"Written in 1604..." "Othello ranks along side Hamlet, Macbeth... and King Lear as one of the greatest of the tragedies." "It is no surprise that in his classic work 'Shakespearian Tragedy'... the great authority A.C. Bradley... selected Othello as one of the greatest of the tragedies." "The play is about the downfall... of a high ranking Military Commander in the Venetian service, Othello." "Jealousy is the main theme... but there are clearly a number of other issues." "To help us unravel the mysteries of Othello..." "I asked Doctor Russell Jackson of the Shakespeare Institute here in Stratford." "I think Othello is one of the great tragedies of love... because it's got so many commonplace, ordinary things in it... as well as passionate expression of love at the center... and it has so many complications to do with attitudes to... race, to relations between the sexes... to social status and to profit and how people profit from each other." " lago." " What say'st thou noble heart?" "What will I do, thinkest thou?" "Why, go to bed, and sleep." "I will incontinently drown myself." "If thou dost, I shall never love thee after." "Why thou silly man." "It is silliness to live when to live is torment;" "What should I do?" "I confess it is my shame to be so fond;" " but is not in my virtue to amend it." " Virtue!" "A fig!" "Come, be a man." "Drown thyself!" "Drown cats and blind puppies." "I have professed me thy friend;" "I could never better stead three than now." "Put money in thy purse;" "follow thou the wars;" "I say, put money in thy purse." "It cannot be that Desdemona... should long continue her love to the Moor... put money in thy purse." "When she is stated with his body... she will find the error of her choice:" "therefore make money." "If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning." "Make all the money thou canst:" "if a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian... and a supersubtle Venetian not too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell... thou shalt enjoy her;" "therefore make money." "Go to." "It is very difficult to work out what if anything motivates lago... in his campaign which is virtually against Othello." "Various motives seem to be suggested in the course of the play... that he isjealous of Cassio's promotion to the lieutenancy, for example... that he suspects that Othello has been unfaithful with Emilia, lago's wife... that he himself, lago himself desires Desdemona." "But the multiplicity of motives makes it difficult to believe any of them." "My own feeling is lago is evil, because he is evil." "I hate the Moor:" "And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my Sheets." "He has done my office:" "I know not if't be true;" "But I, for mere suspicion of that kind, will do as if for surety." "He holds me well;" "The better shall my purpose work on him." "lago seems to have a different motivation every time he talks to us... and he talks to us a lot." "lago takes the audience into his confidence... he is almost a presenter of the play's events to us... in the same way he constructs scenes and presents them to Othello... and lago is somebody who is infinitely resourceful... in finding good explanations for everything he does." "I have told thee often, and I tell thee again and again:" "I hate the Moor:" "my cause is hearted;" "thine hath no less reason." "We should be conjunctive in our revenge against him:" "if thou canst cuckold him... thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a sport." "There are many events in the womb of time that shall be delivered." "Traverse!" "Go, make money." "Shakespeare gets beneath the skin of the characters." "He stares into the very soul of man... and seems to view the world from a myriad of different perspectives... all at once." "The character Othello is a perfect example." "He is a formal part of Venetian society... but because he is black he also sits outside the mainstream... a position still reflected today." "Othello lives by making the right decision as a General... and I think it as significant that lago's famous... some people call it temptation, but certainly his persuasion of Othello... that to bejealous about his wife might be a good idea... takes place in the middle of ordinary concerns of being a General..." "looking at fortifications, sorting out what needs to be done... very often on stage they are making up a canvas... or looking at lists of things together... or looking through an armory, something like that." "So Othello is somebody who is prized by the Venetian state... because he is a very good general and you get to be a general... by keeping your head when all those around you are losing theirs... and then here's this man... who in his straight forward love relationship with a woman... is easily persuaded to forget... or to forgo all that cold, logical analysis." "I speak not yet of proof." "Look to thy wife;" "observe her well with Cassio." "Wear your eye thus:" "notjealous or secure." "I do know our country disposition well:" "In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks." "They dare not show their husbands;" "their best conscience is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown." "Dost thou say so?" "She did deceive her father, marrying you... and when she seemed to shake, and fear your looks..." " She loved them most." " And so she did." "Why, go to, then!" "She that so young could give out such a seeming... to seal her father's eyes up close as oak he thought 'twas witchcraft." "But I am much to blame..." "I humbly do beseech you of your pardon for too much loving you..." "I am bound to thee for ever." "I see this hath a little dashed your spirits." " Not ajot, not ajot." " In faith, I fear it has." "I hope you will consider what is spoke comes from my love." "My lord I do see you're moved." "I am to pray you... not to strain my speech to grosser issues... nor to larger reach than to suspicion." " I will not." " Should you do so, my lord..." "My speech should fall into such vile success... as my thought aimed not at." "Cassio's my worthy friend." " My lord, I see you're moved." " No, not much moved." "I do not think but Desdemona's honest." "Long live she so!" "And long live you to think so!" "And yet, how nature erring from itself..." "Ay, there's the point:" "as, to be bold with you... not to enter into any marriage of her own clime, complexion, and degree... whereto we see in all things nature tends, Foh!" "One may smell in such a will most rank, foul disproportion... thoughts unnatural." "But, pardon me, I do not in position distinctly speak of her... thought I may fear her will, recoiling to her betterjudgement... may fall to match you with her country forms..." " And happily repent." " Farewell, farewell." "If more thou dost perceive, let me know more." "Set on my wife to observe." "Leave me, lago." "My lord, I take my leave." "Although Othello is a strong and valiant man." "He appears to be very easily manipulated by the machinations of lago." "Given this fact we can be forgiven... for believing that the fiery character of Othello... is his downfall, and subsequently that of Desdemona." "Desdemona could have behaved more tactfully, couldn't she?" "I think the scene where she contributes most clearly to her own downfall... is that in which she actually nags Othello to forgive Cassio." "She hammers the point home... and if only one feels she had been a little more discreet about that... well, we might have ended up not with a tragedy." "Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do all my abilities in thy behalf." "Good madam, do:" "I warrant it grieves my husband, as if the case were his." "O, that's an honest fellow." "Do not doubt, Cassio..." "But I will have my lord and you again as friendly as you were." "Bounteous madam, whatever shall become of Michael Cassio... he's never any thing but your true servant." " Madam, here comes my lord." " Madam, I'll take my leave." " Ha!" "I like not that." " What dost thou say?" "Nothing my lord:" "or if I know not what." "Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?" "Cassio, my lord!" "No sure, I cannot think it." "That how would steal away so guilty like, seeing you coming." "I do believe 'twas he." "How now, my lord!" "I have been talking with a suitor here..." "A man that languishes in your displeasure." " Who is't you mean?" " Why, your lieutenant, Cassio." "Good my lord." "If I have any grace or power to move you... his present reconciliation take;" "For if he be not one that truly loves you... that errs in ignorance and not in cunning..." "I have nojudgement in an honest face:" " I prithee, call him back." " Went he hence now?" "Ay, sooth: so humbled that he hath left part of his grief with me... to suffer with him." "Good love, call him back." "Not tonight, sweet Desdemona;" "some other time." " But shall't be shortly?" " The sooner, sweet, for you." " Shall't be to-night at supper?" " No, not to-night." " To-morrow dinner, then?" " I shall not dine at home;" " I meet the captains at the citadel." " Why, then, to-morrow night;" "or Tuesday morn;" "On Tuesday noon, or night;" "on Wednesday morn:" "I prithee, name the time... but let it not exceed three days;" "in faith, he's penitent;" "Prithee, no more:" "let him come when he will;" "I will deny thee nothing." "Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this..." "To leave me but a little to myself." "Shall I deny you?" "No:" "farewell, my lord." "Farewell, my sweet Desdemona:" "I'll come to thee straight." "Emilia, come." "Be as your fancies teach you;" "Whate'er you be..." "I am obedient." "Excellent wretch!" "Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee!" "And when I love thee not, Chaos is come again." "Desdemona may appear to be the innocent victim." "But it could be argued that she does contribute to her own downfall." "Again we ask Russell Jackson." "Desdemona contributes to her own downfall to a certain extent... partly because she is innocent in the sense of not knowing certain things." "She insists on reinstating Cassio." "She nags Othello about it, to use a slightly sexist verb." "She won't let it go... and at the same time Desdemona can't comprehend... how all the gestures of subordination she constantly... and dutifully makes to Othello can be misread." "The scene for example where Othello slaps Desdemona in public... is one of the most shocking in the play... because he hasjust shown his obedience to the Venetian state... he takes the scroll of paper, 'I kiss the instrument of their pleasures'." "I don't think that's a bawdy joke, but still... he takes a piece of paper, this commission... and then he treats Desdemona like dirt... and he treats her in a way that is shocking to everyone on stage... who hasjust arrived from Venice... as it were bringing Venice on to the stage with them." " Save you, worthy general!" " With all my heart, sir." "The duke and senators of Venice greet you." "I kiss the instrument of their pleasures." "And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?" "I am very glad to see you, sir." "Welcome to Cyprus." "I thank you." "How does Lieutenant Cassio?" "Lives sir." "Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord an unkind breach:" " but you shall make all well." " Are you sure of that?" " My lord?" " He did not call;" "He's busy in the paper." "Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio?" "A most unhappy one:" "I would do much to atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio." " Fire and brimstone!" " My lord?" " Are you wise?" " What, is he angry?" "May be the letter moved him;" "For, as I think... they do command him home, Deputing Cassio in his government." " Trust me, I am glad on't." " Indeed!" " My lord?" " I am glad to see you mad." " Why, sweet Othello." " Devil!" "I have not deserved this." "This would not be believed in Venice, though I should swear I saw't:" "'tis very much:" "Make her amends;" " she weeps." " O devil, devil!" "If that the earth could teem with woman's tears." "Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile." " Out of my sight!" " I will not stay to offend you." "I do beseech you lordship, call her back." "Mistress!" "What would you with her, sir?" " Who, I, my lord?" " Ay, sir;" "You did wish that I would make her turn:" "Sir... she can turn, and turn... and yet go on, and turn again;" "and she can weep, sir, weep;" "And she's obedient." "Very obedient." "Proceed you in your tears." "Concerning this, sir, O well-painted passion!" "I am commanded home." "Get you away;" "I'll send for you anon." "Sir, I obey the mandate, And will return to Venice." "Hence, avant!" "Cassio shall have my place." "And, sir, tonight, I do entreat that we may sup together:" "You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus." "Othello is the victim of a number of overt racial slurs." "Of course Shakespeare wrote for a different society." "But how can a modern audience rationalize... the vicious nature of racial language in Othello." "For modern audiences the blackness of Othello... is very much complicated by modern social issues... by racial and social issues of the present day." "In some ways I think they are a help in the sense... that they mean that we are less likely perhaps than the Victorians were... to have any sort of prejudices against Othello... because of his race or because of his color." "There were such prejudices in earlier days... and some of the earlier critics of the play... felt that Shakespeare was quite wrong indeed... to present a black man who married a white woman in Desdemona." "This is not something that we are at all likely to feel nowadays." "Othello is an easy target for some of the basest... and worst kind of racial abuse." "Now making him somebody who rises above... the pettiness of others is very important... and the difficulty nowadays and the danger in the play... but at the same time some of its excitement... is that for a black actor to play Othello... without seeming to endorse... the idea of black men being more angry, more passionate, more gullible... than people who aren't black gives the play an edge... but at the same time a degree of difficulty, of danger." "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul..." "Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!" "It is the cause." "Yet I'll not shed her blood;" "Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow... and smooth as monumental alabaster." "Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men." "Put out the light, and then... put out the light:" "If I quench thee, thou flaming minister..." "I can again thy former light restore, should I repent me:" "but once put out thy light... thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature..." "I know not where is that Promethean heat that can thy light relume." "Balmy breath... that dost almost persuade justice to break her sword!" "One more, one more." "Be thus when thou art dead... and I will kill thee, and love thee after." "One more, and this the last:" "So sweet was ne'er so fatal." "I must weep... but they are cruel tears:" "this sorrow's heavenly;" "It strike where it doth love." "She wakes." "Who's there?" "Othello?" "Ay Desdemona." "Will you come to bed, my lord?" " Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona?" " Ay, my lord." "If you bethink yourself of any crime... unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace, solicit for it straight." "Alas, my lord, what do you mean by that?" "Well, do it, and be brief;" "I will walk by:" "I would not kill thy unprepared spirit;" "No; heaven forefend!" "I would not kill thy soul." " Talk you of killing?" " Ay, I do." " Then heaven, have mercy on me!" " Amen, with all my heart!" "If you say, so, I hope you will not kill me." "And yet I fear you;" " Think on thy sin." " They are loves I bear to you." "Ay, and for that thou diest." "That death's unnatural that kills for loving." "Alas... why gnaw you so your nether lip?" "Some bloody passion shakes your very frame:" "These are portents;" "but yet I hope..." "I hope, they do not point on me." " Peace, and be still!" " I will so." "What's the matter?" "That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee..." " thou gavest to Cassio." " No, by my life and soul!" "Send for the man, and ask him." "Take heed of perjury;" "thou art on thy deathbed." " Ay, but not yet to die." " Yes presently:" "Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin;" "For to deny each article with oath... cannot remove nor choke the strong conception which I do groan withal." " Thou art to die." " Then Lord have mercy on me!" " I say, amen." " And have you mercy too!" "I never did offend you in my life;" "never loved Cassio but with such general warranty of heaven as I might love:" " I never gave him token." " By heaven..." "I saw my handkerchief in's hand." "O perjured woman!" "Thou dost stone my heart, and makest me call what I intend to do; a murder... which I thought a sacrifice:" "I saw the handkerchief." "He found it then;" "I never gave it him:" "send for him hither;" "Let him confess a truth." " He hath confess'd." " What, my lord?" " That be hath used thee." " How?" " Unlawfully?" " Ay." " He will not say so." " No, his mouth is stopp'd;" "Honest Iago hath ta'en order for't." "O!" "my fears interprets:" " what, is he dead?" " Had all his hairs been lives... my great revenge had stomach for them all." "Alas!" "He is betray'd and I undone." "Out, strumpet weep'st thou for him to my face?" "O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not!" "Kill me to-morrow:" "let me live to-night!" " Hay, if you strive." " But half an hour!" " Being done, there is no pause." " But while I say one prayer!" "It is too late." "My lord, my lord!" "What, ho!" "my lord..." "What noise is this?" "Not dead?" "Not yet quite dead?" "Desdemona dies a victim's death, it's very pathetic." "She dies nobly, she dies forgiving her husband... denying even that he had killed her." "Othello is also the victim." "He is the victim of lago and it's Emilia who brings that home to the audience... as it gradually dawns on her finally... how wicked a man, her own husband is." "In the final scene Emilia realizes the full extent of lago's ignominy." "She realizes it as it were simultaneously with Othello." "She is the one who is battering at the door to get in... she is the one rebuking Othello for being so stupid... and then she is the one who is silenced by lago... first verbally and then physically by killing her." "That's very shocking but it is also, if you like, the 'nadir'... the lowest point of male/female relationships in the play." "Oh Emilia, come in." "What's the matter with thee now?" "Oh my god lord, yonder's foul murder's done." " What now?" " But now my lord!" "It is the very error of the moon:" "She comes more nearer earth than she was wont, and makes men mad." "Cassio, my lord, hath killed a young Venetian called Roderigo." " Roderigo killed?" "And Cassio killed?" " No, Cassio is not killed." "Not Cassio killed!" "Then murder's out of tune, and sweet revenge grows harsh." "O, falsely, falsely murdered!" " What cry is that?" " That?" "What?" "Out and alas, that was my lady's voice!" "Help..." "O, lady, speak again!" "Sweet Desdemona, O sweet mistress, speak!" " O, who hath done this deed?" " Nobody." "I myself." "Commend me to my lord." "Why... how should she be murdered?" "Alas, who knows?" "You heard her say herself it was not I." "She said so:" "I must needs report the truth." "She's a liar gone to burning hell:" "T'was I that killed her." "O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!" "She turned to folly;" "and she was a whore." "Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil." " She was false as water." " Thou art rash as fire to say... that she was false." "O, she was heavenly true!" "Cassio did top her:" "ask thy husband else." "O, I were damned beneath all depth in hell but that I... did proceed upon just grounds to this extremity." " Thy husband knew it all." " My husband!" " Thy husband." " That she was false to wedlock?" "Ay, with Cassio." "Nay, had she been true..." "If heaven would make me... such another world of one entire and perfect chrysolite..." "I'd not have sold her for it." "My husband!" "Ay, 'twas he that told me on her first." "An honest man he is... and hates the slime that sticks on filthy deeds." " My husband!" " What needs this iterance, woman?" "O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!" "My husband say that she was false?" "I say thy husband;" "dost understand the word?" "My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago." "If he say so, may his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day!" "He lies to th'heart." "She was too fond of her most filthy bargain." "Do thy worst:" "This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven..." " than thou wast worthy her." " Peace, you were best." "Thou hast not half that power to do me harm as I have to be hurt." "O dolt!" "As ignorant as dirt!" "Thou hast done a deed..." "I care not for thy sword." "I'll make thee known, though I lost twenty lives." "Help!" "The Moor hath killed my mistress!" "Murder!" "Murder!" "So there we are." "Othello." "I think it's one of the greatest... but to conclude we asked our academics... if they could sum up the reasons why they considered it to be so." "The greatness of Othello lies partly in its representation... of opposing forces in human nature... the forces of good and evil." "To put it like that sounds very abstract... and these forces are embodied very strongly in human beings in the play... but underneath the surface of the play... there is this war between good and evil." "This is something which is important to people at every level of their lives." "We are all conscious of evil in human beings... the possibility of evil within ourselves... the possibility of virtue as well... the fact that evil can overcome virtue... but nevertheless virtue can declare itself in fighting against evil." "Othello is a play of everyday life... but it is a play that goes further than that." "It's a thriller, a play with certain circumstantial evidence in it... something being unpicked and uncovered." "But it has also got frightening depth about human motivation... and extraordinary language that no one can quite explain... it's resonant and it's persuasive... and some of it is very beautiful." "Tis destiny unshunable... like death." "Even then this forked plague is fated to us when we do quicken." "If she be false... oh then heaven mocks itself." "I'll not believe it."