Learn about the characters of Othello as discussed by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production
Learn about the characters of Othello as discussed by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production
William Shakespeare's Othello is discussed by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production of the play.
Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
[EPIC OPERA MUSIC PLAYING] IAN MERRILL PEAKES: What's he then, that says I play the villain?
MICHELE OSHEROW: There's a few ways to think about Iago. And probably one of the most prominent is to say, he's the devil.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: When devil's will the blackest sins put on, they do at first with Heavenly shows, as I do now.
MICHELE OSHEROW: And his purpose in this world is to create as much pain and do as much evil as he possibly can. That is a show of power.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: He has excuses that he has to tell himself, that that's why he's doing this. For that I do suspect the lusty Moor hath leaped into my seat. The thought whereof doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards. And nothing can, nor shall content my soul till I am evened with him, wife for wife. But I think he's just a psychopath.
MICHELE OSHEROW: I like the idea of thinking of this as a kind of chess game that Iago plays with himself. Because this really does become a game to him.
LOUIS BUTELLI: Rodrigo is very definitively a pawn in that match.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: You sacrifice your pawns in order to get your king, at the end of the day.
LOUIS BUTELLI: As far as the way that he gets used, Rodrigo actually isn't a bad pawn.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHELE OSHEROW: I think Rodrigo is used in the play to accomplish a number of things. First, he is a really easy person to manipulate.
LOUIS BUTELLI: How now, Lieutenant?
[GRUNT]
[INAUDIBLE].
MICHELE OSHEROW: So he helps Iago get money. He helps Iago get Cassio. And he also provides a lot of comic relief. And Shakespeare likes to include a lot of comedy in the tragedies.
LOUIS BUTELLI: Rodrigo is this sort of wealthy, slightly ineffective noble. He's just sort of madly crazily in love with Desdemona, who doesn't even recognize that Rodrigo exists. Which makes it that much more horrifying and tragic that Iago ultimately kills Rodrigo.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: The game he plays with Rodrigo sort of foreshadows the game he's going to play with Othello. But the stakes are much higher with Othello. Othello is the king. And the end game is to topple the king.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy. It is the green eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on!
[LAUGHTER]
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: Ah, jealousy. Jealousy's great. Shakespeare is brilliant. And the reason we're still doing his plays-- 400-plus years later-- is because he writes about basic human emotion.
There was jealousy back then. There's been jealousy through the ages. There's jealousy now.
MICHELE OSHEROW: What's interesting to me about the jealousy in Othello, is that it's totally driven by deceit. We see Iago totally destroy the love between Othello and Desdemona.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, that she repeals Cassio for her body's lust.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Othello is so easily deceived. Because he's insecure. I mean, I think Desdemona's probably the first woman that he's actually loved. And they've just gotten married.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: He's new to the whole love game. Iago rightly figures out he'll be new to the whole jealousy game. And it will take him down.
LOUIS BUTELLI: One of the big questions people ask about Othello is why does his mind change so quickly? Othello is very much an outsider. He's sort of different culturally from everybody else. And that's a big part of why he ends up walking down the path that he does in this play.
MICHELE OSHEROW: Deception is something fierce. His pride and his confidence are completely gone by the end.
OWISO ODERA: I think Othello would describe himself as a hard worker. He is honest. He believes the best in people and trusts that people will hold up their side of the bargain, their honor.
And so he does the same. Everything about Othello that makes him who he is comes into question. And the fact that he is someone of other ilk, ultimately makes you insecure no matter what, no matter how successful you are.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: And it helps to get rid of the queen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Desdemona is completely out of her element. And she loves Othello. And I thinks she believes so strongly in that love.
But she's in this foreign place. Everybody starts behaving strangely. And so she's vulnerable. Everybody's vulnerable.
KAREN PEAKES: Emilia, she loves Iago and had, at one time, felt like they were in a loving relationship. At the beginning of the play, they're in a rough patch. But I think that Emilia thinks that it's all going to work out. And part of that is her showing him the handkerchief.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: What I think is really interesting about the play is he doesn't really know what he's going to do. He even has a speech where he says, "Tis here, but yet confused." He doesn't quite know what his plan is. And these things keep falling in his lap.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Desdemona does tell a little white lie, and does not tell Othello that she has lost the handkerchief.
OWISO ODERA: I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me. Lend me thy handkerchief.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Here, my lord.
OWISO ODERA: That which I gave you.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: I have it not about me.
OWISO ODERA: No?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: No indeed, my lord.
OWISO ODERA: That's a [INAUDIBLE]. She says, well, I don't have it right now. Which is true. She's not lying so much as protecting her honor. Because after he tells her the story about the significance of the handkerchief-- that handkerchief did an Egyptian to my mother give. She was a charmer and could almost read the thoughts of people.
She told her while she kept it, t'would make her amiable and subdue my father entirely to her love. But if she lost it or made a gift of it, my father's eye should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt after new fancies. She, dying, gave it me and bid me when my fate would have me wived, to give it her. I did so. And take heed, on 't. Make it a darling like your precious eye.
And she realizes that oh my god, if I did really lose this handkerchief, this could be really bad. So she decides to stall by saying, well, I don't know where-- it's not here now. But I'll get it later. It's gone? Speak! Is 't out of the way?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Heaven bless us!
OWISO ODERA: Say you?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: It is not lost. But what and if it were?
OWISO ODERA: How?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: I say, it is not lost.
OWISO ODERA: Fetch, let me see it.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Why, so I can, but I will not now.
OWISO ODERA: Desdemona not being 100% honest with Othello about the handkerchief kind of is what leads the play to unravel. It plants a seed in Othello's head that maybe she did lose the handkerchief. Or maybe she did give it to Cassio, like Iago said she did.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: The great failing-- and it's the first time in the entire play-- is when he fails to take out Cassio, the knight in shining armor. He fails to take him out. And that is the end of Iago.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHELE OSHEROW: When we're in that bedroom, and we see does Desdemona's dead body, and Emilia enters and Othello presents all of the information to Emilia, and to the other men who enter the room. He had my wife's handkerchief. Emilia understands how that handkerchief came in Cassio's possession. She is the only person who can solve this problem for us.
KAREN PEAKES: That handkerchief thou speak'st of I found by fortune and did give my husband! For often, with a solemn earnestness, he begged of me to steal it. She give it Cassio? No! Alas, I found it! And I did give my husband!
IAGO: Filth! Thou liest!
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: By Heaven, I do not! I do not, gentleman.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: Final scene, when he's in there and Emilia's giving him hell, it's the first time he's quiet. And Shakespeare does not give Iago a lot of lines. Because he knows he's trapped. He is madly thinking of a way out of this corner, out how to get back in this chess game. And so what he does is he sort of has a suicide mission and allows himself to be caught, but takes everybody down with him.
MICHELE OSHEROW: In most of the tragedies, you know, we get to enjoy the villain's death. But not so here. And not only does he not die, but Shakespeare draws attention to it. Iago says, "Stabbed but not killed!" And Othello announces, well, if you're the devil, I can't kill you.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: He kills him though, in a sense. Because he's the second largest part in all of Shakespeare. And his last one is "From this time forth, I never will speak word." So in a sense, Shakespeare kills him.
MICHELE OSHEROW: You cannot kill the devil. Which means you can't get rid of evil in this world. And I think that's the point. Iago is allowed to stay alive because evil still exists in the world.
MICHELE OSHEROW: There's a few ways to think about Iago. And probably one of the most prominent is to say, he's the devil.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: When devil's will the blackest sins put on, they do at first with Heavenly shows, as I do now.
MICHELE OSHEROW: And his purpose in this world is to create as much pain and do as much evil as he possibly can. That is a show of power.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: He has excuses that he has to tell himself, that that's why he's doing this. For that I do suspect the lusty Moor hath leaped into my seat. The thought whereof doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards. And nothing can, nor shall content my soul till I am evened with him, wife for wife. But I think he's just a psychopath.
MICHELE OSHEROW: I like the idea of thinking of this as a kind of chess game that Iago plays with himself. Because this really does become a game to him.
LOUIS BUTELLI: Rodrigo is very definitively a pawn in that match.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: You sacrifice your pawns in order to get your king, at the end of the day.
LOUIS BUTELLI: As far as the way that he gets used, Rodrigo actually isn't a bad pawn.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHELE OSHEROW: I think Rodrigo is used in the play to accomplish a number of things. First, he is a really easy person to manipulate.
LOUIS BUTELLI: How now, Lieutenant?
[GRUNT]
[INAUDIBLE].
MICHELE OSHEROW: So he helps Iago get money. He helps Iago get Cassio. And he also provides a lot of comic relief. And Shakespeare likes to include a lot of comedy in the tragedies.
LOUIS BUTELLI: Rodrigo is this sort of wealthy, slightly ineffective noble. He's just sort of madly crazily in love with Desdemona, who doesn't even recognize that Rodrigo exists. Which makes it that much more horrifying and tragic that Iago ultimately kills Rodrigo.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: The game he plays with Rodrigo sort of foreshadows the game he's going to play with Othello. But the stakes are much higher with Othello. Othello is the king. And the end game is to topple the king.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy. It is the green eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on!
[LAUGHTER]
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: Ah, jealousy. Jealousy's great. Shakespeare is brilliant. And the reason we're still doing his plays-- 400-plus years later-- is because he writes about basic human emotion.
There was jealousy back then. There's been jealousy through the ages. There's jealousy now.
MICHELE OSHEROW: What's interesting to me about the jealousy in Othello, is that it's totally driven by deceit. We see Iago totally destroy the love between Othello and Desdemona.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, that she repeals Cassio for her body's lust.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Othello is so easily deceived. Because he's insecure. I mean, I think Desdemona's probably the first woman that he's actually loved. And they've just gotten married.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: He's new to the whole love game. Iago rightly figures out he'll be new to the whole jealousy game. And it will take him down.
LOUIS BUTELLI: One of the big questions people ask about Othello is why does his mind change so quickly? Othello is very much an outsider. He's sort of different culturally from everybody else. And that's a big part of why he ends up walking down the path that he does in this play.
MICHELE OSHEROW: Deception is something fierce. His pride and his confidence are completely gone by the end.
OWISO ODERA: I think Othello would describe himself as a hard worker. He is honest. He believes the best in people and trusts that people will hold up their side of the bargain, their honor.
And so he does the same. Everything about Othello that makes him who he is comes into question. And the fact that he is someone of other ilk, ultimately makes you insecure no matter what, no matter how successful you are.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: And it helps to get rid of the queen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Desdemona is completely out of her element. And she loves Othello. And I thinks she believes so strongly in that love.
But she's in this foreign place. Everybody starts behaving strangely. And so she's vulnerable. Everybody's vulnerable.
KAREN PEAKES: Emilia, she loves Iago and had, at one time, felt like they were in a loving relationship. At the beginning of the play, they're in a rough patch. But I think that Emilia thinks that it's all going to work out. And part of that is her showing him the handkerchief.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: What I think is really interesting about the play is he doesn't really know what he's going to do. He even has a speech where he says, "Tis here, but yet confused." He doesn't quite know what his plan is. And these things keep falling in his lap.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Desdemona does tell a little white lie, and does not tell Othello that she has lost the handkerchief.
OWISO ODERA: I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me. Lend me thy handkerchief.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Here, my lord.
OWISO ODERA: That which I gave you.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: I have it not about me.
OWISO ODERA: No?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: No indeed, my lord.
OWISO ODERA: That's a [INAUDIBLE]. She says, well, I don't have it right now. Which is true. She's not lying so much as protecting her honor. Because after he tells her the story about the significance of the handkerchief-- that handkerchief did an Egyptian to my mother give. She was a charmer and could almost read the thoughts of people.
She told her while she kept it, t'would make her amiable and subdue my father entirely to her love. But if she lost it or made a gift of it, my father's eye should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt after new fancies. She, dying, gave it me and bid me when my fate would have me wived, to give it her. I did so. And take heed, on 't. Make it a darling like your precious eye.
And she realizes that oh my god, if I did really lose this handkerchief, this could be really bad. So she decides to stall by saying, well, I don't know where-- it's not here now. But I'll get it later. It's gone? Speak! Is 't out of the way?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Heaven bless us!
OWISO ODERA: Say you?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: It is not lost. But what and if it were?
OWISO ODERA: How?
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: I say, it is not lost.
OWISO ODERA: Fetch, let me see it.
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: Why, so I can, but I will not now.
OWISO ODERA: Desdemona not being 100% honest with Othello about the handkerchief kind of is what leads the play to unravel. It plants a seed in Othello's head that maybe she did lose the handkerchief. Or maybe she did give it to Cassio, like Iago said she did.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: The great failing-- and it's the first time in the entire play-- is when he fails to take out Cassio, the knight in shining armor. He fails to take him out. And that is the end of Iago.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHELE OSHEROW: When we're in that bedroom, and we see does Desdemona's dead body, and Emilia enters and Othello presents all of the information to Emilia, and to the other men who enter the room. He had my wife's handkerchief. Emilia understands how that handkerchief came in Cassio's possession. She is the only person who can solve this problem for us.
KAREN PEAKES: That handkerchief thou speak'st of I found by fortune and did give my husband! For often, with a solemn earnestness, he begged of me to steal it. She give it Cassio? No! Alas, I found it! And I did give my husband!
IAGO: Filth! Thou liest!
JANIE BROOKSHIRE: By Heaven, I do not! I do not, gentleman.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: Final scene, when he's in there and Emilia's giving him hell, it's the first time he's quiet. And Shakespeare does not give Iago a lot of lines. Because he knows he's trapped. He is madly thinking of a way out of this corner, out how to get back in this chess game. And so what he does is he sort of has a suicide mission and allows himself to be caught, but takes everybody down with him.
MICHELE OSHEROW: In most of the tragedies, you know, we get to enjoy the villain's death. But not so here. And not only does he not die, but Shakespeare draws attention to it. Iago says, "Stabbed but not killed!" And Othello announces, well, if you're the devil, I can't kill you.
IAN MERRILL PEAKES: He kills him though, in a sense. Because he's the second largest part in all of Shakespeare. And his last one is "From this time forth, I never will speak word." So in a sense, Shakespeare kills him.
MICHELE OSHEROW: You cannot kill the devil. Which means you can't get rid of evil in this world. And I think that's the point. Iago is allowed to stay alive because evil still exists in the world.