AP Literature Summer Session

Title: Othello
Author: William Shakespeare
Birth date: Unkown
Time of Death: April 23, 1616
He was one of the most famous playwrights

Publication: 1603
Setting: Venice, Italy and Cyprus

Themes: This play, like other plays by Shakespeare, has themes that still occur to today's society. Themes found in this play were love, jealousy and racism among others. The central theme could be anything along the lines of "Place faith in the ones you love" to the very cliche "Don't trust anyone."

Plot: The story is essentially about a couple's love, jealousy and betrayal. The couple is Othello (a dark skinned man referred to as a 'moor') and his wife Desdemona (daughter of one of the richest men in Venice, Italy). Othello is a general in the army and sets out to Cyprus to combat invading Turks. His wife comes along, and during this stay in Cyprus Othello's love for her quickly becomes skeptical and eventually leads to him murdering her. One of Othello's advisers convinces Othello that she is in love with another man and Othello believes that he must kill her so she will not betray any other men in her life. However, what his adviser (named Iago) told him was not in the least bit true, and Othello only learns the truth after killing his wife. Many people die because of Iago's doings and in the end Othello kills himself. Like other Shakespeare plays, this one is classified as a tragedy.
Symbolism: The handkerchief that Othello gives to Desdemona can be seen as the source of all the trouble. It was more or less a catalyst that lead Othello to believe she was in love with another man.

Main Characters:
Othello: Referred to as a Moor, he is a well known general and is married to Desdimona.
Desdimona: The wife of Othello, who is innocently killed by him.
Iago: A man of high army rank whom Othello thought he trusted. He goes out of his way to devilishly plot the end of Othello and Desdimona's marriage, but it goes out of hand leading to the deaths of many people. He also kills his wife when everyone figured out the truth of what he did.
Cassio: The one whom Othello believes his wife loves.
Roderigo: Another man who loves Desdemona. Iago says he will help him get married with Desdimona, but in a quick change of events he is killed by Iago.

Reaction: The story was good and very complex. There was one thing I couldn't clearly answer though, they may have stated it in the movie but I might have overlooked it or not noticed it. I didn't understand why Iago went out of his way to do all of this, I thought maybe it was because he didn't like Othello, or he wanted Roderigo to marry Desdimona. But when he suggested that Othello should strangle his wife then it couldn't be that he really wanted Desdimona and Roderigo to marry because she would be dead therefor not able to marry. I don't know, it seems a little confusing, but overall the movie was good. If you are reading this and haven't seen the movie then it would be kinda confusing, I tried to be concise with everything in this post, trying not to bore anyone.