36 pages • 1 hour read
William ShakespeareOthello
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1604A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act IVChapter Summaries & Analyses
Scene 1 Summary
Iago is trying (and intending the opposite) to convince Othello that Cassio’s possession of Desdemona’s handkerchief isn’t necessarily proof that the two had sex, saying that perhaps they only kissed or lay naked in bed, “not meaning any harm” (6). Iago said he heard Cassio bragging about being in bed with Desdemona and supplies an image by saying, “With her—on her—what you will” (44). This throws Othello into a fit of rage and he says he will kill Cassio first and then force him to confess. Othello, overcome, falls into a fit, and Iago, in an aside, congratulates himself on how well his plan is working. Cassio enters to find Othello in the throes of epilepsy, but Iago sends him away.
Continuing his reverse psychology campaign, Iago tells Othello that lots of men are married to unfaithful women and that he’s lucky to at least know the truth about Desdemona. Needing more proof to convince Othello, Iago tells him to hide while he tricks Cassio into talking about his exploits with Desdemona. When Cassio reenters, Iago asks him about Bianca, a prostitute who sells herself for food and clothing, and who has fallen in love with Cassio. Othello witnesses Cassio laughing and talking derisively about Bianca and thinks he is speaking of Desdemona. Bianca enters and confronts Cassio for giving her a handkerchief belonging to some other “minx” (174). Othello sees it, and Cassio goes after Bianca to keep her from making a scene in the streets.
Iago asks Othello to remember how Cassio laughed about his use of Desdemona, and Othello at first is outraged at the insult to her. Iago urges him to remember that she is not a good woman, and Othello swings between praising her fine qualities, including her wit, and damning her. Seeing that Othello is having trouble staying angry at Desdemona, Iago then works on Othello’s masculine pride by suggesting that, since Othello isn’t bothered by her cheating, he could just let her do it. This succeeds in enraging Othello who says he will chop her to pieces, then asks Iago to acquire poison so that he can kill her that same night. Iago says, “Do it not with poison. Strangle her in her bed,/even the bed she hath contaminated” (228-29). Iago says that he in turn, will kill Cassio.
Iago and Desdemona enter with Lodovico, a relative of Desdemona’s from Venice with a message for Othello from the Duke and Senators. Lodovico asks after Cassio, and Othello becomes angry when Desdemona explains his falling-out with Othello. The message instructs Othello to return to Venice and leave Cassio in charge in Cyprus. Desdemona says she is glad, and, believing that she means for Cassio’s promotion and not her return to Venice, Othello strikes her. Lodovico is shocked at Othello’s uncharacteristic behavior and tells him to make amends with the crying Desdemona. Instead he insults and torments her before ordering her finally to leave.
After Othello leaves, Lodovico ask Iago if he is losing his mind, and Iago implies that he is and will likely continue to threaten Desdemona. Lodovico wonders if it’s the letter that has upset Othello, but Iago reiterates that he should only observe Othello’s actions for himself. Lodovico says he is sorry to have so misjudged Othello’s character.
Scene 2 Summary
Othello grills Emilia on the relationship between Cassio and Desdemona, and Emilia swears there is nothing going on between the two and that Desdemona is a good woman and faithful wife. Othello doesn’t believe her and sends for Desdemona, then orders Emilia to leave. Desdemona can tell Othello is furious and begs him to explain why. When he accuses her, she swears she is faithful, and Othello tells her she is only damning herself by lying. He begins to weep and observes that he could have handled any hardship except being rejected by his wife and being made a laughingstock. He continues to accuse Desdemona of being a “whore” (99), and she continues to swear she isn’t. He doesn’t believe her protests and when Emilia reenters, leaves the room.
A shocked Desdemona asks Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed and send for Iago. Desdemona and Emilia recount Othello’s accusations and vicious verbal abuse, with Emilia lamenting Desdemona’s ill treatment after giving up so much for Othello’s sake: “Hath she forsook so many noble matches,/Her father and her country and her friends,/To be called “whore”? Would it not make one/weep?” (146-49). Iago reassures Desdemona and pretends to be outraged on her behalf. Emilia, meanwhile, concludes (correctly) that some malicious person must have planted the idea in Othello’s head. Iago rejects the idea, tells Emilia she is a fool, and tells Desdemona that it is only the affairs of state that have put Othello in a bad mood.
After Desdemona and Emilia exit, Roderigo enters, angry with Iago for having tricked him out of his money. He reveals that he had given Iago jewels to pass to Desdemona in the hopes of winning some “sudden respect and acquaintance” (221)—likely meaning sexual favor—but it didn’t work. He threatens to ask Desdemona to return the jewels, and if she doesn’t have them, he will instead challenge the deceiving Iago to a duel. Iago pretends to have a newfound respect for Roderigo but insists he has been honest with him. He then lies and tells Roderigo that Othello is bound for Mauritania with Desdemona, and that if Roderigo kills Cassio, Desdemona will have to stay in Cyprus, and Roderigo will get to sleep with her. Roderigo is interested, and Iago promises to give him even more reasons to kill Cassio.
Scene 3 Summary
Othello is talking with Lodovico and tells Desdemona to go to prepare for bed and to send Emilia away. Desdemona asks Emilia to use her wedding sheets as her death shroud, then tells her of her mother’s maid, Barbary, who was abandoned by her lover and used to sing a song called “Willow.” She sings the song while Emilia helps her dress for bed, and the lyrics include the lines: “Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve” (56). Desdemona asks Emilia if she would ever cheat on her husband “for all the world” and Emilia jokes: “The world’s a huge thing. It is a great price/for a small vice” (77-79). Desdemona says she wouldn’t, and Emilia says that in any case, if a wife cheats on her husband, it’s likely his fault for cheating on her first or for beating or controlling her. She says that infidelity is a revenge that shows men that their wives are just as much human beings as they are: “They see, and/smell,/And have their palates both for sweet and sour,/As husbands have” (105-08). She concludes that husbands must treat their wives well, or else find that their wives will take on their own bad habits, and leaves Desdemona alone in the bedroom.
Act IV Analysis
Iago continues to stoke Othello’s rage by forcing him to picture Cassio and Desdemona together. Othello begins to lose his resolve when he thinks about the human qualities that he loves about Desdemona. To overcome this, Iago must threaten Othello’s masculine pride by suggesting he do nothing and let Desdemona cuckold him. It’s the idea of being made ridiculous in the eyes of other men that incites Othello to say, “I will chop her into messes! Cuckold me?” (4.1. 219). He is externalizing his sense of right and wrong, letting Iago and the imagined judgement of other men dictate his feelings and plans. In the midst of Iago’s insistent objectification of women, particularly to Othello and Roderigo, Emilia, in Scene 3, expresses that she is more than a passive sexual object and that a woman’s infidelity is a reclamation of her humanity. She says that it should show their husbands that they perceive and feel, have their own tastes, and the power to show weakness and exercise choice, just as men do. This act shows that Iago’s and Emilia’s views of a woman’s sexual expression are in opposition. In Iago’s construction, it is the men having sex with the straying wife who gain power over her husband; in Emilia’s, it is the straying wife who is demanding equal status to her own morally-lapsed husband.
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By William Shakespeare
