‘An Old Black Ram is Tupping Your White Ewe’: Othello (Act 1)

What is there left to say about any of Shakespeare’s plays that hasn’t already been said? Even this sort of exculpatory disclaimer has become cliche! When I start to think like this I remind myself that there are teachers who have Shakespeare on their syllabus, year after year, hearing different students coming to the same conclusions, year after year, and even they are sometimes surprised by a passing remark from an apperceptive student. It is in imitation of this student that I proceed with this close reading of Shakespeare’s Othello. I’m going to act as if the secondary sources don’t exist. I’m going to state the obvious and explain my reasoning, because even if the conclusion is trite, the means through which we will achieve this conclusion might, at the very least, be worth reading.

1.1

Othello opens, tellingly, with two men gossiping about a third. The Venetians, Iago and Roderigo, are discussing why they dislike ‘the Moor’, Othello; Iago has been looked over for a promotion, and the woman that Roderigo loves has recently eloped with the Moor. The opening exchange revolves around why Iago continues to work with Othello as his ensign (or standard-bearer) despite his disdain. As he says to Roderigo, ‘I follow him to serve my turn upon him’. From this, we get an idea of what kind of character we’re dealing…