Othello | Character Analysis & Themes
- Melchior Antoine
- Sep 10
- 11 min read
Updated: Nov 8
Othello makes for an interesting character analysis. With the play Othello, we see a character who is at once full of confidence, pride, and charm on the one hand, while on the other, it is quickly revealed that he is plagued by insecurity due to his racial alienation.
In addition, it is one of the few Shakespearean plays that focuses on the theme of race and racial alienation. Othello is a man of high status and privilege in Venice, a White and Christian society. He is a general leading the armies of Venice while being Black and likely a former Muslim. No one dares to racially insult Othello to his face.
However, he would have been fully aware of the undercurrent of racial animus and hostility that runs through Venice. This awareness leads to internal conflict and insecurity, which makes him ripe for Iago’s treachery. Iago was able to use jealousy as the means through which to trap or trick Othello into believing that he was being cuckolded.
The various themes of the play include:
Racial alienation
Appearance versus reality
Jealousy
The corrupting nature of evil
Gender
In this article, before we go into the details of these themes, we will delve into a character analysis of Othello. This will be followed by showing how these themes interplay with the traits of his character.
A character analysis of Othello
Othello is a complicated character. Here, we have a character who is introduced in the first act as honest, intelligent, and full of self-pride and self-confidence immediately after being slandered with racist insults by his enemies. Later, we see Othello being easily tricked into believing that his innocent wife is cuckolding him.
Othello’s character can be said to be made up of three aspects:
his self-pride, which borders on egotism;
his flare for self dramatization; and
his race-based insecurities, which border on self-hatred.
Self-pride or egotism?
Let’s first take a look at his self-pride. In Act 1 of the play, we see him boasting about his accomplishments and his ability to refute Brabantio's slander because of said accomplishments and lineage:
Let him do his spite.
My services which I have done the signiory
Shall out-tongue his complaints . . .
… I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached. (Act 1, Scene 2)
This can be seen as simply well-earned and justifiable self-pride from a prominent man who does command the armies of Venice after all. However, there is a negative aspect of this self-pride, which approaches egotism. This becomes obvious after he begins to suspect the innocent Desdemona:
I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones;
Prerogativ'd are they less than the base;
'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death:
Even then this forked plague is fated to us. (Act 3, Scene 3)
There is a hint of egotism mixed with jealousy here. Othello describes himself as being among the “great ones,” and he makes the preposterous argument that it is the “destiny” of these great ones to be cuckolded or, as he puts it, to suffer from “this forked plague.”
At the beginning of the quoted excerpt, we see the sense of jealousy and fierce possession that leads him to commit his horrid act in the final scene of the play. He says that he would rather be a toad than to suffer his wife being shared with others and goes as far as to reduce his wife into a mere object.
In fact, describing her as “keep[ing] a corner in the thing I love” puts in mind the four-cornered handkerchief that played such a fateful role in Desdemona's downfall. It’s as if Shakespeare is showing how jealousy bred from petty egotism can lead to a dehumanizing perspective.
However, to be fair to Othello, such egotism is likely not native to his character or self. It was likely the bi-product of his racial alienation, which bred deep insecurities that surfaced in the form of jealousy and egotism. This will be discussed later.
Othello’s self-dramatization
Othello is a dramatic character and it shows in the way he expresses himself. The most famous example of his self-dramatization is his final speech in the last act. We see his flare for dramatization in the manner he woos Desdemona with tales of his exotic adventures:
She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse. Which I, observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively. I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffered. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
’Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful. (Act 1, Scene 3)
This suggests that Othello was skilled in making himself the hero of his own story. Even moments before dying, we see him doing the same. He skillfully dramatizes his conflicted self by simultaneously portraying himself as the noble Othello who defends Venice and its citizens and the turbanned Turk who is the existential threat to Venice.
The effects of Othello’s racial alienation
Othello being a Black and converted Christian in Venice is subject to racial alienation. This racial alienation exists as a hidden undercurrent, as Othello is shielded from racial abuse due to his position and status in venetian society. However, even before we are introduced to Othello, we see him being abused with all sorts of racist insults by Iago.
Iago in Act 1, Scene 1, describes him consummating his marriage with Desdemona as “the beast making two backs.” In that same scene, he is also described as a “barbary horse” and an “old black ram.” Othello is a Black African, and the play makes at least eight references to his race and ethnicity, most of them being negative. He is referred to as:
“the thick-lips” (by Roderigo in Act 1, Scene 1);
“an old black ram” (by Iago in Act 1, Scene 2);
having a “sooty bosom” (by Brabantio in Act 1, Scene 2);
“far more fair than Black” (by the Duke of Venice in Act 1, Scene 3);
“black Othello” (by Iago speaking to Cassio in Act 2, Scene 3);
“the blacker devil” (by Emilia in Act 5, Scene 2);
“I am black” (by himself in Act 3, Scene 3); and
“begrimmed and black /As mine own face” (by himself again in Act 5, Scene 2).
The only positive connotation for using Black in this list is the duke who describes Othello as being “far more fair than Black.” But even then the term “Black” is associated with negativity. It is implied that Othello is righteous despite being Black.
Interestingly, even Othello refers to his Blackness in a negative manner. In Act 3, Scene 3, he reasons that Desdemona is unfaithful because “I am Black.” When he is convinced that Desdemona has cuckolded him, he describes her virtue as “begrimmed and black” as his own face. We see Othello here turning his Black visage into a metaphor for moral corruption.
This type of self-hate is an internalization of the racial alienation that Othello suffers and that Iago works with and uses to his advantage so well. His internalization of self-hate and the divided self it creates can be seen as Othello's fatal flaw.
In Act 3, Scene 3, Othello justifies questioning Desdemona’s honor by saying “For she had eyes, and chose me.” Iago takes full advantage of this internalization of self-hatred and pounces:
As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposèd matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends—
Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural.
But—pardon me—
In doing so, Iago almost reveals his own racial hatred and disgust of Othello. Othello’s outward social status and class and the hidden undercurrent of racial hostility toward him create an internal conflict within him. We can even say that it divides Othello into two selves. Othello after internalizing the racist stereotypes of the Moor imposed upon him goes on to project it onto Desdemona. It is a sad process of contagion, which is started by Iago.
In the first act of the play, Desdemona says of her marriage to Othello:
I saw Othello’s visage in his mind,
And to his honors and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. (Act 1, Scene 3)
This suggests that, symbolically, Desdemona is part of Othello now that they are united in matrimony. Unfortunately, it also means that his self-hatred and disgust extend to her. We see this in the oxymoronic language that he uses against her, such as referring to her as a "fair devil" (Act 3, Scene 3) or telling Iago: "Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore" (Act 3, Scene 3). This is also shown in a speech he delivers to Desdemona, full of lascivious animal imagery describing his wife:
The fountain from which my current runs
Or else dries up—to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in . . . (Act 4, Scene 2)
Now that Desdemona is associated with Othello, in his mind, she has become the stereotype of the unfaithful, beastly, and lascivious Moor, whom Iago mocks as "the beast making the two backs" in the first scene of the play.
Othello, then, is simultaneously the “Noble Moor” who valiantly defends Venice and its citizens, with his pure and faithful wife by his side and the “black devil,” who satisfies every negative stereotype of the evil and lascivious infidel who threatens the Venetian state and its citizens. This is captured perfectly in his final speech, which also captures his flair for self-dramatization:
And say besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’ throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus. (Act 5, Scene 2)
Othello’s internal conflict and divided self brought about by racist alienation could only be solved through his own self-destruction.
Themes in Othello
The main themes in Othello relate to the 1. Corrupting influence of jealousy, 2. Racial Alienation, 3. Appearance vs Reality, and 4. Gender. We have already discussed Othello’s racial alienation. Venice is a White Chritsian society whose hostile attitudes toward Blackness was internalized by Othello, leading to insecurity that allows Iago to manipulate him.
1. Jealousy and its corrupting influence. It would be an oversimplification to say that Othello’s jealousy led to his downfall. His jealousy can be seen as either a weak point exploited by Iago or the result of the insecurity bred by the racial alienation he suffers.
In any event, jealousy in the play is portrayed as an evil that only leads to destruction when indulged in. The effects of jealousy on other characters namely Roderigo and Iago is also crucial. Roderigo is jealous of Othello and is used and abused by Iago because of this jealousy. Iago himself seems to be motivated by jealousy of both Cassio and Othello.
Curiously, all the characters who suffer from jealousy come to ruin. This includes Othello himself, Roderigo, and Iago who is arrested and destined for torture and death after being discovered. The only one who survives Iago is Cassio, who doesn’t suffer from jealousy.
We can even go so far as to say that the play can be interpreted as a morality tale on the evils of jealousy. The symbolism and tropes in Othello focus heavily on the corrupting influence of evil. This corrupting influence stems from Iago, but what are the motives of Iago? In his article, “Pattern In Othello,” Berry argues that Iago’s motives can be explained by the cynical relationship with his wife.
He suspects that his wife is unfaithful to him with no proof of this, and he simply seeks to pass on his doubt, cynicism, and lack of faith unto Othello and Desdemona, who begin as the model of the perfect and divine couple whose relationship is based on trust. There are even indications that Iago is influenced by a mysterious figure who convinces him that his wife Emilia is unfaithful:
Oh, fie upon him! Some such squire he was
That turned your wit the seamy side without
And made you to suspect me with the Moor. (Act 4, Scene 2)
So even if there is no proof that Othello slept with Iago’s wife (and he most likely did not), we have enough proof to accept that Iago genuinely did not trust his wife and thought her capable of being unfaithful. One can say that jealousy in the play takes the form of a corrupting motif that begins with Iago and that spreads to Othello, leading to disaster.
2. Appearance vs reality. This is a major theme in the play. The play can be seen as a morality play where the major characters are symbolic. In this case, Iago represents evil or even the devil; Othello represents the pure soul that hangs in the balance; and Desdemona, an angel figure, represents the rewards of Othello’s righteousness on earth.
This is ironic, as throughout the play Othello’s Blackness is portrayed as evil and marks him as being of the devil. Brabantio accuses him of having a “sooty bosom.” Emilia also refers to him as a “blacker devil.” However, it turns out that the actual devil of the play is Iago.
Emilia after discovering the murder of Desdemona by Othello says “O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!” in Act 5, Scene 2. This reveals that Othello, even before he erred and committed the crime, was already a devil in her eyes.
This is ironic as it turns out that it is her husband, whom she should know better than anyone else is, who is the author of the chaos and anarchy that Desdemona falls victim to. Iago is masterful in his deception, and his character and conduct are the very epitome of the theme of appearance versus reality.
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3. Gender. Gender is also a relevant theme in Othello. Desdemona falls victim to Iago’s plot partly because of the inferior position of women in Venetian society. The death of Desdemona is a tragedy; however, if Desdemona had been guilty of cuckolding her husband, then Othello seems to think that he was fully justified in taking her life. He freely admits to committing the act before knowing that he was deceived in the final act.
Also, Desdemona is described as a precious possession or jewel. Her father accuses Othello of stealing her in Act 1, Scene 3 and explicitly refers to her as a “jewel” in the same scene. Othello in the speech before his suicide desribes her as “a pearl . . . Richer than all his tribe” (Act 5, Scene 2). This sense of possession over women further extends to the paradigm between Emilia and Iago.
Emilia after discovering the role of her husband Iago in deceiving Othello says the following even after her husband asks her to hold her tongue:
Twill out, ’twill out. I peace?
No, I will speak as liberal as the north.
Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak. (Act 5, Scene 2)
The highlighted part of her quote suggests that the mores and values of Venetian society oppose her speaking out against her husban,d even if her husband is clearly guilty of a crime. Emilia seems to be almost apologizing for revealing her husband's part in the evil deceit that leads to the death of Desdemona. In short, she is expected to remain loyal to her husband even if he is in the wrong.
She is promptly killed by Iago after she exposes him. The shocked reactions of the onlookers in the scene to her being killed support the idea that this is not an acceptable act under most circumstances. Nevertheless, what is curious is the ease with which both Othello and Iago kill their wives over their perceived wrongs and violation of their wifely honor and duties.
This suggests that we are dealing with social attitudes toward women that go beyond the personal actions of these two characters. In short, we are witnessing attitudes that are rooted in the socially inferior position of women in Venetian society.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, September 10). Othello | Character Analysis & Themes. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/othello-character-analysis-themes |
