Scene One & Two

• Act Three, Scene One

  This is a short scene where we learn of Cassio's intentions to restore himself.
• Cassio

  • This is a short scene. Cassio brings along musicians to play music for the awakening of the couple, but they are dismissed by Othello.
  • Cassio tells Iago that he has asked Emilia to arrange for him to see Desdemona.
• Emilia

  • Emilia tells Cassio that she has overheard Othello say that Cassio will have to wait a while for the sake of decency, but he will be restored to his place at the first opportunity.
  • However, Cassio still insists on speaking to Desdemona alone.
• Omens

  • The fact that the couple have endured a sleepless night is ominous.
  • The world is apparently not in harmony.
• Private and public

  • The scene’s purpose appears to be to reinforce Cassio’s rejection by Othello, who ominously dismisses the musicians hired by Cassio as a celebration of the consummation.
  • It is another example of how bedroom intimacy between Othello and Desdemona is disturbed by external noise, an invasion of the private by the public, and love by war.
  • Othello then goes off to inspect the island’s fortifications instead.
• Dis-enobling

  • Since an appreciation of gentle music was considered to be a noble and civilising attribute, it may be significant that Othello does not care for it, preferring instead the trumpeting of war.
  • This may symbolise his ‘dis-enobling’ in the tragic pattern at work.
• Comedy

  • The pause in tragic events here—via the musicians and the incompetent Clown—may give the audience a breather from the intensity of the action so far.
  • Clowns (or Fools) are often used by Shakespeare to expose the frailties and true condition of characters within tragedy.
  • However this scene is often cut from modern productions of the play.
  • The comedy is truncated and not fully developed here.
• Act Three, Scene Two

  This is another short scene.
• Ironic counterpoint

  • Here, Othello attends to the fortifications on the island of Cyprus.
  • The fortifications on the island are strong but his own are not so resilient from the forthcoming attack by Iago.
  • The scene therefore works as an ironic counterpoint to what follows.