Reputation In Othello

(Written in the style of a speech)

William Shakespeare’s Othello is a play about reputation. The role of reputation is a major one as throughout the play we see the importance of how one is perceived. For some, to act in a certain way with self control ultimately leads them to strengthen their character and image. But for others it can be lost in a single action. The characters within the play struggle to keep their reputation for various reasons such as retribution or to keep a good name for themselves. Reputation can impair judgement in both ways on the decisions the character makes and the thoughts made about them.

To the Elizabethans, reputation was everything to them; so much so that their credit was worth more than their life. To
be remembered and honoured after their death was of top priority. So in saying that, if you were to be publically disgraced it was better to die than live in shame. In today’s modern context, a bad reputation can be hard to rebuild because of the judgements everyone has of the individual or group before they’ve acted wrongly. An example of this could be a big business who has already established a name for themselves; if a major flaw was to arise it could be financially disastrous for them.

The scene which I believe to underpin my interpretation of the play would be Act 4 Scene 1 where Othello strikes Desdemona in public.
This scene would be the turning point in Othello’s character as we can see a once noble and respected man change into a vengeful savage.

The importance of honour is mentioned right at the beginning of the scene when Iago compares that to Desdemona’s handkerchief. He states that honour is an “essence that’s not seen, but for the handkerchief…” He wants Othello to think that we can’t see the essence of Desdemona’s honour but the handkerchief is something we can see. Essentially he wants Othello to associate the handkerchief with Desdemona’s honour.

Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to build up the tension in the scene between Othello and Desdemona. She comes in with Lodovico who gives Othello a letter which tells him to leave Cyprus for Venice and Cassio to be appointed governor. Because of this she is over the moon for Cassio as previously there had been no progress on his situation. But on the other hand, Othello interprets her joy as a way of expressing her love for Cassio in public, right in front of him. Of course the audience knows this isn’t true. He then starts to angrily mock her joy saying, “I’m glad to see you mad”. But when she asks why he is acting like this, he slaps
her.

In striking Desdemona, it shows just about how much Othello has changed. With the slightest praise of Cassio from her can send him into a frenzy. Although, the thing that he is most afraid of is that Desdemona’s alleged affair could ruin his reputation. The ironic thing is, this is all his own doing, and he is tainting his own good name in striking her. We see Othello as a high ranked military officer, respected among the people. Ultimately he is turning out to be the sort of person Brabantino accused him of being, a savage. Even Lodovico is shocked at what he is seen. He asks “Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate / call all in all sufficient? Is this the nature / Whom passion could not shake?” What he has just witnessed, he feels, doesn’t fit with Othello’s reputation.

Right after, he is told by Lodovico to make it up to her because she is crying but Othello has no pity. He says, “O devil, devil / If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears / each drop she falls would prove a crocodile”. The imagery of a crocodile or more specifically crocodile tears comes from an anecdote that crocodiles wept to lure in their victims or to weep for their victims while they’re being eaten. In a sense, it’s hypocritical.

At the time, many bought the idea of Spontaneous Generation and that it was thought crocodiles grew out of the mud of the Nile, spontaneously. So what Othello is trying to say is that if the earth was filled with women’s tears, Desdemona’s tears would give birth to crocodiles. So one could say surrounding all this hypocrisy, she is the mother of it all.

Of course, this isn’t the only scene which depicts reputation. Early on in Act 2, Cassio gets into a drunken quarrel with Roderigo and wounds Montano. He ends up losing his title and when he’s asked by Iago if he is hurt, he responds that it is a wound that can’t be healed: “I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial”. What he is referring to is a Classical Christian and Western medieval concept called the Great Chain of Being.

This concept was a ranking of all matter and life, starting with the divine being, and progresses downwards to angels, humans, animals, plants and minerals. Within the human rank it was further divided into kings to slaves. It was said that if a human were to lose their humanity, they would become a beast. This explains Cassio’s fear that his loss of reputation puts him down to the bestial level. It also shows how dear Elizabethans held their reputation.

So in conclusion, the struggle to maintain a good reputation is an important theme that comes from Othello, if it wasn’t for this, the outcome as we know it would’ve been completely different.