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The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, often shortened to Othello (/ ɒ ˈ θ ɛ l oʊ /), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus , the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulated by his ensign , Iago , into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity.
Desdemona (/ ˌ d ɛ z d ə ˈ m oʊ n ə /) is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian military prodigy.
The title character of the play is Desdemona, the wife of the title character in Shakespeare's Othello. [1] The 2011 play arose from a collaboration between Morrison, director Peter Sellars, and musician Rokia Traoré. About a decade earlier, Morrison and Sellars had disagreed about Shakespeare’s play, which Sellars detested, but Morrison valued.
Othello Navigator Archived 15 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine—Includes the annotated text, a search engine, and scene summaries. Cinthio's Tale—A 19th-century English translation of Shakespeare's primary source. Othello—analysis, explanatory notes, and lectures. Othello—Scene-indexed and searchable version of the text.
Othello, a General in the Venetian army, promotes a young officer, Michael Cassio, enraging Iago—the General's ensign—who expected the post himself. Outwardly loyal to Othello and his recently married wife, Desdemona, Iago proceeds to cause dissension within Othello's camp (for instance, tuning Othello's new father-in-law against him, and causing Cassio to fight another officer).
Shakespeare is thought to have written the following parts of this play: Act I, scenes 1–3; Act II, scene 1; Act III, scene 1; Act V, scene 1, lines 34–173, and scenes 3 and 4. [36] Summary Two close friends, Palamon and Arcite, are divided by their love of the same woman: Duke Theseus' sister-in-law Emelia.
There is debate among critics as to Emilia's character nature in Othello, with some deeming her a villain and some as the true hero of the play.This is because her allegiances initially seem to lie with her husband, and she displays the typical “wifely virtues of silence, obedience, and prudence" [2] of the Elizabethan period (as seen in her theft of the handkerchief in 3.1).
Iago is one of Shakespeare's most sinister villains, often considered such because of the unique trust that Othello places in him, which he betrays while maintaining his reputation for honesty and dedication. Shakespeare contrasts Iago with Othello's nobility and integrity. With 1,097 lines, Iago has more lines in the play than Othello himself.