In act five or the death act as I would call it. Lago has already brain washed Othello, Rodrigo, Cassio, and his wife Emilia. Everyone is out to get someone. In the beginning of the act Lago starts off by convincing Rodrigo to kill Cassio and that he will be with him through it all. So as Rodrigo approaches Cassio to stab him he fails and so Cassio ends up stabbing him. Lago seeing this he wounds Cassio in the leg from behind him and disappears without giving Cassio a chance to see who it was. Act five scene 2 becomes more interesting when Othello walks into Desdemona room while she is sleeping. He locks the door behind him and starts yelling at her calling her all types of names. He tells her “This sorrow’s heavenly, / It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.” (act 5 scene 2 lines 21-22). What he meant was that he wants the truth from her, that he knows she is a sinner and so he wants her to confess before she dies. Desdemona begs for a half an hour and Othello refuses to giver her that time and so he kills her. This scene becomes intense when Emilia finds out the reason behind Othello killing Desdemona. She gets furious and tells him she was never unfaithful and that she was so pure and would never do such a thing to him. Emilie insults Othello by saying “Thou hast not half that pow’r to do me harm/ As I have to be hurt. O gull, O dolt, / As ignorant as dirt! Thou hasn’t done a deed” (act5 scene 2 lines 162-167). Later on the rest that survived from the other room enter and so Emilia is face to face with her husband who planted false ideas in Othello’s head confesses. She tells Othello that her husband had asked her to steal the handkerchief he gave Desdemona. Othello can’t bear with the fact that he kills the women he loved and so he ends up killing himself. Its crazy how much someone can’t hate and want so much revenge they are willing to kill anyone in their way.
7 thoughts on “Othello Act 5”
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I guess what we can sense from this scene is that how easy it is for Othello to believe others before Desdemona, even after her death. As soon as he’s presented the new found evidence that the handkerchief was indeed stolen and planted on Cassio to make it seem like there was an affair, Othello instantly believes that everything from Iago was a lie. it’s a little insane if you think about the fact, had Emilia entered the room a few minutes before and had presented all of this to Othello, both him and Desdemona could have been saved. What i find interesting besides all of this is how Emilia doesn’t hesitate about throwing her own husband under the bus after making her choice in telling Othello once she’s put two and two together. Obviously she’s done with Iago and all his manipulation and believes his actions should finally be accounted for. That’s says a lot considering she is his wife, partner for life.
It’s kind of irony that Othello doesn’t believes his wife, instead he believes Iago and being fool by Iago. This tragedy will be prevent if Othello has faith on his wife, but I have admit that Iago is a good puppeteer. Eventually, Iago failed his plan because Roderigo and Emilia gave out the reasons behind all affairs. The turning point that Iago became a liar from “honest” emphasizes that the “bad” will eventually get justice upon them, and turn out a worse ending for themselves which is what they suppose to get.
Iago’s unreasonable focus on revenge that made him kill his wife reminds of me Medea’s act in killing her children. They both focus on extreme revenge because one person had wronged them in some way. They both are willing to sacrifice anything that’s in their way in order to obtain their ultimate relieve on anger by avenging for themselves. Lastly, they are both manipulative in their words. Both Iago and Medea conclusively let anger strip the sense out of them.
Interesting comparison of Emilia’s death to the death of Medea’s two children. Both deaths were the cause of revenge. Iago wanted to take revenge on Othello for not advancing him to lieutenant, but that lead to the death of Emilia. Whereas Medea kills her children in order to take revenge on Jason. Both Emilia and the children were innocent and took no part in the conflict.
I agree with you. Also I think that this play is clearly a tragedy from the start. Othello is too stubborn as he doesn’t believe what he’s heard are fake, and he does not believe they are rumor. This is his personality, and it leads to their downfall and Desdemona’s murder. Moreover, seeing the finale play out will be interesting for sure.
I feel as if this scene symbolized the vanity of acting upon extreme emotions. If Othello had waited a few more minutes, Iago’s deception would’ve been revealed and bloodshed would have been avoided. You can also argue how it shows how much stereotypes affect the thoughts of people. Women, at least in the play, are depicted by men as people who exploit their lovers, however the women in this play are the complete opposite.
I agree with Gloria also I believe that it shows how easy it is for Othello to believe others, like what is love if it isn’t for trust. If you love someone in order to love them you must trust them and understand that they wouldn’t want to do something to hurt you but in here Othello thinks otherwise, on the other hand with being tricked so naively from Iago but it showed what had to happen for Othello to finally realize he was getting tricked by Iago. Also Emelia gives up Iago’s plan to Othello but if she’s a loyal wife shouldn’t she defend it but yet again when it came to this cause that could of happened with someone convincing Iago so she felt it was the right thing to do, and tell Othello what really happened and she wasn’t unfaithful. Another thing is why only believe what iago is saying and not go ask others if they know anything about it. He was only believing what Iago said, he could of told him anything and made up proof and believed it. I believe Othello should of asked like emilia told him it was a plan of Iago, why not of went and asked her before he did this or anyone else?