Othello

A TALE OF RACISM, REVENGE, BETRAYAL AND JEALOUSY One of Shakespeare’s most performed tragedies written in approximately 1603, Othello still resonates today with its themes of racism, revenge, betrayal and jealousy. Shakespeare creates a powerful drama with the story of a marriage between the exotic Moor, Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona. Despite building many differences into his hero and heroine, including race, age, and cultural background, most audiences believe the couple’s strong love could overcome these differences were it not for a once trusted cohort, lago, who sets out to destroy Othello. The play begins in the powerful city state of Venice, a center of trade and banking, known for its military might. War is raging between Venice and Turkey. Two men — Roderigo, a young gentleman and former suitor of Senator Brabantio's daughter Desdemona, and Iago, an ensign who claims to have been passed over for promotion by Othello, are outside Senator Brabantio's house to tell him the news of his daughter's elopement with Othello. Othello is a Moorish general in the Venetian army who is determined to lead his men to victory with his “trusted” ensign lago. But after being passed up for a promotion, Iago has plans of his own. Using Othello’s wife, Desdemona, as a pawn, Iago spins an elaborate web of deception leading Othello to believe that his wife is unfaithful and once lago has Othello where he wants him, revenge will be his. In the final dramatic scene of the play Othello strangles his wife, struggling with his love for her to the end.

Othello remains one of Shakespeare's most contemporary and moving plays, with its emphasis on race, revenge, murder, and lost love. Chris Ofili’s new edition highlight’s the tragedy of Othello’s plight in ways no other volume of this play has. In twelve etchings Ofili has produced to illustrate this play, Othello is depicted with tears in his eyes, which flow below various scenes visualized in his forehead. Ofili asks us to see in Othello the great injustices that still plague the world today. These images add feeling to Shakespeare’s words, and together they form their own hybrid object—something between a book and a visual retelling of the tragedy. With a foreword by the renowned critic Fred Moten, this edition is the first of its kind and puts Othello’s blackness and interiority front and center, forcing us to confront the complex world that ultimately dooms him. The first play in the Seeing Shakespeare Series, Othello is illustrated by English contemporary artist Chris Ofili. Future titles in the series include A Midsummer Night’s Dream illustrated by Marcel Dzama and The Merchant of Venice with images by Jordan Wolfson.

Presents William Shakespeare's dramatic tragedy in which Iago, jealous of Othello's successes in the army of Venice, plots against him, pretending to be his friend while planting seeds of doubt about the faithfulness of his wife, Desdemona; and includes text glosses, an introduction, details on the Shakespearean stage, an essay by critic Harold Bloom, and a further reading list.

He's a bardass brother with the love of a fine woman. That is until some cloven hoofed honky starts talking crazy about variously hued sheep tupping the hell outta each other! You gotta pity the fool who gets shafted by the green eyed monster. Let's hope Othello can work out who to trust before it's too late...

Othello, The Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare based on the short story "Moor of Venice" by Cinthio, believed to have been written in approximately 1603. The work revolves around four central characters: Othello, his wife Desdemona, his lieutenant Cassio, and his trusted advisor Iago. Attesting to its enduring popularity, the play appeared in 7 editions between 1622 and 1705. Because of its varied themes -- racism, love, jealousy and betrayal -- it remains relevant to the present day and is often performed in professional and community theatres alike. The play has also been the basis for numerous operatic, film and literary adaptations. (From Wikipedia)(less)

Although other Shakespeare plays offer higher body counts, more gore, and more plentiful scenes of heartbreak, Othello packs an unusually powerful affective punch, stunning us with its depiction of the swiftness and thoroughness with which love can be converted to hatred, and forcing us to confront our complicity with social and political institutions that can put all of us—but especially the most vulnerable among us—at risk. This edition features a variety of interleaved materials—from maps and manuscripts to illustrations and extended discussions of myth and politics—that provide a context for the social and cultural allusions in the play. Appendices offer excerpts from Shakespeare’s key sources and historical materials on marriage, jealousy, and the treatment of people of African descent in Renaissance England. A collaboration between Broadview Press and the Internet Shakespeare Editions project at the University of Victoria, the editions developed for this series have been comprehensively annotated and draw on the authoritative texts newly edited for the ISE. This innovative series allows readers to access extensive and reliable online resources linked to the print edition.

Shakespeare's Othello has exercised a powerful fascination over audiences for centuries with its portrayal of destructive jealousy. This study is a major exercise in the historicisation of Othello in which the author examines contemporary writings and demonstrates how they were embedded in the text of Othello: discourse about conflict between Turk and Venetian treatises on the professionalisation of England's military forces, representations of Africans and blackamoors, and narratives depicting jealous husbands. The second section traces Othello's history in England and the United States from the Restoration to the late 1980s, using illustrations where appropriate. Each chapter highlights a specific historical period, actor or production to demonstrate how and why elements from Shakespeare's text were emphasised or repressed. Othello is revealed as a significant shaper of cultural meaning.