Othello - Main Characters

Othello - Main Characters

1. Othello

   • Othello is the first great black protagonist in Western literature
   • A black man from North Africa, Othello has traveled the world, been sold into slavery, escaped, and ended up as the military commander of the Venetian military, guard to a powerful Italian city-state
   • Holy racial slurs, Batman. Othello doesn't hold back when it comes to racism: these Venetians really show how bigoted they are. According to Brabantio, Othello must have "enchanted" Desdemona with "foul charms" and magic spells. Otherwise, he insists, Desdemona never would have run "to the sooty bosom" of Othello (1.2.82, 92, 89). In the play, Othello's marriage to Desdemona prompts some characters to refer to Othello as "thick-lips," the "devil," and the "old black ram" that supposedly contaminates a white woman (Desdemona) with his hyper-sexuality.
   • There are a couple of ways we can read Othello's eagerness to believe the worst about his wife. Some literary critics suggest that Othello believes that all women are inherently promiscuous. This seems to be the case when he says things like all men are destined to be cuckolded by their wives.
   • We may also want to consider another possibility—that the one Othello loves "too well" isn't Desdemona, it's himself. Jealousy is an intensely self-centered emotion, and Othello spends much of the play obsessed with the way Desdemona has hurt him and trying to get back at her for it. He's obsessed with his feelings, the way in which her cheating reflects on him.

2. Desdemona

   • Desdemona is a beautiful, young, white, Venetian debutante. And she's a total Daddy's girl... until she falls head over heels in love with Othello. She refuses to marry any of the rich, handsome Venetian men that everyone expects her to marry. Instead, she elopes with Othello—an older black man, an outsider to Venetian society.
   • Like Othello, Desdemona undergoes a dramatic transformation over the course of the play. At the play's beginning, Desdemona's an adventurous spirit—when her new husband is called away for military duty in Cyprus, she begs to go with him and can't stand the thought of remaining at home where there isn't any action. This isn't so surprising, given that Desdemona seems to be drawn to Othello's exciting past. We learn that Othello wooed Desdemona by telling stories of action, adventure, and danger, and that Desdemona consumed these tales with a "greedy ear:"
   • Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom thinks that Desdemona's virginity is the big driving question of the play. Bloom argues that Othello and Desdemona never had sex—that Desdemona actually dies a virgin. He points out that every time the newlyweds come close, something interrupts them—an order to come see the Duke, a war, or Cassio's drunken brawl. When Desdemona and Othello first arrive in Cyprus, it's clear they haven't had sex yet. After all, Othello says it explicitly.

3. Iago

   • Iago spends all of his time plotting against Othello and Desdemona, eventually convincing Othello that his wife has been cheating, despite the fact that Desdemona has been completely faithful. Iago's capacity for cruelty seems limitless, and no motivation he gives for his actions seems enough to explain the incredible destruction he wreaks on the lives of the people he knows best.
   • Most other Shakespearean characters do bad things in order to achieve a particular goal. Oftentimes the culprit is ambition, as in Macbeth, or revenge, as in Hamlet. The thing about Iago is this—we never really know for certain why it is that Iago wants to destroy Othello. Throughout the play, Iago provides multiple and incompatible motives for hating Othello. At one point, Iago says he's angry because Othello passed him over for a promotion.
   • Another view/Motive - Iago secretly wants to get it on with Othello and ends up hurting Othello because he's jealous of Desdemona.

4. Michael Cassio

   • When we begin, Cassio is one of Othello's soldiers, recently appointed the general's second-in-command. This infuriates Iago—because he wanted to be lieutenant, and because Cassio is a math (not muscle) guy
   • Cassio is the kind of guy who likes to put women in one of two categories – virgin or whore. When he talks about Desdemona, we can tell that he sees her as a kind of secular Virgin Mary.
   • Clearly, Cassio worships Desdemona, but he has a tendency to mock his courtesan girlfriend, Bianca, who, sadly, is pretty smitten with Cassio

5. Emilia

   • Older and more cynical than Desdemona, Emilia develops a close relationship to young Des. It's actually pretty aww-inspiring: Emilia and Desdemona bond over husband trouble. Emilia's super-bitter take on her married life with Iago contrasts with Desdemona's (temporarily) idealistic marriage to Othello. Emilia's one dishonest act towards Desdemona—stealing her special handkerchief—turns out to have devastating consequences. The loss of the handkerchief is what convinces Othello that Desdemona is guilty of infidelity, and Emilia's little theft ends up causing her friend's death
   • Emilia's relationship with Iago really seems like a marriage made in hell. Iago constantly mocks and disrespects her. He never seems to offer her any affection, and he always talks trash about women in general. Despite this Emilia seems eager to please him. She steals Desdemona's handkerchief in the hope that Iago will appreciate her for once. "I nothing but to please his fantasy," she says as she does so (3.3.343).
   • Throughout most of the play, Iago has the upper hand in his interactions with his wife. But the final scene is payback time for Emilia. Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom points out that of all the people in the play, Emilia is the only one that Iago underestimates—and she's the only one who ultimately can bring Iago down.