SUBVERSIVE TRAITS OF OTHELLO

One of the reasons why Othello is my favourite Shakespearean tragedy is because it happens to be as subversive as a play from that era can be. And that because of certain traits of the story that set it apart from other tragedies and from most tropes in classical fiction:

Setting: In a manifest departure from the usual royal or courtly backdrops of the tragic genre, Othello takes place within a local outpost community on the fringe of two feuding great powers. The huis clos frontier/fortress setting, echoing militarism, hinterland provincialism, liminality, and a latent paranoia at every turn, is significantly deviant (frontier communities and fortresses are very rarely stable settings or the birthplace of characters in fiction, and when they appear, they are simply places to be captured by an invading army, to be defended by the territorial army, or state prisons). Within the walls of this keep, patriarchy coexists with free love (the female characters, all three incredibly assertive, are immune to Iago's deception and reveal it), organized religion with old traditional beliefs (the Moon is blamed for both Othello's loss of mettle and Cassio's drunken quarrel) and even freethought (Iago himself)... and the universe as beautiful order does not exist, chaos being the foundation for an ever-changing and unpredictable existence. Chaos as a pit for some and as a ladder for others.

There is also, aside from the place, the time: a post-bellum setting, peace and victory having come at last, but the threat of the vengeful enemy without looming in the distance... though the even more perilous enemy within is still unseen, and soon to disrupt it all... The keywords are all there: "Chaos is come again".


Cast: Fitting in with the setting in a peripheral/hinterland/liminal community, the characters are not precisely royalty and courtiers. Rather, they are all outsiders within the edge of their state order. While also being well-established "important people" with good reputations and niches within its power structure. Thus, their positions are contradictory. Throughout the tragedy, their reputations and relevant positions will be at stake, changing as their social masks fall and their true selves, be they good, evil, or a mix of both, are eventually revealed.

The three females (the newlywed socialite, the experienced middle-class wife, and the soon-to-marry fiancée/courtesan) are, by being female in a militaristic backwater, obviously outsiders all three, yet they make up for it with their incredible assertiveness. Neither Desdemona, Emilia, nor Bianca are afraid to speak their minds. And all three are immune to Iago's tricks, perchance because of their gender, their assertiveness, or both factors.

The male cast consists of Iago and self-made outsiders who, unlike the female cast, are insecure of their true selves, their doubts coming to light when Iago shatters their expectations.

Othello, for instance, is an obviously foreign-born and third-culture warlord who has reached the apex of his military career as a happily married and victorious general whose love is requited. Yet he is actually concealing serious latent insecurity: suspicions that his loved ones may turn their backs on him. Suspicions that Iago, little by little, encourages by undermining the general's trust by means of reverse psychology and a frame-up. Until, in the climax, the once great lord is no longer himself. When he snaps, not only does he beat his wife, but also attack his "trusted" right hand Iago, and suffer from somatic complaints like paranoia, fevers, or grand mal seizures. And, before stabbing himself, he bursts into tears, having already rejected the military profession before he killed his lady love "for her own good and that of others".

Then there's Roderigo, Desdemona's old flame, a shy violet who refuses (or rather hates) to accept that she got away. And he becomes Iago's crony to get her back, which foreshadows the downfall of the other male characters. At first born into the landed gentry, he has enlisted to stay close to her, no matter how out of his reach she might be, trusting the ensign blindly (if Iago told him that black is white and white is black, this lad would believe it) and following his harmful advice (to get the lieutenant drunk and provoke him, for instance) to the letter... until, at the end of the day, he realises that Iago's plans lead to nowhere, that he was being used by the ensign all along, and thus he rebels. It appears that having Desdemona near and fantasizing about her is the catalyst he has got... if she were within his reach, he would have no purpose for turning to Iago to. There we have insecurity in love, tied to introversion and wishful thinking...

Finally, there's Cassio, the only male character of importance who survives: at first, he is the catalyst for all the events since he got that rank (more on that below!). The archetypal gentlemanly young lieutenant, he is an outsider being a learned intellectual among military men, and having obtained a position of power with little or no effort. Though he has received approval, he'd also like to fit in among the other officers. Have got both a position and a peer group. No matter if he can't hold his liquor. Like most young people, even outsiders, he'd rather be one of the boys than a stick in the mud. Iago, of course, takes advantage of this attitude to shatter the youth's career and wrest the lieutenancy from him (after he has got drunk on duty). This part of the script represents a broken streak in fiction, since it portrays an intoxicated character as a young person from the upper echelons of society. Which I love just for the sake of this subversion! Regrets ensue, but also resilience after getting over disappointment and hope that his situation might change. In the end, he is forgiven, and he will become governor of the outpost, though without any military duties due to his disability: a sign that he has come of age after all the trials and a symbol of the loss of loved ones: he is no longer the innocent and self-reliant young lieutenant we saw get a rank with so little effort at the start of it all.

And we shall not forget, for better or worse, that there is Iago. Who is Iago? Things for sure: he hateloves Cassio and he is not comfortable in the company of ladies. He has his own insecurities and reasons to do what he does (what he perceives as injustice), but his mask is never broken. Some say he is a devil undercover, like Mephisto, which would be true to a certain extent... Iago is to Cassio as the Wicked Queen is to Snow White. In both stories, the innocent victim-hero is reborn after apparent death, while the antagonist is punished. We have already mentioned women's immunity to Iago's tricks. Add his mastery of disappointment as a catalyst for his victims' actions. And the way he "grants wishes": granting the wishes of the male cast when he is near (in Dokidoki Precure, most of the victims of the week, whose hearts are corrupted, are significantly male as well, the corrupter also being male, and pitted against an all-female heroine team which purifies the victims and seals the immortal corrupter away!), the wishes backfiring and shattering the lives of those who made them. Does Iago grant wishes to have his own wishes granted? Of course.
Some say he is a devil undercover, like Mephisto, which would be true to a certain extent... while I see Iago as a more or less chaotic neutral, leaning on chaotic evil character, a personification of unreason not unlike the Norse Loki, the Spanish Don Carnal, or the Lord of Misrule. Or the Devil on Tarot (arcane XV), which represents the pulsions of the id, passions, unreason beyond good and evil. The keywords are all there: "Chaos is come again". Not evil in a demonic sense, yet a tempter and a trickster who temporarily disrupts and revolutionizes the social order, before and during his own reign as de facto governor, by granting wishes at a great price... but for which reason? There is the lieutenancy mentioned... but is this actually for no reason, Iago's character being unreason (the unreason of wish-making, of intoxication, of insecurity, of paranoia, of passion...) incarnate itself? Mind that his name means "usurper", which, in a story where identity, and the loss of it, are the central themes, is the key word to it all...
Careful the wish you make,
wishes are children.
Careful the path they take,
wishes come true,
not free.
Careful the spell you cast,
not just on children.
Sometimes the spell may last
past what you can see
and turn against you..


Conflict: As convenient as it can be in a tragedy whose setting is liminal and provincial, there is no struggle for a crown or a throne (though there is talk about usurpers: in love, within the hierarchy, within one's own system...), but, rather, for an in another context irrelevant lieutenancy.
Still, this is a game of power, in which the rules are to win or die (no third option or middle ground), some claim it's theirs by right and that the other is a usurper, or vice versa.
There is much talk, not about being governor/commandant, but about being lieutenant to this officer. Not in charge, but next in line, accepting the current ruler's reign.
Left-tenant. Or even "love-tenant", as some Elizabethans pronounced this French loanword. There is a homoerotic innuendo about holding this position as well, for it means a certain proximity to the governor. And Iago is ostensibly preferring the company of other men. Does he want the post for other reasons than social climbing?

I leave it to you.

No matter for which reasons Iago wants the post, he sees Cassio as a usurper. Apparently, since the former is a seasoned veteran and the latter is a learned greenhorn, Iago has as much of a founded claim as Stannis against Renly. Add the fact that, in both scenarios, the former has wound up in the shade of the latter... and wishes to step out of that shade, even if death were the only means.
We all know Stannis had a magical priestess by her side... well, Iago believes in no gods (warfare experience has surely killed his faith) but rather in himself, and this self-reliance coupled with a knack for hitting soft spots is worth more than all the clergy of the Lord of Light.
Cue the scene when he gets Cassio intoxicated, successfully tempting his rival and making him fall, then trying to restrain the furious lieutenant, then, as he sobers up and comes to, telling the ostensible truth to their commanding officer...
An emotional shock that he is unable to cope with, and even more in that state. Now he is much more than confused. What had he done to stain his blade, frighten his dear Desdemona, anger his lord, and lose his rank? Add the ensuing shock to his internal state of recovery... and we've got the fact that he is completely ruined within. Aside from socially dead. How should he return to be the one he once was?
This predicament, this identity crisis, is the catalyst for the whole storm of passion to come.
We Swedes have a nice proverb: "One person's bread is another's death", and thus we see Cassio a devastated ensign and Iago a proud lieutenant. The tables have turned 180 degrees.
And this reversal gives the scheme a nice foundation. Not only has Iago earned more trust of his general, he also has discredited his rival completely.
...then cheering up the broken young officer and giving him the suggestion that he ask Desdemona to defend his cause.
There you have it. But Iago doesn't stop at that, rather, he keeps on tricking Othello to have the governor at his every beck and call. The one who called himself "rightful" is now actually a usurper, not only claiming the lieutenancy, but also a relevant influence over his commanding officer and, thus, the de facto rulership of the whole outpost.

That is, until he is defeated by his maidservant wife and the fiancée of his rival, both of which expose his whole gambit to the light. Earlier on, at the start of the final act with all its deaths, Iago couldn't put himself together to kill Cassio. He had earlier on expressed how he hates being second to the young officer. Yet there seems to be this underlying truth that... what should Iago do when he had already done what he was trying to reach?
As a result, he even sends a surgeon to tend to the wounded Cassio, who survives except for a leg cut off (metaphor for castration?) which puts an end to his military career (and puts him back in place as an intellectual, if you refuse to accept that he will become a disabled and prosthetic-limbed badass à la Jaime Lannister). Add the fact that Iago gives an account (a true one?) of himself standing guard by the sleeping then-lieutenant, sitting on the young man's bed, as he laid a leg on Iago's lap and gave the traitor a kiss. Yes, Cassio laid that same leg over Iago's crotch and then kissed Iago. Though the young officer was dreaming about banging a woman (Desdemona, Emilia, or Bianca?) and acting out his dream.
And this same person even succeeds Othello as his heir and successor as governor, while Iago is tortured with excruciating pain (yet still managing to stoically, or masochistically, shut up). So, while Cassio does his comeback on the rulership arena... Iago, in spite of his punishment, has at least partially succeeded by killing the former governor, his lady wife, and even his own (Iago's) stupid lovesick crony and maid wife (to make her shut up 'cause she knew too much, yet he managed to off her when it was too late and she had already told the whole truth).
Only Cassio and Bianca survive, and we are left to imagine their marriage since it does not appear in the play... it ends with Othello and Desdemona, and even Emilia the all-knowing maid, dead. And Iago arrested, swearing that he will not breathe a single word about his agenda, of which everyone else (audience included) but the late Emilia was completely unaware. Which purpose did the traitor have, and for which reason? This question is left unanswered. Here, I have given my own humble opinion, which may have been Iago's real motivation or may have not.
All that jazz not for a throne, but rather (ironically and subversively) for a lieutenancy. Which makes sense in context.

After all, this is an unusual play, in which women act and speak their minds, in which military men are insecure and desperate figures losing power at lightning speed, in which chaos is a ladder to a strange fellow who walks about at daylight and moonlight granting wishes at the price of disappointment and regret... The keywords are all there: "Chaos is come again".
Nothing unusual from our own point of view, compared to that of the original Stuart-era audience. Othello is as subversive and as attractive as Game of Thrones for exactly the same reasons. And we hope that our friends in Westeros survive, most of them, their ordeal.
Though the Cypriot fort of Othello is closer to our present-day universe than Westeros is. It's also a secluded space, a community crowded within narrow walls (to quote Lew Wallace), far more claustrophobic and easier to map (and thus, to follow the characters within this reduced space) than the thousands of kilometres from Dorne to Winterfell and beyond the Wall. In fact, the setting of Othello is closer to the concept of Noble Academy or Hogwarts. A military encampment with claustrophobic confines, where emotions and power play, with a far more economic cast and space-time frame than in Westeros, are equally intense, and seem even more because they are here concentrated rather than scattered. And a lieutenant's commission can be as wanted and as fought for as the Iron Throne, though at a lower scale.