The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice

By William Shakespeare

Commentary, Act V

Act V

As Iago says at the end of scene 1, "This is the night / That either makes me or fordoes me quite" (5.1.128- 9). This final act is the consummation of Iago's plotting, the ultimate expression of his malice.

Roderigo tries to kill Cassio. He fails, only wounding him, and is wounded himself in the process. Hearing Cassio's cries, Othello is satisfied, "Iago keeps his word" (5.1.28) and mistaking Roderigo's cry of "O villain that I am!" for that of Cassio, is equally satisfied in his suspicions, "It is even so" (5.1.29). Hearing these cries, Lodovico and Gratiano are frightened to help because they can see little in the dark and fear the cries may be fake, acting to attract them to a trap:

Two or three groan. It is heavy night;

These may be counterfeits, let's think't unsafe

To come in to the cry without more help(5.1.42-44)

Ironically, it is Iago that arrives with a light. Finding Roderigo still alive, he stabs him. Roderigo dies, the only full witness to Iago's part in this tragedy. Iago's control is absolute. He directs the rest of the scene skilfully: He helps Cassio, whom he had earlier vowed to kill; he displays an innocent ignorance of what is going on - e.g. his apparent "surprise" when he finds Roderigo (5.1.90) despite having killed him himself only moments earlier; and he manages to lay the blame on Bianca. As ever, Iago is not what he seems. "'Twill out, 'twill out!" as Bianca says, and indeed it does. All becomes clear: Desdemona's innocence, Iago's guilt. The scene closes with Othello and Desdemona dead upon their wedding sheets, side by side, black next to white.

"It is the cause, it is the cause..." Othello begins. In his conversation with Desdemona, we see him as a man wracked by love but resolute in his cause. He speaks with his old eloquence, not of "goats and monkeys" but of "monumental alabaster", no longer of a "weed" but of a "rose". He is tormented by her "excelling nature", her "balmy breath", her "sweet soul" but is passionately resolute, despite her protests of innocent:

Sweet soul, take heed,

Take heed of perjury. Thou art on thy deathbed.

...

Therefore confess freely of thy sin,

For to deny any article with oath

Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception

That I do groan withal. Thou art to die.(5.2.50-56)

He sees her death not as a murder but a sacrifice: "...I'll not shed blood / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers...".It is for this that he urges her to pray, to confess any sin that she might have committed so that she dies a pure death. The timing, as always is delicately tuned for the maximum dramatic effect. She asks to live for one more night, even for half an hour more but his passion cannot be held back, "It is too late" (5.2.82) and he smothers her.

Emilia knocks on the door as he is smothering Desdemona. He is thrown into confusion, "Ha, no more moving? Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were't good? I think she stirs again. No - what best to do?". With Emilia at the door, he suddenly realises fully what he has done, "My wife, my wife! what wife? I have no wife". From being passionately resolute, he becomes passionately remorseful:

Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse

Of sun and moon, and that th'affrighted globe

Should yawn at alteration(5.2.98-100)

This reference to celestial movements is continued by Emilia, who, telling Othello of Roderigo's murder and Cassio's injury, says:

It is the very error of the moon,

She comes more nearer earth than she was wont

And makes men mad(5.2.108-110)

Othello is obviously not so used to smothering his victims. Desdemona is still alive for just long enough to tell Emilia that it was she who killed herself. Out of love of Othello, she perjures herself with her dying words, sacrifices her innocence for her love. Othello is a man of honour and honesty, though, and admits his part, arguing still that she was false, "as water". Emilia replies that he is as "rash as fire", a contrast like that in colour, he the "blacker devil", she with skin "whiter...than snow".

Emilia cannot believe what Othello tells her about Iago. She repeats over and over, "My husband?...My husband!...My husband say she was false?" As the scene progresses, she really comes into her own. She knows Desdemona to be true and curses Othello for thinking her to be false, calls him a "most filthy bargain...gull...dolt...As ignorant as dirt". She ignores his threats and shouts for help. Montano, Gratiano and Iago. Slowly, the truth starts to emerge. Iago, confronted by Emilia, tells the company that,

I told him what I thought, and told no more

Than what he found himself was apt and true(5.2.172-3)

In the eyes of the characters he seems to shift the blame to Othello but the audience can see this as a frank admission of his most effective technique of deception. Emilia, though, pursues him adamantly. Othello continues to defend Iago. He is still convinced of his honesty and in his defence he mentions the fateful handkerchief. Emilia knows the truth about the handkerchief and sees, finally, her husband's deception. Iago becomes increasingly threatening as he realises how vulnerable he is. In an attempt to stop the truth from coming out, he tries to stab Emilia. Iago is by now a condemned man. His attempts silence Emilia become more and more desperate, "Villainous whore!...Filth, thou liest!". As Othello finally realises his mistake, he stabs her and runs away. Montano runs after him, leaving Gratiano to guard the door against Othello's escape. Emilia dies saying, "So come my soul to bliss as I speak true!". She lies next to her mistress who, out of love, died speaking false. Desdemona served her husband to the end, damning her soul with perjury. Emilia damned her husband, serving her soul first.

Othello is left alone, with his dead wife and her dead maid. He calls in Gratiano who is guarding the door. He needs an audience for his speech, brave talk of a warrior, "...that with this little arm and brave sword..." but soon realises how empty such words are as he stands by his dead wife: "O vain boast!...'tis not so now". He is struck by remorse and guilt, "O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me ye devils!...Blow me about in winds, roast me in sulphur, Wash me in steep-down gulf of liquid fire! O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon. Dead! O, O! ".

Ludovico arrives and calls Othello, "Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?". "That's he that was Othello? Here I am" Othello replies. He is no longer the Othello that Ludovico knew, who barely knows what to say to him,

O thou Othello, that wert once so good,

Fallen in the practice of a cursed slave,

What shall be said to thee?(5.2.287-289)

The "Ay" with which he replies to Ludovico's question, "Did you...consent in Cassio's death" is no longer the threatening "Ay" with which he answered Desdemona's question, "Talk you of killing" at the start of the scene. It is an "Ay" of resignation.

Othello, is resigned in his guilt. He tries to explain himself,

An honourable murderer, if you will

For nought I did in hate, but in all honour

(5.2.290-291)

Iago is proud. He will not answer Othello's question of "Why he hath thus ensnared me soul and body?". "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know", he answers. The last of the deception is uncovered by the discovery of letters in Roderigo's coat that describe Iago's use of Roderigo both in the provocation of Cassio in Act II, scene 3 and in his attempted murder in Act V scene 1. Cassio himself testifies that he was not given the handkerchief by Desdemona but found it in his chamber. "O fool, fool, fool!" Othello cries in despair.

His last speech echoes that which he made to the senate in Act I, scene 3. "Soft you, a word before you go", he begins gently. "I have done the state some service...", he goes on but decides to drop that tack, "No more of that". "Speak of me as I am" he says. This last speech is one of self-definition, Othello summing himself up, and he himself is finding it difficult. He continues hesitatingly, and, as in his earlier speech, beginning each new phrase with "of":

Of one that loved not wisely, but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,

Perplexed in the extreme;

As he continues, he becomes more eloquent; his phrases become longer and more commanding:

...of one whose hand,

Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe...

...of one whose subdued eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drops tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicinable gum...

Again he conjures up exotic images. In language, he is no longer tainted by Iago's coarse tongue but is once again noble. The man we have seen become a devil is again, in his language, as noble as before. It is a confusing picture that Othello presents. In deed, he is a murderer, honourable as he is, but the image he paints for himself is just as noble, exotic, commanding, sensitive as that he presented to the senate and that with which he wooed Desdemona. He ends with drama, drama both of deed and imagination. On the stage, we see Othello kill himself. In the imagination, we see the Christian kill "the circumcised dog". Enemies unite as the two extremes of Othello's personality clash: the hand of "Venetian" driving his sword into "turbanned Turk". He staggers going to the bed and we see one last fusion of opposites: the white Desdemona united with the black Othello as he dies "upon a kiss".