Act IV
Iago needs only feed Othello a few well-chosen words by this stage, small drops of poison to hasten a process that is now moving quickly on in Othello's own brain. "Will you think so?" he begins. He brings up the handkerchief almost nonchalantly, "But if I give my wife a handkerchief -" (4.1.10) and continues to mention it provocatively at the end of his sentences, "But for the handkerchief -" (4.1.18). Othello hardly needs reminding,
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it!
Thou said'st - O, it comes o'er my memory
As doth the raven o'er the infectious house
Boding to all - he had my handkerchief(4.1.19-22)
Again, Iago needs say little to keep Othello thinking, to keep the green-eyed monster of jealousy well fed, "Ay, what of it?".
Iago continues, now in the final stages of his deception, to conjure an image of Cassio and Desdemona lying together. The language here should be studied carefully. Iago suggests that Cassio may have "blabbed", "What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong? / Or heard him say...". Othello desperately follows, "Hath he said anything?". Iago keeps him hanging, hanging himself, on every word,
I:He hath my lord, but...
O:What hath he said?
I:Faith that he did - I know not what. He did -
O:What? what?
By this stage, Othello is in such suspense that Iago need only say "Lie" and the image is immediately formed in Othello's mind, "With her?", which Iago need only confirm, "With her, on her, what you will". This last phrase, "what you will" is the key. He leaves it to Othello's imagination and this is indeed effective. Othello cracks, "Lie with her? lie on her?... Handkerchief! confessions! handkerchief!...I tremble at it". He adds, "It is not words that shakes me thus", it is images: "Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is"t possible? Confess! Handkerchief! O devil!". The stage directions say that he "falls into a trance". Iago describes this as an epileptic fit to Cassio but whether this is actually the case, or whether it is an excuse for Othello's fit of passion caused by the images that Iago's words provoke, is debatable and only of academic interest7. What is important is that this fit shows how powerful Iago's words are:
Work on,
My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught...(4.1.44-45)
Othello himself acknowledges his demise from the noble warrior that addressed the senate in Act I, scene 3 to the savage, passion-ruled animal that he has become, saying, "A horned man's a monster, and a beast"8 (4.1.62). Iago repeatedly tells Othello to be "a man", "...bear your fortune like a man!", "Good sir, be a man", which makes his "unmanning; of Othello all the clearer and more effective. He then tells Othello to hide himself so that he witness Iago and Cassio talking, ostensibly about Desdemona. Iago bids him keep quiet because otherwise his plan, his delicate "net" will be undone and again refers to his manhood,
I say, but mark his gesture; marry, patience,
Or I shall say you're in all in spleen
And nothing of a man.(4.1.87-89)
Iago then questions Cassio about Bianca. Othello, hidden from their sight, listens under the impression that Cassio is talking about Desdemona, laughingly: "poor caitiff (wretch)...she was here even now, she haunts me in every place...the bauble (childish person)...falls me thus about my neck...so hangs and lolls and weeps upon me, so shakes and pulls me! Ha, ha, ha!". Othello, hearing this, is reminded of earlier images, "O, I see that nose of yours..." and, with the arrival of Bianca upon the scene, he sees her with Desdemona's handkerchief also. He is convinced and resolves that she must die - "...let her rot and perish and be damned / tonight for she shall not live" (4.1.188-89) Though, as he says, his heart "is turned to stone", he still recognises her beauty and gentleness, "so delicate with her needle, an admirable musician...she will sing the savageness out of a bear!...and then of so gentle a condition". "Ay, too gentle" replies Iago, and in this we see the tragedy of Othello, "the pity of it, Iago - O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!". On this note, his resolution to kill her becomes a practical one, that he shall strangle her that night. For his part, Iago promises to undertake the death of Cassio.
Ludovico arrives with news from Venice that Othello must return, leaving Cassio in his place as governor. Othello's manners have changed a great deal since Act I. He does not return Ludovico's good wishes, "God save you, worthy general", merely accepts them, "With all my heart, sir". Desdemona's mention of her innocent love for Cassio, "for the love I bear to Cassio" prompts an inappropriate response, "Fire and brimstone!". Most shockingly, he strikes Desdemona, calling her "Devil!". Ludovico is shocked. "My lord, this would not be believed in Venice", he says. He does not repent, "O devil, devil! / If that the earth could teem with woman's tears / Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile". This reference to animals is found again a little later with the oath, "Goats and monkeys!". Ludovico cannot understand this change in Othello's character, "Is this the noble moor whom our full senate call all in all sufficient?...Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?". "He is much changed", Iago confirms.
Act IV, scene 2 demonstrates Othello's madness, Desdemona's innocence and Emilia's insight. Othello confronts both Emilia, "You have seen nothing then?..." and Desdemona, "Why, what art thou?...". Emilia protests Desdemona's innocence, "Not ever heard, nor ever did suspect...", as does Desdemona, "Your wife, my lord, your true and loyal wife...how am I false?...what ignorant sin have I committed?...By heaven, you do me wrong...". The tragedy is that, though it makes no sense - "the sense aches at thee" (4.2.69), "...answers have I none..." (4.2.105) - Othello remains resolute, "Heaven knows that thou art false as hell...Was this fair paper, this most goodly book / made to write whore upon?... Impudent strumpet!". Desdemona in her innocence can only think that his anger must stem from state business; in her humility that she is "a child to chiding". Her love is immortal and she, unwittingly prescient, "Unkindness may do much / And his unkindness may defeat my life / But never taint my love". What is more tragic is that Emilia can see the sense - or rather the cause underlying the senselessness:
I will be hanged if some eternal villain
Some busy and insinuating rogue,
Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
Have not devised this slander...(4.2.132-5)
She even sees that one of Iago's (the "cogging, cozening slave"'s) motives is his suspicion that she has slept with Othello:
O fie upon them! some such squire he was
That turned your wit seamy side without
And made you to suspect me with the Moor(4.2.147-9)
This is the real tragedy. Emilia suspects all too accurately her husband's part but says and does nothing. Does she, too, suspect yet strongly love? Or does she not realise that Othello is so poisoned that he plans to kill Desdemona that very night? The plot does proceed at a phenomenal pace. Whatever the case may be, she follows Desdemona's instructions to lay her wedding sheets upon the bed.
Meanwhile, Iago contents Roderigo who, despite his stupidity, can see that Iago's "words and performances are no kin together". He threatens to come clean with Desdemona, ask for the return of the jewels that he gave to Iago to give to her and "repent [his] unlawful solicitation". Iago's plan, so close to fruition, would be undone and Iago exposed. Iago, as always, turns the situation to his advantage. He tells Roderigo to assassinate Cassio because, that way, Othello will have to remain in Cyprus as governor and with him, Desdemona. Thus he convinces Roderigo to do his dirty work again, just as he did outside Brabantio's house in act I, scene 1 and in the altercation with Cassio in act II, scene 3.
The last scene of the fourth act shows Desdemona at her most loving, at her most innocent, at her most obedient. It is also a scene in which the dramatist puts words into her mouth that are significant to the audience, words that directly relate to her imminent death, but of whose reference Desdemona is innocently unaware. Othello bids her go to bed and dismiss Emilia. She obeys, urging Emilia to leave saying, "We must not now displease him". She speaks of her love, "...even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns...have grace and favour" (4.3.18-19). She speaks of the wedding sheets that Emilia has put on the bed, "If I do die, prithee shroud me / In one of these same sheets" (4.3.22-23). "Come, come, you talk", Emilia replies. She may be suspicious of Iago and the net he has woven but she finds the idea of Desdemona's death ridiculous. Desdemona sings as she dresses for bed, a song of "willow" that her mother's maid, called Barbary, who was in love with a mad man, sang on her death-bed. "That song", she says fatefully, "tonight / Will not go from my mind" (4.3.28-29). She questions Emilia naively about infidelity, "Dost thou in conscience think...That there be women do abuse their husbands / In such gross kind?" (4.3.60-62). She is shocked to hear that there are and her conversation with Emilia reflects her young innocence against her maid's wiser knowledge of the way of the world. "Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong / For the whole world!" (4.3.77-78), she concludes.