Othello and Desdemona in Venice by Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856)

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, often shortened to Othello,[a] is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulated by his ensign, Iago, into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity. Othello is widely considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest works and is usually classified among his major tragedies alongside Macbeth, King Lear, and Hamlet. Unpublished in the author’s life, the play survives in one quarto edition from 1622 and in the First Folio.

Othello has been one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, both among playgoers and literary critics, since its first performance, spawning numerous stage, screen, and operatic adaptations. Among actors, the roles of Othello, Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia (Iago’s wife) are regarded as highly demanding and desirable. Critical attention has focused on the nature of the play’s tragedy, its unusual mechanics, its treatment of race, and on the motivations of Iago and his relationship to Othello. Originally performed by white actors in dark makeup, the role of Othello began to be played by black actors in the 19th century.

Shakespeare’s major source for the play was a novella by Cinthio, the plot of which Shakespeare borrowed and reworked substantially. Though not among Shakespeare’s longest plays, it contains two of his four longest roles in Othello and Iago.

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Theory:

  • Wmill [they/them, fae/faer]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    3 hours ago

    Been doing phone quizzes to prepare for my HVAC tests and yeah I ain’t paying for the extended features. Just doing them over and over again until I reach an arbitrary set that I’ll pass. Part of it is my knowledge, the meta of taking tests, rote memorization and inductive reasoning de-logic

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      3 hours ago

      When I see overnight delivery options I’m like “do I want to have the delivery guy buzzing my apartment at 4am” then the next morning I’m having breakfast regretting I don’t have a new doohickey to unbox.

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netMEnglish
    6·
    5 hours ago

    Well, tomorrow is election day in New York and New Jersey. My coworkers are complaining about how unfairly Zorhan Mamdani is going to treat the landlords. This irredeemable nation must perish.

    About to write a crank essay titled “Are quality inspectors cops?”

  • TheSovietOnion [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    6 hours ago

    Couldn’t exercise properly the past two days due to pain after removing a tooth. Analgesics didn’t agree with my stomach and I won’t take opioids. Cold packs did wonders though, and kept pain at bay as long as I didn’t move around too much.

    I’m feeling much better today, almost painless. Already cleaned the whole house (my cats had turned it into a warzone this weekend) and I’ll probably have a walk after the sun sets and do some stretching, since I can’t lift weights until next week.

    I’m hosting an exercise check megathread over at c/fitness. Feel free to share your weekly goals and progress with us!

  • Wmill [they/them, fae/faer]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    6 hours ago

    Haven’t thought about crushes for a long time, I used to crush hard but like given up on it for lack of time and just general realism kicking in. Can’t really convince someone to be into you if they ain’t into you. It’s a bit defeatist maybe but yeah it’s helped me pull away from my more destructive habits. I won’t find someone and that’s alright I’m better as a solo act, I can do whatever I want with my free time and pursue my dreams.

  • GoodGuyWithACat [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    6 hours ago

    So I prefer plays to be casted as race blind (which has been a thing long before Hollywood kinda started doing it), however in Othello race is a major theme.

    Chat, as a white man, if I were to put on a production of Othello would it be wrong to seek to cast a white (or white passing) woman as Desdemona?

    This is purely hypothetical but something I’ve wondered about before. Would especially appreciate if any theater nerds had insight into this.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    8 hours ago

    Rant? Rant.

    When looking at possible skills to learn, does anyone else find themselves unable to shake off the sense there’s no point because they won’t ever be a good [whatever skill I’m looking at], and won’t be picked by an employer? Do I want to learn coding? In college I was surrounded by many ambitious people and I was trying to tread water when I was trying to learn coding. So much so that coding made fucking calculus look easy by comparison as if my brain is psychically locked from learning anything that might get me employed. I’m great at useless, irrelevant stuff.

    So even if I do struggle through to learn coding, I’m not “better” than my peers, and there are a LOT of peers so any employer would rather have them over me. Yes, I understand that a lot of the job market is nakedly nepotism and luck, but then even if I make a coding friend, then there is someone more well-connected than me and I am locked out of the job market.

    IDK, what do the rest of you do when you are skeptical of starting something you’re convinced will only end in failure and thanks to the way everything’s set up, failure is a death sentence. I’m not going to go and get myself in god knows how much debt if I’m not going to be hired anyway.

    TL;DR: How do the rest of y’all deal with two things: the presumption of failure for any reason, and resisting self-pity?

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      2 hours ago

      You really should discard the idea that you have to be the best ever to get hired. HR people aren’t that good at assessing the skills of applicants, and ultimately if you’re lucky enough that a position that’s actually hiring doesn’t get taken directly by someone with connections, all that’s holding you back is looking like you’re a good fit for the job.

    • Cimbazarov [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      6 hours ago

      If you dont try to learn any skill because you think you won’t be the best at it, then you’ll end up never learning anything. Capitalism makes it so that we are always in competition with each other, and that penetrates into our consciousness. I think part of it is deprogramming yourself from this competition mindset and focusing on yourself rather than comparing yourself to others.

      I think setting long term and short term goals also might help

    • Wmill [they/them, fae/faer]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      6 hours ago

      I try to engage my creature tbh which beforehand was normally just no-copyright but really if I approach anything with curiosity then it helps.

      For HVAC I started a job training thing that got me zero jobs tbh even with my 608 universal since then been doing online stuff to learn how to diagnose stuff and use the tools needed through simulations. I need to update my resume soon and will after I try some IRL tests for certs. I guess I stop myself from giving up because what else can I do really.

  • tombruzzo [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    10 hours ago

    Having permanent Reddit brain and commenting “Still a better love story than Twilight” under the most horrible news articles you can read. People will look at my comments history and deem my politics inscrutable.

  • CrawlMarks [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    9 hours ago

    CW: mental health, crush posting.

    I have just had something hugely destabilizing happen. I just had a little situationship with a nice woman I met. This were very intense and there were sparks immediately. A few days ago I lost contact. Which was distressing as we had basically spent every free hour of last two weeks together. Upon her return she was a diffrent person. I had met her during a manic episode it turns out. She has since got her mood stabilized and is a diffrent person. She does not care to continue the relationship. I fell in love with a woman that does not exist. I have to consider what it means that her coming up on a manic episode matched my energy well. So I am left just left embarrassed and confused. I have lost someone that doesn’t exist and that I never had.