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With 154 sonnets and 37 plays, Shakespeare and his legacy of work continues to

influence his followers even after decades. There are a number of plays written by Shakespeare

which conquer brilliancy and have profoundly affected the English culture and Western

literature.

Before talking about the overview and plot structure which is required in order to

understand Othello’s history, Othello was initially performed and executed on the 1st of

November, 1604 by the King’s Men of the Court of King James I. Othello was written during a

tragic phase in Shakespeare’s life – compositions of Antony and Cleopatra (1606-1607),

Macbeth (1606), King Lear (1604-1605) and Hamlet (1600) were also included during his phase.

Othello is a famous story which was set in the wars conducted between Turkey and

Venice that took place in the end of 16th century. What happened was the Cyprus at that time was

witnessing the most action and was acting like an outpost to Venetian which was being attacked

by Turkish in 1570 who later ended up conquering them in the same year. According to the

information by Shakespeare on the Turkish-Venetian conflict was concluded from the famous,

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The History of the Turks written Richard Knolles – the book was published in England in year

1603.

Another source which was used in the composition of Othello was the Cinthio – an

Italian prose tale which was written by Giovannia Battista Giraldi Cinzo in 1565. Originally, the

story contains Shakespeare’s own bare bares plot: A typical Moorish general was betrayed by his

own ensign and believed that his wife is not faithful to him. Following Cinthio’s version,

Shakespeare used it and added more characters like the grief-stricken and outraged Brabanzio

and dupe rich and young Roderigo. Shakespeare, spectacularly, used all the action and

compressed it into a few days saga and set it against the military conflict backdrop. Most notable

is how he turned minor villain, the ensign, into Iago, an arch-villain.

Coming to the overview of the plot, Othello starts on the streets of Venice, in the middle

of argument which is conducted between Iago and a rich man, Roderigo. It is shown that

Roderigo is paying Iago in order to assist him in suit for Desdemona. However, Roderigo learns

that she is married to Othello, a general who Iago serves as an ensign. Iago shares his hatred for

Othello who chose an inexperienced soldier named Michael Cassio for the lieutenant position

and not Iago who deserved it more.

Stated in a concealed manner, Roderigo and Iago cry to Brabanzio that Desdemona, his

daughter is stolen and married to the Moor, Othello. Indeed later on, Brabanzio notices that his

daughter is nowhere to be found, which makes him send a number of officers in the pursuit to

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find Othello. Playing a smart game and not letting anyone know how he hated Othello, Iago

leaves Roderigo and then goes to Othello, rushing before Brabanzio finds him.

Cassio arrives at the Othello’s lodgings with an urgent, important message which was

sent to him from the duke – it stated that they require help and assistant of Othello in order to

deal with the matter of Turkish invasion on Cyprus. Not a lot of time later, Brabanzio along with

Roderigo and other officials arrive at Othello’s place and accuse him of using witchcraft to steal

his daughter. When Brabanzio notices that Othello is on his way to meet the Duke, he decides to

go along and accuse him in front of the assembled senate.

This is the point where the plan of Brabanzio backfires. The senate and the duke share

their sympathy towards Othello in this matter. They gave Othello a chance to speak on his behalf

and further explained that he did win and woo Desdemona, but not through any magical

witchcraft – but through the stories of his own war and travel adventure. Listening to his stories,

duke found the explanation of Othello convincing and later, Desdemona makes an entry and

defends her choice towards marriage and then tells her father that her loyalty is now towards her

husband only. This made Brabanzio angry but allows and acquiesce the senate to resume the

meeting. The duke further says that Othello needs to go to Cyprus in in order to defend his

country against Turkey. Listening to this, Desdemona tells her husband that she needs to go with

him to the trip and later she made preparations to leave later that night.

Following the day in Cyprus, there were two gentlemen who stood on the shore with the

governor of Cyprus, Montano. The third gentleman reports to the Turkish fleet that there has

been a wreck through the storm in the sea. At that time during the storm at the sea, Cassio’s ship

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was not wrecked and he later arrived with other ships that carried Emilia (Iago’s wife),

Desdemona, Roderigo and Iago. Once they landed, they could see Othello’s ship and then the

group left for the harbor. As they waited to come for Othello, Cassio with a smile claps his hands

to greet Desdemona.

As Othello arrives, he greets his wife and then announces that later in the evening they

will celebrate the safety of Cyprus from the hands of Turks. Once everyone leaves, Roderigo

tells Iago that there is no chance they can break-up the marriage of Othello. Iago further assures

to Roderigo that as soon as the blood of Desdemona becomes dull through the sport act, she will

lose her interest in the personality of Othello and they look for sexual pleasure from someone

else. However, later, Iago warns that the ‘elsewhere’ will be Cassio.

Later the same night, Cassio is made drunk by Iago and provokes Roderigo to start a

fight. Roderigo is chased around the stage and then Montano, the governor stops Cassio but

Cassio without any senses stabs him. This is when Iago sends Roderigo to raise an alarm in their

town.

As soon as the alarm rung, Othello left his plans for consummating the marriage and then

arrived at the commotion. When Othello asked how the fight began, Iago tells him that Cassio

who is his “friend” did it but then tells the entire story. Cassio becomes upset as Othello removes

him from the rank of lieutenant. Iago makes Othello flare up and jealous as he frames

Desdemona and Cassio as lovers.

In order to share an act of reconciliation, Cassio orders musicians to play underneath the

window of Othello. However, Othello sends his clown and makes him send the musicians away.

In order to arrange a meeting and talk with Desdemona, Cassio order the clown who is also the

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peasant who works for Othello to bring Emilia to him. As a gentleman, Iago and Othello go to

see fortifications of the town; Cassio tries to find ways to speak privately with Desdemona.

Cassio makes a request to Desdemona about what Othello did to him and Desdemona

was very sympathetic to him and promised him she will do something about it. Iago and Othello

return as soon as Cassio is about to leave. Othello ask Cassio and Iago tries to flare things up

again, which makes Othello jealous. Iago continues to make things uneasy between the couple.

After a number of deceiving and misunderstandings, Iago commits the murder of killing

Emilia and then leaves, but he was caught by Montano and Lodovico who made the comeback

by having Iago in captive. Before this, Othello killed the love of his, Desdemona. He kills her

while she was asleep in her bed. She pleads for her innocence, but Othello did not listen to him

as he believed in what Iago told him. Before dying, she tells Emilia that she committed suicide

but, in reality, Othello tells Emilia that he killed her due to her cheating.

On the other hand, Montano and Lodovico also had Cassio who was wounded and had to

be in a chair. Othello then wounds Iago and then he is disarmed. Lodovico advices Othello that

he needs to come back and come with them to Venice. Once Othello makes a decision, he makes

a speech on how he needs to be remembered and then he kills himself. He uses the sword which

he had hidden under his own person. Lodovico, who was left in-charge, gave the goods and

house of Othello to Graziano and orders that Iago must be executed.

Othello is said to be one of the best and the most popular plays written by William

Shakespeare as the play focused on the themes of sexuality, gender conflict, racial prejudice,

marriage, love, politics, military, evil and the good (1). However, the debate and controversy

revolving around Othello is that why is it a qualification to a tragedy?

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Fans and readers of Shakespeare know that there are acts of death or famous leading role

deaths in his plays. And whenever the main character of the play dies, the readers would call the

play as a tragedy. The main problem towards the definition of tragedy is that a lot of tragic plays

do not outline of the tragedy as the explanations given by Aristotle (2). However, this was not in

the case of Othello.

As per the Telford (1961), a tragedy is known as a work of literary that properly describes

the failure of a well-known and honorable character who was socially and historically involved

in a number of events (3). The main tragic hero or character has a number of qualities that lead to

their own failure and destruction. According to the point of view of Aristotle, a tragedy play is

what the main hero has a lot of pressure (4).

In case of Othello, this is true as he was dealing with the political crises along with his

marriage. He was a jealous man and could not focus once his mind was being infected by false

stories by someone who claimed to be true towards Othello. This along with the lovely

composition of play makes Othello a tragic story and one of the best works.

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(1) Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2013). Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry,

drama, and writing. (7 ed., pp. 944-1115). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education.

(2) Myers, H. A. (1949). Aristotle's study of tragedy. Educational Theatre Journal, 1(2),

115. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1290192594?

accountid=12085

(3) Telford, K. A. (1961) Aristotle's poetics. New York: University Press of America.

(4) Shakespeare Quarterly, 35, 142. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/

740689230?accountid=12085