Major Characters of the play - Othello

 Analyse the Major Characters of the play

         As the first significant black character in English literature, Othello’s Moorish complexion (clearly intended to be black African) would have an immediate impact on Elizabethan audiences. Shakespeare knew that many of them would be very prejudiced and would have associated a Moor with brutality, ignorance, evil and sexual immorality. The character of Othello both confirmed and contradicted. 

    Othello is a highly promoted and respected General at the start of the play, at first a man of calm integrity, a dutiful and loving husband to Desdemona (who is both younger and white) and a pillar of Venetian society. Central to the tragic action of the play is the transformation of this noble character, in front of our eyes, into an irrational murderer under the evil influence of the jealous Iago.

          As Iago’s work on Othello begins to stoke up the furnace of jealousy and his sense of wronged honor, we see a change in his behaviour. Even after the murder of Desdemona, however, we can appreciate the sincerity of character which allows him to accept full responsibility for what he has done and then to deliberately take his own life in self-punishment.

         Desdemona is portrayed as vulnerable but pure. The character of Desdemona (the name means ‘unhappy’ or ‘evil fate’) is the most consistent in the play. She does not change, symbolising the values of helpless good and wronged innocence throughout. She is innocently fallen prey to Othello’s lust and charms, when we first meet her she seems a mature, confident and perceptive woman who is fully aware of her own feelings and is deeply in love with her husband.She is mature and balanced in her views: she sees a divided duty between her father and her husband at the start of the play; she is sympathetic to the situation of others, like Cassio. Her commitment to her husband is not merely spiritual,and embraces the physical and sexual aspects of a loving relationship – something upon which Othello’s eventual jealousy and Iago’s manipulation of it depend.Even in her dying words she blames herself for what has happened, not her foolish and jealous husband.
              The character of Iago represents
certain values and attitudes towards the world
which do not develop or change over the course
of the play. He is named after the patron saint of
Spain, England’s great enemy at the time of the
play’s writing. Iago represents the opposite of
everything Desdemona stands for, and the conflict between these two sets of values is a central feature of the play. Desdemona wishes for happiness, peace, reconciliation, order and love,because these are the things which give her life meaning. Iago wishes for death, destruction and anarchy.Iago feels that he has been passed over for promotion and that Cassio has been given the position which should have been his. He suspects his own wife,Emilia, of having an adulterous affair with Othello.Iago manipulates the perceptions of other characters with great skill, using lies which contain sufficient truth for us to see why it could be that anyone should believe them. He controls the plot for most of the play, and moves Othello towards his cynical view of the world.
                 Roderigo loves Desdemona and, even though he knows she is married, pays Iago to help him in his attempts to win her affections. Iago dupes this gullible Venetian gentleman to the extent that he becomes persuaded to attempt the murder of Cassio one dark night in Cyprus.The character of Roderigo is not strongly drawn, he is a weak and pliant person.
                Cassio is a handsome, educated and
popular young man. As the play opens, Othello has appointed Cassio as his Lieutenant. This is the main source of provocation for Iago’s jealousy and hatred of Cassio. Iago gets Cassio drunk and consequently sacked for brawling. When Cassio seeks Desdemona’s help in pleading his case with Othello, Iago uses this against him as further evidence of an illicit relationship. However,he is the only one of Iago’s victims to remain alive at the end of the play.
                Emilia is a very down-to-earth woman.Emilia has virtuous qualities, such as honesty and loyalty to Desdemona. Emilia is Desdemona's attendant.She spends much of her day in Desdemona's service, so she has insight and access to Desdemona's personal life. This gives an advantage to the villain Iago, who is also Emilia's husband. To make Othello believe that Desdemona has been unfaithful, Iago talks Emilia into giving him Desdemona's handkerchief. Emilia is loyal to Desdemona, but she is loyal to Iago. She is caught between her conscience and her responsibilities as both a wife and Desdemona's attendant. At the end of the play, she exposes Iago's plotting without thought for the consequence.