A Prom Dress for Desdemona!

Prom is right around the corner, and if Desdemona were to ever attend my prom, she would definitely be seen wearing this particular dress. I found this BCBG dress online, and I knew that it would be perfect for her since it reflects her personality so well! It is a soft, pale yellow and it is made of silk. The subtle color portrays her pure, yet vague persona. She does speak throughout the play, but many of her thoughts are not professed to the audience. It is difficult to know what she is thinking, and as I read the play, I thought she had a very celestial role since characters would be talking about her, as if she was a glimmering star isolated in the universe. Her beauty seemed to enchant whomever she meant, especially Othello.

Another important aspect of the dress is the fact that it is made of silk. This represents the wealth that she comes from, since silk is a very expensive fabric. Her father, Brabantio is a Venetian senator who shelters Desdemona from the outside world, and wants her to marry into money. He is appalled when he finds out that his daughter and Othello secretly elope. Othello is not the type of person Brabantio wants to see his daughter with, because of the fact that he is black.

Also, since the style of the dress, which is an off-the-shoulder style, really portrays the pure femininity that Desdemona possesses. She would never be the type of girl to wear a risqué and revealing dress, simply because of her quiet demeanor. She lives to love Othello, and cannot stand the fact that her father is the biggest critic her her relationship with her husband. It is a little odd that she would choose to be with Othello, since he is so different from the men her father introduces into her personal milieu. But, in my opinion, she has gravitated towards someone like Othello in order to rebel against her dad's control, since he is the polar opposite of what Brabantio wants for her. All in all, I believe Desdemona is tired of the homogenous population of men she is surrounded by everyday, and is ready to love an exotic man.

Ohhh that Othello!

For me, Othello has seemed to be most stable character throughout this entire play. He manages to handle any drama that comes his way with a calm, cool, and collected state of mind. Since he is a Moor, his appearance is very exotic, since he has dark skin and is the complete opposite of the fair Desdemona. He is passionately in love with Desdemona, but things get complicated all because of a certain dissident, Iago, at the end of the play.

Iago's scheme to mess up the relationship between Desdemona and Othello was unfortunately destroyed due to level of Iago's madness (which was fueled by more than a scintilla of frustration). Their intimate relationship was destroyed when Iago ordered his wife to make an exact replica of the handkerchief that Desdemona gave to Othello. Then, he dropped the handkerchief where Cassio was able to find it, which made it seem like Desdemona gave the handkerchief to Cassio. When Othello finds out that Desdemona "gave her handkerchief to Cassio" the reader is able to see that he has an explosive temper.

He begins screaming at Iago, creating an éclat of passionate betrayal and anger. This scheme that Iago conjured up was expedient since it was convenient for him, but really transformed the calm-tempered Othello. He was unable to recoup his sanity from this shocking news, and decided to plot a murder against both Cassio and Desdemona. Othello is a man of solid morals, but once he discovered the supposed disloyalty of his fair Desdemona, he became a malicious new person.

Iago is "that guy"

While reading the play, Othello, I was intrigued by the character of Iago, and his powers of deception and his selfish demeanor. In every dilemma that he seemed to get himself caught up with, it would always be because of his own selfish ways. In the first scene of the play, Iago makes his frustration ubiquitous to Roderigo as well as the reader, since Othello appointed Cassio as the new lieutenant and not Iago. So, throughout the play, Iago reveal his splenetic persona towards anyone that gets in the way of what he wants.

What frustrates Iago the most, is the fact that he knows that he is more qualified to be Othello's lieutenant than Cassio is. But, in the end Othello is too complacent with Iago being his "ancient" that he offers Cassio the position instead. The relationship between Othello and Iago gets further destroyed when Iago suspects that Othello slept with his wife, Emilia. The reader is left with a question in their mind...is Iago upset because Othello betrayed him, or because he is the one that is in love with Othello (which is such an incongruous assumption) ?! So, in order to make things more pernicious, Iago decides to conspire a dreadful rumor that Desdemona has been sleeping with Cassio. This is a stroke of brilliance because now he will be able to obliterate Cassio's reputation, and ruin the sacred relationship between the newlyweds.

Overall, Iago is a master of scheming and lying through the entire play. In the beginning of the play, he states, "I am not what I am" (Shakespeare). This helps the reader to realize that he cannot be trusted and is a reticent person that rarely reveals his true thoughts. His only goal during the play is to enervate anyone that will come between him and his plans to bring down anyone that is a threat to him.