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Act V Scene 1• Read V.1.1144-1146
• Iago has Roderigo poised and ready to pounce on Cassio, and kill him; if either of them is killed, it is to Iago's benefit
• Roderigo and Cassio fight, and both are injured
• Othello hears the scuffle, is pleased, and then leaves to finish off Desdemona.
• Iago enters, pretending that he knows nothing of the scuffle
• Roderigo is still alive, so Iago feigns a quarrel, and finishes him off.
• Cassio is carried away, and Roderigo is already dead.
• Emilia also comes in, and pins more blame on Bianca; she has done nothing, but Iago has some quick work to do if he is to exonerate himself in this mess.
• Watch movie scene
Analysis• Iago addresses the audience directly about his intentions,
and his actions
• Iago is only truly honest with the audience like Richard III
• This creates an undercurrent of dramatic irony throughout the play, since the audience knows all of his plans, and individual characters know little or nothing
• Although Othello is the title character of the play, Iago has more lines and more interaction with the audience as well.
• It is Othello's tragedy that is the focus of the play, but Iago succeeds in stealing the show he is more interesting than any of the protagonists in the play.
• Iago proves himself a consummate actor:
– appearance vs. reality
– Iago claims to know nothing of this battle
– Iago is many selves in this act
– he is friend and advisor to Roderigo
– betrayer and murderer of Roderigo
– consoler of Cassio
– the lead officer in this
Act V Scene 2• Read V.2.1146-1150
• Othello enters Desdemona's room while she is asleep; and still is determined to kill her.
• He justifies this with images, metaphors, and ideas of her rebirth after death
• Desdemona awakens, and he tells her to repent of any sins before she dies
• Othello tells her that he found her handkerchief with Cassio, though Desdemona insists it must not be true
• She pleads with Othello not to kill her right then, but he begins to smother her.
• Emilia knocks, curious about what is going on
• Othello lets her in, but tries to conceal Desdemona, who he thinks is already dead.
• Emilia brings the news of Roderigo's death, and Cassio's wounding.
Act V Scene 2• Emilia soon finds out that Desdemona is nearly dead, by
Othello's hand
• Desdemona speaks her last words, and then Emilia pounces on Othello for committing this horrible crime.
• Othello is not convinced of his folly until Iago confesses his part, and Cassio speaks of the use of the handkerchief
• Othello is overcome with grief.
• Iago stabs Emilia for telling all about his plots, and then Emilia dies
• Venetian nobles reveal that Brabantio, Desdemona's father, is dead, and so cannot be grieved by this tragedy now.
• Othello stabs Iago when he is brought back in
• Othello then tells all present to remember him how he is, and kills himself.
• Cassio becomes temporary leader of the troops at Cyprus
• Iago is taken into custody, and his crimes will be judged back in Venice.
• Watch movie scene
Analysis: Literary Terms• Othello's farewell to Desdemona is a return to his
former eloquence
• Though he believes Desdemona's soul to be black, he can only focus on her whiteness; he pledges not to mar "that whiter skin of hers than snow"
• The metaphor highlights Desdemona's innocence, as does comparing her to a "light" to be put out.
• There is irony in Othello's references to Desdemona here:
– he describes her with words that suggest her brightness and innocence
– he is determined to condemn and kill her.
• She is also "the rose" to Othello, another beautiful image
• Othello's allusion to Prometheus explains his wish to put out Desdemona's light in order to restore her former innocence.
• Before Othello felt only hatred and anger, now he is forced to feel his love, along with his mistaken determination to see Desdemona die.
Analysis: Lines
• Desdemona's last words are especially
cryptic
• When asked who killed her, she remarks:
– "nobody, I myself commend me to my kind lord."
• This could be seen as a kind of
condemnation of Othello for killing her
• She might be trying to absolve her husband
of blame with her last breath
• If this is so, it certainly does not sit well
with her line:
– "falsely, falsely murdered," which seems to refer
both to Desdemona's death, as to Emilia's
mention of the death of Roderigo and wounding
of Cassio.
Analysis: Parallelism
• Emilia's fate is parallel to Desdemona's:– She was more realistic than Desdemona
– She too was betrayed by her husband
– She died through other's wrongs.
• Desdemona might be a more central figure in the play, but Emilia is the conscience
• Emilia knows how human nature works
• She knows of husbands' jealousies, of how men believe women are less human, of how people are naturally prone to folly.
• She is the sole voice of reason in the play, the only besides Desdemona who is uncorrupted by Iago's manipulations.
Analysis: Oxymoron
• Othello insists that he is an "honorable
murderer”
– Iago was surely killed out of anger
– Desdemona out of jealousy and offended
pride.
• Othello still denies the flaws in himself that
have led him to this end.
• Iago was definitely the catalyst for
Desdemona's death and Othello's jealous rages;
but the seeds of jealousy and suspicion were
already inherent in Othello
• It certainly makes the resolution of the play
more neat to believe that Othello is returned to
his nobility
• Since he still denies the deep wrong he has
Analysis: Conclusion
• Of course, all threads are wrapped up
in this last scene of the play:
– Letters are produced that expose Iago's
part in these unfortunate events
– These letters have not been mentioned or
shown earlier in the play.
– Cassio seems to have been kept alive
merely to testify about his part in this
whole debacle
Tragedies Excite
• Shakespeare was as good a philosopher as
he was a poet
• He understood the love of power and
mischief and that these loves were natural
to man
• Why are tragedies so interesting to people?
• Why do they read the newspaper and watch
the news to hear about “the latest Iago”?
Characterization of Iago
• Great analyst Harold Goddard noted:
– Iago is always at war
– He is a moral pyromaniac setting fire to all
reality
– He was passed up by Cassio because he cannot
stop fighting
• Since Othello is thought of as the God of
War, he is Iago’s only god
• Othello is everything to Iago because war is
everything
Characterization of Iago
• Iago rejects a Christian God in a way
when he says:
– “I am not what I am”
– This is contradictory to St. Paul’s “I am
what I am”
• Iago sets about to destroy his god:
– Uses mastery of timing to plot using
openings
– Employs a “grand program of uncreation”
Characterization of Iago
• Iago went unchanged during revisions
of Desdemona, Emilia, and Othello
between the Quarto and First Folio
• He speaks eight soliloquies and
Othello only three
Theme of Marriage
• Marriage is a problem of grand
proportions:
– Emila is a martyr
– Iago says: “A fellow almost damend in a
fair wife”
– Othello and Desdemona never
consummate their marriage
– This makes it easier for Iago
– Marriage is damnation
Tragedy Characteristics
• There is no conscience in Othello
• Shakespeare had a tragic obcession with the idea of a good name living on after the protagonist’s death:– Horatio to discuss Hamlet
– Cassio to tell of Othello
• Tragedies, literary or human, depend on imperfect knowledge
• Shakespeare came naturally to histories, comedies and romances, but tragedies took work
• The tragedies especially are not religious in any reguard
• No killer kills in the name of any god, ever
• War is the religion in Othello, Macbeth, Lear, and Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt)
Tragedy Characteristics
• Many critics rate Othello below
Macbeth and Hamlet because:
– There is no extrinsic force operating Iago
– The evil is too pure
– There is no remorse shown
– Humans are too evil
• What do you think?
Characterization of Othello
• Even in his final suicide speech he does not achieve atonement
• Audience is more like Iago than Othello so he cannot be forgiven
• Othello does not have the power of expression of Hamlet or Macbeth:– He is distinct, divided and flawed
• Has a Julius Caesar complex:– Ambiguous
– Hard to tell when they are being arrogant or just stating facts
– Both refer to themselves in the third person
Characterization of Othello
• He is Iago’s antitheses until he starts to come undone
• He should be a character in a romance, like Claudio or Benedick
• He is the wrong character in the right play
• Othello, analyst Brower believes, would have come apart from Desdemona without Iago
• Nothing in Othello is marriage material
Analyzing the Clowns
• The clowns scarcely come onto the
stage and the play excludes all
laughter
– Unlike the drunken porter in Macbeth
– The asp-bringer in Antony and Cleopatra
Tragic Flaw?
• “It is the cause, it is the cause, my
soul,--
Let me not name it to you, you
chaste stars!--
It is the cause…” (V.ii.1-3)
What is it?
What is the cause?
• Infidelity?
• Insanity?
• Sexuality?
• Love?
• Honor?
• Blood?
• Sin?
• Soul?
• Interior?
• Exterior?
Desdemona’s Last Words
OTHELLO: Think on thy sins.
DESDEMONA: They
are loves I bear to you.
OTHELLO: Ay, and for that thou diest.
(V.ii.40-41)
Desdemona’s Last Words
• Othello admits that he is killing
Desdemona for the love that she has
for him
• Oedipal Complex
• Othello is playing the role of the father
Desdemona’s Last Words
• (V.ii.118-126)
DESDEMONA: A guiltless death I die.
EMILIA: O, who hath done this deed?
DESDEMONA: Nobody; I myself.
Desdemona’s Last Words
• Who is responsible for Desdemona’s death?
• Guiltless versus Guilty
• Guiltless
– Innocent because of loyalty?
• Guilty
– Desdemona has gotten herself into a quandary
– Doppelganger
Othello’s Death Speech
• (V.ii.260-282)
• (V.ii.338-356)
• Do we believe his speech?
• Emphasis on his service to the state
– Gives him the justification to make a final
speech
Othello’s Death Speech
• Honor
– “honorable murderer”
– “that loved not wisely but too well”
• Switching between 1st and 3rd Person
• Oedipal Complex
– One point of view is the father
– One point of view is the husband
Iago’s Last Words
• “Demand me nothing: what you
know, you know:
From this time forth I never will
speak word.”
(V.ii.303-304)
Iago’s Last Words
• Notice the absence of a couplet
• Suggests a lack of closure
• We will never know exactly why Iago
did what he did
Sources of Othello
• Shakespeare’s source is Cinthio but he changed a few things:– Iago is Shakespeare’s own invention
– Cinthio’s Ensign is Iago’s basis but:• Ensign falls in love with Desdemona
• She shuns him in favor of Othello
• Ensign blames it all on Cassio
• Ensign beats Desdemona to death
• The characters were flat, not round, and the shock and inwardness of a rejected solider is absent