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 Unpublished in the author’s life, the play survives in one quarto edition from 1622 and in the First Folio.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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  • tombruzzo [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    13 days ago

    I heard her talk about her campaign on the Insurgents podcast and i like how her approach is to help people in the community instead of just paying consultants so even if she loses her campaign has been a net benefit, and she can just keep doing community outreach after the elections too

    • Euergetes [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      13 days ago

      As much as I respect that, it isn’t that unusual. Fantastic community organizers run in primaries and general elections all the time, but get their asses beat by oligarch money.

      Abughazaleh is being given completely free front-page coverage that makes her enormously attractive to her district just beacause the Feds can’t help themselves and feel the need to revenge every miniscule insult

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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        13 days ago

        I would suspect it’s very well measured; after all, her whole career has been monitoring the right, the connections to big financial backers, and the way they’ve monopolized news cycles.