OTHELLO

Othello, written in 1604, is one of the masterpieces of Shakespeare's "tragic period". In splendor of lanuage, and in the sheer power of the story, it belogs with the greatest. But some of its admirers find it too savage, or they complain that they do not understand the motivation, especially's Iago's. The tragedy is, in fact, presented more simply, with less comment or explanation, than the tragedies of Lear or Hamlet. It has a desolate, laconic objectivity which makes it unique among Shakespeare's play. Shakespeare took the plot from a contemporary story (1565) by the Italian writer, Giraldi Cintio, Cintio tells oa a valiant Moor who marries a beautiful and virtous Venetian lady,"Disdemona"; of a wicked Ensign who loves Disdemona" in vain, deludes the Moor into thinking his wife has taken a certain Captain for her lover, and at last persuades him to murder her. Cinto relies on these sensational events, and the fascination of the Ensign's intrigues, to interest his readers; but he softens the impact at the end by drawing a prosy and a self-righteous moral: well-brought-up young ladies should beware of marrying foreigners. Shakespeare follows most of Cintio'ingenious plot, but concentrrates it all into a few days, and ends it more swiftly and simply. He omits non of Cintio's sordidness and cruelity, and, moreoever, h does not try to excuse it which moralizing at of a newspapaer scandal or a case.
Casalino Pierluigi, on June 28th 2014