36 pages • 1 hour read
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul WerstineA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Iago sees reputation as a facade constructed by others, saying to Cassio: “Reputation is an idle and/ most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost/without deserving” (2.3 286-89). He values these facades as far as they allow him to manipulate others. With Cassio, that means using Roderigo to goad Cassio to a single drunken brawl that ruins his reputation in Othello’s eyes, as well as his own. In his desperation to repair his reputation, Cassio spends more time with Desdemona, a behavior that Iago frames as sexual and romantic.
As a woman, Desdemona’s reputation hinges on her sexual fidelity, and consequently is easy for Iago to ruin. Her intelligence, good-humor, and strong will, qualities that Othello loved, become irrelevant once Iago questions her chastity. In the case of Othello, ruining Desdemona’s reputation as a virtuous woman also threatens Othello’s masculine reputation as a “noble” (2.3 144) and valiant warrior. Othello is driven to murderous rage not only out of jealousy, but out of fear that he will look ridiculous if he doesn’t punish Desdemona. He says that a man who has been cheated on is not a man, but a “beast” (4.
By these authors
All's Well That Ends Well
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare, Іван Франко, Barbara A. Mowat, Ivan Franko, Panteleimon Kulish, Cynthia Marshall, Ludwig Tieck, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Paul Werstine
As You Like It
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
Coriolanus
William Shakespeare, Roma Gill, William Aldis Wright, Francis Fergusson
Cymbeline
William Shakespeare, Harold Bloom, Gabriele Baldini
Hamlet
William Shakespeare, Israel Gollancz, Harold Bloom, Rex Gibson, Henry Norman Hudson, Max J. Herzberg, L.A. Sherman
Henry IV, Part Two
William Shakespeare, David Scott Kastan, David Bevington
Henry V
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Michael Neill, Paul Werstine
Henry VIII
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
Henry VI, Part 1
William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare, Roma Gill, Harold Bloom, William Allan Neilson
King Henry IV, Part 1
William Shakespeare, David Scott Kastan
King Henry VI, Part 3
William Shakespeare, John D. Cox, Eric Rasmussen
King John
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
King Lear
William Shakespeare, William James Rolfe
Love's Labour's Lost
William Shakespeare, Henry R. Woudhuysen
Macbeth
William Shakespeare, Jack Armstrong, Carmen Kahn
Measure for Measure
William Shakespeare, Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine
Much Ado About Nothing
Gail Kern Paster, Robert Jackson, Barbara A. Mowat, Henry Norman Hudson, F.H. Mares, Henry Irving, Frederick S. Boas, Paul Werstine, William Shakespeare