Othello by William Shakespeare

SALON FULL

SALON DETAILS

• Facilitated by Jane Wymark
• Seven virtual meetings
• Wednesdays,  6-8.00 pm, 15 September – 3 November 2021 (N.B. no meeting on 6 October)
• Meetings online (via Zoom)
• Recommended edition: Arden ISBN 978-1-4725-7177-9
• £195 for seven-week study

Shakespeare’s Othello was most likely first performed at court in 1604  with his newly renamed company The Kings Men. The long Elizabethan age had come to an end and the first of the Stuarts was on the throne, ushering in a new age of increased secularism and sexual licence.

Othello tells the story of a foreign general sent to war on his wedding night, while a plot to destroy him is set in motion by his most trusted friend. The stage is set for a tragedy but paradoxically many of the characters are from the same commedia dell’arte tradition that Shakespeare has used so effectively in his comedies: Brabantio the possessive father, Roderigo the gulled gentleman, Emilia the worldly wise confidante, Cassio both a bookish soldier and a comic drunkard, and of course Othello, the jealous husband.

Othello is an outsider. The Venetians are happy to use his talents and sing his praises. Brabantio wines and dines him, but when his daughter marries Othello the limits to tolerance come into focus and the comic potential vanishes. Iago is no Toby Belch jollying Andrew Aguecheek along to get his money, and nor will Iago’s thirst for destruction be assuaged by the  kind of dark house that imprisons Malvolio before he is laughed off stage. We are in an altogether darker world – Iago wants their lives.