we begin in venice the city of love in the middle of a messy love triangle there are quite a few characters to get to know early on so here is a quick rundown of the main ones othello a moor from northern africa and highly respected military commander has just eloped with desdemona the beautiful daughter of venetian aristocrat brabanchio brabanchio doesn't know anything about this marriage and disapproves of it iago is ocelo's friend in the army but he's angry with ocelo because he has been passed over for a promotion in favour of the much less experienced florentine soldier cassio cassio othello and desdemona are good friends and he often helped the two lovers meet secretly before they were married he is a bit of a ladies man an all-round good guy now back to the plot iago and rodrigo a rich venetian in love with desdemona wake up brabanchio in the middle of the night yelling rude comments about her sexual exploits with othello when brabanchio realizes that his daughter is gone he becomes angry and decides to have othello jailed for stealing her away meanwhile the lover's wedding night has been cut short as othello has been summoned by the duke of venice to advise him on a military matter cyprus is in danger from the turkish army when othello and brabanchio meet at the senate othello and desdemona set the record straight by describing how they fell in love the duke gives the newlyweds his blessing next the venetian fleet leave to defend cyprus from the turks with iago and othello's wives accompanying them alone iago explains how much he hates othello for promoting cassio over himself he also thinks that othello may have slept with his wife emilia but he cannot be sure either way he's consumed with jealousy and rage detailing an evil plot to ruin othello when we reach cyprus it is to the happy news that the turkish fleet has been destroyed in a violent storm and the troops celebrate iago begins to enact his plan convincing cassio to drink while he is on duty a big no-no in the army he orchestrates a fight that ruins cassio's reputation and sees him fired from his post iago celebrates the next part is pretty tricky so watch closely iago tells cassio that he should ask desdemona to help him return to oselo's good books cassio agrees that this is a good idea unaware that othello has begun to see his contact with desdemona as growing proof of an affair iago drops hints to othello that ladies man cassio and desdemona seem very close and may be having an affair at first othello has complete faith in his wife and dismisses iago's suggestions but he becomes increasingly upset by this idea and becomes physically ill desdemona soothes his headache with the strawberry embroidered handkerchief that was a token of othello's love he recounts the story of the handkerchief and warns her that catastrophe would ensue if she were ever to lose it of course she does lose it and it is picked up by amelia who gives it to her husband iago iago plants the handkerchief in cassio's bedroom and sits back to watch the chaos unfold things get even worse for cassio as othello hears him boasting about another woman he has slept with and assumes he is speaking of desdemona when he sees the handkerchief in cassio's possession he takes the affair as certain and swears that cassio must die iago suggests that he should strangle desdemona too iago's lies are more powerful than desdemona's goodness and in a harrowing scene where desdemona begs for her life othello strangles her in their bed emilia arrives and realizes that her husband is to blame for engineering the murder iago's evil knows no bounds and he kills her and is arrested othello finally realizes he has been manipulated by iago realizing the innocence of his wife othello commits suicide nobody gets a happy ending in this play we hope you enjoyed this schooling online production for more easy lessons on othello check out our analysis of all the themes within the play [Music]