History Headscratchers / Othello

** She ''had'' met Cassio before, though. Othello himself said that Cassio would take messages between he and Desdemona before they were married. He had been around both of them during much of Othello's courting of her. (Act 3, Scene 3, lines 94-100)
** Brabantio's words to Othello (which can be see on the main page) were probably also playing on his mind.
** To the original poster: Shakespeare sometimes plays havoc with timelines. For example, ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' takes place over the course of three days, when the story it was based off of was stretched out over more like three months. There's conflicting evidence as to how much time passes between Othello and Desdemona's wedding, their move to Cyprus, and when Iago starts to put his plot in gear. But most scholars agree that there's meant to be a timeskip of at least a month between one act or another. That or the entire play took place over the course of a weekend.

*** Disagree with 'drunk". Cassio is very reluctant to drink - sure, Iago persuades him, but Iago is pretty much a force of nature.

*** To be honest, Cassio seems to have everyone snowed, even Iago ('he hath a daily beauty') - his misogynistic streak goes unnoticed in comparison to Othello and Iago, his manners are pretty much sycophancy and flirting, he's a pious snob ('lieutenants before ensigns') and in the end, he's rewarded with another undeserved promotion.

** Why? She'd just 'lie' about it anyway. ("She has decieved her father, and may thee.") Also worth noting that he ''does'' ask about the handkerchief when Desdemona is [[DiggingYourselfDeeper trying to get him to reinstate Cassio]]. So yeah.

** Desdemona is too embarrassed to admit she misplaced the handkerchief, not wanting to seem so careless that she loses a family heirloom her husband gave her as a gift almost right after she got it in the first place. So when Othello asks her about it, she ''is'' lying, so she does look evasive or like she's hiding something. It's just she doesn't know he's found the handkerchief. Othello assumes because she's clearly lying about still having the handkerchief when he's just found it (if it's truly been lost then shouldn't she say she can't find it?) that she had to have given it to Cassio. So because he caught his wife lying, that was all he needed to believe it. He just didn't know she was lying about something else.

* When Iago enters and is asked by Emilia if he told Othello his wife was false, why does he back up Othello's story, thus basically exposing himself as the real villain? He could have feigned innocence and denied having said anything to Othello. (Sure, he would still have been exposed anyway later on by Rodrigo's letter, but he couldn't have known that.)

** Also if you are in a room with two people, both of which are shouting at you to back up their story, it is good idea to turn on the one that didn't just just murder the last person that crossed them. Seems like the safer play to me.

** Also kind of hilarious if it has precedent in the original casting, because Shakespeare ''himself'' was married to a much older woman- maybe Iago is a really dark and unhinged AuthorAvatar escapist villain?

** Actually in the original story, the character Emilia's based on was said to be "a beautiful and virtuous young woman" - so she is supposed to be younger herself. Anna Patrick in the 1995 film is close to the right age (she's three years younger than Kenneth Branagh) and Emilia and Iago appear to be both early thirties at the oldest. People often think of Emilia as 'wise' when she's really just cynical - which to them translates as older. Perhaps they're aware of the MaidAndMaiden dynamic with Juliet and the Nurse and think it's similar to that.

Othello suspects Desdemona of infidelity about four hours after she meets Cassio. I no gets it.
* Odd, right? But arguably, this says TONS about Othello's insecurities. He's an alien mercenary, the Venetian flavor of the month: he's an outsider with no secure, innate place in Venetian (or European!) society, and his marriage to Desdemona only intensifies his outsiderness by contrast. He seems to see himself in an permanently fragile position ... as a man, as a soldier, and as a husband. He's always LOOKING for cracks under his feet in all these arenas, and always will. His near-instant suspicions of cuckoldry are right in character. Iago's genius was to spot this quality in Othello, and exploit it like a skilled demolitionist.

** Also a case of [[RealityisUnrealistic Reality is Unrealistic]]. Without getting too deep into it, a lack of air flow can cause pulmonary edemas, and the brain can die even if the person is able to talk afterwards.