hole to
everybody you idiot!" Iago and a bunch of other dudes come running in and Emilia is like, "Iago
you're lying ways got Desdemona murdered!"
And Othello's like, "No, Iago is an honest guy. Desdemona was clearly just a slut of epic proportions."
Iago was like, "Listen to the man dear; he knows what he's talking about." And Emilia is like,
"Hey, remember that handkerchief that precipitated this whole mess? Well
I was the one who found it and gave it to Iago
and he was the one who put it in Cassio's room!" This revelation, of course, causes Iago's whole web of lies to come crashing down
around him, prompting him to shank Emilia and flee. He is immediately caught and dragged back in where a fellow stabs him,
but doesn't kill him because, at this point, Othello is thinking of death as pretty much the best thing ever. He explains the whole
mess to Cassio and a couple of other guys who brought Cassio and also revealed that Rodrigo had written down the whole plan, helpfully
verifying his story. Othello gives a kick-ass tell-my-story speech, and then, like all the best tragic heroes, stabs himself.
Yay!
Say something. I'm [giving] up on you
I'm sorry, no
oh
Say something no
