Othello
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The Tragedy of Othello, The Moore of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare written around 1603.
The play is a concentrated, tightly-constructed domestic tragedy with almost no sub-plot relief, revolving around five or six central characters. Othello's ill-placed trust in the villain Iago, resulting in his growing suspicion in his wife Desdemona's infidelity with his lieutenant Cassio, led to the ultimate tragedy. Othello is commonly considered one of Shakespeare's great tragedies, and one of his finest works.
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[edit] Performance and Publication
Othello possesses an unusually detailed performance record. The first certainly-known performance occurred on November 1, 1604, at Whitehall Palace in London. Subsequent performances took place on Monday, April 30, 1610 at the Globe Theatre; on Nov. 22, 1629; and on May 6, 1635 at the Blackfriars Theatre. Othello was also one of the twenty plays performed by the King's Men during the winter of 1612-13, in celebration of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V, Elector Palatine.
The play was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on Oct. 6, 1621 by the bookseller Thomas Walkley, and was first published in quarto format by him in 1622, printed by Nicholas Okes. Its appearance in the First Folio (1623) quickly followed. Later quartos followed in 1630, 1655, 1681, 1695, and 1705; on stage and in print, it was a popular play.
At the start of the Restoration era, on Oct. 11, 1660, Samuel Pepys saw the play at the Cockpit Theatre. Nicholas Burt played the lead. Soon after, on Dec. 8, Thomas Killigrew's new King's Company acted the play at their Vere Street theatre, with Margaret Hughes as Desdemona—probably the first time a professional actress appeared on a public stage in England.
It may be one index of the play's power that Othello was one of the very few Shakespearean plays that was never adapted and changed during the Restoration and the eighteenth century.[1]
[edit] Synopsis
Othello, a "noble Moor" who has just eloped with the fair Desdemona when the play opens, leaves Venice to command the Venetian armies against the Turks on the island of Cyprus, accompanied by his new wife and his lieutenant, Cassio. When they arrive, they find that the weather has destroyed the Turkish fleet. Iago, his ensign, plants Desdemona's handkerchief on Cassio, managing to convince Othello that his wife has been unfaithful which makes him angry. Othello smothers Desdemona out of jealousy, before Iago's wife, Emilia, eventually reveals that Desdemona's affair was Iago's invention. Iago kills his wife and then Othello commits suicide in grief. At the end, it can be assumed, Iago is taken off to be tortured and possibly executed.
[edit] Source
The plot for Othello was developed from a story in Cinthio's (Giraldi Cinzio) collection, the Hecatommithi, which it follows closely. The only named character in Cinthio's story is "Disdemona", which means "unfortunate" in Greek; the other characters are identified only as "the standard-bearer", "the captain", and "the Moor". In the original, the standard-bearer lusts after Disdemona and is spurred to revenge when she rejects him.
William Shakespeare invented a new character, Roderigo, who pursues the Moor's wife and is killed while trying to murder the captain. Unlike Othello, the Moor in Cinthio's story never repents the murder of his beloved, and both he and the standard-bearer escape Venice and are killed much later. Cinthio also drew a moral (which he placed in the mouth of the lady) that European women are unwise to marry the temperamental males of other nations.
[edit] Othello's race
Although the play is very much concerned with racial difference, the protagonist's specific race is not clearly indicated by Shakespeare. Othello is referred to as a "Moor", but for Elizabethan English people, this term could refer either to the Berbers (or Arabs) of North Africa, or to the people now called "black" (that is, people of sub-Saharan African descent). In his other plays, Shakespeare had previously depicted both a Berber Moor (in The Merchant of Venice) and a black Moor (in Titus Andronicus). In Othello, however, the references to the character's physical features do not settle the question of which race Shakespeare envisioned.
In his Arden edition of the play, E.A.J. Honigmann summarises the contradictory evidence. The various uses of the word 'black' (for example, "Haply for I am black") do not help, since 'black' could simply mean 'swarthy' for Elizabethans[2]. Iago twice uses the word 'Barbary' or 'Barbarian' to refer to Othello, apparently referring to the Barbary coast inhabited by the "white" Moors. Yet Roderigo also calls him 'the thicklips', which seems to refer to black physiognomy. Honigmann says that since these comments are all insults, they need not be taken literally.[3]
Honigmann also notes one piece of external evidence: an ambassador of the Arab King of Barbary with his retinue stayed in London in 1600 for several months and occasioned much discussion. Honigmann wonders whether Shakespeare's play, written only a year or two afterwards, might have been inspired by the ambassador. [4] Also, it should be noted that a real Othello might be a Berber or Arab than of entirely sub-Saharan African ancestry. On the other hand, sub-Saharans had visited the Mediterranean long before the time in which the events of the play are set, and a portrayal of Othello as sub-Saharan adds much to the feelings of alienation and suspicion that the audience must sense from him -- here is truly a stranger in a strange land, which makes his psychological plight all the more striking and his final inability to trust his wife the more "explainable" if he is constantly reminded of the fact that the two of them are from what would then be considered almost literally two different worlds. A Barbary Arab would not experience the same emotions; he might not be trusted but he would not be considered totally alien by the Venetians. Therefore when a Barbary Othello cannot trust Desdemona, the audience would be more likely to blame him and not pity him.
Also, interpretations of Othello's origins as Black were current as of the 1930s, when a performance of the play was banned in a southern state due to the problems with representing an idealized interracial love. The performance included a middle-age African-American performer.
Popular prejudice among average readers and theatre directors today leans towards the "black" interpretation, and "white" Othellos have been rare.[5] One exception is Patrick Stewart, who had wanted to play the title role since the age of 14, so he (along with director Jude Kelly), inverted the play so Othello became a White man in a Black Society.
[edit] Themes and Tropes
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[edit] Signifier and signified
Othello subverts traditional theatrical symbolism. A contemporary audience would have seen black skin as a sign of barbarism or satanism as Aaron is in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus: a "swarth Cimmerian... of body's hue spotted, detested and abominable" (Titus Andronicus, Act II, scene iii, ll. 72-74). A white soldier would have been understood of honesty. Iago indeed actively tries to convince other characters that Othello is a "barbary horse" that "covers" Desdemona, or a "black ram", horned and animalistically "tupping" her (Act I, scene i, l. 108, ll. 85-86); and that he himself is truthful to a fault. In Othello, however, the black character is a "noble" Christian; and the white soldier is a scheming liar.
Othello thus constantly challenges the link between a physical signifier and what is signified by it. For example, Iago – whose job as standard-bearer is to hold a sign of loyalty to Othello – says, of pretending to like the Moor: "Though I do hate him as I do hell pains/ Yet for necessity of present life/ I must show out a flag and sign of love/ Which is indeed but sign" (Act I, scene i, ll. 151-154a). Desdemona, too, sees a distinction between signifier and signified, saying she "saw Othello's visage in his mind" – not in his actual face (Act I, scene iii, l. 247). The play thus argues that the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary; the plot itself hinging on the significance of an utterly "made-up" sign – a handkerchief made to signify infidelity.
When Iago tells him Desdemona is an adulteress, Othello cries "Her name, that was as fresh/ As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black/ As mine own face" – leading to a suicidal conclusion: "If there be cords or knives/ Poison or fire, or suffocating streams/ I'll not endure it" (Act III, scene iii, ll. 383b-387a).
[edit] White / Black
The most basic aspects of symbology, that white signifies purity and black signifies evil – are repeatedly challenged in Othello. One example is in the character of Bianca. Her name in Italian means "white", yet, as Iago tells the audience, her name is again "but sign" of purity, as she is in fact "a housewife that by selling her desires buys herself bread and clothes" (Act IV, scene i, ll. 95-96). Ironically, just before Desdemona pleads with Othello that she is not a whore, Bianca too protests to an accuser that she is "no strumpet, but of life as honest/ As you that thus abuse me" (Act V, scene i, ll. 122-123)– leading the audience to realize that, just as with Desdemona, the only evidence anyone has that Bianca is a whore is Iago's word, and Cassio's (he calls himself a "customer," whore {Act IV, scene i, l. 117}).
[edit] Heaven / Hell
Heaven nevertheless remains a signifier of truth, and hell a signifier of misrepresentation in the play. The words thus recur frequently throughout Othello, as Othello struggles to join other signifiers to them: for example he says to an innocent Desdemona that "Heaven doth truly know that thou art false as hell". This shows strong contrasts between the two.
[edit] Iago / Othello
Although the title suggests that the tragedy belongs primarily to Othello, Iago is also an important role, with more lines than the title character. In Othello, it is Iago who manipulates all other characters at will, controlling their movements and trapping them in an intricate net of lies. A. C. Bradley — and more recently Harold Bloom — have been major advocates of this interpretation.
Other critics, most notably in the later twentieth century (after F. R. Leavis), have focused on Othello. Apart from the common question of jealousy, some argue that his honour is his undoing, while others address the hints of instability in his person (in Act IV Scene i, for example, he falls "into an epilepsy").
[edit] Sexuality
At the beginning of the 21st Century, several critics inferred that the relationship between the Moor and his Ancient is one of Shakespeare's characteristic subtexts of repressed homosexuality. Most notably David Somerton, Linford S. Haines and JP Doolan-York in their 2006 publication "Notes for Literature Students on the Tragedy of Othello," devote several chapters to arguing the case for 'Sexuality and Sexual Imagery' in the play. They analyze in great depth the play's climax, Act III Scene I, with its oaths, vows and formal, semi-ritualistic declarations of love and commitment as being a dark parody of a heterosexual wedding ceremony; they continue by saying that Iago replaces Desdemona in Othello's affections.
Somerton, Haines and York-Doolan come to the conclusion that Iago is a pre-Jungian expression of Shakespeare's shadow, his repressed sexuality(which remains the subject of much heated debate among today's scholars). This also would explain why the anti-protagonist of this tragedy is so much more appealing and developed as a character than in any of Shakespeare's other plays. The discourse concludes with the speculation that Shakespeare has drawn on the androphilia of Classical society and that Iago's unrequited love for the General is the explanation for his otherwise motiveless but passionate loathing.
It should be stressed that though there are arguments for this reading of the play's central relationship, it is a reading currently adopted only by a minority of critics.
[edit] Dramatis Personae
Persons Represented:
- Duke of Venice.
- Brabantio, also written Brabanzio, a Senator, father of Desdemona.
- Other Senators.
- Gratiano, Brother to Brabantio.
- Lodovico, Kinsman to Brabantio.
- Othello, a noble Moor, in the service of Venice.
- Cassio, his Florentine Lieutenant
- Iago, his Ancient, the antagonist of the play
- Roderigo, a Venetian Gentleman.He was in love with Desdemona.
- Montano, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus.
- Clown, Servant to Othello.
- Herald
- Desdemona, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello.
- Emilia, Wife to Iago, maid to Desdemona.
- Bianca, Mistress to Cassio.
- Miscellaneous: Officers, Gentlemen, Messenger, Musicians, Herald, Sailor, Attendants, servants etc.
[edit] Othello in performance
[edit] Opera
Othello is the basis for three operatic versions:
- The opera Otello (1816) by Gioacchino Rossini
- The opera Otello (1887) by Giuseppe Verdi
- The opera Bandanna, the opera (1999) by Daron Hagen [1]
In 1871 Arrigo Boito made an Othello libreto about the tragedy (Othello) of William Shakespeare.
[edit] Film
- See also Shakespeare on screen (Othello).
There have been several film adaptations of Othello. These include:
- Othello (1922) starring Emil Jannings. Silent. [2]
- The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952) by Orson Welles [3]
- Отелло (1955), USSR, starring Sergei Bondarchuk, Irina Skobtseva, Andrei Popov. Directed by Sergei Yutkevich. See Отелло at the Internet Movie Database
- Othello (1965) starring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay, and Joyce Redman [4]
- Othello (1981) part of the BBC's complete works of William Shakespeare. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Bob Hoskins. [5]
- Otello (1986) A film version of Verdi's opera, starring Plácido Domingo, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Won the BAFTA for foreign language film. [6]
- Othello (1995) starring Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Fishburne, and Irene Jacob. Directed by Oliver Parker. [7]
- Kaliyattam (1997), in Malayalam, a modern update, set in Kerala, starring Suresh Gopi as Othello, Lal as Iago, Manju Warrier as Desdemona, directed by Jayaraaj. [8]
- O (2001) a modern update, set in an American high school. Stars Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, and Josh Hartnett [9]
- Othello (2001). TV film. A modern-day adaptation in modern English, in which Othello is the first black Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police. Made for ITV by LWT. Scripted by Andrew Davies. Directed by Geoffrey Sax. Starring Eamonn Walker, Christopher Eccleston and Keeley Hawes. [10]
- Omkara (2006) (Hindi), a contemporary take of Othello set in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It stars Ajay Devgan as Omkara (Othello), Saif Ali Khan as Langda (Iago), Kareena Kapoor as Dolly (Desdemona), Vivek Oberoi as Kesu (Cassio), Bipasha Basu as Billo (Bianca) and Konkona Sen Sharma as Indu (Emilia). The film is directed by Vishal Bharadwaj who earlier adapted Shakespeare's Macbeth as Maqbool.
[edit] Trivia
- The longest run of the play in Broadway history is Margaret Webster's 1943 production starring Paul Robeson as Othello and Jose Ferrer as Iago. It ran for 296 performances, almost twice as long as any other Shakespearean play ever produced on Broadway.
- Christopher Plummer is the only actor to receive a Tony Award nomination for a performance in the play, for his Iago in the 1982 Broadway production.
- Actors have alternated the roles of Iago and Othello in productions to stir audience interest since the nineteeth century. Two of the most notable examples of this role swap were William Charles Macready and Samuel Phelps at Drury Lane (1837} and Richard Burton and John Neville at the Old Vic Theatre (1955).
- When Edwin Booth's tour of England in 1880 was not well attended, Henry Irving invited Booth to alternate the roles of Othello and Iago with him in London. The stunt renewed interest in Booth's tour.
- Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey Into Night includes a recollection of one of its characters, a Shakespearean actor who compromises his talent by only playing one successful role, of playing Othello to Edwin Booth's Iago early in his career. It was based on the real life experience of O'Neill's father, actor James O'Neill.
- When Laurence Olivier played his legendary performance of Othello at the Royal National Theatre in 1964, he had developed a case of stage fright that was so profound that when he was alone onstage, Frank Finlay (who was playing Iago) would have to stand offstage where Olivier could see him to settle his nerves.[6]
- When Patrick Stewart played Othello at the Folger Shakespeare Library, he portrayed the Moor as a white man with the other characters played by black actors.
- All characters in Omkara share the same alphabet or sound in their first name as in the original Shakespeare classic.
- Omkara is one of the few mainstream Indian movies to contain uncensored abuse.
[edit] Actors who have played Othello
- Ira Aldridge
- Edwin Booth
- Avery Brooks
- Richard Burbage
- Richard Burton
- Ajay Devgan (as "Omkara")
- Laurence Fishburne
- Johnston Forbes-Robertson
- Moses Gunn
- John Gielgud
- Anthony Hopkins
- Emil Jannings
- Raul Julia
- James Earl Jones
- John Neville
- James O'Neill
- Laurence Olivier
- Mekhi Phifer (as "Odin" in "O")
- Paul Robeson
- Tommaso Salvini
- Paul Scofield
- Patrick Stewart
- Eamonn Walker
- Orson Welles
[edit] Notes
- ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 346-47.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 'Black', 1c.
- ^ E.A.J. Honigmann, ed. Othello. London: Thomas Nelson, 1997, p. 15.
- ^ Honigmann, 2-3.
- ^ Honigmann, 17.
- ^ Laurence Olivier, Confessions of an Actor, Simon and Shuster (1982) p. 262
[edit] External links
- Othello study guide by M.J. Cummings
- Othello – original text of the play from Project Gutenberg
- "100 essays on Othello" by Dr. Bill Long
- Othello study guide by SparkNotes
- Lesson plans for Othello at Web English Teacher
