Othello by William Shakespeare

Published 1603 · 122 pages · 28,044 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Drama

How hard is Othello to read?

Othello scores 58 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 62 out of 100
Iago's plain language against Othello's exotic imagery; military and domestic registers.
Sentence structure: 58 out of 100
Less complex than Hamlet; passion makes language direct.
Abstraction: 60 out of 100
Psychological drama grounded in action; themes emerge from specifics.
Information density: 60 out of 100
Tight plot with few digressions; Venice to Cyprus to catastrophe.
Narrative indirection: 65 out of 100
Iago's motives endlessly debated; truth and lies constantly confused.
Symbolic density: 65 out of 100
The handkerchief, the marriage bed, the candle Othello snuffs.
Ironic distance: 70 out of 100
The audience watches Iago deceive everyone; dramatic irony constant and painful.
Resolution withholding: 30 out of 100
Full tragic revelation and punishment; Othello kills himself over Desdemona's body.
Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
Classical focus on single action; fast pace from marriage to murder.

How Othello is regarded

Othello holds a literary regard score of 92 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where Othello sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (64 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Othello scores 44 out of 100. A second mythos, irony, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: High Mimetic
Is this the Noble Moore, whom our full Senate
Symbol: Formal
Put out the Light, and then put out the Light:
Mythos: Tragedy iv (tragedy iv)
Of one, not easily Iealious, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreame
Genre: Drama
Enter Othello, and Desdemona in her bed.

Where the story of Othello takes place

  • Cyprus garrison under Turkish threat, c.1570-71 (1570 to 1571), the main setting
  • Venice, one night of elopement and Senate council (1570)

5 things that are true of Othello, with the passage for each

  1. The play opens with Roderigo complaining that Iago has taken his money.

    That thou (Iago) who hast had my purse,

  2. Iago tells Roderigo in Act 1 that his service to Othello is a pretence and that he is not what he seems.

    For Dawes to pecke at; I am not what I am

  3. Emilia finds Desdemona's dropped handkerchief and hands it to Iago, who has repeatedly asked her to steal it.

    Aemil. I am glad I haue found this Napkin:

  4. Desdemona is smothered on stage by Othello, who is not quite sure she is dead.

    Smothers her.

  5. Othello kills himself at the end with a kiss, after asking that he be reported accurately.

    Killing my selfe, to dye vpon a kisse.

Scenes in Othello that Frye would name

23 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Hamartia, untitled
That thinkes men honest, that but seeme to be so, Iago names Othello's fatal flaw, credulous openness, before using it.
Lyric, untitled
The poore Soule sat singing, by a Sicamour tree. The Willow Song is an embedded lyric meditation that foretells Desdemona's end.
Pathos, untitled
Smothers her. The sacrificial death of Desdemona, framed as 'Sacrifice' by Othello.
Anagnorisis, untitled
Othel. O Foole, foole, foole! Othello's recognition of how he was manipulated, once the letters and handkerchief are explained.
Pathos, untitled
Killing my selfe, to dye vpon a kisse. The hero's own death closes the tragic action.
Senex iratus, untitled
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchaunted her Brabantio is the blocking father, who accuses Othello of witchcraft and tries to arrest him.

Books that share these scenes with Othello

About the author

William Shakespeare