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Iago sets Roderigo to pick a fight with Cassio. He, in the meantime, plies Cassio with alcohol and gets
him thoroughly drunk. When Roderigo sets upon him later, therefore, Cassio loses his temper.
Montano gets involved, tries to separate the two combatants but gets injured in the process. The
commotion disturbs Othello, and he is so angry with Cassio that he demotes him. Thereafter Iago
promises Cassio that he will work to restore him with Othello's favour.
IAGO'S CUNNING PLAN
Iago does not have an overall plan. He improvises as he goes along.
He appears to know that Michael Cassio has a short temper and will react violently if someone insults him.
He therefore sets Roderigo to pick a quarrel which will of course cause a disturbance on the very night
on which Othello is celebrating the festivities of his marriage, and his first night with his wife.
The plan has an advantage in that Cassio does not know Roderigo. Indeed, Roderigo is a stranger to
everyone on Cyprus and will therefore not be recognised or brought to book for his role.
Events work in Iago's favour. Othello has proclaimed an evening of festivities. Cassio, who does not hold
his alcohol very well, has already drunk a cup of wine before he meets Iago. He is easily persuaded to
have another, and then another.
Very soon he is drunk and is accosted by Roderigo in the dark. Roderigo provokes him into a fight. No
one gets hurts in the ensuing brawl except Montano who attempts to separate the two combatants.
The noise, however, disturbs Othello -- which, of course, is the plan. He personally intervenes and then
demands to know of Iago who is responsible for the brawl.
Iago, while supposedly attempting to remain neutral, places the blame firmly on Cassio whom Othello
promptly demotes from his rank as lieutenant, not even bothering to investigate any further.
Iago thereupon initiates the next plan. He persuades Cassio to approach Desdemona to intervene on his
behalf.
He, in the meantime, will poison Othello's ear but putting him on his guard to watch for an adulterous affair
between Desdemona and Cassio. Othello has merely to watch for Desdemona's extravagant pleading
of Cassio's cause.
All very cunning indeed!
Have you looked at the questions in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer the following questions:
"I do not know. Friends all but now, even now,
In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
Devesting them for bed; and then, but now --
As if some planet had unwitted men --
Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
In opposition bloody."
- Comment on Iago's opening statement to Othello, "I do not know." (2)
[Need help?]
Well, Iago is lying, of course. It was he who started the whole thing by priming Roderigo to pick a fight
with Cassio and then plying Cassio with wine to get him drunk.
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- Comment on Iago's exaggerated explanation, "Friends all but now, even now, in quarter, and in
terms like bride and groom devesting them for bed." (2)
[Need help?]
It is very exaggerated, isn't it? Friends who are such close buddies that they are like bride and groom
undressing for bed -- and, of course, for sex. What type of friends would they be, I ask you?
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- Explain Iago's simile, "As if some planet had unwitted men." (2)
[Need help?]
Iago is referring to ASTROLOGY where the planets and stars were believed to affect people's lives.
In the old days where primitive religions ruled, kings did not make any major decisions (like going to war)
until an astrologer had examined the positions of the planets and the stars, and decided whether or not
it was safe to make such a decision.
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"What's the matter,
That you unlace your reputation thus
And spend your rich opinion for the name
Of a night-brawler?"
- Examine the richness of Othello's metaphor in terms of what has taken place. (4)
[Need help?]
In the old days of fine clothing, jackets were laced closed. If a man's jacket should unlace in a public
situation, he would be left in a most embarrassing moment.
Othello is claiming that Cassio and Montano's "night-brawl" was the unlacing of their lives so that
good opinion of them was all but gone.
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"Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger.
Your officer, Iago, can inform you, --
While I spare speech, which something now offends me, --
Of all that I do know."
- Othello is almost forced to accept only Iago's evidence. Why is this so? (4)
[Need help?]
The two main witnesses to the event -- Cassio and Montano -- claim to be unable to speak.
Cassio, when asked to explain, says quite simply, "I cannot speak." Cannot or too afraid to? He
had, after all, very definitely been in the wrong and was still probably too drunk to speak.
Montano is wounded and, according to his word, his wound might be mortal. At least, that is his excuse.
But he too had been drinking somewhat too much and might be afraid that he will appear guilty.
Only Iago then is willing to give an account of the events, and so only Iago's word forms Othello's opinion.
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"What! in a town of war,
Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,
To manage private and domestic quarrel,
In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
'Tis monstrous. Iago, who began't?"
- Othello is rightly angry, and he here explains the reasons for this anger. What reasons does he
give? (4)
[Need help?]
Othello points out that Cyprus had been at war until just the previous day. People were therefore still
desperately afraid, so much so that the very sound of sword clashing against sword would send them into
a frenzy.
On the other hand, the people who were involved in this brawl were meant to be on guard, were meant
to be looking after everybody's safety and not themselves endangering people's lives by their drunken
brawling.
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"Touch me not so near:
I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio."
- Comment on the irony of Iago's words. (4)
[Need help?]
The irony is that Iago himself set up Cassio for such a brawl. It was he who set up Roderigo to attack him
in the dark and then primed Cassio with alcohol to make him drunk and therefore to appear as the
aggressor.
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"Thus it is, General.
Montano and myself being in speech,
There comes a fellow crying out for help:
And Cassio following him with determined sword,
To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause."
- How accurate is Iago's description of the start of the brawl? (4)
[Need help?]
It is fairly accurately told from the starting point which Iago selects. Indeed, Montano would have agreed
with him.
What is inaccurate is what happened prior to this point: that it was he -- Iago -- who had caused Cassio
to drink too much so as to make him aggressive, and it was also he who had set up Roderigo to attack
Cassio in the dark.
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- Why does Iago not mention Roderigo by name but refers to him only as "a fellow crying out for
help"? (4)
[Need help?]
Iago wanted to keep the identity of Roderigo a secret. Othello would possibly have suspected something
had he known that the original brawl was between Roderigo and Cassio.
Furthermore, Othello might then have connected Roderigo and Iago, and then possibly wondered whether
Iago himself might have been connected with the brawl.
It was better for Iago's plan that Roderigo's identity to be kept a secret. Indeed, Cassio did not know
Roderigo and so would not have recognised who it was who had attacked him in the dark.
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"I know, Iago,
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee
But never more be officer of mine."
- What is the problem of Othello's sentencing Cassio thus? (4)
[Need help?]
Under normal circumstances, Cassio would have expected a court marshall. He would then have been
put on trial and would have been allowed to defend himself.
As it is, however, Cassio has no defence. Indeed, he is too drunk to defend himself at the moment and
is given no further chance to explain why he had been drunk and why he had been attacked in the dark
--
in fact, Iago's role in the episode.
One knows that Othello is justly angry but is he also personally angry that his night of sex with Desdemona
has been disturbed?
In short, Cassio has been convicted by the equivalent of mob justice. Such a conviction tarnishes
Othello's good reputation.
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