Othello’s identity and soliloquy essay

With reference to Othello’s soliloquy, explore how Shakespeare presents the theme of
identity.

In your answer you must include:

The writer’s use of linguistic and literary features; Relevant contextual factors.

Throughout the course of the play, Othello’s identity is picked apart, not only by himself but by the
other characters, many of which consider him as an outsider. At the beginning of the play Othello
has managed to try and assert his place in Venetian society by becoming: the general of the army,
a Christian and the husband of a high class Venetian woman. By becoming all these roles he tries
to establish an identity for himself that isn’t purely based on his race and outsider status, we see
that he is mostly content with the reputation he has built for himself during the opening act. He
only begins to properly scrutinise his identity in a negative way when he is relocated from the
sophisticated Venice to the claustrophobic, supposedly barbaric and uncivilised Cyprus, where he
lets his emotions get the better of him and he becomes a puppet to the devious Iago. In Othello’s
soliloquy, we see his main concerns for his identity are arising all at once and thus begins his
tragic downfall.

Firstly, Othello begins his soliloquy by discussing Iago’s admirable qualities, making his desire to
understand people in the same way Iago does prominent. Othello often describes Iago using the
abstract noun “honesty” but in the rst line of his soliloquy he premodi es it using the
premodifying adjective “exceeding”, the dramatic irony of this statement accentuates his trust in
Iago. Othello’s hamartia is trusting the other characters too much as well as being jealous of
certain qualities they have, these are both issues that are present within the opening lines of his
soliloquy. He goes on to say “and knows all qualities, with a learned spirit, of human dealings”
which infers that Iago is wiser than Othello when it comes to understanding other people (from a
psychological point of view), hence why he puts his trust in his speculations of Desdemona’s
unfaithfulness because he thinks Iago knows women intentions better than he does. His
insecurities are highlighted through the use of parenthesis, which suggests that he is aware of his
lack of knowledge in comparison to Venetian men such as Iago. In particular, the adjective
“learned” encapsulates the idea that Othello hasn’t acquired the same extent of knowledge that
Iago has and this would play on his thoughts to do with his outsider status and inexperience in
Venetian society. He makes a comparison of himself to “chamberers” further on in his soliloquy
and states that he “have not those soft parts of conversation”, which can be linked to act one
scene three where he says “rude am I in my speech”, emphasising his insecurity when speaking
to those around him. By using the noun “chamberers” he is referring to a knight who would
protect the woman of the house and it infers that he feels that he is not as capable of looking after
Desdemona as perhaps a man who is more educated when it comes to romance and manhood.
The whole idea behind “soft parts of conversation” links into the idea of him being inexperienced
lover in comparison to other men because he is a military man, therefore he has adapted to lots of
military jargon, and he also doesn’t feel he can compete with the high class Venetian men when it
comes to winning over Desdemona and having control over her.

Themes of ownership, manhood and womanhood are presented throughout the soliloquy and we
see a side of Othello that was absent until Iago starts to make him question his masculinity and
capability of controlling his wife. There’s a substantial amount of bestial/hawk imagery used to
downgrade Desdemona and Othello dehumanises her by presenting her as an untameable bird of
prey. “Haggard”, “jesses”, “whistle her o ” and “pray at fortune” all link together to form a
semantic eld based on the concept of Desdemona being like a bird that has a lack of self-
control. Othello plays on the idea that “her jesses were my dear heartstrings” which gives the
impression that Desdemona is tugging at his emotions and causing him to become insecure
about his capability when it comes to controlling his wife and being appealing enough for her. Up
until this point, Othello has viewed Desdemona as an equal and he has tried to make sure his
actions are in her best interest but now he seems to be a bit self-absorbed with his own feelings
as he says “my dear heartstrings”. The possessive pronoun “my” followed up by the premodifying
adjective “dear” shows Othello’s concern for his reputation as well as the idea of himself being left
heartbroken, if Desdemona is being unfaithful then he will have to send her away, leaving him as a
broken man with no sense of identity or reputation to fall back on. If Othello is unable to control
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 his wife, he will be a cuckold and essentially become an outcast in society all over again after he
has tried to work his way up the hierarchy. We know that if your reputation is damned in some
way during the Renaissance era, then you are left with nothing to your name, the e ects of
reputation have been presented through other characters such as Cassio and Brabantio in earlier
acts and now Shakespeare sets Othello up for the same fate. In some senses, Othello’s language
begins to mirror the other male characters’ dehumanising and misogynistic views on women. “We
call these delicate creatures ours” and the fact he refers to Desdemona as a “thing” shows the
dramatic turn around in Othello’s attitude towards woman and it mirrors language that Brabantio
has used when he refers to Desdemona as a “jewel”, which dehumanises and objecti es her and
it can also be noted that he now calls Desdemona a “thing” which links to Brabantio’s language
when he says “of such a thing as thou” (this is said to Othello and not Desdemona but the point is
that his language is becoming intertwined with the other male characters’). The use of the
possessive pronouns “we” and “ours” shows that Othello is beginning to talk as if Desdemona is
an object or an inhumane creature that belongs to him. Shakespeare would’ve been in uenced by
‘The Great Chain of Being’ whilst writing the play and this is why he depicts the women as
inanimate objects and creatures that the men rule over (this links back to the hawk imagery
mentioned earlier as mankind is above creatures).

Shakespeare often uses the women in his plays to cause chaos, we see this with characters such
as Desdemona and Lady Macbeth whom he uses as a narrative tool that ultimately leads the
heroes to their tragic downfall. There’s always some form of power dynamic being touched upon
and it builds up a big part of the protagonists identity as they let their wives have a lot of authority
over how they think and the decisions they make. Both Othello and Macbeth could be viewed as
having a similar approach to their relationships with their wives because they both begin the plays
as gentlemen who treat their wives with respect until they ultimately grow apart from them to the
point where both wives end up dead and the men have lost their true identity.

There are a few themes in the soliloquy that have been highlighted earlier on in the play but
Othello was able to accept them until he starts to properly evaluate Desdemona’s supposed
in delity. His race makes an appearance when he states “for I am black”. Interestingly,
Shakespeare has used caesura right before saying this, perhaps to isolate what is being said. The
bluntness of the phrase shows Othello recognises that he is viewed as an outcast in society and
his race can’t be looked past and will always remain a huge part of his identity. He feels that one
of the reasons contributing to Desdemona’s unfaithfulness is that he is black and di erent to all
the Venetian men that she would’ve been destined to marry if she had followed her fathers
wishes. Another reason that he thinks has impacted his desirability is age. “I am declined into the
vale of years — yet that’s not much—“ indicates the age gap between himself and Desdemona.
He is quite contradictory in the way he phrases this sentence, stressing further his complete and
utter confusion. The paralinguistic feature of the dashes show he is trying to reassure himself that
Desdemona wouldn’t leave him because he is older than she is. His military position as general of
the army brings Othello a lot of political power and also a high status. He used his role as a way to
work his way up the social construct and now Desdemona may cause his whole identity to
crumble apart. “’tis the plague of great ones” shows that the higher the position you have in
society, the more vulnerable your reputation is to being destroyed. The verb choice of “plague”
depicts women as a liability and it seems that Othello now views his wife as a curse (he even
mentions the “curse of marriage” which shows how much his judgement has changed in regards
to his relationship with a woman who he once completely trusted and loved).

A nal point to consider is how Othello chooses to try and push past all the insecurities he has
about his identity and Desdemona’s in delity. As soon as she re-enters the scene he says the
exclamative “If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!” followed by “I’ll not believe ’t” which
shows he thinks that someone as innocent looking and enchanting as Desdemona wouldn’t
betray him and it would be a mockery if she had. The fact he uses religious lexis such as “heaven”
suggests that even after feeling as if he has lost his identity, parts of it are still able to be obtained,
like his role as a Christian. Othello has not let Iago’s manipulation fully take him over yet and he
still wants to have faith in his identity and, perhaps more importantly, in Desdemona.

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 To summarise what has been said, Othello is, at this point in the play, beginning to doubt the
qualities that make up his identity, which he was once more assure of but as soon as he begins to
suspect Desdemona of having an a air with Cassio, he undervalues every aspect of his identity in
according to how he compares himself to everyone else in society. We see his character regress
from a beautifully lyrical speaker, who has built up a solid reputation for himself, to a very self-
conscious and disordered character. He resorts to Iagoisation without even being aware that Iago
has in uenced how he thinks and we see how Othello evolves into quite a monstrous character
full of sexual jealousy and insecurities surrounding his identity.

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