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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.
A LOOK AT RODERIGO
Roderigo always makes his appearance in the company of Iago. Always he is Iago's puppet, is always
willing to do Iago's dirty work and all for the promise of a few impossible crumbs. And he is always paying
Iago for something. What is going on here?
If you have not yet read the note on Elizabethan courting rituals and gifts, then please do so now. What
follows is based on it.
[Click here to see it: refer to the left column of the linked
worksheet.]
Courtship rituals were complicated, involving gifts which were taken to the woman by a Go-Between. In
Roderigo's case, the woman is Desdemona, while the supposed Go-Between is Iago.
When the play opens, we find that Roderigo is already using Iago as his Go-Between for his hoped-for
courting of Desdemona. He appears to have already paid lots of money.
In a real courtship ritual, the gifts did not usually involve money. No, indeed. We know that Othello gave
Desdemona an intricately embroidered handkerchief whereas most men gave an embroidered garter for
the woman to wear.
Why then was Roderigo making cash payments and jewels? Well, because Iago was ripping him off!
Indeed, he was making no approach at all to Desdemona but was merely pocketing the gifts himself.
What would Iago have done with a lady's handkerchief or a lace garter?
When Desdemona married Othello, however, one would have thought that Roderigo would have given
up on his quest. She could, after all, not get divorced. What therefore did Roderigo hope to achieve by
continuing?
The answer, it would seem, lay in Roderigo's entrapment to Iago's voiced opinions. All Venetian women,
Iago claimed, were happy to have extra-marital affairs. Marriage was therefore not the end of the courting
game.
In Valmont, the classic 1989 movie set in 18th century France, the manipulating Merteuil
tells her naive protege, Cecile, that one did not marry the person one loved: one made him a lover.
The reason was simple: society marriages were arranged affairs, organised for either political or financial
ends. People almost never married for love. If the woman had a real lover, therefore, there would be
plenty of time after the wedding to meet with him clandestinely.
Iago claimed that this was almost universal in Venetian marriages. Cassio, he told Othello, was
Desdemona's clandestine lover. It would seem, therefore, that he convinced Roderigo that he could
become Desdemona's lover, and Iago personally would bring that about by acting as Go-Between.
The courtship to become a lover would have been identical as a marital courtship, involving gifts. And so
Roderigo was convinced to "Put money in thy purse" -- and he continued to put money and jewels
in Iago's pocket in the belief that Iago would take them to Desdemona.
Roderigo was, therefore, probably not plotting to marry Desdemona. Indeed, that was impossible.
Nevertheless, Iago had convinced him that he could still become Desdemona's lover, for which he needed
to pay dearly by way of monetary gifts and jewellery.
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:
"Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago; and rather, as it seems to me now, keepest from
me all conveniency than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope. I will indeed no longer endure it,
nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly suffered."
- What is Roderigo's "hope"? How is it at all possible to be achieved? (4)
[Need help?]
Roderigo's "hope" is that he may be able to become Desdemona's lover. He has been attempting
to make this possible by using Iago as a Go-Between, taking gifts from him to Desdemona.
If Desdemona had still been single, there would be a possibility of marriage because the entire courtship
ritual happened by means of Go-Betweens and secret gifts. But she is a married woman and divorce was
outlawed by the Church.
There was, therefore, only one hope: that he could impress Desdemona with his wealthy gifts to win her
over to become his clandestine lover.
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- What is Roderigo's complaint against Iago? (2)
[Need help?]
Roderigo has give Iago a great deal of money and jewels to act as a Go-Between and bring about this
relationship with Desdemona. But thus far he has seen not a centimetre of progress and he at last begins
to distrust either Iago's ability as a Go-Between or even Iago's honesty. Has Iago merely been pocketing
the jewels? (Of course he has!)
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"I have wasted myself out of my means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver to Desdemona
would half have corrupted a votarist."
- What is the purpose of "the jewels"? (2)
[Need help?]
The purpose of "the jewels" is to act as some form of gift to attract Desdemona's attention.
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- Why does Roderigo speak of corrupting "a votarist"? (2)
[Need help?]
A "votarist" is a person who is bound by solemn religious vows, such as a nun. Roderigo claims
that he has given Iago so many jewels to take to Desdemona, whereas even half that amount would have
been enough to persuade even a nun to give up her vows and sleep with him.
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- What happened to the jewels? (2)
[Need help?]
It is very clear that the jewels never made their way to Desdemona. No, Iago has pocketed them all.
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"I will make myself known to Desdemona: if she will return me my jewels, I will give over my suit and
repent my unlawful solicitation."
- Why does Roderigo expect Desdemona to return the jewels? (4)
[Need help?]
According to the courting rituals of the day, when a couple decided that they would go no further, the man
would return all the gifts she had given him although she was allowed to keep those which he had given.
Presumably she was allowed to keep the gifts as payment for her loss of virtue. In other words, the
courtship had gone so far that she had sacrificed her virginity to him.
Often the man needed to know that his future wife could fall pregnant because his estate depended upon
heirs. If, however, she did not fall pregnant at this stage, he would then call off the courtship but she was
allowed to keep all the gifts in compensation.
In the case of Desdemona, however, Roderigo has been unable to make any progress. There has
certainly been no sex. It is clear to him, therefore, that Desdemona is not interested but, since he has not
had sexual intercourse with her, he thinks it only right that she return all the gifts he has supposedly been
giving her.
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"If thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery and
devise engines for my life."
- Do any of Iago's above-mentioned proposals come true? (4)
[Need help?]
Roderigo certainly does not get to "enjoy" Desdemona, i.e. sleep with her. In fact, she would be
dead by the following night.
He also does not get to "take [Iago] from this world with treachery", i.e. kill him. Indeed, it will be
he, Roderigo, who will be killed by Iago.
Nevertheless, Iago himself will be taken from this world when the truth is revealed of his plot against
Othello, Desdemona and Cassio, and of course his slaying of Roderigo.
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- What does Iago want Roderigo to do for him now? (2)
[Need help?]
Iago has promised Othello that he will kill Cassio. It is not his intention, however, to do this personally.
Instead, he wishes Roderigo to do the dirty work, just as Roderigo had attempted to do so earlier.
It is strange that Roderigo does not smell a rat. He attempted this once before and was nearly killed in
the process. And why does he still trust Iago after paying so much for him to act as a Go-Between but
with absolutely nothing tangible to show for it?
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