Analysis of Characters in Othello

These issues surface in the first scene of the play, in which Iago, scorned by Othello in promotion, urges Roderigo to break the news of Desdemona's elopement with Othello to her father Brabantio and so ruin Othello's reputation. Roderigo simply cannot fathom that a Moor could be a successful seducer. It is his characterization of Othello as "the thick-lips" (I.i.66) that is the most revealing. Iago, who resents not being promoted, exploits that sense of betrayal, not just of Roderigo's infatuation with Desdemona but of Roderigo's sense that Desdemona has betrayed her own kind. In this regard, Iago uses coarse language to describe the elopement and the sexuality between Othello and Desdemona as forbidden (and offensive) fruit. He wants Roderigo to explain the details of the elopement, and he incites Roderigo to striking just the right tone by couching his own words in the terms of racial hatred. "Even now, now, ver

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ssio. After being told that Cassio and Othello had visited her together in Venice, Iago develops the idea that there may be something improper about their being together, warning him to beware of jealousy, the "green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on" (165-6). Iago refers to Venice as the place where wives "do let heaven see the pranks / They dare not show their husbands" (202-3). As a product of that environment, Desdemona may be deceiving her husband. After all, Iago says, she deceived her father when she pretended to be afraid of the Moor. "She did deceive her father, marrying you; / And when she seem'd to shake and fear your looks, / She loved them most (206-8). It stands to reason that if she could do that, she could deceive her husband as well. Left alone, Othello considers that he has been foolish to marry someone who comes from a culture in which cuckolded husbands are the rule rather than the exception. He has also been manipulated into thinking that Iago is saying less than he knows about Desdemona's actions. He is tortured by uncertainty, which is an unfamiliar condition for him. Because he is uncertain, he does not know how or whether to respond, and being unable to respond is also unfamiliar to him
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Approximate Word count = 4466
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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