Scene One: Events

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Introduction to Cyprus and Cassio

Act Two Scene One changes the setting to Cyprus, where there is a violent storm on the sea and quayside where Montano, Cassio and three Gentlemen await Othello’s arrival by ship.

Events

The scene opens amongst a storm in the new setting of Cyprus.
Cassio, quickly followed by Desdemona, Iago and his wife Emilia, await Othello’s arrival anxiously.
Soon they are reunited, but Iago puts tactics in place to determinedly destroy their happiness.

The storm

The storm is so ferocious that the men can see ‘nothing at all’; it ‘seems to pelt the clouds’ with ‘high and monstrous mane’.
Montano seems sure that it will mean the Turkish fleet ‘are drowned’ as ‘it is impossible they bear it out’.

Othello's military reputation

Cassio hopes for Othello’s safety on the ‘dangerous sea’, but is optimistic and confident as he believes Othello’s ‘pilot [is] of very expert and approved allowance’, emphasising Othello’s military worth.

Desdemona

The dialogue then moves to Desdemona – Cassio praises her as ‘divine’ and ‘our great captain’s captain’, the ‘riches of the ship’ as she arrives in Cyprus safely.

Cassio and Desdemona

Desdemona, whose immediate concern is if Cassio has heard from her ‘lord’, meets Cassio’s exaggerated, positive reception factually.
Here, Shakespeare strongly implies that any affair between Cassio and Desdemona is indeed a fabrication made by Iago with no truth.

Emilia’s Introduction

This scene is the first time we meet Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s companion in Cyprus, Emilia.

Kisses

Emilia first significant use as a character is to further provoke conflict between Cassio and Iago, as Cassio ‘kisses’ Emilia as she arrives in Cyprus.
Whilst Cassio insists that the act is only ‘a bold show of courtesy’, Iago appears to be personally incited by this and uses it as a reason to insult and patronise Emilia.

Misogynistic

Cassio’s motivations here could be ripe for potential alternative interpretations – is he simply a naturally courteous man, or is he rather deliberately attempting to goad Iago’s jealous nature by using exaggerated masculine bravado?
He states she has ‘too much’ speech and insists Cassio ‘would have enough’ to kiss her any more, unquestionably applying his misogynistic attitudes we have seen previously to his own wife.

A quarrel

Desdemona engages in somewhat of a quarrel with Iago, which could be either interpreted as mischievous, amusing teasing between the two or alternatively a rather tense, bitter and unpleasant argument rising from Iago’s critical comments about women.

The argument

Desdemona decries him as a ‘slanderer’ as he implies all women’s involvement with prostitution as they ‘rise to play and go to bed to work’.

Desdemona and Emilia

Throughout this conversation Emilia is noticeably mostly silent, implying her subservience and meekness when she is with Iago, whilst Desdemona contests his pointed witticisms rather equally and determinedly, typifying her strength and power as a woman in the face of misogyny at the beginning of the play.