Othello and Desdemona in Venice by Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856)

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, often shortened to Othello,[a] is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulated by his ensign, Iago, into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity. Othello is widely considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest works and is usually classified among his major tragedies alongside Macbeth, King Lear, and Hamlet. Unpublished in the author’s life, the play survives in one quarto edition from 1622 and in the First Folio.

Othello has been one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, both among playgoers and literary critics, since its first performance, spawning numerous stage, screen, and operatic adaptations. Among actors, the roles of Othello, Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia (Iago’s wife) are regarded as highly demanding and desirable. Critical attention has focused on the nature of the play’s tragedy, its unusual mechanics, its treatment of race, and on the motivations of Iago and his relationship to Othello. Originally performed by white actors in dark makeup, the role of Othello began to be played by black actors in the 19th century.

Shakespeare’s major source for the play was a novella by Cinthio, the plot of which Shakespeare borrowed and reworked substantially. Though not among Shakespeare’s longest plays, it contains two of his four longest roles in Othello and Iago.

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  • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    I’m glad Zohran is going to win so that I hopefully don’t have to hear quite so much about New York City every fucking day.

  • tombruzzo [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    My girlfriend doesn’t like it when I change the lyrics to K-pop demon hunters songs to be about them having two wives. So I told her if she doesn’t like that then she SHOULD NOT go on her image sharing platform of choice and search for the hashtag #polytrix because it will be full of cute art of the three of them just hanging out as a thruple

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    One of the ladies on the radlib wine mom podcast struggles with pronouncing Mamdani. They’ve literally had him on their pod and are both glowing advocates of his. The middle-aged angloid might simply be genetically incapable of pronouncing even the simplest non-Western names.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    Someone in a Teams meeting just said “It’s the old chicken and the egg question isn’t it? Why did they cross the road?” then realised what they’d said and turned their camera off.

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    Don’t like bodybuilders? How bout multimillionaire. How bout 8 inches and thick. How bout talented. How bout loving and respectful. I lost my wife 10 weeks ago, 21 years faithful. My daughter committed suicide 3 weeks ago. 13. She was faster than me at 12, and I run a 6 minute mile. My testimony and I’m nothing but pure and I asked you if you wanna be in a youtube channel. But you like scrawny guys.

  • Hohsia [any]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    My dying wish is to see an actual socialist as mayor in some US city. Lmao the fact that so many New Yorkers are shitting their pants over a soc dem is extremely radicalizing imo