Key Ideas

• Love, Historical Context and Historicism (Act 2, Scene 3)

  Iago tries to corrupt Cassio in this Act, by trying to get him to admit to impure thoughts about Desdemona.
• Cassio

  • Here Iago is trying to coax out Cassio’s feelings towards Desdemona.
  • He is hopeful that Cassio will offer some indication of love for her.
  • Iago’s purpose is also to make Desdemona seem like a temptress to him.
• Effects of love

  • Although love is not explicitly discussed in this scene, its impact is felt throughout, since all of the characters (bar perhaps Montano) are responding to its effects.
• Iago's baiting

  • Iago tries to corrupt Cassio in this Act, by trying to get him to admit to impure thoughts about Desdemona.
  • He describes Desdemona as being ‘sport for Jove’, and ‘full of game’ and through this he hopes to gain a response from Cassio.
  • The scene is more than just male banter about the opposite sex.
• Desdemona's virtue

  • The danger that Desdemona faces is seen in the moment when Iago says of her that he will turn ‘her virtue into pitch’.
  • This again shows the power that this patriarchal society has over women, despite them being innocence.
  • The same standards are later applied onto Bianca.
• Motivation

  • When Iago advises Cassio to speak to Desdemona to see if she can change Othello’s mind about him, Iago sees the potential of this to further exploit all of them for false accusations of love and an affair between Cassio and Desdemona which will ignite Othello’s jealousy.
  • The audience perhaps begins to understand that as a character, Iago does not seem to be on the receiving end of love from anyone else and this may also motivate him.
• Tragedy (Act 2, Scene 3)

  This scene is part of Iago’s villainous plot and again shows how he is operating as a tragic villain.
• Tragic villain

  • Iago’s aim here is to see Cassio discredited on the island of Cyprus.
  • If he can achieve this, then it will serve him well to be considered for the role of lieutenant instead of Cassio.
  • Therefore this scene is part of Iago’s villainous plot and again shows how he is operating as a tragic villain.
• Dramatic irony

  • In this scene, the notion of ‘Honest’ emerges as a key concept.
  • It works as a constant reminder to the audience of the dramatic irony of Iago's machinations.
  • None of the characters that we see has any idea of Iago's plans Othello and Cassio are especially unaware of his intentions and this ratchets up the tension for the audience.
• Desdemona's danger

  • The fact that Iago is describing Desdemona in derogatory terms should heighten the awareness of the tragedy that is about to occur.
  • So far, in the play, we have seen in Desdemona none of this behaviour that Iago speaks of, and realisation dawns that she is in danger.
• Othello's language

  • There is an interesting moment in this scene when Othello arrives and breaks up the fight.
  • He asks, ‘Are we turn'd Turks’.
  • This is interesting because the Turks are the enemy but here Othello is using language that is very similar to the way Brabantio once described him.
  • Othello dehumanizes them and makes them seem animalistic.
• Othello's pretensions

  • Ironically, the Turks (as Muslims) were more traditionally ideologically aligned with the Moors of Northern African (where many critics assume Othello is from) so this shift may indicate a tragic endeavour.
  • Othello is shattering old alignments and taking on the pretensions of the Venetians.
• The ‘reputation’ scene

  • The second part of this scene is often known as the ‘reputation’ scene as the ‘loss of reputation’ is what most motivates Cassio.
  • This patterns the wider tragic narrative because it is the idea of loss of Desdemona’s reputation that eventually causes the tragedy.
  • Thus Iago’s purpose is to cause the loss of reputation amongst all of the characters.
  • He aims to preserve his own however.