Othello Literary Elements

Tragedy

English

The play is set in Venice during the Ottoman-Venetian War (sixteenth century)

The the genre of the text (drama) precludes it from having a discernible narrator, many consider Iago's to the be the primary point of view expressed throughout the play.

The tone of the play is paranoid and anxious. The mood of the play is foreboding and doomed.

The protagonist of the play is Othello. The antagonist of the play is Iago.

The major conflict in the play is that Iago is secretly plotting to destroy Othello's marriage, reputation, and life, while Othello remains oblivious and considers Iago a trusted confidant.

The climax of the play occurs when Othello finally acts on his jealousy and murders his wife, Desdemona. Only after this moment does Othello realize he was manipulated by Iago and in response takes his own life.

There are many elements of foreshadowing throughout the play, often denoted through specific imagery. For example, the blood on the marriage sheets foreshadows Desdemona's eventual murder at the hands of her husband.

In Act 3, Iago cautions Othello not to exaggerate the information he has received or let it lead him to rash decisions. However, Iago is at this point convinced that Othello has already become inflamed by what he has told him, so his observation that Othello has been only "a little" perturbed is a gross understatement (3.3).

The play makes frequent allusions to antiquity, especially the mythological histories of Ancient Greece and Rome. These allusions frequently compare Othello or other characters to gods and other mythological figures, attaching them to particular morals or lessons to be learned.

The play is famous for its use of color and color imagery throughout. The colors red, white, green, and black appear frequently throughout the play, each signifying a major element of Othello's character or conflict he faces.

In many ways, Othello himself is a paradox, as he is both entirely guilty of murdering Desdemona and ruining his life while at the same time also being a victim of Iago's manipulations. His self-sacrifice at the end of the play suggests one way of reckoning with this paradoxical nature, as the only way to right his wrongs is to eliminate the version of himself that committed them.

Iago uses parallelism in his speech in order to make himself appear more convincing. For example, in Act One, Iago tells Brabantio, "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe" (1.1). The repetition of the word "now" adds urgency to Iago's words and makes him seem trustworthy and concerned for Desdemona's safety as he speaks to her father.

Iago uses personification often in the play, as he is a skilled rhetorician who knows how to manipulate Othello with his speech. In Act One, Iago suggests that time has a womb, telling Roderigo to be patient because "There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered" (1.1). By comparing time to a woman with a womb, Iago highlights both the fated nature of what is to come (babies are eventually born) as well as the mystery associated with those unknowns in the present.

The central dramatic device operative in Othello is dramatic irony. Beginning in Act One, audiences become privy to Iago's plan to destroy Othello, a plan to which Othello himself remains oblivious until the very last scene of the play. This dramatic irony carries throughout the play as audiences are aware of the motivation behind Iago's words while Othello is blinded by his jealousy, mistrust of women, and crippling insecurity.