Imagery
Othello is black. Desdemona is white. Imagery, needless to say, is very important in Othello. The audience first sees Othello, not in the flesh, but in the imagination. We are presented with a powerful image created by Iago: of a creature untamed an uncivilised, driven only by base instinct. The man that appears on stage in the second scene is no such creature. His speech to the senate paints a very different picture. It is not one of your average Venetian. It is exotic and strange but it is presented with eloquence and a noble authority that outstrips the civilised company that is present. At the end, Othello reverts to the rhetoric that he used in front of the senate. Again, the imagery is most powerful. He talks of pearls, of Arabian trees. The same sort imagery that he used to woo Desdemona, he uses to conclude the tragedy.
Iago's use of imagery is the basis for his power. At the outset, he deceives the audience with the image he paints of Othello. He uses simple images, of fires in populous cities, of gardens and gardeners, for the simple-minded Roderigo. His deception of Othello needs to be very much more subtle. Here too, though, his tool is imagery. The proof that he presents is imaginary. Othello's passion is aroused by the images that Iago's words conjure up - of Cassio and Desdemona lying together. The handkerchief becomes a symbol for this imaginary infidelity. Othello sees Desdemona, white-skinned and beautiful, the very image of purity and is torn apart by the images that have poisoned his mind.
…Her name, that was as fresh
As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black
As mine own face.(3.3.389-391)
Identity
The visual imagery serves to confuse the identities of the characters. Who or what is Othello? Iago? Desdemona? This question is an important one. The play revolves around mistaken identity. It is important to understand both real and mistaken identities in order to understand the play.
Were I the moor, I would not be Iago…
…I am not what I am.
…What are you?…
…What profane wretch art thou…
…Thou art a villain.
You are a senator(1.1.56ff)
'Tis in ourselves that we are thus, or
thus.(1.3.320-321)
I have lost the immortal part of
myself - and what remains is bestial(2.3.259-260)
…And what's he then that says I play the villain?(2.3.331)
Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all in all sufficient?
…He is much changed(4.1.264ff)
Why, what art thou?
Your wife, my lord: your true and loyal wife
Are you not a strumpet?
No, as I am a Christian…
I took you for that cunning whore
That married with Othello
(4.2.34ff)
…My friend thy husband, honest, honest Iago(5.2.150)
Where is this rash and most unfortunate man?
That's he that was Othello? here I am.(5.2.280-281)
Speak of me as I am…(5.2.340)
These short, pointed phrases stab out of the linguistic world of over-indulgent exotic eloquence just as, in the visual world, glimpses of bright light - bright swords or white flesh - momentarily flash out of dark passages and chambers. Iago declares that he is not what he seems. This much we can be confident of, but is this then a warning that even his seemingly open "confessions" to the audience are not what they seem either? Are they not an invitation to look further than the motives he so openly admits for a deeper motive? Is Desdemona really as naïve as she makes out? In Othello's eyes, she becomes "thou black weed". Finally, we must consider Othello. He is introduced as "the Moor", painted as a savage whose day is only complete when he made the "beast with two backs". He claims to be of royal birth, speaks nobly and eloquently, at once as a soldier and as a courtier, at once as an exotic foreigner and as a civilised Venetian, at once as a heathen and as a Christian - "Amen to that, sweet powers!" (2.1.193). He then becomes mad with jealousy, savage and uncontrolled. He becomes a passionate murderer. Or is he a heathen lord, making an honourable sacrifice? Is he merciless or merciful? He dies, killing himself as he once slay a "circumcised dog". Which is he then? The Christian soldier or "turbann'd Turk"?
Otherness
Otherness is central to Othello. It underpins the racism, Iago's malignity and Othello's misconception of Desdemona: Othello is a Moor. He is obviously foreign. But in his manners and speech he seems as civilised and noble as any Venetian. He is not a slave or a conscript, he is a general and a governor. Iago is a soldier. He is not an officer. He is not a curlied darling. He was not born into the "officer class" and is consigned by this to be an ensign. Though he mocks the "manners" of his peers, he also tries to imitate them, addressing Montano and Gratiano as "gentlemen", the dead Roderigo as "my friend and my dear countryman" (5.1.89). In his attempts to be a gentleman, he is most obviously not one. Desdemona is a Venetian woman. Byron wrote of them in 1817 that "a woman is virtuous…who limits herself to her husband and one lover; those who have two, three or more, are a little wild…". According to Elizabethan accounts, Venetian women dressed and behaved much like courtesans. Desdemona is not one of these. She is faithful.
Sex, love and the soul
Iago does not understand the love between Othello and Desdemona. Even if he can perceive it, it is something that he has never felt for anybody. This explains his cruel treatment of his own wife. This explains his inability to manipulate any of the women in the way that he can manipulate men. Finally, it may explain some aspect of his malignity: he is jealous that there is no such love or "beauty" in his own life. His failure to understand this sort of love is, eventually, his downfall for it is out of love for her mistress that Emilia betrays her husband.
Desdemona's love of Othello is not one that thrives on "sport". She was not wooed by the suggestive word games that Iago plays in Act II, scene 1 but out of love for the very soul of the Moor. This love is clear throughout the play and never more so than when, with her dying breath, she lies to protect him. Othello, likewise, loves her not just for her beauty and her talents but also for her soul. He acknowledges, "what she is; so delicate with her needle, an admirable musician…of so high and plenteous wit and invention" (4.1.184ff) but he sees her soul as tainted and it is this that drives him to murder her. This, he says is "the pity of it" (4,1,192). This great love of theirs that is derived from the very core of their souls is also their undoing.