My Take on Othello

So here is my basic interpretation of Othello so far:

Main characters:

~Othello
~Desdemona
~Roderigo
~Cassio
~Iago
~Emilia

Othello is a Moor from Venice and his wife, Desdemona, is the daughter of the Senator Brabanzio. Roderigo is a Venetian man who is in love with Desdemona and wants her. Cassio is a soldier who is appointed to be Othello's lieutenant. Iago, who also serves Othello, is angry because he wanted to be lieutenant, and Emilia is his wife.

The story starts off in Venice with Roderigo and Iago arguing about Desdemona, who has just married Othello. Roderigo was paying Iago to spy on Othello so he could be with Desdemona. So the two go to Desdemona's father, Brabanzio, and he is angry and accuses Othello of stealing her with his witchcraft. Meanwhile, Cassio shows up with news that Othello has been ordered to Cyprus to help fight the turks. They all go before the duke, and Desdemona defends Othello in that she fell in love with him. She insists on going with him to Cyprus.

Roderigo then believes he has no chance with Desdemona, but Iago tells him of his plan to sabotage Cassio and get Othello to think she is cheating on him. This proves beneficial to Iago by both getting promoted to his desired position as lieutenant and will keep him in good graces with Roderigo. After the quarrel later that night and Cassio had stabbed the Governor, he lost his post as lieutenant, and Iago is happy because his plan is working. Cassio laments to Iago about his misfortune and Iago tells him a surefire way to get back on Othello’s good side is through Desdemona…which Iago knows will only raise suspicion of her fidelity.

Cassio starts spending time with Desdemona in hopes she can persuade her husband to let him rejoin his ranks. Because of this, Othello becomes upset and moody, which Iago doesn’t help by suggesting an affair between the two. Furthermore, Iago tells him that he saw Cassio wiping his beard with the special handkerchief that he had given her. This greatly upsets Othello and he vows to get his revenge.

I also checked out a Wikipedia article about Othello and his ethnicity and how that may have affected his trust in his wife. In the article is says "The most common interpretation of Othello is that the title character is a black man." I found this very interesting because they further integrate his race into his distrust of his wife as they are "from two different worlds" and since he is a "stranger from a strange land" he is lesser and doesn't have the capability to integrate into their culture. Here's the link :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello

I am going to finish this and see how this turns out, and I'll probably write some more later.