OTHELLO PLOT SUMMARY ACT V
5, 1: scene set in middle of night, confusion and darkness. Iago sets up Roderigo to kill Cassio. Cassio wounds Roderigo and Iago wounds Cassio. Iago’s 8th (last) soliloquy (lines 11-22) shows audience he wants them both dead. Othello, thinking Cassio is dead, exits to murder Desdemona. Iago takes control and stabs Roderigo, pretending not to know him. Bianca arrives, worried for Cassio – Iago accuses her of plotting Cassio’s death. Iago’s ending aside (rhyming couplet) to audience shows his true face. Neither Cassio nor Roderigo is dead.
Structure of 5, 2
• 1-22: Othello’s 2nd soliloquy, regrets need to kill Desdemona but sees it as justified by ‘the cause’ – her adultery. Is calm and resigned. Killing is ‘justice’ so she will not ‘betray more men’
• 23-47: Othello tells Desdemona to pray so she will go to heaven
• 48-85: he becomes angry when she won’t confess – uses semantic field of law: ‘confess’ ‘perjury’ ‘article’ ‘oath’ – and finally calls her ‘strumpet’ then kills her before she has chance to pray. Sets of adjacency pairs show pace getting faster and Othello losing temper
• 86-117: Emilia arrives with news that Cassio is not dead
• 93-102: Othello’s 3rd soliloquy full of interrogatives, exclamations, rhetorical questions, ellipsis shows loss of control – metaphor of total eclipse and earthquake shows ‘Chaos is come again’ (see 3, 3)
• 118-136: Emilia challenges him; he confesses but insists Desdemona unfaithful. Antithesis between Othello and Desdemona (‘devil’ ‘angel’) semantic field of truth and lies + adjacency pairs between
Emilia and Othello
• 137-166: Emilia’s gradual understanding of Iago’s part in tragedy
• 167-233: Desdemona’s uncle arrives with Iago, Emilia questions him and he admits what he said. Othello explains about handkerchief and Emilia admits what she did. Iago threatens then stabs
Emilia and escapes
• 234-249: Emilia dies, cursing Othello
• 250-279: Othello realises what he’s done, calls down devils to take him to hell – use of
exclamations and hyperbole show collapse
• 280-287: Iago brought back in – Othello fails to kill him, believing he’s a devil
• 288-333: truth revealed through Roderigo’s evidence (Roderigo has died of wounds)
• 334-355: Othello describes his actions, sees self as heathen, commits suicide
• 356-end: Lodovico ends play, asking Cassio (Governor) to torture Iago.
Key speeches in 5, 2:
• 1-22: Othello soliloquy 2 – Othello’s control + images of Desdemona’s purity
• 93-102: Othello soliloquy 3 – lack of control shown by range of non-fluency features + overpowering image of Chaos
• 175-176: Iago’s final shifting of blame
• 257-279: Othello’s acceptance of damnation
• 334-355: Othello damns himself to hell
Key extracts
• 5, 2 47-85: theme of betrayal
• 5, 2 107-145: theme of betrayal
• 5, 2 198-232: strength of Emilia’s character
