We had a great time with Othello this weekend. A large group on Saturday and a smaller one on Sunday with both providing stimulating, insightful discussions. In this report I usually gloss over the weekend with comments on the weather, facilities, Calistoga and the wine, but we were fortunate to have Jim Baird at the Sunday event and he was kind enough to provide an excellent review of the discussion, a list of the parts we performed from the play (And, I do mean performed; we had some excellent character portrayals by participants. Plays, like poetry, need to be heard.), and a review of the movie. If you haven't seen it, do so. It is unlike any other production of Othello I have ever seen. I have added some pics of various actors playing Othello in films over the years. ---Jim Hall
Sunday Morning
by Jim Baird
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| Laurence Fishburne |
college class some time later. Along with some famous lines (“Green-eyed monster” and “Loved not wisely but too well”), here’s all I remembered:
A Moorish general in 17th
Century Venice, after a brief courtship, marries the teenage daughter of a
prominent citizen. She’s the perfect wife for him, and he’s the ideal husband
for her. They have no hidden faults, no sordid secrets. They are, in fact, good
people. But within days both of them are dead in a murder/suicide. A scheming
character named Iago is responsible for the tragedy.
Not a bad summary, but Othello is much greater than its
plot. I was pleasantly surprised—as always happens during Shared Inquiry—to see
themes I hadn’t even suspected before. At Calistoga, Jim Hall made that happen
with his careful selection of passages for us to read aloud. Those scenes, with
commentary, are listed below in the order we read them, with line references to
the 2009 Folger paperback edition.
Act 1 Scene 3 Lines
353 to 387
IAGO O,
Villainous! I have looked upon the world for
Four
times seven years.
Iago is very good at misdirection, in this instance winning
Rodrigo over by stating the reasons against what he wants Rodrigo to do. By the
time Iago is finished, he’s got Rodrigo ready to cash in everything to pursue
Desdemona, who will never have him. Iago’s a sharp guy who could do very well
for himself, but Venice is a class-conscious city where a soldier like himself,
recently passed over for promotion by Othello, has to play confidence man to
get what he deserves.
Act 1 Scene 1 Lines
43 to 71
RODERIGO I
would not follow him, then.
IAGO O,
sir, content you.
Right from the first we see the basics of Iago’s plot
against Othello. We also begin to see something of his motives. There’s
certainly some kind of love/hate going on between the two men. Later in this
scene he feeds Rodrigo lines to roust Desdemona’s dad in the middle of the
night with news of her marriage. The old man, a ranking citizen, isn’t pleased
with the news. Iago’s revenge has started.
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| Anthony Hopkins |
DUKE: What would you,
Desdemona?
DESDEMONA:
That
I did love the Moor to live with him
My
downright violence and storm of fortunes.
Desdemona offers a candid description of how marriage binds
husband and wife, and thus why she should accompany Othello to war with the Turks.
Her comment in the last four lines about how, if he goes to Cyprus alone, “the
rites for why I love him are bereft me,” is about consummating her marriage, a
taboo subject for a woman of status in 1604 Venice. Othello, though, downplays
this enticement with “Nor to comply with heat, (the young affects/In me
defunct).” He seems less than enthusiastic.
Act 2 Scene 1 Lines
139 to 179
DESDEMONA: Come,
how wouldst thou praise me?
IAGO I
am about it, but indeed my invention comes.
This is a kind of verbal tennis match between Iago and
Desdemona, with the results a draw. He has a proverb for every occasion, and
she keeps up with his razzle dazzle easily. This scene brings much-needed humor
to the play, while revealing still more about the characters. Desdemona proves
she can hold her own and more against Iago’s rather bawdy wit.
Act 3 Scene 3 Lines
182 to 201
IAGO Good
name in man and woman, dear my lord,
is
the immediate jewel of their souls.
Misdirection again: By making Othello pull the “truth” out
of him, Iago makes the lie about Desdemona’s infidelity with Cassio all the
more believable. In fact, Iago’s advice to beware the “green-eyed monster” is
absolutely correct, but is a disguised invitation to jealousy rather than a
warning against it. In Othello’s eyes, Iago is just being diplomatic. Why else
would he say, “This fellow’s of exceeding honesty” (line 299) after Iago’s exit
from the scene?
Act 4 Scene 3 Lines
85 to 117
EMILIA Who
Would
not make her husband a cuckold t’ make
him
a monarch?
The female characters in this drama (Desdemona, Emilia,
Bianca) are all women of their times. Status came through the men they marry
or, in Bianca’s case, sleep with. Emilia in this passage sees nothing wrong
with such a “business” arrangement. Venice, after all, is a commercial
powerhouse. But Emilia’s advice may not be as useful as it seems, since Cassio
calls Bianca a “strumpet,” something she’s not, and Othello does the same to
Desdemona just before he smothers her.
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| Laurence Olivier |
OTHELLO: Soft
you. A word or two before you go.
I
have done the state some service, and they
know
‘t
Sorry, Othello, but I think if anyone
“loved not wisely” it was Desdemona. On the other hand, the one you loved “too
well” was really Iago. When you see the destruction you’ve caused, you realize
the betrayal by your “friend.” Your greatness on the battlefield definitely
didn’t prepare you for civilian life.
In summary, Othello is a contemporary play, in spite of its
age. We recognize the characters onstage as people we know, and their tragedy
is as relevant to us as today’s news.
Othello is an outsider in Shakespeare’s Venice: he’s a black
soldier from North Africa who has spent his life outdoors, earning the respect
of his men, and rising in the ranks. When he finds himself married into
Venetian high society, he turns to Iago, his trusted comrade in arms to help
him navigate this unfamiliar world. Like someone who doesn’t speak a language,
Othello believes everything Iago tells him about what’s going on. All’s well
until Othello blunders, in his soldier’s way, by promoting Cassio to a post
Iago deserved. Iago turns on a dime.
Iago is a clever politician, someone who hears the rumors
and knows the gossip, so he’s valuable for a novice like Othello. But Iago
knows he’s the smartest man in Venice; he could have been the most trusted
counselor, the best friend, the wisest sage. Instead, he’s insulted that this
bumpkin passed him over, so from now on Iago becomes a destroyer. Half-truths
are his weapon, and he’s good with them.
In Othello’s Venice, women are barred from power, yet the
play depends on them. Look at the contrasts between Othello and Iago on the one
hand, with Desdemona and Emilia on the other. When the men are on stage, the
dynamic is deception, exploiting weaknesses, violence. When the women have
scenes together, they speak forthrightly about the turmoil around them,
providing moments of sanity and common sense. When they are overwhelmed by
tragedy, we in the audience are, too.
My thanks to Jim Hall for making actors out of us, and to
the other Sunday Morning Shakespearians: Lindy, Janet, Sherry, Joe, and Melodie.
[Lines numbers are from the Folger edition. Additional line
numbers mean indicate a break in text.]
.jpg) |
| Carlo Rota |
IAGO: O, villainous! I have looked upon the world for 353
Four
times seven years, and since I could distin-
guish
betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found
man
that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say
I
would drown myself for the love of a guinea hen, I
would
change my humanity with a baboon.
RODERIGO What
should I do? I confess it is my shame
to
be so fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO Virtue?
A fig! ‘Tis in ourselves that we are thus or
Thus.
Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our
wills
are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles
or
sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme,
supply
it with one gender of herbs or distract it
with
many, either to have it sterile with idleness or
manured
with industry, why the power and corrigi-
ble
authority of this lies in our wills [. . .]
whereof
I take this that you call love to be a sect, or 374
scion.
RODERIGO It
cannot be
IAGO It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission
of
the will. Come, be a man! Drown thyself? Drown
cats
and blind puppies. I have professed me thy
friend,
and I confess me knit to thy deserving
with
cables of perdurable toughness. I could never
better
stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse [. . .] 387
Act 1 Scene 1
RODERIGO: I would not follow him, then. 43
IAGO: O,
sir, content you.
I
follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We
cannot all be masters, or all masters
Cannot
be truly followed [. . . ]
It
is as sure as you are Roderigo, 62
Were
I the Moor I would not be Iago.
In
following him, I follow but myself
Heaven
is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But
seeming so for my peculiar end.
For
when my outward action doth demonstrate
The
native act and figure of my heart
In
compliment extern, ‘tis not long after
But
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For
daws to peck at. I am not what I am. 71
Act 1 Scene 3
DUKE: What would you, Desdemona? 282
DESDEMONA:
That
I did love the Moor to live with him
My
downright violence and storm of fortunes
May
trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdued
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| Paul Robeson |
I
saw Othello’s visage in his mind,
And
to his honors and his valiant parts
Did
I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So
that, dear lords, if I be left behind
A
moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The
rites for why I love him are bereft me
And
I a heavy interim shall support
By
his dear absence. Let me go with him.
OTHELLO: Let
her have your voice.
Vouch
with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not
To
please the palate of my appetite,
Nor
to comply with the heat (the young affects
In
(me) defunct) and proper satisfaction.
But
to be free and bounteous to her mind. 300
Act 2 Scene 1
DESDEMONA: Come, how wouldst thou praise me? 139
IAGO: I am about it,
but indeed my invention comes
From
my pate as birdlime does from frieze: it
Plucks
out brains and all. But my muse labors, and
Thus
she is delivered.
If
she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
The
one’s for use, the other useth it.
DESDEMONA: Well praised! How if she be black and witty?
IAGO: If she be
black, and thereto have a wit,
She’ll
find a white that shall her blackness hit.
DESDEMONA: Worse and worse
EMILIA How
if fair and foolish?
IAGO
She
never yet was foolish that was fair,
For
even her folly helped her to an heir.
DESDEMONA: These
are old fond paradoxes to make
fools
laugh I’ th’ alehouse. What miserable praise
hast
thou for her that’s foul and foolish?
IAGO:
There’s
none so foul and foolish thereunto,
But
does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do [. . . ]
DESDEMONA: O,
most lame and impotent conclusion! 176
--Do
not learn of him, Emilia, though he by thy
Husband.
--How say you, Cassio? Is he not a most
Profane
and liberal counselor? 179
Act 3 Scene 3
IAGO:
Good
name in man and woman, dear my lord, 182
Is
the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who
steals my purse steals trash. Tis something,
nothing;
‘Twas
mine, ‘tis his, and has been sleve to
thousands.
But
he that filches from me my good name
Robes
me of that which not enriches him
And
makes me poor indeed.
OTHELLO:
(By heaven,) I’ll know thy thoughts.
IAGO
You
cannot, if my heart were in your hand,
Nor
shall not, whilst ‘tis in my custody.
OTHELLO: Ha?
IAGO: O, beware, my
lord, of jealousy!
It
is the green-eyed monster which doth mick
The
meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss
Who,
certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But
Oh what dam ned minutes tells her ‘oer
Who
dotes, yet doubts, suspects yet
strongly loves. 201
OTHELLO: Oh,
Misery.
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| Sergei Bondarchuk in 1955 Russian film |
EMILIA: Who 85
would
not make her husband a cuckold t make
him
a monarch? I should venture purgatory for ‘t.
DESDEMONA: Beshrew me if I sould do such a wrong
Fot
the whole world!
EMILIA: Why, the wrong is but a wrong I’ th’ world;
and,
having the word for your labor, ‘tis a wrong in
your
own world, and you might quickly make it right [. . . ]
What
is it that they do 108
When
they change us for others? Is it sport?
I
think it is. And doth affection breed it?
I
think it doth. Is ‘t frailty that thus errs?
It
is so too. And have not we affection,
Desires
for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then
let them use us well. Else let them know,
The
ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
DESDEMONA
Good
night, good night. (God) me such uses send,
Not
to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend. 117
Act 5 Scene 2
OTHELLO:
Soft
you. A word or two before you go. 397
I
have done the state some service, and they
know
‘t.
No
more of that. I pray you in your letters,
When
you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak
of me as I am. Nothing extenuate.
Nor
set down aught in malice. Then you must speak
Of
one who loved not wisely, but too well;
Of
one not easily jealous, but being wrought,
Perplexed
in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like
the base Judean, threw a pearl away
Richer
than all his tribe; of one whose subdued
eyes,
Albeit
unused to the melting mood,
Drops
tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their
medicinable gum. . . 412
Othello, Starring Orson Welles
Sunday Afternoon
by Jim Baird
Seven Reasons to Watch
this Movie
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| Orson Welles |
The
film opens with a view of a man laid out for a funeral, shown from just above
his head. He’s lifted and carried by hooded monks. We see two other caskets,
each with woman’s body, draped in black lace.
Religious
imagery is everywhere: crosses, a bishop in cope and miter, men making the sign
of the cross. People’s clothes appear medieval. The bodies are carried through
a crowd, in a castle courtyard, apparently to be taken aboard
a ship. A man, under custody of armed guards, is pushed and shoved in the opposite direction. He’s locked into a square iron cage which is suspended from a chain and winched upward, suspended next to the castle wall. Throughout there is eerie music and unintelligible chanting.
a ship. A man, under custody of armed guards, is pushed and shoved in the opposite direction. He’s locked into a square iron cage which is suspended from a chain and winched upward, suspended next to the castle wall. Throughout there is eerie music and unintelligible chanting.
The
scene concludes with a title card and a brief spoken introduction, then we’re
taken to Venice, and the story begins.
2.
Welles the Director
Everything
we expect from an Orson Welles-directed movie is in that first scene:
Unusual
camera placements and close ups
Quick
cuts from one face to another
A
moving camera that follows the actors through doors and into rooms
Sharp
black & white cinematography
Time-shifting,
from now to then and back
3.
The Cast
Welles
assembled a British Isles cast (English and Irish) along with one Canadian and
one American. Most
notable,
other than Welles himself, are Michael MacLiammoir as Iago and Robert Coote
(Colonel Pickering
in My Fair Lady) as Roderigo. Detroit native Doris Dowling (from Lost Weekend) plays
Bianca, and she’s a hoot. Fay Compton, a BBC-TV veteran, is appropriately
in-your-face as Iago’s wife Emilia.
Plus,
Did anyone ever have a more perfect movie voice than Orson Welles? With him in
the lead, along with his veteran British cast, Shakespeare’s words sound
marvelous.
4.
Desdemona
Canadian
actress Suzanne Cloutier is just perfect in this role. Though not in her late
teens, Desdemona’s age in the play, she projects, flawlessly, strong-willed
innocence and devotion to her husband. Also, the camera really likes her. A
lot.
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| Mario Caserini in a 1906 silent film adaptation of Verdi's opera "Othello"considered the earliest film version of the play. |
5.
Welles the Actor
Filming
began in 1948, so we see the Big Guy at his best, powerful and
larger-than-life. His makeup is convincing, as is his physical presence: He
looks and moves like a soldier.
6.
The Locales
Morocco,
Venice, Tuscany, Rome. The scenery, especially the Moroccan seaside castle, is
like an additional character in the drama.
7.
It’s on YouTube.
It
clocks in at just 91 minutes. Search “Welles Othello” to find it.
Reviewer’s Note: Welles
assumes that his audience already knows the basic story and characters of
Othello, so don’t expect any on-screen help (like “Venice, 1604” or “Cyprus,
After the Storm”).
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