Othello

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Thompson and Honigmann, 2016, pp.75–77, citing Ellen Terry's The Story of My Life: Recollections and Reflections. Act 2, scene 3 Iago gets Cassio drunk, making it easy for Roderigo to provoke Cassio into a brawl, first with Roderigo, then with Montano, whom he wounds. Othello, called from his bed by the noise, stops the brawl and strips Cassio of his lieutenancy. Iago advises Cassio to seek Desdemona’s help in getting reinstated. The next step in Iago’s plan is to tell Othello that Desdemona supports Cassio because Cassio is her lover. A courtesan, or prostitute, in Cyprus. Bianca’s favorite customer is Cassio, who teases her with promises of marriage. Brabanzio

Bob Dylan's song Po' Boy features lyrics in which Desdemona turns the tables on Othello, borrowing the idea of using poisoned wine from the final act of Hamlet. [326] Literature [ edit ] Scholars have identified many other influences on Othello: things which are not themselves sources but whose impact on Shakespeare can be identified in the play: [7] these include Virgil's Aeneid, [8] Ovid's Metamorphoses, [9] both The Merchant's Tale and The Miller's Tale from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, [10] Geoffrey Fenton's Certaine Tragicall Discourses, [11] [12] Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, [13] George Peele's The Battle of Alcazar, [14] [15] the anonymous Arden of Faversham, [16] Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, [17] and Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness. [18] These also include Shakespeare's own earlier plays Much Ado About Nothing, in which a similar plot was used in a comedy, [19] The Merchant of Venice with its high-born, Moorish, Prince of Morocco, [20] and Titus Andronicus, in which a Moor, Aaron, was a prominent villain, and as such was a forerunner of both Othello and Iago. [21] Portrait of Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, Moorish ambassador to Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, sometimes suggested as the inspiration for Othello. [22]Anne bore him Susanna Shakespeare, and twins Hamnet Shakespeare and Judith Shakespeare. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the company, later known as the King's Men. Booth was also an acclaimed Iago, and his advice to actors of the role was: "to portray Iago properly you must seem to be what all the characters think and say you are, not what the spectators know you to be; try to win even them by your sincerity. Don't act the villain." [219] Honigmann, E. A. J. and Thompson, Ayanna (eds.) "Othello" The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series Revised Edition, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 2016, p.28. Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen produced an intercultural version of the play in 2000: his Desdemona featured actors, musicians, designers and artists from India, Korea, Myanmar, Indonesia and Singapore, performing in a range of different traditional Asian styles. [241] Iago plants the handkerchief in Cassio's lodgings, then tells Othello to watch Cassio's reactions while Iago questions him. Iago goads Cassio on to talk about his affair with Bianca, a local courtesan, but whispers her name so quietly that Othello believes the two men are talking about Desdemona. Later, Bianca accuses Cassio of giving her a second-hand gift which he had received from another lover. Othello sees this, and Iago convinces him that Cassio received the handkerchief from Desdemona.

Cathy Downes' 2001 production at the Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand made effective use of a trope (which had had racist overtones when used by earlier European directors) of Othello reverting to his native culture: setting the action in the Waikato Land Wars, Othello was a British-adopted general leading forces against his own people, until finally bursting into a "terrifying wero" (a warrior's challenge) before exacting his revenge on Desdemona. [242] Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is based on the story Un Capitano Moro (A Moorish Captain) by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. The filming of Orson Welles' Othello was plagued by chaos. A pattern emerged where Welles would collect his cast and crew for filming, then after four or five weeks his money would run out and filming would cease: Welles would then appear in another movie, and using his acting fee would reconvene filming. Scenes in the final movie were sometimes spliced together from one actor filmed in Italy in one year, and another actor filmed in Morocco the next. [257] Welles uses shadows, extreme camera angles and discordant piano music to force the audience to feel Othello's disorientated view of Desdemona. [258] Cages, grilles and bars are frequent images. [259] And the text is heavily cut: Othello's first words are his speech to the Senators from Act 1 Scene 3. [260] [261] The film was critically panned on its 1955 release (headlines included "Mr Welles Murders Shakespeare in the Dark" and "The Boor of Venice") but was acclaimed as a classic upon its re-release in a restored version in 1992. [262] Othello (full title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603. The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago.Iago's role is (in Robert Watson's words) "overdetermined in renaissance dramatic convention": he is partly the scheming Machiavel of Renaissance tragedy, partly the vengeful malcontent of revenge tragedy, partly the instigator of jealousy in domestic tragedy and partly the devil incarnate of morality plays. [143] Morrison, Michael A. "Shakespeare in North America" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.230–258, at pp.231-232. Desdemona is quite sympathetic to Cassio’s request and promises that she will do everything she can to make Othello forgive his former lieutenant. As Cassio is about to leave, Othello and Iago return. Feeling uneasy, Cassio leaves without talking to Othello. Othello inquires whether it was Cassio who just parted from his wife, and Iago, beginning to kindle Othello’s fire of jealousy, replies, “No, sure, I cannot think it, / That he would steal away so guilty-like, / Seeing your coming” (III.iii. 37–39). Shakespeare's source story in Cinthio takes place entirely in the long time scheme: Shakespeare appears to have introduced the shorter time scheme to increase dramatic tension, while also introducing moments where Iago's plot could fall apart – for example if Emilia had given an honest answer to Desdemona's "Where should I lose that handkerchief?" [177] or if Roderigo had chosen to denounce Iago. [178]