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By William Shakespeare
Written in 1622
Comments by Bob Corbett
July 2009
General Note: In January 2009 I decided that Id like to go back and read all the plays
of William Shakespeare, perhaps one a month if that works out. I hadnt read a
Shakespeare play since 1959, 50 years ago! But I had read nearly all of them in
college. I wanted to go back, start with something not too serious or challenging, and
work my way through the whole corpus. Thus I began with The Two Gentlemen of
Verona. At this time I have no idea how the project will go, nor if it will actually lead
me through the entire corpus of Shakespeares plays. However, I will keep a separate
page listing each play Ive read with links to any comments I would make of that
particular play. See: List of Shakespeares plays Ive read and commented on
COMMENTS ON
OTHELLO
Oh me, what a play. About the only person connected with it who doesnt die is the
stage manager and were not sure about that person! Iago has to be one of the most
evil and clever villains of all literature. The play is gripping in the suspense of how
Iago will carry out his evil jealousy, and astonishing in the cleverness of his mischief.
Othello is the head of the army of Venice. He is a moor, a black man of North African
roots. He is the beloved of the Duke of Venice, and has won the beautiful Desdamona
as his wife. His chief aide, and a man Othello regards as his closest male friend, Iago,
the old one, is jealous of Othellos success.
Like many villains Iago doesnt do his own dirty work, rather he weaves carefully
drawn nets and involves many innocent, or relatively innocent folks, to do his horrors.
There is his wife who is drawn in, and ironically, even Desdamona herself, who so
loves Othello. A somewhat less savory character, Roderigo would like to have
Desdamona for himself, as would the much more innocent and decent Cassio.
However, Cassio and Othello have slightly fallen out and Iago milks this
misunderstanding for his purposes.
Emilia, Iagos wife, sort of reveals the central theme of the play very early on.
Desdamona is worried about someone being jealous of Othello and Emilia tells her
about jealous people: