Othello

Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a Moorish general serving Venice whose marriage to Desdemona is destroyed when his subordinate Iago persuades him that she is unfaithful. It was probably written in 1604, performed at court in November of that year and first printed in 1622. The Folger Shakespeare Library describes it as a drama of a marriage that begins in fascination and ends in jealous rage and violent deaths.

Background and creation of Othello

The Royal Shakespeare Company says Othello was likely written in 1604, after Hamlet and before King Lear. The Folger gives a similar view: scholars believe Shakespeare wrote it that year or the year before. It was performed at court at Whitehall for King James I in November 1604, but it may have been staged earlier at the Globe. The play was not published in Shakespeare’s lifetime.

The main source was a novella in Giraldi Cinthio’s collection Hecatommithi, published in 1565. The RSC says Shakespeare may have read it in a French translation of 1584. He follows Cinthio’s plot closely, with one large difference. In the original, the hero returns to Venice, where he is murdered by his wife’s family.

The setting moves between two Mediterranean places. The early scenes take place in Venice, and the action then shifts to Cyprus, an island threatened by Turkey. The change of scene gives the story an exotic coloring that the Folger editors link with stories of Othello’s African past.

Summary of Othello

At the start of the play the soldier Iago announces his hatred for his commander Othello, a Moor. Othello has promoted Cassio and not Iago to be his lieutenant. Iago crudely tells Desdemona’s father Brabantio that Othello and Desdemona have eloped.

Before the Venetian Senate, Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching his daughter. The senators want to send Othello to Cyprus, which is under threat. Desdemona speaks of her love for her husband, the marriage stands, and the Senate lets her join him on the island.

In Cyprus, Iago keeps plotting against Othello and Cassio. He lures Cassio into a drunken fight, for which Cassio loses his new rank, and then urges Cassio to beg Desdemona to intervene for him. Iago uses this, along with misinterpreted conversations, insinuations and a lost handkerchief, to convince Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are lovers.

Othello is consumed by jealousy and later smothers Desdemona in their marriage bed, only to learn of Iago’s treachery. He then takes his own life.

Themes and interpretation of Othello

The Folger editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine note that Shakespeare builds many differences into his hero and heroine: race, age and cultural background. Even so, most people who see or read the play feel that the love between the pair is strong enough to have overcome such differences if not for the words and actions of Iago, who hates Othello and sets out to destroy him by destroying his love.

The editors describe a shift in audience feeling. In the early acts, fascination dominates. As Othello gives in to Iago’s insinuations, fascination turns to horror, especially as the audience watches a generous and trusting man in the grip of a scheme and an innocent wife subjected to his verbal and physical assaults.

They also identify three social strands in the play. The first is race: Desdemona is white and Othello is black, and Iago’s slurs about their interracial marriage run through the whole play. The second is class: Iago is portrayed as bitterly resentful of his social inferiority, a feeling linked to his failure to be named Othello’s second-in-command, and he is skilled at exploiting prejudice and self-doubt. The third is gender. The editors say that the attacks on Bianca, Emilia and Desdemona in the closing scenes are vivid reminders of how terrible the power exerted by men over women can be.

Early texts of Othello

Two versions were printed within a few years of each other. A quarto of 1622 is titled The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, and its title page says the play had been acted at the Globe and at the Blackfriars by the King’s Men. This version is somewhat shorter than the one most readers know.

The second version is in the First Folio of 1623. It has about 160 lines that are not in the quarto, some in extended passages, and it lacks about a dozen lines or part-lines that the quarto has. The two differ in hundreds of words. A second quarto followed in 1630.

Editors have not agreed on what manuscripts lie behind the printed texts. Almost all recent editors therefore base their editions on the Folio, which they regard as more accurate. Some have speculated that Shakespeare wrote two versions, an original and a revision. The Folger edition follows the Folio but takes Quarto readings where the Folio seems wrong. In some places the Folio appears to have toned down oaths, for example replacing the Quarto’s God with Heaven.

Reception and legacy of Othello

The Folger editors say that the play’s fascination and its horror may be greater than ever now, because readers and audiences have become so sensitive to the issues of race, class and gender woven into it. The Folger attaches a content advisory to its group of digitized items about the play, noting racist language and representations of racial stereotypes, which shows how the work is handled in the present.

Painters have long returned to the title characters. The painting shown above, from 1859, is by Frederick Richard Pickersgill. The Royal Shakespeare Company documents its own productions directed by Iqbal Khan in 2015 and Tim Carroll in 2024, and the Folger Theatre lists productions in 2002 and 2011.

As a tragedy, Othello turns on a marriage, a lost handkerchief and a few private conversations, as the Folger synopsis shows, and that closeness is part of why it remains widely read.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 5, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue