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Othello launches a throughly disgusting attack on Desdemona, invoking the most outrageous language
to describe her. Yet never at any point does he attempt to answer any of her legitimate questions.
Desdemona again invokes Iago to intercede on her behalf but, instead of doing so, Iago reunites with
Roderigo to bring the fiendish plot to its conclusion.
THE EVOLUTION OF ETIQUETTE
Etiquette -- i.e. how to behave when in company -- is a relatively new thing dating back to the 15th and
16th centuries, the time of the Renaissance.
In the medieval world -- that era which preceded the Renaissance -- etiquette virtually did not exist.
People behaved instinctively, as children do. They belched if they felt like belching. They farted in public
if they desired to relieve themselves.
There were no rules for how to treat a lady. Men sulked publicly if they felt offended, or would launch into
fist fights at the drop of a hat. The stories of knights rescuing damsels in distress? It is far more likely
that the knights would put an unprotected damsel into distress!
This all changed during the Renaissance -- or, for England, the Elizabethan Age -- when suddenly men
became concerned about how they should be behaving when in public. To give them guidance, manuals
began to drafted on what manners were good and what was to be avoided.
The manuals examined almost every facet of life: from eating to drinking, how to speak, how to walk and
dress, how to behave in the presence of women. Men in high society now had something to guide them,
rules which they could follow meticulously.
The rules were first formulated in Northern Italy, in Venice and Milan. From there, Renaissance etiquette
slowly filtered across the length and breadth of Europe. It would take time, however, and sometimes even
centuries for the upper classes to change.
Indeed, during the Elizabethan Age, the English were generally regarded as uncouth, while the English
in turn viewed the Italians as fops.
Notice how Iago is highly critical of the way in which Cassio continually kisses his fingers when he speaks
to Desdemona. Iago thinks it stupid, and his viewpoint probably echoed that of the average Englishman.
Etiquette would also take ages to filter down to the lower classes of society, with the working classes not
being affected until the 19th century, perhaps even later. Indeed, even today, people of the lower socio-
economic class battle with the elementary rules of behaviour at formal gatherings like weddings, where
they still like to drown out anyone making a speech.
One finds this differentiation of manners very obvious in Othello. Desdemona and the Duke are
perhaps the most sophisticated. Brabantio's behaviour, on the other hand, was at times questionable in
that he allowed his instincts to lean towards revenge. Cassio knew the rules but possibly applied them
slavishly, while at times overdoing it.
Iago? Well, he was very much a law unto himself, although he appeared to know how to behave in the
presence of a lady. Note, for example, how he treated Desdemona with the utmost respect but, on the
other hand, treated his own wife in the most uncouth way. And Iago was a person who took revenge to
an extreme.
Emilia is almost typical of the lower cast, so much so that she is often referred to almost as if she were
a prostitute. At the same time, however, she was able to recognise poor behaviour in others, and
especially noted the intense jealousy which Othello exhibited.
Othello himself found it a problem to balance his own behaviour. When he was in Venice and everyone
about him was behaving to the book, he followed suit. When in Cyprus, on the other hand, and there were
few people to guide him, his etiquette slipped badly.
Notice his outbursts of jealousy even when there was little to provoke it -- typical of pre-Renaissance
behaviour. Observe his crassness when addressing his innocent wife about her apparently missing
handkerchief. And, of course, his unprovoked striking of Desdemona in full view of the gathered
dignitaries.
In many ways, therefore, the play is all about Othello's descent from the status of a dignified man who
portrays all the expected etiquette of Venice. By the end of the play, however, he is behaving like an
uncouth medieval barbarian.
With the various levels of etiquette -- or lack thereof -- all around them, the sophisticated Elizabethan
audiences would have noticed immediately Othello's slide into pre-Renaissance depravity.
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:
"Do not talk to me, Emilia;
I cannot weep; nor answer have I none,
But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight
Lay on my bed my wedding sheets."
- Why does Desdemona want her bed to be laid out in her wedding sheets? (2)
[Need help?]
A wedding bed and the white wedding sheets symbolise purity and innocence. It also symbolises
sacrifice: where the woman offers her body in sacrifice to her husband on the white altar of the wedding
bed.
Desdemona appears to be aware that her husband is so enraged that he will kill her that night, but she
wants her deathbed to be the symbol of her own innocense. She also accepts the sacrifice that she must
make at the hands of her husband.
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- Why does she wish to speak to Iago? (2)
[Need help?]
Desdemona still has no inkling that Iago is in any way involved in her husband's madness. She trusts him
and believes that he will be able act as a mediator with Othello, restoring peace to their troubled
relationship.
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"Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day!"
- There is a perceptible gentleness here in Iago, something that is not seen elsewhere. How may this
be explained? (4)
[Need help?]
Iago would appear to be amoral -- i.e. someone who has no morals whatever. He does have feelings
though, proved by his own feelings of anger at being overlooked for promotion.
It is possible, therefore, that he has feelings for Desdemona in that he knows she is perfectly innocent?
She is merely a pawn in the route of his revenge but one may nevertheless feel sympathy for the pawn
that is about to be sacrificed.
On the other hand, perhaps this is merely part of Iago's plotting. He has succeeded in convincing
everyone to believe what he has said. Is he then merely continuing with the game while showing no real
emotions whatever -- in other words by appearing to be sympathetic?
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DESDEMONA: "If any such there be, heaven pardon him!"
EMILIA: "A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones!"
- Comment on the different attitudes of Desdemona and Emilia when referring to the unknown person
who has slandered Desdemona. (4)
[Need help?]
Desdemona throughout plays the role of the tragic heroine, going inexorably to her death while forgiving
everyone who is guilty. She is like Jesus who can forgive his executioners "for they know not what they
are doing".
Emilia, on the other hand, is a down to earth character who wants the villains hanged for their role in this
plot. There must be no pardoning, she says, until the "halter" (noose) takes his life and he enters
hell for eternal punishment.
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"Why should he call her whore? who keeps her company?
What place? what time? what form? what likelihood?"
- Emilia's questions are simple, and yet they get to the heart of the problem. Indeed, they are the
questions which Othello himself should be asking. Why is this so? (4)
[Need help?]
Othello has had absolutely no evidence to substantiate any of the conclusions he has reached concerning
his wife's guilt.
And yet, the asking of some very simple questions would have got to the bottom of everything: Who is
it that she is supposedly having sex with? Where? When? And above all, what is the likelihood of it
happening?
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"I cannot say 'whore'
It does abhor me now I speak the word;
To do the act that might the addition earn
Not the world's mass of vanity could make me."
- What is the essence of Desdemona's argument? Should one agree with her? (4)
[Need help?]
Desdemona says that she cannot even bring herself to speak the word "whore". Even saying the
words at this very moment causes her dismay.
Why then would she perform the very act about which she cannot even bring herself to speak? Nothing
could ever make her do it.
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"I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour:
The business of the state does him offence,
And he does chide with you."
- Iago's argument is meant to appease Desdemona. In what way, however, does it fail to touch on the
real issues? (4)
[Need help?]
Iago argues that Othello must merely be in a bad humour, caused by his duties of state as Governor.
How much pressure of work, however, would cause a man to speak as diabolically as he has done about
his wife, and using the language to which he has resorted?
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