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{{Short description|Play by William Shakespeare written circa 1603}}
{{about|the Shakespeare tragedy|the title character|Othello (character)|the board game|Reversi#Othello|other uses}}
{{use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Othello and Desdemona in Venice by Théodore Chassériau.jpg|thumb|''[[Othello and Desdemona in Venice]]'' by [[Théodore Chassériau]], 1850]]

'''''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice''''', often shortened to '''''Othello''''',{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|θ|ɛ|l|oʊ}} {{respell|ə|THEL|oh}}, {{IPAc-en|alsous|oʊ|ˈ|-}} {{respell|oh|-}}<ref>{{cite dictionary|date=2004 |title=Othello, n. |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/othello_n |url-access=subscription |dictionary=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=10 August 2025}}</ref>}} is a [[tragedy]] written by [[William Shakespeare]] around 1603. Set in [[Venice]] and [[Cyprus]], the play depicts the [[Moors|Moorish]] military commander [[Othello (character)|Othello]] as he is manipulated by his [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]], [[Iago]], into suspecting his wife [[Desdemona]] of infidelity. ''Othello'' is widely considered one of Shakespeare's greatest works and is usually classified among his major tragedies alongside ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[King Lear]]'', and ''[[Hamlet]]''. Unpublished in the author's life, the play survives in one [[quarto]] edition from 1622 and in the [[First Folio]].

''Othello'' has been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, both among playgoers and [[Literary criticism|literary critics]], since its first performance, spawning numerous [[#Stage adaptations|stage]], [[#Screen|screen]], and [[Otello|operatic]] adaptations. Among actors, the roles of Othello, Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia (Iago's wife) are regarded as highly demanding and desirable. Critical attention has focused on the nature of the play's tragedy, its [[#Double time scheme|unusual mechanics]], its treatment of [[#Race|race]], and on the [[#Iago's motivation|motivations of Iago]] and his [[#Othello and Iago|relationship to Othello]]. Originally performed [[Blackface|by white actors in dark makeup]], the role of Othello began to be played by black actors in the 19th century.

Shakespeare's [[#Shakespeare's sources|major source]] for the play was a novella by [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi|Cinthio]], the plot of which Shakespeare borrowed and reworked substantially. Though not among Shakespeare's longest plays, it contains two of his four longest roles in Othello and Iago.

==Characters==
{{div col|colwidth=20em|rules=yes}}
* [[Othello (character)|Othello]] – General in the Venetian military, a noble [[Moors|Moor]]
* [[Desdemona]] – Othello's wife; daughter of Brabantio
* [[Iago]] – Othello's trusted, but jealous and traitorous [[Standard-bearer|ensign]]
* [[Michael Cassio|Cassio]] – Othello's loyal and most beloved [[lieutenant]]
* [[Emilia (Othello)|Emilia]] – Iago's wife and Desdemona's maidservant
* [[Bianca (Othello)|Bianca]] – Cassio's lover
* [[Brabantio]] – Venetian [[senator]] and Desdemona's father (can also be called Brabanzio)
* [[Roderigo]] – dissolute Venetian, in love with Desdemona
* [[Duke of Venice]]
* Gratiano – Brabantio's brother
* Lodovico – Brabantio's kinsman and Desdemona's cousin
* Montano – Othello's Venetian predecessor in the government of Cyprus
* Clown – servant
* Senators
* Sailor
* Officers, Gentlemen, Messenger, Herald, Attendants, Musicians, etc.
{{div col end}}

==Plot==
[[File:Otelo e Desdémona - Antonio Muñoz Degraín.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|''Desdemona and Othello'', by [[Antonio Muñoz Degrain]], 1880]]
[[File:Othello costume.jpg|thumb|Othello costume. Illustration by Percy Anderson for ''Costume Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical'', 1906]]

===Act I===
Roderigo, a wealthy and dissolute gentleman, complains to his friend Iago, an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]], that Iago has not told him about the recent secret marriage between Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, a senator, and Othello, a [[Moorish]] [[general]] in the Venetian army. Roderigo is upset because he loves Desdemona and had asked her father, Brabantio, for her hand in marriage, which Brabantio denied him.

Iago thirsts for revenge on Othello for promoting an aristocrat named Cassio as [[lieutenant]] over him, whom Iago considers a less capable soldier than himself. Iago tells Roderigo that he plans to exploit Othello for his own advantage and convinces Roderigo to wake Brabantio and tell him about his daughter's [[elopement]]. Meanwhile, Iago sneaks away to find Othello and warns him that Brabantio is coming for him.

Brabantio, provoked by Roderigo, is enraged and seeks to confront Othello, but he finds Othello accompanied by the Duke of Venice's guards, who prevent violence. News has arrived in Venice that [[Ottoman–Venetian Wars|the Turks are going to attack Cyprus]], and Othello is therefore summoned to advise the senators. Brabantio has no option but to accompany Othello to the Duke's residence, where he accuses Othello of seducing Desdemona by [[witchcraft]].

Othello defends himself before the [[Doge of Venice|Duke of Venice]], Brabantio's kinsmen Lodovico and Gratiano, and various senators. Othello explains that, while he was invited to Brabantio's home, Desdemona became enamoured of him for the sad and compelling stories he told of his life before Venice, not because of any witchcraft. The senate is satisfied once Desdemona confirms that she loves Othello, but Brabantio leaves, saying that Desdemona will betray Othello: "Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee" (Act I, Sc 3). Iago, still in the room, takes note of Brabantio's remark. By order of the Duke, Othello leaves Venice to command the Venetian armies against invading Turks on the island of [[Cyprus]], accompanied by his new wife, his lieutenant Cassio, his ensign Iago, and Iago's wife, Emilia, as Desdemona's attendant.

===Act II===
The party arrives in Cyprus to find that a storm has destroyed the Turkish fleet. Othello orders a general celebration and leaves to consummate his marriage with Desdemona. In his absence, Iago gets Cassio drunk and then persuades Roderigo to draw Cassio into a fight. Montano tries to calm down an angry and drunk Cassio. This leads to their fighting one another and Montano's being injured. Othello arrives and questions the men as to what happened. Othello blames Cassio for the disturbance and strips him of his rank. Cassio, distraught, is then persuaded by Iago to ask Desdemona to persuade her husband to reinstate him.

===Act III===
Iago persuades Othello to be suspicious of Cassio and Desdemona's relationship. When Desdemona drops a [[handkerchief]] (the first gift given to her by Othello), Emilia finds it and gives it to Iago at his request, unaware of what he plans to do with it. Othello appears and, then being convinced by Iago of his wife's unfaithfulness with his captain, vows with Iago for the death of Desdemona and Cassio, after which he makes Iago his lieutenant.

===Act IV===
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.

Enraged and hurt, Othello resolves to kill his wife and tells Iago to kill Cassio. Othello proceeds to make Desdemona's life miserable and strikes her in front of visiting Venetian nobles. Meanwhile, Roderigo complains that he has received no results from Iago in return for his money and efforts to win Desdemona, but Iago convinces him to kill Cassio.

===Act V===
[[File:Othello and Desdemona by Alexandre-Marie Colin.jpg|left|thumb|''Othello and Desdemona'', by [[Alexandre-Marie Colin]]]]
Roderigo unsuccessfully attacks Cassio in the street after Cassio leaves Bianca's lodgings, as Cassio wounds Roderigo. During the scuffle, Iago comes from behind Cassio and badly cuts his leg. In the darkness, Iago manages to hide his identity, and when Lodovico and Gratiano hear Cassio's cries for help, Iago joins them. When Cassio identifies Roderigo as one of his attackers, Iago secretly stabs Roderigo to death to stop him from revealing the plot. Iago then accuses Bianca of the failed conspiracy to kill Cassio.

Othello confronts a sleeping Desdemona. She denies being unfaithful, but he smothers her. Emilia arrives, and Desdemona defends her husband before dying, and Othello accuses Desdemona of adultery. Emilia calls for help. The former governor Montano arrives with Gratiano and Iago. When Othello mentions the handkerchief as proof, Emilia realizes what Iago has done, and she exposes him. Othello, belatedly realising Desdemona's innocence, stabs Iago (but not fatally), saying that Iago is a devil, but not before the latter stabs Emilia to death in the scuffle.

Iago refuses to explain his motives, vowing to remain silent from that moment on. Lodovico apprehends both Iago and Othello for the murders of Roderigo, Emilia, and Desdemona, but Othello commits suicide. Lodovico appoints Cassio as Othello's successor and exhorts him to punish Iago justly. He then denounces Iago for his actions and leaves to tell the others what has happened.

==Date and sources==

===Shakespeare's sources===
Shakespeare's primary source for the plot was the story of a Moorish Captain (third decade, story seven) in ''Gli Hecatommithi'' by [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi|Cinthio]] (Giovanni Battista Giraldi), a collection of one hundred [[novella]]s about love, grouped into ten "decades" by theme.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=13;376-377}} The third decade deals with marital infidelity.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=13}} Of Cinthio's characters, only Disdemona (the equivalent of Shakespeare's Desdemona – her name means "ill-omened" in Italian) is named – the others are simply called the Moor (the equivalent of Othello), the Ensign (Iago), the Corporal (Cassio) and similar descriptions.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=13-14}}{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|pp=12-13}} In its story the Ensign falls in love with the Moor's wife Disdemona, but her indifference turns his love to hate and in revenge he persuades the Moor that Disdemona has been unfaithful. The Moor and the Ensign murder Disdemona with socks filled with sand, and bring down the ceiling of her bedchamber to make it appear an accident. The story continues until the Ensign is tortured to death for unrelated reasons and the Moor is killed by Disdemona's family.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=13-14}}{{efn|The complete novella appears, in different translations, in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=377-396}} and in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|pp=434-444}}}}

Shakespeare's direct sources for the story do not include any threat of warfare: it seems to have been Shakespeare's innovation to set the story at the time of a threatened Turkish invasion of Cyprus—apparently fixing it in [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573)|the events of 1570]]. Those historical events would however have been well known to Shakespeare's original audience, who would therefore have been aware that—contrary to the action of the play—the Turks took Cyprus, and still held it.{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|pp=lvii-lviii}}{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=7}}

Scholars have identified many other influences on ''Othello''. Works which are not themselves sources but whose impact on Shakespeare can be identified in the play{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=16-17}} include [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'',{{sfn|Enterline|2014|p=158}} [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'',{{sfn|Enterline|2014|p=163}} both ''[[The Merchant's Tale]]'' and ''[[The Miller's Tale]]'' from [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'',{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=11}} [[Geoffrey Fenton]]'s ''Certaine Tragicall Discourses'',{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=11}}{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=20}} [[Thomas Kyd|Kyd]]'s ''[[The Spanish Tragedy]]'',{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xxiv}} [[George Peele]]'s ''[[The Battle of Alcazar]]'',{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=18}}{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=3}} the anonymous ''[[Arden of Faversham]]'',{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=397}}<ref>Lockwood, Tom (ed.), White, Martin (ed.) "Arden of Faversham", New Mermaids edition, Methuen Drama, 2007, p.vii.</ref><!-- this supporting ref sources only the anonymity of the play, not its influence on Othello --> [[Christopher Marlowe|Marlowe]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'',{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=17}} and [[Thomas Heywood|Heywood]]'s ''[[A Woman Killed with Kindness]]''.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=355}} Influences also include Shakespeare's own earlier plays ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', in which a similar plot was used in a comedy,{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=8}} ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' with its high-born, Moorish, Prince of Morocco,{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=20-21}} and ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', in which a Moor, Aaron, was a prominent villain, and as such was a forerunner of both Othello and Iago.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=18}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=8;20;397}}<ref>*{{cite book|editor-last= Bate|editor-first= Jonathan|date= 2018|title= Titus Andronicus |edition=revised|series=[[The Arden Shakespeare]], third series|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|isbn= 978-1-35003-091-6|page=58}}</ref>

[[File:MoorishAmbassador to Elizabeth I.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud|Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun]], [[Moors|Moorish]] ambassador to [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] in 1600, sometimes suggested as the inspiration for Othello{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=3}}]]

One such influence is not a literary work at all. In 1600, London was visited for "half a year" by the Moorish ambassador of the King of Barbary, whose entourage caused a stir in the city. [[Lord Chamberlain's Men|Shakespeare's company]] is known to have played at court during the time of the visit, and so would have encountered the foreign visitors at first hand.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=2}}

Among Shakespeare's non-fiction, or partly-fictionalised, sources were [[Gasparo Contarini]]'s ''Commonwealth and Government of Venice''{{sfn|Siemon|2014|p=178, 198n}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=17-18}} and [[Leo Africanus]]'s ''A Geographical Historie of Africa''.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=4}}{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=19}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=15}} Himself a Moor from Barbary, Leo said of his own people "they are so credulous they will beleeue matters impossible, which are told them" and "no nation in the world is so subject vnto iealousie; for they will rather [lose] their liues than put vp any disgrace in the behalfe of their women"<!-- sic, for spellings of beleeue, vnto, iealousie, liues and vp. -->—both traits seen in Shakespeare's Othello.<ref>{{harvnb|Honigmann|1997|p=4}}, citing [[John Pory]]'s 1600 translation of [[Leo Africanus]]'s ''A Geographical Historie of Africa''</ref> And from Leo's own life story Shakespeare took a well-born, educated African finding a place at the height of a white European power.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=15}} From [[Philemon Holland]]'s translation of [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' Shakespeare took the references to the Pontic Sea,<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.456.</ref> to Arabian trees with their medicinable gum,<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.348-349.</ref> and to the "Anthropophagi and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders",<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.145-146.</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=19-20}} elements which also featured in the fantastic ''[[Mandeville's Travels|The Travels of Sir John Mandeville]]''.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=20}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=17}}

===Date===

[[File:Title Page of Othello from the First Folio, printed in 1623.jpg|thumb|right|The first page of ''Othello'' from the [[First Folio]], printed in 1623]]

The ''[[Terminus post quem|terminus ad quem]]'' for ''Othello'' (that is, the latest year in which the play could have been written) is 1604, since a performance of the play in that year is mentioned in the accounts book of [[Edmund Tylney|Sir Edmund Tilney]],<!-- sic, regarding the spelling in the source --> then [[Master of the Revels]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=339}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=349}}

A ''[[Terminus post quem|terminus a quo]]'' (i.e. the earliest year in which it could have been written) is given by the fact that one of its sources, [[Philemon Holland|Holland]]'s translation of [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', was published in 1601.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=339}}

Within this range, scholars have tended to date the play 1603–1604, within the reign of [[James VI and I|James I]], since the play appears to have elements designed to appeal to the new king, who had written a poem about the defeat of the Turkish navy at [[Battle of Lepanto|Lepanto]], and to the new queen, [[Anne of Denmark]], in whose circle there was an interest in the blackface exoticism also reflected in [[Ben Jonson]]'s ''[[The Masque of Blackness]]'', in which the queen and her [[Lady-in-waiting|ladies]] appeared as "daughters of Niger".{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=399-400}} That dating is supported by similarities to ''[[Measure for Measure]]'', another of Shakespeare's plays often dated around 1604, and which, like ''Othello'', draws its plot from [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi|Cinthio]]'s ''Gli Hecatommithi''.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=400}} This date is also supported by the possibility that Shakespeare may have consulted [[Richard Knolles]]' 1603 ''The Generall Historie of the Turkes''.<!-- sic -->{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=400}}

However, evidence of an earlier date, 1601–1602, is provided by the so-called [[bad quarto]] of Shakespeare's play ''[[Hamlet]]'', published in 1603. The theory is that the bad quarto is a memorial reconstruction of ''Hamlet'', made by some of its actors: so where there are unintentional echoes of ''Othello'' in the bad quarto (for example "to my vnfolding / Lend thy listning eare"<!-- sic: original spelling per Thompson & Honigmann; Thompson and Taylor modernise it. --><ref>''Hamlet Q1'', scene 5, lines 7–8 in {{cite book |editor-last=Thompson |editor-first=Ann |editor2-last=Taylor |editor2-first=Neil |title=Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623 |series=[[The Arden Shakespeare]], third series |year=2006 |page=73}}</ref> in the bad quarto and "To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear"<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.245</ref> in ''Othello''—and a number of others) it suggests that the actors must have been performing ''Othello'', at the latest, in the season preceding the bad quarto's publication.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=349-350}}

===Early editions===

[[File:Othello title page.jpg|thumb|right|Title page of the first [[quarto]] (1622)]]
''Othello'' was not published in Shakespeare's lifetime.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}} The first published version of the play was a [[quarto]] in 1622 (usually abbreviated to "Q"), which was followed a year later by the play's appearance in the ''[[First Folio]]'' (usually abbreviated to "F").{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}

There are significant differences between the two early editions, the most prominent of which are:
*F contains about 160 lines which are not in Q, sometimes in passages which are quite extended and well-known, such as Othello's "Pontic Sea" speech<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.456-463.</ref> and Desdemona's "Willow Song".<ref>''Othello'' 4.3.29-52 and 4.3.54-56.</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=405;411}}
*Q has fuller and more elaborate stage directions than F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}
*Q has 63 oaths or profanities which do not appear in F, suggesting the possibility that F was based on a manuscript which had been edited to conform with the 1606 [[Act to Restrain Abuses of Players|Act of Abuses]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=358}}
*There are over a thousand variations in wording, lineation, spelling and punctuation.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=405}}

There is no scholarly consensus to account for the differences between Q and F:<ref>Mowat and Werstine, 2017, p.xlix.</ref>
*[[E. K. Chambers]] in 1930 argued that Q derived from a scribal manuscript, and F from the author's [[Autograph (manuscript)|holograph]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=411}}
*[[Alice Walker (scholar)|Alice Walker]] in 1952 argued that F was printed from a corrected copy of Q.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=411}}
*[[W. W. Greg]] in 1955 argued that Q's copy must have been a difficult-to-read transcript of Shakespeare's "[[foul papers]]" (i.e. first drafts).{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=412}}
*[[M. R. Ridley]] in 1958, rejecting Walker's argument and accepting Greg's, argued that Q had greater authority and rejected F's changes as "memorial contamination" from a theatre [[prompt book]] or as "sophistications" by the editors of F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=413}}
*[[Nevill Coghill]] in 1964 argued that the changes in F were improvements made by the author, who might have taken advantage of the need to revise the play in consequence of the [[Act to Restrain Abuses of Players|Act of Abuses]] to make other changes.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=413}}
*[[Gary Taylor (scholar)|Gary Taylor]] in 1983 agreed with Coghill that F incorporated the author's own improvements to Q, but argued that another scribal hand had also made intervening changes to F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=414-415}}
*[[E. A. J. Honigmann]] in 1996 partly revived Walker's theory, by arguing that the scribe responsible for preparing the manuscript for F had consulted Q whenever the copy was illegible.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=414}} He also argues that sequences in F but not in Q, such as the ''Willow Song'', may have been cuts from the original made for the manuscript of Q, rather than later additions made for the manuscript of F.{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=416-417}}

As ''[[The Oxford Shakespeare]]'' editor Michael Neill summarises things: "The textual mystery of ''Othello'' is unlikely ever to be resolved to general satisfaction."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=430}}

==Themes and critical approaches==
===Jealousy===
{{Quote box
 |quote     = "O beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on."
 |source    = Iago<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.167-169.</ref>
 |align     = left
 |width     = 20em
 |salign    = right
}}
The influential early twentieth-century Shakespeare critic [[A. C. Bradley]] defined Othello's tragic flaw as a sexual jealousy so intense that it "converts human nature into chaos, and liberates the beast in man ... the animal in man forcing itself into his consciousness in naked grossness, and he writhing before it but powerless to deny it entrance, grasping inarticulate images of pollution, and finding relief only in a bestial thirst for blood."<ref>Desmet, Christy "Character Criticism" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen "Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.351-372 at p.357, citing [[A. C. Bradley]]'s ''Shakespearean Tragedy''.</ref>

This jealousy is symbolized in the play through animal imagery. In the early acts of the play it is Iago who mentions ass, daws, flies, ram, jennet, guinea-hen, baboon, wild-cat, snipe, monkeys, monster and wolves. But from the third act onwards Othello catches this line of imagery from Iago as his irrational jealousy takes hold.{{sfn|Muir|1996|pp=21-22}} The same occurs with "diabolical" imagery (i.e. images of hell and devils) of which Iago uses 14 of his 16 diabolical images in the first two acts, yet Othello uses 25 of his 26 in the last three acts.{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=22}}

Not only Othello, but also Iago is consumed by jealousy: his is a kind of envy, which contemporary scholar [[Francis Bacon]] called "the vilest affection, and the most depraved; for which cause, it is the proper attribute of the Devil... As it always cometh to pass, that envy worketh subtilly,<!-- sic --> and in the dark; and to the prejudice of good things."{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=20}}

Sometimes critics have struggled to define the kind of jealousy Othello suffers, or to deny it as a motive (for example, those who claim that in Russia between 1945 and 1957 only one actor portrayed Othello as obsessed by jealousy). In fact jealousy is a wide-ranging emotion and encompasses the spectrum from lust to spiritual disillusionment within which Othello's obsession must fall. And he displays many accepted aspects of jealousy: an eagerness to snatch at proofs, indulging degrading images of the jealousy's object, snatching at ambiguities to ease the mind, dread of vulgar ridicule, and a spirit of vindictiveness.{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=23}}

=== Race ===
As [[Ben Okri]] has said:
{{Blockquote|If ''Othello'' did not begin as a play about race, then its history has made it one.<ref>[[Ben Okri]]'s ''A Way of Being Free'' in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=113}}</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=146}}}}

Or, as the [[The Oxford Shakespeare|Oxford]] editor Professor Michael Neill summarises it: 
{{Blockquote|Anxieties about the treatment of race in ''Othello'' are a recurrent feature of both its critical and performance histories: where they once focused on the supposed scandal of miscegenation, they are nowadays more likely to address the play's complicity in racial stereotyping.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=41}}}}

In plot terms, Othello's race serves to mark him as "other".<ref>Bartels, 2003, p.160.</ref> As both a Christian and a black African, Othello is (as scholar Tom McAlindon puts it) both of, and not of, Venice.{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xxii}} And actor [[Paul Robeson]] considered Othello's colour as essentially secondary, as a way of emphasizing his cultural difference and consequent vulnerability in a society he does not fully understand.{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=lxxii}}

In the world of the play itself, Jyotsna Singh argues that Brabantio's—and others'—objection to Othello, a decorated and respected general, as a suitable husband for Desdemona, a senator's daughter, only makes sense in racist terms: reinforced by the bestial imagery used by Iago in delivering the news.<ref>Singh, Jyotsna "Post-Colonial Criticism" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen "Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.492-507 at p.493.</ref> The racist slurs used by Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio in the play suggest that Shakespeare conceived of Othello as a black African:{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=45}} "thicklips";<ref>''Othello'' 1.1.65.</ref> "an old black ram is tupping your white ewe";<ref>''Othello'' 1.1.87-88.</ref> "you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse";<ref>''Othello'' 1.1.109-110.</ref> "the sooty bosom of such a thing as thou"<ref>''Othello'' 1.2.70-71.</ref>—as do things Othello says of himself: "haply for I am black";<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.267.</ref> or "begrimed and black as mine own face".<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.390-391.</ref><ref>Mowat and Werstine, 2017, p.267.</ref>

There is critical divide over Othello's ethnic origin. A "[[Moors|Moor]]" broadly refers to someone from northwest Africa, especially if Muslim,<ref>{{Cite OED|term=Moor|id=2172406316}}</ref> but in Shakespeare's England "Moor" was used with broader connotations: sometimes referring to Africans of all regions, sometimes to [[Arab world|Arabic]] or [[Islam]]ic peoples beyond Africa, such as those of [[Turkey]] and the [[Middle East]], and sometimes to Muslims of any race or location.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bartels |first=Emily C |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/49109 |title=Shakespeare: an Oxford guide |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-924522-2 |editor-last=Wells |editor-first=Stanley |location=Oxford |pages=151–164 |chapter=Shakespeare’s view of the world |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199245222.003.0014 |access-date=2024-09-09 |editor-last2=Cowen Orlin |editor-first2=Lena |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/49109/chapter-abstract/422791945 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=25}}

===Racism===
{{quote box
| width = 20em
| salign = right
| quote = "I think this play is racist, and I think it is not."
| source = Scholar Virginia Vaughan<ref>Virginia Mason Vaughan's "Othello: A Contextual History" in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|pp=122-123}}. The quotation is a parody of ''Othello'' 3.3.387-388.</ref>}}

In Shakespeare's main source, [[Giovanni Battista Giraldi|Cinthio]]'s ''Gli Hecatommithi'', the character Disdemona (the equivalent of Shakespeare's Desdemona) says "I know not what to say of the Moor; he used to be all love towards me; but within these few days he has become another man; and much I fear that I shall prove a warning to young girls not to marry against the wishes of their parents, and that the Italian ladies may learn from me not to wed a man whose nature and habitude of life estrange from us".<ref>Ferraro, Bruno (translator) ''Gli Hecatommithi - Third Decade, Seventh Novella'' in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=434-444|location=Appendix C}}</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=60}}

Similar wording was used in one of the earliest, and most negative, critiques of the play: [[Thomas Rymer]] writing in his 1693 ''A Short View of Tragedy'' suggested that one of the play's morals was "a caution to all Maidens of Quality how, without their Parents consent, they run away with Blackamoors."<!-- sic, as regards capitalisation throughout --><ref>Honingmann, 1997, p.29, citing [[Thomas Rymer]]'s ''A Short View of Tragedy''.</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=3}} Rymer, however, dryly observed that another such moral might be "a warning to all good Wives, that they look well to their Linnen" – as such his comments should be read within the context of his overarching criticism of the play, as unrealistic and lacking in obvious moral conclusions.

{{Quote box
 |quote     = "For this noble lady, who regarded the mind more than the features of men, with a singularity rather to be admired than imitated, had chosen for the object of her affections a Moor, a black."
 |source    = ''Othello'' in ''[[Tales from Shakespeare]]'' (1807) by [[Charles Lamb|Charles]] and [[Mary Lamb]]<ref>Lamb, Charles and Lamb, Mary "Tales from Shakespeare", 1807, Penguin Popular Classics edition, 1995, p.281.</ref>
 |align     = left
 |width     = 20em
 |salign    = right
}}

In the nineteenth century, such well-known writers as [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] and [[Charles Lamb]] questioned whether the play could even be called a "true tragedy" when it dramatized the inviolable taboo of a white woman in a relationship with a black man.<ref>Singh, 2003, p.494.</ref> Coleridge, writing in 1818, argued that Othello could not have been conceived as black:
<blockquote>"Can we imagine [Shakespeare] so utterly ignorant as to make a barbarous negro plead royal birth—at a time, too, when negroes were not known except as slaves? ... and most surely as an English audience was disposed at the beginning of the seventeenth century, it would be something monstrous to conceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable negro. It would argue a disproportionateness, a want of balance, in Desdemona, which Shakespeare does not appear to have in the least contemplated."<ref>Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ''Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare and Other English Poets'' quoted in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=29-31}}</ref></blockquote>

These sentiments were instrumental in ushering in the so-called "bronze age of Othello" (discussed further under "19th century" below).{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=32}}

Martin Orkin's 1987 essay ''Othello and the "Plain Face" of Racism'' acknowledges the racist sentiments in the play; but vindicates Shakespeare who confines these views to discredited characters such as Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=120}} He concludes that "in its fine scrutiny of the mechanisms underlying Iago's use of racism, and in its rejection of human pigmentation as a means of identifying human worth, the play, as it always has done, continues to oppose racism."<ref>Martin Orkin's ''"Othello and the "Plain Face" of Racism"'' in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=120}}</ref>

The critical approach to racial issues in the play changed direction with the publication in 1996 by Howard University Press of ''Othello: New Essays by Black Writers'' edited by Mythili Kaul, which made clear that black readers and audience members may be experiencing a different play from white ones.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=62-63}} Questions <!-- like those which end the Jealousy section above and cited to Kenneth Muir -->about whether ''Othello'' is among Shakespeare's greatest plays are rendered irrelevant in the context of discussions about how the play illuminates the racial thinking of Shakespeare's time, and of the present day.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=63}}

The Nigerian poet [[Ben Okri]] in his 1997 ''A Way of Being Free'' included several "meditations" on ''Othello'', arguing that because "it is possible that Othello actually is a blackened white man" he is not a fully formed character with a psychology but a  "white myth or stereotype of black masculinity".{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=63}} Even with that knowledge, Okri writes, "The black person's response to ''Othello'' is more secret, and much more anguished, than can be imagined. It makes you unbearably lonely to know that you can empathise with [white people], but they will rarely empathise with you. It hurts to watch ''Othello''."<ref>[[Ben Okri]]'s ''A Way of Being Free'' quoted in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=63}}</ref>

From the 1980s, Othello became a role that only black actors performed.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=65}} However, in 1998 black actor [[Hugh Quarshie]] questioned whether the central role in ''Othello'' should be played by a black actor, saying:

{{Blockquote|"If a black actor plays a role written for a white actor does he not risk making racial stereotypes seem legitimate and even true ... does he not encourage the white way, or rather the wrong way, of looking at black men, namely that [they] are over-emotional, excitable and unstable."<!-- No question mark in source, word in square brackets in source --><ref>[[Hugh Quarshie]]'s lecture ''Hesitations on Othello'' in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=69-70}}</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=65-66;87-89}}}}

Scholar Virginia Vaughan made a related point in 2005:

{{Blockquote|"The danger of a black actor in the title role is that with the loss of the reminders that this is ''not'' real but an impersonation, the enactment of Othello's jealous rage and murder of his wife can strike audiences as the embodiment of their own stereotypes of black pathology rather than an actorly performance"<ref>Mowat and Werstine, 2017, p.335, citing Virginia Vaughan's 2005 "Performing Blackness on English Stages 1500-1800".</ref>}}

[[File:William Mulready - Othello - Walters 372629.jpg|left|thumb|Artist [[William Mulready]] portrays American actor [[Ira Aldridge]] as Othello.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= [[Walters Art Museum]]
 |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/9022
 |title= Othello}}</ref> The Walters Art Museum.]]

===Patriarchy===
At Brabantio's first appearance towards the end of the first scene, he asks whether sinister "charms" may have abused "the property of youth and maidenhood" of Desdemona.<ref>''Othello'' 1.1.169-171.</ref> For him, Desdemona denying her father's right to choose her husband, and choosing a black man for herself, can only be explained by black magic.<ref>Green MacDonald, Joyce "Black Ram, White Ewe: Shakespeare, Race, and Women"  in Callaghan, Dympna (ed.) "A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare" Blackwell Publishers Limited, 2001, pp.188-207 at p.188 & 192</ref>{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xxv}}

The notion of women as property pervades the play. Even after her death, Othello says of Desdemona: "Had she been true, / If heaven would make me such another world / Of one entire and perfect [[Topaz|chrysolite]], / I'd not have sold her for it."<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.139-142.</ref><ref>Snyder, Susan, "''Othello'': A Modern Perspective" in Mowat, Barbara A (ed.), Werstine, Paul (ed.) and Shakespeare, William, "Othello", Folger Shakespeare Library edition, Simon and Schuster, 2017, pp.291-302 at p.299.</ref> Also pervasive is the male fear of female sexuality.<ref>Snyder, 2017, pp.299-300.</ref>

The word "whore" appears 14 times in ''Othello'', more often than in any other work by Shakespeare, often used (in Kay Stanton's words) as a "male-initiated inscription onto the female as scapegoat."<ref>Stanton, Kay ""Made to write 'whore' upon?": Male and Female Use of the Word "Whore" in Shakespeare's Canon" in Callaghan, Dympna (ed.) "A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare" Blackwell Publishers Limited, 2001, pp.80-102 at pp.94 & 95.</ref> And it is one of only two of the plays (alongside ''[[Timon of Athens]]'') in which the word "whore" is used with specific reference to every named female character.<ref>Stanton, 2001, p.97</ref> In the world of the play, ''whorishness'' is understood as the true and essential nature of women—yet this is constantly shown to be a projection of male imaginations, completely unrelated to the women's perceptions of themselves or to their behavior.<ref>Stanton, 2001, p.98.</ref>
<!-- COMMENTING THIS OUT - DOESN'T SEEM TO HAVE AN APPROPRIATE CONTEXT AT THE MOMENT: Cassio is contemptuous of the courtesan Bianca, describing her as a "monkey" and a "fitchew" (a [[polecat]]), both animals associated at the time with having strong sex drives.<ref>Green MacDonald, 2001, p.193 & 196; ''Othello'' 4.1.128 & 4.1.145.</ref> -->

Towards the end of the play, Desdemona's goodness increasingly becomes represented by long-suffering martyrdom, perceived as a longstanding sign of acceptable femininity. In place of the headstrong heroine of the opening acts, Desdemona, increasingly stripped of agency, endures her husband's anger and humiliations—even his striking her in public—and eventually, while dying, tries to exonerate him for his murder of her.<ref>Howard, Jean E. "Feminist Criticism" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen "Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.411-430 at p.427, in turn citing Lisa Jardine's essay "She sat like Patience on a Monument / Smiling at grief".</ref> Others perceive Desdemona's reaction as one of strength and dignity, not passivity.{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=lv}}

In contrast, Emilia ("the only real grown-up in the play", in the words of stage director [[Michael Attenborough]]{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=188}}) revolts against misogyny, defying her husband Iago's demands three times in the final scene.<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.192-194, 5.2.217-220 and 5.2.222.</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=176}}

===The handkerchief===
The over-reliance of the plot of ''Othello'' upon a trivial prop, the handkerchief, was noted in the play's earliest criticism. The same [[Thomas Rymer]] quoted above, in his 1693 ''A Short View of Tragedy'', suggested that the play should better have been called ''"The Tragedy of the Handkerchief"'', arguing "the handkerchief is so remote a trifle, no booby on this side Mauritania could make any consequence from it."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=4}}<ref>Orlin, Lena Cowen "Introduction" in Orlin, Lena Cowen (ed.) "Othello - The State of Play" The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, pp.1-16 at p. 5.</ref>{{sfn|Orlin|2014b|p=5}}

In spite of Othello's protestations in the first act that no magic was used in his wooing of Desdemona, he later claims magical properties for the handkerchief, his first gift to her.<ref>Green MacDonald, 2001, pp.193-194</ref><ref>''Othello'' 3.4.57-77.</ref> A question which has interested critics is whether he himself believes these stories or is using them to pressure or test Desdemona.{{sfn|Watts|2000|pp=78-79}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=50-51}} There is certainly a contradiction between Othello's assertion—linked to its supposed magical properties—that his mother received the handkerchief from an Egyptian charmer in Act 3 Scene 4,<ref>''Othello'' 3.4.57-60</ref> and his later assertion that his father gave it to his mother, made in Act 4 Scene 2.<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.214-215.</ref>{{sfnm|Watts|2000|1p=80|Smith|2014|2p=102}} Are we, the audience, intended to believe in the handkerchief's magical properties?{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=50}}

The handkerchief provides many examples of how chance operates in support of Iago's plots: Desdemona loses it just when Iago is in need of evidence of the invented affair; Cassio fails to recognise that it is hers; Cassio gives it to Bianca to copy, who throws it back at him at the very moment when Othello is eavesdropping.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=72}}

Symbolically the handkerchief represents the bond between Othello and Desdemona, and its loss the breaking of that bond: Othello blames Desdemona for its loss when in fact he casts it aside while she is trying to use it to help him.<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.290-292.</ref><ref>Howard, 2003, p.425.</ref> The whiteness of the handkerchief is often taken to represent Desdemona's purity; and the red strawberries blood from her [[hymen]] symbolising her virgin marriage.{{sfn|Smith|2014|p=95}}<ref>Howard, 2003, p.426</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=155}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=51}} In contrast, professor Ian Smith argues that a handkerchief "dyed in mummy"<ref>''Othello'' 3.4.76.</ref> would not be white but black, and therefore symbolic of Othello.{{sfn|Smith|2014|p=102, 105}} Under this interpretation the black handkerchief would highlight how Othello’s body has been passed around and treated as an object of exchange.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Ian |date=2013 |title=Othello's Black Handkerchief |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24778431 |journal=Shakespeare Quarterly |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1353/shq.2013.0017 |jstor=24778431 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>

In a 1997 production at the [[Royal National Theatre]], the handkerchief fell to the ground immediately before the interval and remained onstage throughout it, as if—as the reviewer Richard Butler put it—"challenging one of us to pick it up and prevent a tragedy."{{sfn|Rosenfeld|2014|p=269}}

===Othello and Iago===
Othello and Iago are two of the five longest parts in the Shakespeare canon. At 1097 lines, Iago's is the larger of the two: only [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]] (in ''[[Hamlet]]'') and Richard (in ''[[Richard III (play)|Richard III]]'') are longer.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornback|2014|p=86}} <!-- ...and as any intelligent person will surely be wondering at this point... -->[[Prince Hal|Henry V]] is in fourth place.</ref>

===Genre===
''Othello''—although a [[tragedy]]—takes elements from other [[genre]]s, including [[comedy]]. For example, there are similarities between Egeus' complaint about his daughter Hermia's lover Lysander, in the first Act of Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'':
<blockquote>With cunning hast thou filched my daughter's heart<br />Turned her obedience which is due to me<br />To stubborn harshness.<ref>''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' Act 1 Scene 1 Lines 36-38.</ref></blockquote>

And Brabantio's complaint to the Duke in Act 1 of ''Othello'' in which he asks Desdemona:
<blockquote>Do you perceive, in all this noble company,<br />Where most you owe obedience?<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.179-180</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=10-11}}</blockquote>

===Iago's motivation===
{{See also|Iago's manipulativeness and character}}

The word "honest" is used more than 40 times in the play, sometimes with reference to Desdemona's chastity, but in almost all other cases with reference to Iago, where it has a double meaning—as a condescending term for a social inferior, and as a reference to his supposed truthfulness.<ref>Mowat, Barbara A (ed.), Werstine, Paul (ed.) and Shakespeare, William, "Othello", Folger Shakespeare Library edition, Simon and Schuster, 2017, p.xxii.</ref>

Iago's role is (in Robert Watson's words) "overdetermined in renaissance dramatic convention": he is partly the scheming [[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavel]] of [[Tragedy#Renaissance|Renaissance tragedy]], partly the vengeful malcontent of [[revenge tragedy]], partly the instigator of jealousy in [[domestic tragedy]] and partly the devil incarnate of [[morality play]]s.<ref>Watson, Robert N. "Tragedy" in Braunmuller, A. R. and Hattaway, Michael (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama" Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp.292-343 at p.329.</ref>

The character's own motives are never made clear, because Iago himself expresses too many motives:{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=34}}
*He hates the Moor: often with reference to Othello's race.<ref>''Othello'' 1.1.5-7, 1.1.32, 1.1.87-90 & 1.1.108-112</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=35}}{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=31}}
*He is angry that Cassio has been promoted to Lieutenant, over himself.<ref>''Othello'' 1.1.7-32.</ref>{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xliii}}
*He suspects Othello of having slept with Emilia.<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.385-9 & 2.1.293-297.</ref>{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xliii}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=45}}
*He suspects Cassio of having slept with Emilia.<ref>''Othello'' 2.1.303-305.</ref>{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|pp=xliii-xliv}}
*He himself is in love with Desdemona.<ref>''Othello'' 2.1.289-291</ref>{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=31}}
*He envies Cassio's virtues.<ref>''Othello'' 5.1.18-20.</ref>{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xliv}}

These led [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] to refer to Iago's "motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity".<!-- sic, as regards capitalisation --><ref>[[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s marginal note to the closing speech of Act 1 in his own personal copy of ''Othello'', cited by {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=45}}; {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=31}}; {{harvnb|Muir|McAlindon|2015|p=xliv}} and by {{harvnb|Honigmann|1997|pp=33-34}}</ref>

Some critics have suggested other motives: psychologist [[Ernest Jones]]'s suggestion that Iago may be motivated by a repressed homosexual desire for Othello has been influential in subsequent performances of the role.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|pp=50-51}}

As Robert Watson summarises it: "The seemingly endless critical debate about Iago's motivation reflects a truth, rather than a confusion, about the play. ... If it is disturbing to suspect that a devil may be lurking around us in human form, perhaps within our most trusted friend, it is even more disturbing to realize <!-- sic (i.e. for the American spelling of that word in a British English article) --> that this devil may be ... a reflection of our own destructive tendencies."<ref>Watson, 2003, p.329.</ref>

Ultimately Iago provides no answer—refusing, at the end of the play, to reveal his motive: "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word."<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.300-301</ref><ref>Watson, 2003, p.331.</ref>

===Double time scheme===
''Othello'' has a double time scheme—meaning that the timeframe of the play does not contain enough time for its action.{{sfn|Orgel|2000|p=xi}} Its action is continuous from Othello and Desdemona's wedding night, except for the voyage from Venice to Cyprus (during which Cassio and Desdemona are not together) and the time in Cyprus covers an estimated 33 hours.<ref name="auto11">Orgel, 2000, p.xi.</ref> Yet this short timeframe does not allow any time for the supposed affair between Desdemona and Cassio to have happened.<ref>Orgel, 2000, p.xii.</ref> In support of the short time scheme is the continuous nature of the action: the fleet arrives in Cyprus in the afternoon and the plot against Cassio proceeds that evening into the early morning; Cassio resolves to seek Desdemona's help the following morning, and does so, commencing the long "temptation scene"{{efn|"The temptation scene" is a term often used in the critical literature to mean ''Othello'' 3.3.}} by the end of which Othello has resolved to kill Desdemona and has ordered Iago to attempt to kill Cassio, all of which happens that same night.<ref>{{harvnb|Honigmann|1997|p=69}} citing [[M. R. Ridley]]'s Arden Second Series edition of the play.</ref> And this urgency is underlined by the text: in particular's Iago's concern that if Othello compares notes with anyone else it will become clear that Iago is playing one character against another.<ref name="auto11"/>{{efn|For example ''Othello'' 5.1.20-21.}}

But there is also a long time scheme. Iago persuades Othello that Desdemona and Cassio have "the act of shame a thousand times committed";<ref>''Othello'' 5.2.209-210.</ref> Emilia says Iago "hath a hundred times"<ref>''Othello'' 3.3.296.</ref> asked her to steal the handkerchief; Bianca complains Cassio has been away from her "a week";<ref>''Othello'' 3.4.173.</ref> news of the Turkish defeat needs time to reach Venice then Lodovico needs time to reach Cyprus;{{sfn|Muir|1996|p=26}} and by Act 4 Roderigo (who sold all his land at the end of Act 1)<ref>''Othello'' 1.3.380.</ref> has already squandered all his money.<ref>''Othello'' 4.2.187-188.</ref>{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=70}}

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?"<ref>''Othello'' 3.4.23.</ref> or if Roderigo had chosen to denounce Iago.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=70}}

The discovery of a double time scheme has been ascribed to articles written by John Wilson in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' in 1849 and 1850, although references to the problem predate that.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=68}} The whole question is sometimes rejected as "academic nit-picking".{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=68}} (Director [[Michael Attenborough]], asked about it in an interview, replied "I strongly suspect Shakespeare didn't think about it very much."{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=189}}) And as Michael Neill points out, many of the problems disappear if one supposes that Othello believed Cassio and Desdemona's affair had commenced prior to Othello and Desdemona's elopement.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=35}} Neill summarises the issue as "no more than a particularly striking side-effect of the general indifference to naturalistic handling of time and space that Shakespeare shared with other dramatists of the period."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=36}}

==Performance history==
[[File:Thomas Keene in Othello 1884 Poster.JPG|thumb|Poster for an 1884 American production starring [[Thomas W. Keene]]]]

=== Shakespeare's day to the Interregnum ===
''Othello'' was written for and performed by the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]], the playing company to which [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] belonged, and the 1622 Quarto notes on its title page that the play was "Diuerse times acted at [[Globe Theatre|the Globe]], and at [[Blackfriars Theatre#Second theatre|Black-Friers]], by his Maiesties seruants".{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=67}} These two theatres had very different features—the former a large outdoor theatre accommodating an audience of 3,000; the latter a private indoor theatre that sat around 700, paying higher prices—and the style of playing would have adapted to these different conditions.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=67}} The play was performed at [[Royal court|Court]] by the King's Men on 1 November 1604, and again in 1612-13 as part of the celebrations for the [[Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate]].{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=67}}

The title role was originally played by [[Richard Burbage]], whose eulogies reveal that he was admired in the role.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=28}}<ref>Taylor, Gary "Shakespeare Plays on Renaissance Stages" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.&nbsp;1–20 at p.&nbsp;4.</ref> Moorish characters were conventionally played in turbans, with long white gowns and red trousers, with the actor's face darkened with lampblack or coal.<ref>Gurr, Andrew and Ichikawa, Mariko "Oxford Shakespeare Topics: Staging in Shakespeare's Theatres" Oxford University Press, 2000, p.&nbsp;55.</ref> The original Iago was likely [[John Lowin]].<ref>Taylor, 2002, p.&nbsp;5.</ref>{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=149}}

=== Restoration and 18th century ===

All theatres were closed down by the [[Puritan]] government on 6 September 1642. Upon the [[English Restoration|restoration]] of the monarchy in 1660, two [[patent theatre|patent companies]] (the [[King's Company]] and the [[Duke's Company]]) were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire divided between them: ''Othello'' being allocated to the King's Company's repertoire.<ref>Marsden, Jean I "Improving Shakespeare: from the Restoration to Garrick" in Wells, Stanley and Siddons, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.&nbsp;21–36, at p.&nbsp;21.</ref> These patents stated that "all the women's parts to be acted in either of the said two companies for the time to come may be performed by women". The first professional acting appearance by a woman on the English stage was that of Desdemona in ''Othello'' on 8 December 1660, although history does not record who took the role.<ref>Brown, John Russell "The Oxford Illustrated History of the Theatre", Oxford University Press, 1995, pp.&nbsp;206–207.</ref><ref>Gay, Penny "Women and Shakespearean Performance" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage" Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.&nbsp;155–173, at p.&nbsp;157.</ref> [[Margaret Hughes]] is the first woman known to have played Desdemona.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=68}}

In Restoration theatres, it was common for Shakespeare's plays to be adapted or rewritten.<ref>Marsden, p.&nbsp;21. For examples see Wikipedia's articles on [[The Tempest#Restoration and 18th century|The Tempest]], [[Macbeth#Restoration and eighteenth century|Macbeth]] and [[King Lear#17th century|King Lear]].</ref> ''Othello'' was not adapted in this way, although it has often been cut to conform to current ideas of decorum or refinement.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|p=90}} These cuts were not limited to removing violent, religious or sexual content, but extended on different occasions to removing references to eavesdropping, to Othello's fit, to Othello's tears, to the first 200 lines of the fourth act, or to the entire role of Bianca.{{sfn|Honigmann|1997|pp=90-92}}

Among seventeenth- and eighteenth-century actors praised for expressing the nobility of the Moor—and fully exploring the degrading passions which lead to the brutal murder he commits—were [[Thomas Betterton]] and [[Spranger Barry]].{{sfn|Muir|McAlindon|2015|pp=lxvi-lxvii}} A review of the latter by John Bernard expressed how Barry's Othello "looked a few seconds in Desdemona's face, as if to read her feelings and disprove his suspicions; then, turning away, as the adverse conviction gathered in his heart, he spoke falteringly, and gushed into tears."<ref>John Bernard in ''The Theatrical Review'' (1772) cited by McAlindon, 2005, p.lxvii.</ref>

The first professional performances of the play in North America are likely to have been those of the [[Old American Company|Hallam Company]]: Robert Upton ([[William Hallam (theatre manager)|William Hallam]]'s advance man) performed ''Othello'' at a makeshift theatre in New York on 26 December 1751; and religious objections to theatre led the Hallam Company to perform ''Othello'' as a series of "moral dialogues" at Rhode Island in 1761.<ref>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.&nbsp;230–258, at pp.&nbsp;231-232.</ref>

Although not performed in Portugal until the nineteenth century, the play holds the distinction of being the first of Shakespeare's works to have reached a Portuguese-speaking country, possibly at the request of a Portuguese reader, in 1765.<ref>Stone, John (March 2024). "''Othello'' Goes to Lisbon, 1765". ''Notes and Queries''. https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjae022</ref>

=== 19th century ===

Paul Robeson's iconic performance (see 20th Century, below) was not the first professional performance of the title role by a black actor: the first known is [[James Hewlett (actor)|James Hewlett]] at the [[African Grove|African Grove Theatre]], New York, in 1822.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=77-78}} And Hewlett's protégé [[Ira Aldridge]] (billed as "The African [[Quintus Roscius Gallus|Roscius]]") played many Shakespearean roles across Europe for forty years, including Othello at the [[Royalty Theatre]], London, in 1825.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=78-79}}

There are stories of extravagant audience reactions to the play. One of the most extreme is related by French novelist [[Stendhal]] who reports that at the [[Holliday Street Theater|Baltimore Theatre]] in 1822 a soldier interrupted the performance just before Desdemona's murder, shouting "It will never be said that in my presence a confounded Negro has killed a white woman!" The soldier fired his gun, breaking the arm of the actor playing Othello.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=8}}

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Othello was regarded as the most demanding of Shakespeare's roles: it is considered a part of theatre legend that [[Edmund Kean]] collapsed while playing the role, and died two months after.{{sfn|Gillies|2008|p=267}} [[Leigh Hunt]] saw Kean's Othello in 1819, describing his performance in ''The Examiner'' as "the masterpiece of the living stage".<ref>Welles, 2000, pp.&nbsp;55–57.</ref> Before Kean, the leading exponent of the role had been [[John Philip Kemble]] who played a "neoclassical hero". In contrast, Kean presented Othello as a man of romantic temperament, and uncontrollable passion.<ref>Moody, Jane "Romantic Shakespeare" in Welles, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.&nbsp;37–57, at p.&nbsp;53.</ref> It was also Kean who initiated the so-called "Bronze Age of Othello" by insisting that "it was a gross error to make Othello either a negro or a black"<ref>Kean's biographer F. W. Hawkins in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=32}}</ref> and thereby commencing a stage tradition of using lighter makeup rather than blackface.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=31-32;71-72}} An advantage of this change was that the actor's facial expressions could be more clearly seen.{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=152}}

Critics have naturally focused on the two central male roles. But Emilia becomes a powerful role in the final act. Indeed [[Charlotte Cushman]]'s Emilia was said to upstage [[Edwin Forrest]]'s Othello in 1845.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=102}} And when [[Fanny Kemble]] played Desdemona in 1848 she changed the performance tradition. Previously, Desdemonas had (in her words) "always appeared to me to acquiesce with wonderful equanimity in their assassination" but Kemble, a passionate [[Feminism|feminist]] and [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]], decided "I shall make a desperate fight for it, for I feel horribly at the idea of being murdered in my bed."<ref>[[Fanny Kemble]]'s 1882 ''Records of Later Life'' in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=93}}</ref>

[[File:Stanislavski as Othello 1896 edit.jpg|thumb|right|160px|Theatre practitioner [[Konstantin Stanislavski]] portraying Othello in 1896.]]

In 1848, ''Othello'' was produced by Barry Lewis at the [[Sans Souci Theatre (Calcutta)|Sans Souci Theatre]] in Calcutta. The casting of the white "Mrs. Anderson" opposite the dark-skinned Indian Baishnav Charan Auddy led to controversy, to polarized reviews, and to a fiasco on the opening night when half of the cast, military men, were prohibited from leaving barracks by order of the Brigadier of [[Dum Dum]].<ref>Gillies, Minami, Li and Trivedi, 2002, pp.273-274.</ref>

For [[Tommaso Salvini]] and [[Edwin Booth]] the role of Othello was a career-length project.{{sfn|Gillies|2008|p=267}} Salvini always played the role in Italian, even when acting alongside a company performing in English.<ref>Wells, Stanley (ed.) "Oxford Shakespeare Topics: Shakespeare in the Theatre{{snd}} An Anthology of Criticism", Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.&nbsp;112–113.</ref> His conception of the role was of a barbarian with savage and passionate instincts concealed by a thick veneer of civilisation.<ref>Joseph Knight's 1875 "Theatrical Notes" cited in Welles, 2000, p.&nbsp;113.</ref> [[Konstantin Stanislavski]] admired, and was greatly influenced by, Salvini's Othello, which he saw in 1882. In ''[[My Life in Art]]'', Stanislavski recalls Salvini's scene before the Senate, saying that the actor "grasped all of us in his palm, and held us there as if we were ants or flies".<ref>{{harvnb|Gillies|2008|pp=269-270}} (in turn citing the 1982 reprint of ''[[My Life in Art]]'', p.&nbsp;266).</ref> Booth, in complete contrast, played Othello as a restrained gentleman. When [[Ellen Terry]] played Desdemona she commented on how much Booth's style helped her: "It is difficult to preserve the simple, heroic blindness of Desdemona to the fact that her lord mistrusts her, if her lord is raving and stamping under her nose. Booth was gentle with Desdemona."<ref>[[Ellen Terry]]'s  ''The Story of My Life: Recollections and Reflections'' in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=75-77}}</ref>

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."<ref>Edwin Booth, cited by McAlindon, 2005, p.lxix.</ref>

Stanislavski himself first played Othello in 1896. He was dissatisfied with his own performance, later recalling "I was able to reach nothing more than insane strain, spiritual and physical impotence, and the squeezing of tragic emotion out of myself."<ref>{{harvnb|Gillies|2008|p=271}} (in turn citing the 1982 reprint of ''[[My Life in Art]]'').</ref>

=== 20th century ===


''Othello'' was performed in the [[Shinpa|Shimpa]] style in Japan in 1903 by [[Kawakami Otojirō|Otojiro Kawakami]], resetting the location of Cyprus to Taiwan, which was then a Japanese colony.<!-- Spellings in the piped links in this paragraph taken from the source --><ref>Gillies, John; Minami, Ryuta; Li, Ruru and Trivedi, Poonam "Shakespeare on the Stages of Asia" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.259-283 at pp.260-261.</ref>

In 1930 [[Konstantin Stanislavski|Stanislavski]] directed a production of Othello for the [[Moscow Art Theatre]], which was influential in the development of his [[Stanislavski's system|system]]. The performance was directed remotely, by letter, while Stanislavski recovered from illness in France.{{sfn|Gillies|2008|pp=272-273}}

The most significant theatre production in [[World War II|wartime]] America featured [[Paul Robeson]] as Othello.<ref>Morrison, 2002, p.251.</ref> Robeson had previously played the role in London in 1930 with a cast including [[Peggy Ashcroft]], [[Sybil Thorndike]] and [[Ralph Richardson]], and would later take the role for the [[Royal Shakespeare Company|RSC]] in 1959 at Stratford-Upon-Avon.<ref>Morrison, 2002, p.251-252.</ref> [[Margaret Webster]]'s 1943 Broadway production was considered a theatrical landmark, with Robeson (in the words of Howard Barnes) "making the Moor the great and terrible figure of tragedy which he has so rarely been on the stage."<ref>Howard Barnes in the ''Herald Tribune'' 20 October 1943, cited by Morrison, 2002, p.252.</ref> [[José Ferrer]] played Iago and [[Uta Hagen]] Desdemona. Taking the Broadway run with its subsequent tour, the show was seen by over half a million people.<ref>Morrison, 2002, p.252</ref> [[Earle Hyman]] saw the production numerous times when he was 17 and later recalled "this tremendous excitement - the first African-American onstage to be playing this role ... to all the blacks, he ''represented'' us. It was a moment of great pride."<ref>Earle Hyman interviewed by Michael A. Morrison 9 April 1999 cited in Morrison, 2002, p.252.</ref>

In 1947, [[Kenneth Tynan]] saw [[Frederick Valk]] and [[Donald Wolfit]] play Othello and Iago respectively, and described the experience as equivalent to witnessing the [[Great Chicago Fire|Chicago Fire]], the [[1935 Quetta earthquake|Quetta Earthquake]] or the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima Bomb]].<!-- although personally I expect he was exaggerating --><ref>Welles, 2000, p.239.</ref>

{{Quote box
 |quote     = "Black all over my body, Max Factor 2880, then a lighter brown, then Negro Number 2, a stronger brown. Brown on black to give a rich mahogany. Then the great trick: that glorious half yard of chiffon with which I polished myself all over until I shone... The lips blueberry, the tight curled wig, the white of the eyes, whiter than ever, and the black, black sheen that covered my flesh and bones, glistening in the dressing-room lights."
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When [[Laurence Olivier]] performed Othello at the [[Royal National Theatre|National]] in 1964,{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=80}} his sense of "being black", in his words, required him "to be beautiful" with a voice "dark violet - velvet stuff" and a walk "like a soft black leopard".<ref>Taylor, Neil "National and Racial Stereotypes in Shakespeare Films" in Jackson, Russell (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film" Cambridge University Press, 2000 pp.261-273 at p.269, in turn quoting Olivier's "On Acting".</ref> (The filmed version of this production is discussed under "Screen" below.)

The play was extremely popular in Ethiopia, running for three years in the mid-1980s at the City Hall Theatre, [[Addis Ababa]], in [[Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin]]'s translation – performed in a static and declamatory style.<ref>Banham, Martin; Mooneeram, Roshni and Plastow, Jane "Shakespeare in Africa" in Wells, Stanley and Stanton, Sarah (eds.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage", Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.284-299 at pp.288-289.</ref> When [[Janet Suzman]] directed the play in South Africa during [[Apartheid]] in 1988, the performance was passionately politicised, with the racism of several characters—and especially Iago (modelled on [[Eugène Terre'Blanche]])—foregrounded.<ref>McAlindon, 2005, p.lxxiii.</ref> The play was highly controversial, the physical contact between the black [[John Kani]] and the white Joanna Weinburg provoking walk-outs and a pile-up of hate mail.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=97-98}}<!-- Noting here (without changing the text) that the sources of this paragraph disagree about the year this opened: McAlindon says 1988, Thompson 1987. -->

White actors continued to dominate the role until the 1980s.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=80}} [[Willard White]] in 1989 was the first black actor to play Othello at Stratford since Paul Robeson thirty years earlier.<ref>Robert Smallwood writing for ''Shakespeare Quarterly'' in 1990, quoted by Welles, 2000, pp.307-313 at p.311.</ref>

A "singular and idiosyncratic"<ref>Albanese, 2001, p.226.</ref> performance of a white actor in the central role was [[Jude Kelly]]'s "[[Race-reversed casting|photonegative]]" production for the [[Shakespeare Theatre Company]] in Washington, D.C. in 1997, in  which [[Patrick Stewart]] played Othello as white, while almost all other speaking parts were played by actors of African descent.<ref>Albanese, Denise "Black and White and Dread All Over: The Shakespeare Theatre's "Photonegative" Othello and the Body of Desdemona" in Callaghan, Dympna (ed.) "A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare" Blackwell Publishers Limited, 2001, pp.226-247 at p.226.</ref> The script remained unchanged as regards the character's race, so the white Othello was, throughout, referred to as black.<ref>Taylor, 2000, p.271.</ref>

=== 21st century ===

At the turn of the century, performances at the [[Royal Shakespeare Company|RSC]] were dominated by their Iagos. [[Richard McCabe]] followed [[Simon Russell Beale]] in portraying misogynistic, embittered [[Non-commissioned officer|NCO]]s, older than their respective Othellos:{{sfn|Neill|2008|pp=99-100}}

Singaporean director [[Ong Keng Sen]] produced an [[Interculturalism|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.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=98-99}}

[[Cathy Downes]]' 2001 production at the [[Court Theatre (New Zealand)|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 [[Invasion of the Waikato|Waikato Land Wars]], Othello was a British-adopted general leading forces against his own people, until finally bursting into a "terrifying [[Wero (Māori)|wero]]" (a warrior's challenge) before exacting his revenge on Desdemona.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=69}}

A radically different approach was taken in Jette Steckel's 2009 German language production for the [[Deutsches Theater (Berlin)|Deutsches Theater Berlin]]. Although the translation consistently used the word "Schwarze" for "Moor" in the original, Othello was played by the white German actress [[Susanne Wolff]] in a range of different costumes and disguises, including a gorilla suit for part of Act 4—creating a performance in which everything is (in [[Ayanna Thompson]]'s words) "conveyed through representational metaphors which render Othello's race less of a stable physical marker and more of a fractured and performative one."{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=100-101}}

A common theme of modern productions of the play is an emphasis on military life. When [[Adrian Lester]] played the role in [[Nicholas Hytner]]'s 2013 [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] production, a retired army veteran was employed to teach the cast about ranks, comportment and off-duty behaviours.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=83}} Another 21st century trend exemplified by that performance is to reduce the focus of the play on Othello's race by having other parts played by actors of colour also.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=90}} And a third is an increasing focus on Desdemona's youth and innocence, at the expense of her strength of character.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=96}}

In 21st century productions, more emphasis has been given to the theme of [[domestic violence]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/theatre/killing-desdemona-the-domestic-violence-in-othello-20161024-gs98kg.html | title=Killing Desdemona: The domestic violence in Othello | date=24 October 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/dec/01/othello-review-clint-dyer-national-theatre | title=Othello review – Clint Dyer makes this tragedy feel utterly new | newspaper=The Guardian | date=December 2022 | last1=Akbar | first1=Arifa }}</ref>

Othello's "difference" has been tested in ways other than race. A rare example is [[Stein Winge]]'s 2015 casting of a white American actor, [[Bill Pullman]], as an American Navy man adrift in Norway.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=83-84}}

The play has provided opportunities for breakout roles for rising black stars, such as [[Chiwetel Ejiofor]] who played Othello at the [[Donmar Warehouse]] in 2008, and for a change of direction for other established stars: [[Willard White]] (see "20th century", above) was better known as an opera singer and [[Lenny Henry]] (see "True Identity" under "Screen" below), who played Othello for [[Northern Broadsides]] in 2009, was better known as a stand-up comedian.{{sfn|Bate|Rasmussen|2009|p=159}}

When [[Antony Sher]] played Iago for the [[Royal Shakespeare Company|RSC]],{{when|date=May 2024}} the final moment of the play, before a snap blackout, was for him to look up and stare at the audience. Director [[Gregory Doran|Greg Doran]] intended this to be strange, enigmatic, open to interpretation. But Sher later wrote that he was always clear about it: in his head the question which always rang out was:

{{Blockquote|"You saw what was happening - why didn't you stop it?"{{sfn|Maguire|2014|p=34}}}}

==Screen==
''Othello'' has influenced many film makers, and often the results are adaptations, rather than performances of Shakespeare's text. The UK's ''[[BFI National Archive|National Film and Television Archive]]'' holds over 25 20th-Century films containing performances, adaptations or extracts from ''Othello'' including [[Anson Dyer]]'s 1920 animated ''Othello'', 1921's ''[[Carnival (1921 film)|Carnival]]'' and [[Carnival (1931 film)|its 1932 remake]], the 1922 German film ''[[Othello (1922 film)|Othello]]'', the 1936 ''[[Men Are Not Gods]]'', 1941's ''[[East of Piccadilly]]'', [[George Cukor]]'s 1947 ''[[A Double Life (1947 film)|A Double Life]]'', [[Orson Welles]]' ''[[Othello (1951 film)|Othello]]'', [[Sergei Yutkevich]]'s Russian language ''[[Othello (1955 film)|Othello]]'' discussed below, two productions for [[BBC Television]] (including [[Jonathan Miller]]'s for the [[BBC Television Shakespeare]] series, discussed below), [[Basil Dearden]]'s ''[[All Night Long (1962 film)|All Night Long]]'', a 1988 South African TV screening of [[Janet Suzman]]'s ''Othello'', a film of [[Trevor Nunn]]'s [[Royal Shakespeare Company|RSC]] production with [[Willard White]] and [[Ian McKellen]] in the central roles, and ''[[True Identity]]''—a crime caper in which [[Lenny Henry]]'s character Miles lands the role of understudy to [[James Earl Jones]] (playing himself) in a production of ''Othello''.<ref>McKernan, Luke and Terris, Olwen (eds.) "Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive" British Film Institute, 1994 pp.119-131.</ref> ''Carnival'', ''Men Are Not Gods'' and ''A Double Life'' all feature the plot of an actor playing the title role in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' developing murderous jealousy for their Desdemonas.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|p=163}}<ref>Howard, Tony "Shakespeare's Cinematic Offshoots" in Jackson, Russell (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film", Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp.295-313 at pp.303-306.</ref> This plot is also shared by the very first ''Othello''-influenced film: the 18-minute Danish 1911 ''Desdemona''.<ref>Brode, 2000, p.172.</ref><ref>Howard, 2000, p.295.</ref> ''All Night Long'' reframes the story in a jazz milieu.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=171-173}} [[Richard Eyre]]'s ''[[Stage Beauty]]'' depicts a restoration performance of the play.<ref>Burt, Richard "Backstage Pass(ing): Stage Beauty, ''Othello'' and the Make-up of Race" in Burnett, Mark Thornton and Wray, Ramona (eds.) "Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century" Edinburgh University Press Ltd., 2006 pp.53-71 at p.53.</ref>

The filming of [[Orson Welles]]' ''[[Othello (1951 film)|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.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=165-166}} Welles uses shadows, extreme camera angles and discordant piano music to force the audience to feel Othello's disorientated view of Desdemona.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|p=166}} Cages, grilles and bars are frequent images.<ref>Tatspaugh, 2000 p.145</ref> And the text is heavily cut: Othello's first words are his speech to the Senators from Act 1 Scene 3.<ref>Tatspaugh, Patricia "The Tragedies of Love on Film" in Jackson, Russell (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film" Cambridge University Press, 2000 pp.135-159 at p.144</ref><ref>Mason, Pamela "Orson Welles and Filmed Shakespeare" in Jackson, Russell (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film" Cambridge University Press, 2000 pp.183-198 at pp.189-193.</ref> 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.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|p=167}}

[[Sergei Yutkevich]]'s Russian film, with a screenplay by [[Boris Pasternak]], was an attempt to make Shakespeare accessible to "the working man".<ref name="auto4">Brode, 2000, p.159.</ref> Yutkevitch had begun his career as a painter and then as a set designer, and his film was widely praised for its pictorial beauty.<ref name="auto4"/> The director saw his film as an opposite of Welles': where Welles began his film with a sequence from the end of the story, highlighting fate, Yutkevitch began with his Othello's back-story, thereby highlighting his characters' free will.<ref>Brode, 2000, p.160</ref>

[[Laurence Olivier]] said that the role of Othello demanded "enormously big"<ref>Laurence Olivier quoted by {{harvnb|Rosenthal|2007|p=174}}</ref> acting, and he incorporated what ''[[The Spectator]]'' described as his "outsize, elaborate, overwhelming"<ref>The Spectator quoted by {{harvnb|Rosenthal|2007|p=174}}</ref> performance into [[Othello (1965 British film)|the film]] of his [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] production. The effect to modern audiences is (in the words of Daniel Rosenthal) "laughably over-the-top"{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007}}—in keeping with its nature as a filmed stage performance, rather than a performance designed for the screen. The film was a financial success, and earned Oscar nominations for each of Olivier as Othello, [[Maggie Smith]] as Desdemona, [[Frank Finlay]] as Iago and [[Joyce Redman]] as Emilia.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=174-175}} Subsequent critics have been less sympathetic to Olivier's performance than his contemporary audience had been, tending to read it as racist.{{sfn|Gillies|2008|p=268}} As Barbara Hodgdon expresses it: "Oliver's Othello confirms an absolute fidelity to white stereotypes of blackness."<ref>Barbara Hodgdon, quoted in Tatspaugh, 2000, p.151.</ref>

The last of the screen versions to portray Othello in blackface was [[Jonathan Miller]]'s for the [[BBC Television Shakespeare]] series, with [[Anthony Hopkins]] in the title role. Miller is said to have commented that "the play is about jealousy, not race."<ref>Greenhall, Susanne and Shaughnessy, Robert "Our Shakespeares: British Television and the Strains of Multiculturalism" in Burnett, Mark Thornton and Wray, Ramona (eds.) "Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century" Edinburgh University Press Ltd., 2006 pp.90-112 at p.94.</ref> The TV film of [[Willard White]]'s performance as ''Othello'' (discussed under 20th Century performances above) has been described by Carol Chillington Rutter as "The one [screen] ''Othello'' where the women's stories get fully told",<ref>Chillington Rutter, Carol "Looking at Shakespeare's Women on Film" in Jackson, Russell (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film" Cambridge University Press, 2000 pp.141-260 at p.257.</ref> particularly praising the dynamic between [[Imogen Stubbs]]' Desdemona and [[Zoë Wanamaker]]'s Emilia.<ref>Chillington Rutter, 2000, p.257.</ref>

[[Oliver Parker]]'s 1995 ''[[Othello (1995 film)|Othello]]'' was trailed as an "erotic thriller", including a ritualized love scene between Othello and Desdemona, and, most memorably, Othello's jealous fantasies of encounters between Desdemona and Cassio.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|p=178}}<ref>Daileader, Celia B. "Nude Shakespeare in Film and Nineties Popular Feminism" in Alexander, Catherine M. S. and Wells, Stanley "Shakespeare and Sexuality" Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp.183-200 at pp.190-192.</ref> Swiss actress [[Irène Jacob]] as Desdemona struggled with the verse, as did [[Laurence Fishburne]] as Othello.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=178-179}} Iago was [[Kenneth Branagh]] in his first outing as a screen villain.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|p=179}} The overall effect was to create, in Douglas Brode's words "the tragedy of Iago"—a performance in which Iago's dominance is such that Othello is a foil to him, not the other way around.<ref>Brode, Douglas "Shakespeare in the Movies - From the Silent Era to Today" Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.167–168.</ref> The film was described as a "fair stab at turning the Bard into a decent night at the multiplex"<ref>The Times, quoted by {{harvnb|Rosenthal|2007|p=170}}</ref> but failed to achieve success at the box office.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=176-177}}

Other adaptations of Shakespeare's story to be filmed include [[Franco Zeffirelli]]'s [[Otello (1986 film)|1986 film]] of [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s ''[[Otello]]''{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=176-177}} and the 1956 ''[[Jubal (film)|Jubal]]'' which resets the story as a Western, centered on the Cassio character.<ref>Brode, 2000, p.173.</ref> The play was abridged to 30 minutes by [[Leon Garfield]], and produced with cel animation for the TV series ''[[Shakespeare: The Animated Tales]]''.<ref>Holland, 2007, p.43.</ref> [[Tim Blake Nelson]]'s basketball-themed teen drama ''[[O (2001 film)|O]]'' reset the story at an elite boarding school. The similarity of the film's ending to the [[Columbine High School massacre|Columbine massacre]], which happened while the film was being edited, delayed its release for over two years, until August 2001.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=180-181}} A British TV [[Othello (2001 film)|adaptation]] by [[Andrew Davies (writer)|Andrew Davies]], screened in 2001, re-set the story among senior officers of the [[Metropolitan Police]].{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=182-183}} And the first decade of the 21st-Century saw two non-English language film adaptations: [[Alexander Abela]]'s French ''[[Souli (film)|Souli]]'' set the story in a modern-day Madagascan fishing village, and [[Vishal Bhardwaj]]'s Hindi ''[[Omkara (2006 film)|Omkara]]'' amidst political violence in modern Uttar Pradesh.{{sfn|Rosenthal|2007|pp=184-185; 188-191}} The 1997 Malayalam film ''[[Kaliyattam]]'' is an adaptation set against the backdrop of [[Theyyam]] artform of Kerala.<ref>{{cite book |last=Loomba |first=Ania |chapter=Shakespeare and the Possibilities of Postcolonial Performance |year=2005 |title=A Companion to Shakespeare and Performance |pages=121–137 |editor-last=Hodgdon |editor-first=Barbara |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470996706.ch7 |access-date=2024-10-06 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]]|doi=10.1002/9780470996706.ch7 |isbn=978-0-470-99670-6 |editor2-last=Worthen |editor2-first=W. B.}}</ref>The 2023 Malayalam film ''Iru'' is an adaptation set against a campus political love story in Kerala.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-02-15 |title=Kerala Christian priest makes Othello-inspired movie on campus love, caste|url=https://www.theweek.in/news/entertainment/2020/02/15/kerala-christian-priest-makes-othello-inspired-movie-campus-love.html |access-date=2025-04-20 |work=The Week|issn=0971-8257}}</ref>  The 2024 Bengali film ''[[Athhoi]]'' is an adaptation set against a fictional town of Vinsura in West Bengal.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-06-06 |title=The timeless tale of trust, loyalty and betrayal: Athhoi unveils its trailer |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/movies/news/the-timeless-tale-of-trust-loyalty-and-betrayal-athhoi-unveils-its-trailer/photostory/110770815.cms |access-date=2024-11-08 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> 

=== Other media ===

==== Stage adaptations ====
Adaptations of—or borrowings from—Shakespeare's ''Othello'' began shortly after it first appeared, including [[Thomas Middleton|Middleton]] & [[William Rowley|Rowley]]'s 1622 ''[[The Changeling (play)|The Changeling]]'', [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]]'s 1632 ''[[Love's Sacrifice]]'', [[Thomas Porter (dramatist)|Thomas Porter]]'s 1662 ''[[The Villain (play)|The Villain]]'' and [[Henry Nevil Payne]]'s 1673 ''[[The Fatal Jealousy]]''.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=14}} [[Edward Young]]'s 1721 play ''[[The Revenge (Young play)|The Revenge]]'' reversed the racial roles, featuring the "swagger part" of a black villain called Zanga whose victim was a white man.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=15}}

[[Voltaire]]'s 1732 French play [[Zaïre (play)|''Zaïre'']] was a "neoclassical refurbishment" of Shakespeare's "barbarous" work.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=14}} And across continental Europe through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the play was better known than Shakespeare's in [[Jean-François Ducis]]' adaptation and its subsequent translations, in which a heroine renamed Hédelmone is stabbed to death by Othello.<ref>Hoenselaars, Ton "Shakespeare and Translation" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen "Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 645-657 at p.648.</ref>

Part of the explosion of the [[Romanticism|Romantic movement]] in France was a fashion for re-writing English plays as melodrama, including [[Alfred de Vigny]]'s 1829 ''Othello'' adaptation ''Le More de Venise''.<ref>Brown, 1995, p.&nbsp;309.</ref>

After the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]], London Theatres other than the [[Patent theatre|patent companies]] got around the illegality of performing Shakespeare by allusion and parody, such as Charles Westmacott's ''Othello The Moor of Fleet Street'' at the [[Adelphi Theatre|Adelphi]] in 1833.<ref>Moody, 2002, p.&nbsp;39.</ref>

In the 19th-Century United States, ''Othello'' was often used in parody, sometimes allied with [[minstrel show]]s: with the contrast between Shakespearean verse and African-American dialect a source of racist humour.<ref>Lanier, Douglas "Oxford Shakespeare Topics: Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture", Oxford University Press, 2002, p.&nbsp;38.</ref> Indeed, racist parodies were common in the aftermath of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK and, later, in the US: for example Maurice Dowling's 1834 ''Othello Travestie'', George W H Griffin's 1870 ''Othello (Ethiopian Burlesque)'', the anonymous ''Desdemonum An Ethiopian Burlesque'' of 1874 and the anonymous ''Dar's de Money (Othello Burlesque)'' of 1880.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=42}}{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=102-105}}

The [[Black Arts Movement]] appropriated ''Othello'' in an entirely different vein. [[Amiri Baraka]]'s twinned 1964 plays ''[[Dutchman (play)|Dutchman]]'' and ''Slave'' are said to "represent the ultimate African American revision of ''Othello''",<ref>James Andreas' "''Othello's'' African American Progeny" in {{harvnb|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=106}}</ref> especially in ''Dutchman's'' murder of Clay, a black man, by Lulu, a white woman.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=106}}

The ''Othello'' story became the rock opera ''[[Catch My Soul (musical)|Catch My Soul]]'' in 1968, depicting Othello as a charismatic religious cult leader, Desdemona as a naive convert, and Iago as a malcontent cult member who thinks himself to be Satan.<ref>Sanders, 2007, pp.&nbsp;73–74.</ref><ref>Lanier, 2002, p.&nbsp;71.</ref> In Murray Carlin's 1969 ''Not Now Sweet Desdemona'' the protagonist says of Shakespeare's play that it was "the first play of the Age of Imperialism ... ''Othello'' is about colour and nothing but colour."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=1}} [[Charles Marowitz]]'s 1974 ''An Othello'' reworked the play in the context of the [[Black power|Black Power]] movement.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=12}} [[C. Bernard Jackson]]'s 1979 ''Iago'' made Iago himself a Moor and a victim of racism.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=107}} And [[Caleen Sinnette Jennings]]' 1999 ''Casting Othello'' is a metadrama about a performance of Shakespeare's play, and the racial tensions it evokes.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|p=108}}

[[Roysten Abel]]'s ''Othello - A Play in Black and White'' is set among a group of Indian actors rehearsing a [[Kathakali]] version of ''Othello'' whose own story begins to mirror the play's plot: with Iago's seduction of Othello played as a [[guru]]-disciple relationship.<ref>Gillies, Minami, Li and Trivedi, 2002, pp.278-280.</ref>

Among [[Feminism|feminist]] appropriations of the ''Othello'' story, [[Paula Vogel]]'s 1994 ''Desdemona, A Play about a Handkerchief'' sets the story in a kitchen in Cyprus, where only Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca appear.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=108-109}} In [[Djanet Sears]]' 1998 ''Harlem Duet'', Othello's lover challenges his subservient passion: "...why you trying to please her? ... I'm so tired of pleasing White folks."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=13}} And [[Toni Morrison]] and [[Rokia Traoré]]'s 2012 ''[[Desdemona (play)|Desdemona]]'' sets its story in a timeless afterlife of the characters, in which Othello and Desdemona have leisure to talk through all facets of their relationship, and in which Desdemona is reunited with her former maid Barbary, whose actual name is Sa'ran.{{sfn|Honigmann|Thompson|2016|pp=111-113}}

''Othello'' is parodied in the form of a rap song in the stage show ''[[The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)]]''.<ref>Holland, Peter "Shakespeare Abbreviated" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.&nbsp;26–45, at p.&nbsp;41.</ref> In 2012, the Q Brothers debuted ''Othello: The Remix'', a 90-minute hip-hop version of ''Othello'' that was part of the [[Globe to Globe Festival]] and World Shakespeare Festival.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yates |first1=Kieran |title=Othello - review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/07/othello-review |website=The Guardian |date=7 May 2012 |access-date=7 May 2012}}</ref> It was one of the few sold-out shows during the festival and went on to have several successful international tours.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Della Gatta |first1=Carla |title=Shakespeare, Race, and 'Other' Englishes: The Q Brothers's Othello: The Remix |journal=Shakespeare Survey |date=2018 |volume=71 |pages=74–87 |doi=10.1017/9781108557177.011|isbn=978-1-108-55717-7 }}</ref>

==== Audio ====

One of the first full-length plays to be released on vinyl was the Broadway production starring [[Paul Robeson]], [[José Ferrer]] and [[Uta Hagen]], issued in 1944.<ref>Lanier, Douglas "Shakespeare on the Record" in Hodgdon, Barbara and Worthen, W. B. (eds.) "A Companion to Shakespeare and Performance", Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2008, pp.&nbsp;415–435, at p.&nbsp;424. The stage production is discussed in the section "20th Century" above.</ref> ''Othello'' has been performed on at least twelve separate occasions on [[BBC Radio]].<ref>Greenhalgh, Susanne "Shakespeare Overheard: Performances, Adaptations, and Citations on Radio" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.&nbsp;175–198, at p.&nbsp;186.</ref>

==== Music ====

''The Willow Song'', sung by Desdemona in Act 4 Scene 3,<ref>''Othello'', 4.3.39–56.</ref> is not an original creation of Shakespeare's, but was already a well-known ballad. As such it has surviving arrangements from both before and after Shakespeare's time.<ref>Sanders, 2007, p.&nbsp;30.</ref> The version of it thought to be most authentic, because it closely matches the lyric given by Shakespeare, is known as "The Poore Soule Sate Sighing"<ref>Austern, 2006, p.451-452.</ref> and is one of the most performed pieces of early modern English music.<ref>Austern, Linda Phyllis "The Music in the Play" in {{harvnb|Neill|2008|p=445}}</ref>

The two other songs sung in the play are the drinking songs in Act 2 Scene 3.<ref>''Othello'' 2.3.65-69 and ''Othello'' 2.3.85-92.</ref> The first of these, "And Let Me The Cannikin Clink", has no surviving arrangement, although it fits to several extant popular tunes.<ref>Austern, 2006, p.446-447.</ref> The other, "King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer", is the seventh of the eight stanzas of the existing ballad "Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee".<ref>Austern, 2006, pp.447-448.</ref>

The play has been a popular source for opera. [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]'s 1816 ''[[Otello (Rossini)|Otello, ossia il Moro di Venezia]]'' made Desdemona its focus, and was followed by numerous translations and adaptations, including one with a happy ending.<ref>Sanders, Julie "Shakespeare and Music{{snd}} Afterlives and Borrowings", Polity Press, 2007, p.&nbsp;103.</ref> But the most notable version, considered a masterpiece with a power equivalent to that of the play, is [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s 1887 ''[[Otello]]'',<ref>Gross, John "Shakespeare's Influence" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen (Eds.) "An Oxford Guide: Shakespeare", Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;633–644, at p.&nbsp;642.</ref> for which [[Arrigo Boito]]'s libretto marked a return to faithfulness to the original plot, including the reappearance of the pillow as the murder weapon, rather than [[Jean-François Ducis|Ducis]]' dagger.<ref>Hoenselaars, Ton "Shakespeare and Translation" in Wells, Stanley and Orlin, Lena Cowen (eds.) "An Oxford Guide: Shakespeare". Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;645–657, at p.&nbsp;649.</ref>

''Othello'' was, with ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', one of the two plays which most influenced [[Duke Ellington]] and [[Billy Strayhorn]]'s jazz suite ''[[Such Sweet Thunder]]''. Its opening track (itself titled ''Such Sweet Thunder'', a quotation from Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'')<ref>''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 116–117.</ref> came to stand for Othello telling his tales of travel and adventure to Desdemona, as reported in the play's first act.<ref>''Othello'', 1.3.129–170.</ref><ref>Sanders, 2007, pp.&nbsp;17–18.</ref>

Sometimes the order of the play influencing a composer is reversed, as in the appropriations of classical music by filmmakers retelling Othello's story: for example in the film ''[[O (2001 film)|O]]'', in which excerpts from Verdi's ''Otello'' are used as a theme for Odin (the Othello character) while modern [[Hip hop music|rap and hip-hop]] are more associated with the white college students around him.<ref>Sanders, 2007, p.&nbsp;154, 171–172.</ref>

[[Bob Dylan]]'s song [[Po' Boy (Bob Dylan 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''.<ref>Buhler, Stephen M., "Musical Shakespeares: Attending to Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona" in Shaughnessy, Robert (ed.) "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Popular Culture", Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.&nbsp;150–174, at pp.&nbsp;171–172.</ref>

==== Literature ====

[[Aphra Behn]]'s 1688 novel ''[[Oroonoko]]'', and its subsequent dramatisation by [[Thomas Southerne]], reset Othello's enslavement in the context of the then-current [[Atlantic slave trade|Atlantic triangle]].{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=15}}

In addition to his theatrical performances noted above, the play was also central to [[Konstantin Stanislavski]]'s writings, and to the development of his "[[Stanislavski's system|system]]". In particular, the part of Othello is a main subject of his book [[Creating a Role]].{{sfn|Gillies|2008|p=272}} In it, the characters of Tortzov, the director, and Kostya, the young actor – both partly autobiographical – rehearse the role of Othello in the opening act.{{sfn|Gillies|2008|pp=277-278}}

A plot-line in [[Farrukh Dhondy]]'s novel ''Black Swan'' involves the central character Lazarus, a freed slave, travelling to London in the time of Shakespeare and authoring many of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, including ''Othello'', in a production of which Lazarus plays the title character, and kills himself.<ref>Lanier, 2002, pp.&nbsp;135–136.</ref> The narrative voice of [[Caryl Phillips]] 1997 novel ''The Nature of Blood'' harangues Othello as a sexual and political sell-out.{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=12}} And in Sudanese novelist [[Tayeb Salih]]'s retelling of the ''Othello'' story, ''Season of Migration to the North'', the central character Mustafa Sa'eed, on trial for the murder of his white mistress, refuses to be judged by the standards of the play, declaring:

{{Blockquote|"Othello was a lie."{{sfn|Neill|2008|p=118}}}}

== See also ==

* [[List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare]]

== Notes and references ==
;Notes
{{notelist}}

;References
{{refbegin}}
*Except where otherwise stated, references to the play ''Othello'' are to {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2016 |isbn=9781472571762 |editor-last=Honigmann |editor-first=E. A. J. |editor-link=E. A. J. Honigmann |edition=revised|series=[[Arden Shakespeare|The Arden Shakespeare]], third series |editor-last2=Thompson |editor-first2=Ayanna |editor-link2=Ayanna Thompson|ref={{harvid|refnoteArden}}}}.
*Except where otherwise stated, references to other works by Shakespeare are to {{Cite book |title=William Shakespeare: The Complete Works|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=9780199267170 |editor-last=Wells|editor-first=Stanley |editor-link=Stanley Wells|editor-last2=Taylor|editor-first2=Gary|editor-link2=Gary Taylor (scholar) |edition=second|series=[[The Oxford Shakespeare]]|ref={{harvid|refnoteOxfordComplete}}}}.
{{refend}}

{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
=== Editions of ''Othello'' ===
* {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Red Globe Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=9780230576223 |editor-last=Bate|editor-first=Jonathan |editor-link=Jonathan Bate|editor-last2=Rasmussen|editor-first2=Eric|editor-link2=Eric Rasmussen (academic) |series=[[The RSC Shakespeare]]}}
* {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=1997 |isbn=9780415015158 |editor-last=Honigmann |editor-first=E. A. J. |editor-link=E. A. J. Honigmann |series=[[Arden Shakespeare|The Arden Shakespeare]] third series}}
* {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2016 |isbn=9781472571762 |editor-last=Honigmann |editor-first=E. A. J. |editor-link=E. A. J. Honigmann |edition=revised|series=[[Arden Shakespeare|The Arden Shakespeare]], third series |editor-last2=Thompson |editor-first2=Ayanna |editor-link2=Ayanna Thompson}}
* {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=1996|orig-date=1968 |isbn=9780140707076|editor-last=Muir |editor-first=Kenneth |editor-link=Kenneth Muir (scholar) |series=[[New Penguin Shakespeare|Penguin Shakespeare]]}}
* {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2015|orig-date=2005 |isbn=9780141396514|editor-last=Muir |editor-first=Kenneth |editor-link=Kenneth Muir (scholar) |editor-last2=McAlindon|editor-first2=Tom|series=[[Penguin Classics]]}}
* {{Cite book |title=Othello |publisher=[[Oxford World's Classics]] |year=2008 |isbn=9780199535873 |editor-last=Neill |editor-first=Michael |series=[[The Oxford Shakespeare]]}}

===Secondary sources===
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Hodgdon |editor-first=Barbara |editor2-last=Worthen |editor2-first=W.B. |title=A Companion to Shakespeare and Performance |year=2008 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-4051-8821-0 |series=Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture |last=Gillies |first=John |chapter=Stanislavski, ''Othello'', and the Motives of Eloquence |doi=10.1002/9780470996706.ch15 |pages=267–284 }}
* {{Cite book |title=Othello: The State of Play |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4081-8456-1 |editor-last=Orlin |editor-first=Lena Cowen |series=[[The Arden Shakespeare]] (State of Play series)}}
** {{harvc |last=Orlin |first=Lena Cowen |c=Introduction |pp=1-6 |in=Orlin |year=2014b}}
** {{harvc |last=Maguire |first=Laurie |c=''Othello'', Theatre Boundaries, and Audience Cognition |pp=17-43 |in=Orlin |year=2014}}
** {{harvc |last=Hornback |first=Robert |c='Speak[ing] Parrot' and Ovidian Echoes in Othello: Recontextualizing Black Speech in the Global Renaissance |pp=63-93 |in=Orlin |year=2014}}
** {{harvc |last=Smith |first=Ian |c=Othello's Black Handkerchief |pp=95-120 |in=Orlin |year=2014}}
** {{harvc |last=Enterline |first=Lynn |c=Eloquent Barbarians: ''Othello'' and the Critical Potential of Passionate Character |pp=149-175 |in=Orlin |year=2014}}
** {{harvc |last=Siemon |first=James |c=Making Ambition Virtue |pp=177-202 |in=Orlin |year=2014}}
** {{harvc |last=Rosenfeld |first=Colleen Ruth |c=Shakespeare's Nobody |pp=257-279 |in=Orlin |year=2014}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rosenthal |first=Daniel |title=100 Shakespeare Films |year=2007 |series=BFI Screen Guides |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-84457-170-3 |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |title=Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles |editor-last=Sutherland |editor-first=John |editor2-last=Watts |editor2-first=Cedric |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-283879-7 |series=[[Oxford World's Classics]]}}
** {{harvc |last=Orgel |first=Stephen |c=Introduction |pp=ix-xvi |in=Sutherland |in2=Watts |year=2000}}
** {{harvc |last=Watts |first=Cedric |c=Othello's Magical Handkerchief |pp=76-84 |in=Sutherland |in2=Watts |year=2000}}

== External links ==
{{Wikisource|Othello (Shakespeare)}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/othello}}
* {{gutenberg|no=1531|name= Othello}}
* [http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/othello/ ''Othello'' Navigator] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515075851/http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/othello/ |date=15 May 2016 }}&nbsp;– Includes the annotated text, a search engine, and scene summaries.
* {{librivox book | title=Othello | author=William Shakespeare}}
* {{IBDB show|id=6823|Title=Othello}}&nbsp;– lists numerous productions.
* [http://www.bl.uk/works/othello ''Othello''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715175011/https://www.bl.uk/works/othello |date=15 July 2020 }} at the British Library
* [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Wc8KcIHIFHgC/page/n327/mode/2up Hecatommithi, Deca Terza, Novella VII: "Un Capitano Moro", di Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio] (1574), on [[archive.org]]
* [https://archive.org/details/gliecatommitiov00giragoog/page/n417/mode/2up Gli Ecatommiti, Deca Terza, Novella VII: "Un Capitano Moro", di Giovan Battista Giraldi] (1853), on [[archive.org]]
* [https://archive.org/details/gliecatommiti00unkngoog/page/n68/mode/2up Gli Ecatommiti, Deca Terza, Novella VII: "Un Capitano Moro", di Giovan Battista Giraldi] (1853), on [[archive.org]]

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