![]() It is clear from the Duke’s reaction to Othello’s backstory that Shakespeare wants the audience to admire the romantic hero: “I think this tale would win my daughter too”.īy contrast, (IV.i) begins with an urgent exchange between Othello and Iago written in stichomythia full of half-lines and short speeches. When he spoke eloquently to the Venetian council in (I.iii), his enthralling monologues were written in loose iambic pentameter and included some very effective rhetoric. Othello’s transformation is reinforced by the structure of his dialogue. ![]() The hero, whose story of “feats of broil and battle” commanded the audience’s attention in (I.iii), is now reduced to the margins of the stage. It is also ignominious because he mistakenly believes they are ridiculing an affair between Cassio and Desdemona when Bianca is actually the focus of their sneers. ![]() This is a socially unacceptable and morally repugnant action. Prompted by Iago to “stand… awhile apart”, Othello hides behind one of the Globe Theatre’s pillars and tries to “mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns” on Cassio’s face. The spectacle of Othello suffering uncontrollable muscular convulsions on the stage floor is an obvious visual contrast to his imposing presence at the start of the play when he stood tall and refused to be subdued by Brabantio’s threats.Īnother peripeteia occurs immediately after the seizure when the tragic hero eavesdrops on Iago’s contrived conversation with Cassio. According to “honest” Iago, this is Othello’s “second fit” and his “lethargy must have his quiet course” or else he “foams at mouth” and “breaks out to savage madness”. This lack of power is clear when Othello is provoked by his ancient and “falls in a trance”. This entrance seems to be more appropriate at this point in the story because Iago is now in the ascendancy and Othello spends the scene under his control. ![]() In this version, the scribe ignores dramatic convention and reduces the eponymous hero’s status by indicating he should come on stage after Iago. Interestingly, the First Quarto edition, probably a transcript of the playwright’s foul papers and published in 1622, begins with “Enter Iago and Othello”. Most copies of “Othello” start (IV.i) with the stage direction “Enter Othello and Iago” because higher ranking characters would be followed by their subordinates. ![]()
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