Act II
Act II opens in Cyprus where Montano, the governor and his men are waiting for news of Othello and his battles with the Turks at sea. Cassio is the first to arrive with news that the Turks are beaten. He also brings news of Othello but only that their ships lost sight of each other in the storm. He describes how he was parted from him "with foul and violent tempest", an unwitting prophesy of what is to come. Montano confirms Othello's reputation as a soldier, "I have served him and the man commands / like a full soldier". Another ship is sighted but again, it is not Othello's but brings Iago, Desdemona, Roderigo and Emilia. On hearing this, Cassio says:
He's had most favourable and happy speed
Tempests themselves...
Traitors ensteeped to clog the guiltless keel,
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona
(2.1.67-73)
Again words appropriate to the development of the plot are put into the mouth of Cassio by the dramatist: Traitors such as Iago who indeed has a sense of beauty, a beauty which he himself lacks - as he says of Cassio towards the end of the play, "He hath a daily beauty in his life / That makes me ugly" (5.1.19- 20). When Cassio is then asked about Desdemona, he describes her as "My captain's captain". It is Desdemona's influence over Othello to which he appeals when he is stripped of his lieutenancy.
Desdemona, Iago and Roderigo join Cassio and Montano on the shore. Again, this time in response to Desdemona's worried query, Cassio speaks of the loss of Othello at sea and again his words are unwittingly prophetic:
The great contention of the seas and skies
Parted our fellowship(2.1.92-93)
Cassio greets Emilia, saying to Iago,
Let it not gall your patience, good Iago
That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding
That gives me this bold show of courtesy(2.1.97-99)
Iago's resentment and contempt for these manners, these shows of courtesy, are voiced a number of times: Of Cassio's election as lieutenant he is disparaging - "mere prattle without practice" (1.1.25) and his resentment of both are unified in his plan - "Ay, smile on her do: I will / gyve thee in thine own courtesies..." (2.1.169-170), "If such tricks as these strip you out of/ your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft...Very good, well kissed, and excellent courtesy" (2.1.171- 5). He, just as Othello, is an outsider to Venetian society, both foreigners to this world of manners and courtesies.
Iago enters into a sort of word game with Desdemona (2.1.118-161). This is an interesting reflection of Desdemona's character, as it of Iago's. That Desdemona enters into this game at all suggests that she is, as Iago suggests, a Venetian woman who plays and flirts.
I am not merry; but I do beguile
The thing I am by seeming otherwise
Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
(2.1.122-24)
Iago responds with clever words; they are, after all, his tools as a villain. "She never was foolish that was fair, / For even her folly helped her to an heir...There's none so foul and foolish thereunto / But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do". Desdemona recognises that these are crude illusions - she is certainly not naive - and that they are "...old fond paradoxes to make / fools laugh i'th' alehouse" but her innocence is shown by her perseverance. She does not know when to stop. This lack of tact, if you like, can be seen here as elsewhere, most tragically in her petitions to Othello on Cassio's behalf. Asked how he would praise a "deserving woman indeed?", one that "did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?", Iago continues his rhyming game concluding with Desdemona's question "To do what?" with the answer, "To suckle fools and chronicle small beer". Desdemona laughs at this most lame and impotent conclusion", but does she not suckle the poor fool, Cassio? And is not a handkerchief but small beer? Is not the conclusion of the play of a lame general, and impotent Desdemona and Iago, trapped in his web, once so powerful and now both lame and impotent?
Othello arrives, addresses Desdemona as "my fair warrior" and proceeds to speak of his joy that he is once again united with her.
If after every tempest come such calms
May the winds blow till they have wakened death
...If it were now to die
'Twere now to be most happy, for I fear
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate
(2.1.183-191)
Little does he know of the tempests to come, that winds will blow until they have wakened death, or that he will indeed die, not so much content but united, soul with soul with Desdemona "upon a kiss". Iago is contemptuous of this brave talk, Othello's "charm", the "Amen to that, sweet powers". He plans to take control,
...I'll set down
The pegs that make this music(2.1.198-99)
The end of the scene sets out Iago's plan. In a conversation with Roderigo, he convinces him that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair. He puts Roderigo to the task of provoking Cassio by which he hopes to disgrace Cassio and displace him as lieutenant. This, he says, gets rid of Cassio, who he describes as an "impediment". Unless this is removed, he says, "there were no expectation of our prosperity". The soliloquy that follows confirms as a motive his suspicion that Othello has had an affair with his wife, Emilia.
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leaped into my seat, the thought whereof
Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards...(2.1.294-95)
He wants revenge, to be "evened with him, wife for wife". He understands jealousy and it is this that he plans to plant in Othello's mind,
...I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgement cannot cure...(2.1.299-300)
In Act II, Scene 2, a herald proclaims a night of celebration, "each man to what sport and revels his / addiction leads him", for the victory over the Turks and the wedding of Othello. It is a fateful night for Cassio. Othello instructs him,
Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight.
Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop
Not to outsport discretion
(2.3.1-3)
Cassio replies that he will "...look to't" but that very night he is involved in a brawl and Othello sacks him - "...Cassio, I love thee / But never more be officer of mine" (2.3.244-5). Told only this, it would seem strange that a man like Cassio, a man of manners and courtesy, should behave so disgracefully. Othello asks him at first, "How comes it Michael, that you are thus forgot?" (2.3.184). It is, of course, the influence of Iago. Cassio has no head for drink ("I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking") but Iago convinces him with a light-hearted persistence to drink "to the health of black Othello" (2.3.29), for "...'tis a night of revels, the gallants desire it..." (2.3.40-1). Once drunk, he is vulnerable, "full of quarrel and offence" (2.3.47). Iago has already briefed Roderigo to provoke a fight. He also tells Montano, who is on watch with them, that Cassio has a problem with drink and that he fears Cassio may be dangerous in this state,
I fear the trust Othello puts in him
On some odd time of his infirmity
Will shake this isle(2.3.122-4)
As Iago and Montano speak of the hazards of Cassio's "ingraft infirmity", they hear a cry of help. They find Cassio beating up Roderigo. Montano tries to restrain him and Cassio turns on him, letting Roderigo escape. Roderigo runs off to stir the town with cries of mutiny. Othello arrives on the scene to find his lieutenant brawling with a gentleman. He asks what is going on. Cassio cannot speak; Montano neither. Othello becomes more and more angry and begins to throw off the vestiges ofcaution,
Now, by heaven,
My blood begins my safer guides to rule
And passion, having my best judgement collied,
Assays to lead the way.(2.3.200-3)
He is aware of his weakness, his passionate decisiveness, that is seen later both in his treatment of Cassio and of Desdemona. Iago is called upon to explain the situation and, whilst his direction of events up until this point is impressive, his control of the situation is masterly. He effectively blames Cassio but does so in such a way as to appear loath to do so.
I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio,
Yet I persuade myself to speak the truth(2.3.217-9)
He also claims to have pursued Cassio's first victim (i.e. Roderigo), the crying fellow and thus conveniently misses the start of the fight between Cassio and Montano, "When I came back...I found them close together...More of this matter cannot I report." (2.3.232-6).He hastily qualifies his accusation by saying "But men are men, the best sometimes forget...Though Cassio did some little wrong to him...Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received / From him that fled some strange indignity / Which patience wouldn't pass". Iago succeeds in both accusing Cassio and seeming reluctant to do so. As Othello says, "I know, Iago, / Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, / Making it light to Cassio". Iago is so convincing in this that, although Cassio loses his lieutenancy through the malign scheming of Iago, it is to Iago that he turns for help.
Iago's advice to Cassio is to use Desdemona, the"general's general"to petition Othello on his behalf to restore him to his former post as lieutenant. On this ground, Iago plans to sow the seed of Othello's jealousy. Iago's speech with Cassio raises a number of interesting points. The first is "reputation". Cassio feels so hurt in his reputation - from Othello's second-in-command to a common drunken brawler - that he sees it beyond repair, "Ay, past all surgery...I have lost the immortal part of / myself - and what remains is bestial. My reputation, / Iago, my reputation" (2.3.256-261). Iago dismisses the whole concept of reputation as "an idle and false improvisation". What Cassio has lost, Iago says, is no more than Othello's pleasure, "a punishment more in / policy than in malice" which skilfully concurs with Othello's own words, "I'll make thee an example" (2.3.246). Yet later, speaking to Othello, Iago's valuation of reputation is very different, "Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, / Is the immediate jewel of their souls...he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed" (3.3.158-64). Iago knows how important reputation is. Without his reputation as "honest" Iago, he would be powerless.
A second point of interest is Iago's control over Cassio. Talking of reputation he says that it is "...oft got without merit and lost / without deserving". Even whilst comforting Cassio, Iago manages to express his contempt for Cassio to the audience who know what Iago really thinks of Cassio, "a great arithmetician...". Likewise, the audience are also aware that Iago's continued reference to Cassio as "lieutenant" is snide rather than respectful. Iago makes sure that Cassio will not realise that it was him that brought about his downfall. He questions him with a show of innocent ignorance, "What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?". Cassio replies, "I know not" to which Iago marvels, "Is't possible?". Cassio does not see that Iago is duping him, does not realise that Iago's advice is designed to suit Iago's purposes rather than his own, that he is not what he seems. "You advise me well" he says. He does indeed advise Cassio well and this is the most interesting aspect of his control:
And what's he then that says I play the villain?
When this advise is free I give and honest
Probal to thinking and indeed the course
To win the Moor again?(2.3.331-34)
His control lies in his ability to advise people, to convince them to do what he wants them to. In order to do this, his advice must seem honest and logical. It is by manipulating the other characters that he engineered Cassio's downfall and it is also thus that he can engineer the tragic situation at the end of the play:
I'll pour pestilence into [Othello"s] ear:
That she repeals [Cassio] for her body's lust(2.3.351-352)
So will I turn her virtue into pitch
And out of her goodness make this net
That shall enmesh them all.
(2.3.355-57)
Roderigo is the one exception. He is foolish enough to follow Iago's advice, indeed pay for Iago's service, even though there is little sense in the advice that Iago offers and no evidence that it is effective. The ease with which Iago handles Roderigo at the end of the second act contrasts with the care he took in his conversation with Cassio. His soliloquy (2.3.377-383) again reveals the way in which his plotting mind works. As he said earlier, "'Tis here, but yet confused" (2.1.309) and here again he can be seen still working his plan out. The second act which has seen dramatic changes over a brief period of time ends promising fireworks to come, "...ay, that's the way! / Dull not device by coldness and delay!"