A Midsummer Nights Dream

by William Shakespeare
Life and Work (his plays)
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised a few days
later on 26 April 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker and wool merchant and his
mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a well-to-do landowner from Wilmcote, South Warwickshire. It is
likely Shakespeare was educated at the local King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford.
Marriage
The next documented event in Shakespeares life is his marriage at the age of 18 to Anne Hathaway,
the daughter of a local farmer, on November 28, 1582. She was eight years older than him and their first
child, Susanna, was born six months after their wedding. Two years later, the couple had twins, Hamnet and
Judith, but their son died when he was 11 years old.
Again, a gap in the records leads some scholars to refer to Shakespeares life between 1585 and 1592 as
'the lost years'. By the time he reappears again, mentioned in a London pamphlet, Shakespeare has made
his way to London without his family and is already working in the theatre.
Acting career
Having gained recognition as an actor and playwright Shakespeare had clearly ruffled a few feathers
along the way contemporary critic, Robert Green, described him in the 1592 pamphlet as an, "upstart
Crow".
As well as belonging to its pool of actors and playwrights, Shakespeare was one of the managing
partners of the Lord Chamberlain's Company (renamed the King's Company when James succeeded to the
throne), whose actors included the famous Richard Burbage. The company acquired interests in two
theatres in the Southwark area of London near the banks of the Thames - the Globe and the Blackfriars.
In 1593 and 1594, Shakespeares first poems, 'Venus and Adonis' and 'The Rape of Lucrece', were
published and he dedicated them to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. It is thought
Shakespeare also wrote most of his sonnets at this time.
Playwright
Shakespeare was prolific, with records of his first plays beginning to appear in 1594, from which time
he produced roughly two a year until around 1611. His hard work quickly paid off, with signs that he was
beginning to prosper emerging soon after the publication of his first plays. By 1596 Shakespeares father,
John had been granted a coat of arms and its probable that Shakespeare had commissioned them, paying
the fees himself. A year later he bought New Place, a large house in Stratford.

His earlier plays were mainly histories and comedies such as 'Henry VI', 'Titus Andronicus', 'A
Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Richard II'. The tragedy, 'Romeo and Juliet', was
also published in this period. By the last years of Elizabeth I's reign Shakespeare was well established as a
famous poet and playwright and was called upon to perform several of his plays before the Queen at court.
In 1598 the author Francis Meres described Shakespeare as Englands greatest writer in comedy and
tragedy.
In 1602 Shakespeare's continuing success enabled him to move to upmarket Silver Street, near
where the Barbican is now situated, and he was living here when he wrote some of his greatest tragedies
such as 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'King Lear' and 'Macbeth'.
Final years
Shakespeare spent the last five years of his life in New Place in Stratford. He died on 23 April 1616
at the age of 52 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. He left his property to the male heirs of
his eldest daughter, Susanna. He also bequeathed his 'second-best bed' to his wife. It is not known what
significance this gesture had, although the couple had lived primarily apart for 20 years of their marriage.
The first collected edition of his works was published in 1623 and is known as 'the First Folio'.

Tragedies
Some probably inspired by Shakespeare's study of Lives (trans.1597) by Greek historian and
essayist Plutarch and Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles(1587). Some are reworkings of previous stories,
many based on English or Roman history. The dates given here are when they are said to have been first
performed, followed by approximate printing dates in brackets, listed in chronological order of performance.
Titus Andronicus first performed in 1594 (printed in 1594),
Romeo and Juliet 1594-95 (1597),
Hamlet 1600-01 (1603),
Julius Caesar 1600-01 (1623),
Othello 1604-05 (1622),
Antony and Cleopatra 1606-07 (1623),
King Lear 1606 (1608),
Coriolanus 1607-08 (1623), derived from Plutarch
Timon of Athens 1607-08 (1623), and
Macbeth 1611-1612 (1623).
Histories
Shakespeare's series of historical dramas, based on the English Kings from John to Henry VIII were
a tremendous undertaking to dramatise the lives and rule of kings and the changing political events of his
time. No other playwright had attempted such an ambitious body of work. Some were printed on their own
or in the First Folio (1623).
King Henry VI Part 1 1592 (printed in 1594);
King Henry VI Part 2 1592-93 (1594);
King Henry VI Part 3 1592-93 (1623);
King John 1596-97 (1623);
Richard II 1600-01 (1597);
Richard III 1601 (1597); and
Comedies, again listed in chronological order of performance.
Taming of the Shrew first performed 1593-94 (1623),
Comedy of Errors 1594 (1623),
Two Gentlemen of Verona 1594-95 (1623),

Love's Labour's Lost 1594-95 (1598),

Midsummer Night's Dream 1595-96 (1600),
Merchant of Venice 1596-1597 (1600),
Much Ado About Nothing 1598-1599 (1600),
As You Like It 1599-00 (1623),
Merry Wives of Windsor 1600-01 (1602),
Troilus and Cressida 1602 (1609),
Twelfth Night 1602 (1623),
All's Well That Ends Well 1602-03 (1623),
Measure for Measure 1604 (1623),
Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1608-09 (1609),
Tempest (1611),
Cymbeline 1611-12 (1623),
Winter's Tale 1611-12 (1623).

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been
written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of
Athens, Theseus, and Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group
of six amateur actors (mechanicals), who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the
forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage
and is widely performed across the world.

Characters
Plot
The play features three interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of
Duke Theseus of Athens and theAmazon queen, Hippolyta, which is set simultaneously in the woodland
and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.
The play opens with Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, refusing to submit to her father Egeus'
The Athenians

Theseus Duke of Athens

Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus

Philostrate Master of the Revels

Egeus father of Hermia, wants her to marry Demetrius

Nedar father of Helena

Hermia daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander

Helena in love with Demetrius

Lysander in love with Hermia at first but later loves Helena and then goes back to love Hermia

Demetrius in love with Hermia and later Helena

Spirits 1,2 Talk to Puck and Oberon

The Fairies

Oberon Titania's husband and King of the Fairies

Titania Oberon's wife and Queen of the Fairies

Robin Goodfellow/Puck servant to Oberon

Peaseblossom fairy servant to Titania

demand that she wed Demetrius, to whom he has arranged for her to be married. Helena meanwhile pines
unrequitedly for Demetrius. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus,
whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her
another choice: lifelong chastity while worshiping the goddess Diana as a nun.

Peter Quince and his fellow players plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the
Queen, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe". Quince reads the
names of characters and bestows them to the players. Nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of
Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of

Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. He would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines
of Ercles. Quince ends the meeting with "at the Duke's oak we meet".
In a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest
outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus and
Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her
Indianchangeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of
Titania's worshipers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience. He calls upon Robin "Puck"
Goodfellow, his "shrewd and knavish sprite", to help him concoct a magical juice derived from a flower
called "love-in-idleness", which turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid's arrow. When the
concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first
living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania
fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy. He says,
"And ere I take this charm from off her sight, / As I can take it with another herb, / I'll make her render up her
page to me."
Hermia and Lysander have escaped to the same forest in hopes of eloping. Helena, desperate to
reclaim Demetrius's love, tells Demetrius about the plan and he follows them in hopes of killing Lysander.
Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However,
he rebuffs her with cruel insults against her. Observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the
magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander
for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and administers the juice to the sleeping Lysander.
Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep. Upon
this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following
Hermia and is enraged. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he
charms Demetrius' eyes. Upon waking up, he sees Helena. Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena.
However, she is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. Hermia is at
a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away from her.
The four quarrel with each other until Lysander and Demetrius become so enraged that they seek a place to
duel each other to prove whose love for Helena is the greatest. Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and
Demetrius from catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander. Lysander returns to
loving Hermia, while Demetrius continues to love Helena.
Meanwhile, Quince and his band of six labourers ("rude mechanicals", as they are described by
Puck) have arranged to perform their play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and venture
into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who (taking his name to
be another word for a jackass) transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next
lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror, much to Bottom's confusion, since he hasn't felt a thing
during the transformation. Determined to wait for his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania is
awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. She lavishes him with attention and
presumably makes love to him. While she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling. Having
achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom, and
arranges everything so that Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena will believe that they have been
dreaming when they awaken.
The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning
hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius does not love Hermia any more, Theseus overrules
Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been

a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream
"past the wit of man". In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen
perform Pyramus and Thisbe. Given a lack of preparation, the performers are so terrible playing their roles
to the point where the guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and everyone retires to bed.
Afterwards, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good
fortune. After all other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and suggests to the audience that what
they just experienced might be nothing but a dream (hence the name of the play).

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Loves Difficulty
The course of true love never did run smooth, comments Lysander, articulating one of A
Midsummer Nights Dreams most important themesthat of the difficulty of love (I.i.134). Though most of
the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the play involves a number of
romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the audience from the emotions of the characters
in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so
lighthearted that the audience never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the
comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.
The theme of loves difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balancethat is,
romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of a relationship. The prime
instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the four young Athenians: Hermia loves
Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helena
a simple numeric imbalance in which two men love the same woman, leaving one woman with too many
suitors and one with too few. The play has strong potential for a traditional outcome, and the plot is in many
ways based on a quest for internal balance; that is, when the lovers tangle resolves itself into symmetrical
pairings, the traditional happy ending will have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the relationship
between Titania and Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberons coveting of Titanias Indian
boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titanias passion for the ass-headed Bottom represents an imbalance
of appearance and nature: Titania is beautiful and graceful, while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque.

Magic
The fairies magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is
another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Shakespeare uses
magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create
a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, as when Puck mistakenly applies the love
potion to Lysanders eyelids, magic ultimately resolves the plays tensions by restoring love to balance
among the quartet of Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends,
as when he reshapes Bottoms head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander and
Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmens attempt to stage
their play.

Dreams
As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Nights Dream; they are
linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolytas first words in the play evidence the

prevalence of dreams (Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will quickly dream
away the time), and various characters mention dreams throughout (I.i.78). The theme of dreaming recurs
predominantly when characters attempt to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved: I
have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about
texpound this dream, Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as
anything but the result of slumber.
Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur without explanation,
time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of course; he seeks to recreate
this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest. At the end of the
play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members themselves, saying that, if they have been
offended by the play, they should remember it as nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and
gauzy fragility is crucial to the atmosphere of A Midsummer Nights Dream, as it helps render the play a
fantastical experience rather than a heavy drama.

Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform
the texts major themes.
Contrast
The idea of contrast is the basic building block of A Midsummer Nights Dream. The entire play is
constructed around groups of opposites and doubles. Nearly every characteristic presented in the play has
an opposite: Helena is tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks, Bottom is the victim of pranks; Titania is
beautiful, Bottom is grotesque. Further, the three main groups of characters (who are developed from
sources as varied as Greek mythology, English folklore, and classical literature) are designed to contrast
powerfully with one another: the fairies are graceful and magical, while the craftsmen are clumsy and
earthy; the craftsmen are merry, while the lovers are overly serious. Contrast serves as the defining visual
characteristic of A Midsummer Nights Dream, with the plays most indelible image being that of the
beautiful, delicate Titania weaving flowers into the hair of the ass-headed Bottom. It seems impossible to
imagine two figures less compatible with each other. The juxtaposition of extraordinary differences is the
most important characteristic of the plays surreal atmosphere and is thus perhaps the plays central motif;
there is no scene in which extraordinary contrast is not present.

Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Theseus and Hippolyta
Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Nights Dream, appearing in the daylight at both the
beginning and the end of the plays main action. They disappear, however, for the duration of the action,
leaving in the middle of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act IV, as the sun is coming up to end the
magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus and Hippolyta, the ruler of Athens and his warrior
bride, to represent order and stability, to contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the
play. Whereas an important element of the dream realm is that one is not in control of ones environment,
Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the daylight of Act IV
to hear Theseuss hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the previous night and a return to
rationality.

The Love Potion

The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupids misfired
arrows; it is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and IV. Because the
meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the young Athenian lovers becomes
increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and Lysander are magically compelled to transfer their love
from Hermia to Helena), and Titania is hilariously humiliated (she is magically compelled to fall deeply in
love with the ass-headed Bottom). The love potion thus becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle,
erratic, and undeniably powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and
cannot be resisted.
The Craftsmens Play
The play-within-a-play that takes up most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in condensed form, many of
the important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the craftsmen are such bumbling actors, their
performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian lovers and gives the play a purely joyful, comedic ending.
Pyramus and Thisbe face parental disapproval in the play-within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do;
the theme of romantic confusion enhanced by the darkness of night is rehashed, as Pyramus mistakenly
believes that Thisbe has been killed by the lion, just as the Athenian lovers experience intense misery
because of the mix-ups caused by the fairies meddling. The craftsmens play is, therefore, a kind of symbol
for A Midsummer Nights Dream itself: a story involving powerful emotions that is made hilarious by its
comical presentation.

Illusion vs. reality

In his comedies, Shakespeare examines another theme, love, and all the various ways that it
manifests in the human experience. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, he uses another thematic proposition,
illusion versus reality, to help him investigate the question of himan love and how/why we fall in and out of
love.
The main device in this play, concerning love as illusion versus reality, is the love juice provided by
Oberon. His interest is two-fold, to punish Titania by using it to make her believe that she is in love with a
"wild thing," and also to assist the broken-hearted Helena in winning the love of Demetrius. The fickleness
and the unexplained origin of a human's "falling in love" are demonstrated onstage through the power that
Oberon (and Puck) wields in this regard through the juice of a flower.
Of course, since Midsummer is a Comedy, there are complications and mix-ups that must ensue, so
Puck not only causes a "wild thing" (Bottom, as Puck has transformed him into an ass) to fall in love with
Titania and Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, he also mistakenly causes Lysander (mistakenly) to fall in
love with Helena, creating the great comic "fight scene" in the woods between the four lovers.
Illusion versus reality is also demonstrated through the references made throughout the play that
remind the audience that they are participating in the theatrical world "of illusion" -- a world (unlike their
everyday world of "reality")of fairies and magic in which whatever the playwright desires can happen and
any mix-ups or troubles that the characters find themselves in can be made right in an instant. Voila, the
magic of Theatre! At the play's end, Puck himself alludes to this contrast between illusion (theatre) and
reality (the real world) with his lines:

If we shadows have offended

Think but this, and all is mended-That you have but slumbered here
While this visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding than a dream.

Othello

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to
have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story Un Capitano Moro ("A
Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. The work revolves around four
central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his beloved wife,Desdemona; his loyal
lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted but unfaithful ensign, Iago. Because of its varied and current themes of
racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance, Othello is still often performed in professional and
community theatres alike and has been the basis for numerous operatic, film, and literary adaptations.

Synopsis
The play opens with Roderigo, a rich and dissolute gentleman, complaining to Iago, an ensign, that
Iago has not told him about the secret marriage between Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator named
Brabantio, and Othello, a Moorishgeneral in the Venetian army. He is upset by this development because he
loves Desdemona and had previously asked her father for her hand in marriage. Iago hates Othello for
promoting a younger man named Michael Cassio above him, and tells Roderigo that he plans to use Othello
for his own advantage. Iago is also angry because he believes, or at least gives the pretence of belief, that
Othello slept with his wife Emilia. Iago denounces Cassio as a scholarly tactician with no real battle

experience; in contrast, Iago is a battle-tested soldier. By emphasising Roderigo's failed bid for Desdemona,
and his own dissatisfaction with serving under Othello, Iago convinces Roderigo to wake Brabantio,
Desdemona's father, and tell him about his daughter's elopement. Iago sneaks away to find Othello and
warns him that Brabantio is coming for him.
Brabantio, provoked by Roderigo, is in rage and would not sit still before he has beheaded Othello
but even before Brabantio reaches Othello, news arrives in Venice that the Turks are going to
attack Cyprus; therefore Othello is summoned to advise the senators. When Brabantio arrives at Othello's
residence, he is met by the messengers and guards of the Duke that keep him away from Othello. The
Senator has no option but to accompany Othello to the Duke's residence where he accuses Othello of
seducing Desdemona by witchcraft, but Othello defends himself successfully before an assembly that
includes the Duke of Venice, Brabantio's kinsmen Lodovico and Gratiano, and various senators.
Othello explains that Desdemona became enamoured of him for the sad and compelling stories he
told of his life before Venice, not because of any witchcraft. The senate is satisfied once Desdemona
confirms that she loves Othello and even declares to accompany Othello wherever he goes: "That I did love
the Moor to live with him" but Brabantio leaves saying that Desdemona will betray Othello: "Look to her,
Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:/She has deceived her father, and may thee." By order of the Duke, Othello
leaves Venice to command the Venetian armies against invading Turks on the island of Cyprus,
accompanied by his new wife, his new lieutenant Cassio, his ensign Iago, and Iago's wife, Emilia as
Desdemona's attendant.
The party arrives in Cyprus to find that a storm has destroyed the Turkish fleet. Othello orders a
general celebration and leaves to spend private time with Desdemona. In his absence, Iago schemes to get
Cassio drunk after Cassio's own admission that he cannot hold his wine. He then persuades Roderigo to
draw Cassio into a fight. The resulting brawl alarms the citizenry, and Othello is forced to quell the
disturbance. Othello blames Cassio for the disturbance and strips him of his rank. Cassio is distraught, but,
as part of his plan to convince Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair, Iago persuades
Cassio to importune Desdemona to act as an intermediary between himself and Othello, in order to
convince her husband to reinstate him.
Iago now persuades Othello to be suspicious of Cassio and Desdemona. Othello drops a handkerchief (with
which Desdemona was trying to bind his headache) that was Othello's first gift to Desdemona and which he
has stated holds great significance to him in the context of their relationship. Emilia finds it, and gives it to
Iago, at his request, but she is unaware of what he plans to do with the handkerchief. Iago plants it in
Cassio's lodgings as evidence of Cassio and Desdemona's affair. After he has planted the handkerchief,
Iago tells Othello to stand apart and watch Cassio's reactions while Iago questions him about the
handkerchief. Iago goads Cassio on to talk about his affair with Bianca, a local courtesan with whom Cassio
has been spending time, but speaks her name so quietly that Othello believes the two other men are talking
about Desdemona when Cassio is really speaking of Bianca. Bianca, on discovering the handkerchief,
chastises Cassio, accusing him of giving her a second-hand gift which he received from another lover.
Othello sees this, and Iago convinces him that Cassio received the handkerchief from Desdemona. Enraged
and hurt, Othello resolves to kill his wife and asks Iago to kill Cassio. Othello proceeds to make
Desdemona's life miserable, hitting her in front of visiting Venetian nobles.
Roderigo complains that he has received nothing from Iago in return for his money and efforts to win
Desdemona, but Iago convinces him to kill Cassio. Roderigo attacks Cassio in the street after Cassio leaves
Bianca's lodgings. They fight, and Cassio mortally wounds Roderigo. During the scuffle, Iago comes from

behind Cassio and badly cuts his leg. In the darkness, Iago manages to hide his identity, and when passersby hear Cassio's cries for help, Iago joins them, pretending to help Cassio. When Cassio identifies Roderigo
as one of his attackers, Iago quietly stabs Roderigo to stop him from revealing the plot. He then accuses
Bianca of the failed conspiracy to kill Cassio.
In the night, Othello confronts Desdemona, and then smothers her to death in their bed. When
Emilia arrives, Othello tries to justify his actions by accusing Desdemona of adultery. Emilia calls for help.
The Governor arrives, with Iago, Cassio, and others, and Emilia begins to explain the situation. When
Othello mentions the handkerchief as proof, Emilia realises what Iago has done, and she exposes him,
whereupon Iago kills her. Othello, belatedly realising Desdemona's innocence, stabs Iago but not fatally,
saying that he would rather have Iago live the rest of his life in pain. For his part, Iago refuses to explain his
motives, vowing to remain silent from that moment on. Lodovico, a Venetian nobleman, apprehends both
Iago and Othello for the murders, but Othello commits suicide with a dagger he had hidden. Lodovico then
declares Gratiano Othello's successor and exhorts Cassio to have Iago justly punished.