The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice

By William Shakespeare

Commentary, Act III

Act III

The audience is given a little respite from this fast-moving action with the clown scene at the beginning of Act III. Scene 2 is a brief but important reminder of Othello's authority and control which is so painfully dismantled by Iago in the following scene. The scene begins with Cassio asking Desdemona to petition Othello on his behalf for his former post. Desdemona's virtue, her goodness which Iago plans to turn to "pitch", is almost painful to watch for its simple innocence and naïveté.

"I give thee warrant of thy place...

...My lord shall never rest,

I'll watch him tame and talk him out of patience,

His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift,

I'll intermingle everything he does...

For thy solicitor shall rather die

Than give thy cause away(3.3.20-28)

Iago and Othello approach. Cassio, still embarrassed by his actions, makes a hasty exit. Iago seizes on this and so begins a masterly campaign of suggestion and subversion by which he convinces Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. He arouses Othello's curiosity, "Ha, I like not that". Othello takes the bait, "What dots thou say?". Iago seems to dismiss it, "Nothing my lord..."6 but actually fuels Othello's curiosity further, "...or if - I know not what". Iago gently coaxes Othello to his own conclusion, denying that it was Cassio who just left Desdemona "so guilty like". Desdemona innocently assists Iago in this with an unfortunate choice of words, "I have been talking with a suitor here" and with the persistence with which she urges Othello to recall Cassio. "...shall't be shortly?...Shall't be tonight, at supper?...Tomorrow dinner then?...Why then, tomorrow night, or Tuesday morn; / On Tuesday, noon or night; on Wednesday morn!...When shall he come?...Tell me Othello. I wonder in my soul..." (3.3.56-68). Othello asks her to leave him in peace for a bit and he reflects,

Excellent wretch! perdition catch my soul

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not

Chaos is come again.(3.3.90-92)

Iago, purveyor of chaos to passionate Moors, interrupts, "My noble lord - ... Did Michael Cassio, when you wooed my lady, / Know of your love?" Again, Othello's curiosity is roused, "Why dost thou ask?" and again Iago seems to dismiss the issue, "But for the satisfaction of my thought". This gives Othello no satisfaction of his thought, "Why of thy thought, Iago?". Again, Iago dismisses the matter, but never lets Othello's curiosity die. "Indeed?" he continues. "Indeed? Ay, indeed. Discern'st thou aught in that?". Iago is directing Othello's thoughts. He does not present Othello with the lie, "Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona". Were he to state it thus, it would seem too ridiculous. It would seem dishonest! Instead, he gradually nurtures the suspicion in Othello's own mind. The "green-eyed monster" of jealousy is more than capable of creating its own substitutes for truth. Though he is directing Othello's thoughts, it is still Othello who is doing the thinking. The gentle hints that he gives, the poisoned words, the delicate suggestions, none of these seem implausible; none of these are clearly stated facts. It is not Iago but Othello who raises the question, "Is [Cassio] not honest?". Iago is not his normal assertive self, "Honest, my lord?...My lord, for aught I know". Asked what he thinks, again he is uncharacteristically ambiguous, "Think, my lord?". Othello becomes angry at this because he can see that Iago is hiding something, ...for I know thou'rt full of love and honesty

And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them breath,

Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more(3.3.121-123)

Iago's words are indeed carefully weighed and are effective also. They are poisoning Othello's mind, planting the seeds of suspicion. He tries again to dismiss the issue, "Why then I think Cassio's and honest man" but Othello curiosity is not satisfied, "Nay, there's more in this: / I prithee speak to me". Iago hesitates eloquently and Othello further entreats him. Iago continues seeming reluctant to speak his thoughts saying they might be false and that it would be better for Othello not to hear them. This does nothing to quell Othello's curiosity which grows by the instant, "By heaven, I'll know your thoughts!" (3.3.164). Iago replies that he cannot to which Othello counters: "Ha!", he exclaims triumphantly as if to say that he knows what Iago is driving at. He has finally reached the conclusion that Iago has been directing him towards and Iago is quick to consolidate this, not with a confession but with an explicit warning,

O beware, my lord of jealousy!

...That cuckold lives in bliss

Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,

But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er

Who dotes yet doubts, suspects yet strongly loves!(3.3.167-172)

Iago has succeeded in directing Othello to conceive of the idea that Cassio and Desdemona might be having an affair. Whilst he demands proof, "I'll see before I doubt" (3.3.193), the transition from the self- controlled authoritative Moor of Venice to the passionately mad and jealous "blacker devil" (5.2.129) has started. "Exchange me for a goat" he says. This is the first example of animal imagery that Othello uses and as he changes from "man" to "beast", these become more frequent. These words of bestial imagery derive from Iago's language and demonstrate the extent to which Othello is tied up in Iago's words. Iago gently goads Othello on. "I speak not yet of proof" he begins but goes on to suggest that such a suspicion is not unwarranted if you consider the nature of Venetian women,

I know our country's disposition well -

In Venice they do let God see the pranks

They dare not show their husbands

(3.3.204-206)

Iago continues, reminding Othello that, "She did deceive her father, marrying you". He stops, saying, "I see I have a little dashed your spirits". "Not a jot, not a jot", Othello replies. A little later he says again, "My lord, I see you're moved". "No, not much moved", Othello concedes but it is now he that continues the conversation, unprovoked, "And yet how nature, erring from itself -". The seed of suspicion has been planted and is growing in Othello and all Iago needs to do is gently nurture it. Iago leaves him cursing marriage "that we can call these delicate creatures ours / And not their appetites!" But the sight of Desdemona quells his suspicion,

If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself,

I'll not believ't

(3.3.281-2)

What Iago has done is to create an irrational suspicion in Othello's mind. His hints and suggestions add up to something completely irrational, that the innocent and pure Desdemona is false, but once created, this suspicion grows on its own irrational evidence of inconsequential remarks and words that Desdemona let slip. Most important, however, is the handkerchief she lets slip at this point in the scene. Emilia picks it up to give to Iago who "hath a hundred times / Wooed me to steal it" (3.3.296-97). The handkerchief is symbolic and, to Othello, magical - "There's magic in the web of it" (3.4.71). It was given to Othello's mother by an Egyptian "charmer" who told her that while she kept it,

"Twould make her amiable and subdue [Othello's] father

Entirely to her love; but if she lost it

Or made gift of it, [Othello's] father's eye

Should hold her loathed...

(3.4.61-64)

It was given to Othello by his mother, and to Desdemona by Othello. The handkerchief is the final piece of evidence that convinces Othello that Desdemona is false. It serves as the "ocular proof" which he demands. It is more than this, however. It is proof that Othello is regressing into an imagined past of witchcraft and superstition of the precise kind that he denied being involved in during Act I. In other words, under pressure he becomes his stereotype. This is evidenced by the fact that in Act V scene ii the story about the handkerchief reverses totally:

It was a handkerchief, an antique token

My father gave my mother

(3.5.214-5)

Othello is now complicit in his undoing. As Iago says,

Trifles light as air

Are to the jealous confirmations so strong

As proofs of holy writ(3.3.325-7)

Othello returns to Iago as he muses in this way and that he is changing is clear. Whilst he can find no evidence that Desdemona is false, neither can he have any peace now that the suspicion has been planted in his mind. He demands proof:

Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,

Be sure of it, give me ocular proof[Catching hold of him]

Or by the worth of man's eternal soul

Thou hadst better have been born a dog

Than answer to my wrath! (3.3.362-366)

The self-control is slipping. He is being reduced to the "bestial" by Iago's poisoned words, just as Cassio was reduced by drink (cf. 2.3.360). Iago protests that he has only been honest, "I should be wise for honesty's a fool", and offers to satisfy Othello. As he discusses the difficulties in providing Othello with the "ocular proof" that he demands, he paints for Othello obscene images, of Desdemona "topped" by Cassio, of the two, "prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, / As salt as wolves in pride" (3.3.406-7). This form of proof, he concludes, would be impossible to get. He describes instead one night where he was woken by Cassio talking in his sleep (3.3.416-428) of Desdemona. Here again, he paints for Othello a very vivid picture of Cassio and Desdemona lying together. This visual experience that Iago provides, however false, is very effective. "O monstrous! Monstrous!" Othello cries. Iago cleverly moves on, saying,

'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream,

And this may help to thicken other proofs

That do demonstrate thinly(3.3.431-433)

He moves on to mention the handkerchief, the crux of his plan. He has given many thin proofs, all of them his own words, but effective none the less because with them he paints images, visual experiences in Othello's mind. The handkerchief is the final straw, the "trifle light as air" that finally convinces Othello. It is real, physical evidence, not just images in the mind. Othello has become so distraught on the basis of these virtual experiences that even so slight and circumstantial a piece of evidence as the handkerchief takes on a very powerful significance not only because the handkerchief itself is symbolic of fidelity but also because it is the first piece (and only piece) of tangible evidence.

Iago tells Othello that he saw Cassio wipe his beard on the handkerchief, an image of gross disrespect, laughing in the cuckold's face. Othello, who has recently been somewhat ineloquent, regains his former eloquence to speak of revenge,

Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell,

Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne

To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,

For 'tis of aspics' tongues!(3.3.450-454)

Here again we see reference to animals, aspics being an Egyptian serpent. Both Othello and Iago kneel and reverently swear oaths of revenge. At last, Iago is made lieutenant.

Again, after this intense scene, the clown reappears, talking to Desdemona. The clown leaves and Emilia enters. Desdemona enquires about the handkerchief, saying that she would rather have lost "a purse full of crusadoes". She does not fear, however, as she thinks Othello "true of mind, and made of no such baseness / As jealous creatures are". This misconception is unfortunate. Othello enters. She does not understand the references he makes, speaking of her hand as "Hot, hot and moist", as "A liberal hand" and instead interrupts him to talk of Cassio. He asks for her handkerchief and when she tells him that she doesn't have it, he talks of the "magic in its web" and its symbolism. He asks her for it again and she, trying to change the subject, asks him again to restore Cassio,

Desdemona cannot understand Othello's disquiet. In scenes such as this, she is condemned not by her guilt but by her innocence. Talking to Emilia, she can only imagine that it is state matters that have made him so angry as she has given him no cause. Emilia replies incisively,

But jealous souls will not be answered so:

They are not ever jealous for a cause,

But jealous for they're jealous. It is a monster

Begot upon itself, born on itself.(3.4.159-62)

Desdemona in her innocence adds, "Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind!", little knowing that it has already been born there and is growing by the moment, feeding on her innocent love for Cassio.