Roderigo & Brabantio

Test yourself

Roderigo

Roderigo is a fool and a dupe.

Roderigo

Roderigo is paying Iago money to give him information about Desdemona, who he wishes to marry.
Brabantio has already rejected him as a suitor but this does not stop his pursuit of her.

Iago

Roderigo is often melancholic and full of self-pity, lamenting his own situation.
However, there is no room for his development and so he is killed.
Iago has played him for most of the play.
It is only when he faces mortality that he realises Iago’s true nature.

Love and tragedy

Roderigo believes that love can be bought and paid for, but he comes to understand that it cannot be.
His function in the tragic plot is to be duped by Iago, and this contributes to his death.

Brabantio

A ‘reverend signor’ Brabantio is an elderly man whose daughter is Desdemona.

Brabantio

Brabantio is a respected figure in Venetian society. He is distraught when he learns that Desdemona has married a Moor.
He views him as having stolen her (so she is his property) and that he has achieved this through witchcraft.

Racism

Brabantio offers much of the racist abuse in the play.
He orders Othello to appear before the Duke of Venice to justify himself in a kind of trial.
He is very forthright and opinionated.

Mirrored emotions

Brabantio's slide into despair is matched by Othello’s happiness at being married to Desdemona.
We learn of his death later in the play.

Love

Brabantio is an important character in terms of restricting love and not permitting marriage.

Tragedy

The play implies that is dissatisfaction with his daughter’s choice of husband throws him into such despair that he dies.
Interestingly, retrospectively the audience may see that his concerns over Desdemona and Othello’s pairing were right: he foresaw that tragedy and chaos might result from their union.

1Context

1.1Introduction

1.1.1Specifications

1.2Background

1.2.1Shakespeare

1.2.2Love

1.2.3Tragedy

1.2.4Historical Context

1.3Othello

1.3.1Setting

1.3.2Social Issues

2Act One: Summaries & Themes

2.1Act and Scene Summaries

2.1.1Structure

2.1.2The Exam

2.2Scene One

2.2.1Key Events

2.2.2Key Themes

2.2.3Key Ideas

2.3Scene Two

2.3.1Key Events

2.3.2Key Themes

2.3.3Key Ideas

2.4Scene Three

2.4.1Key Events

2.4.2Key Events 2

2.4.3Key Themes

2.4.4Key Ideas

3Act Two: Summaries & Themes

3.1Scene One & Two

3.1.1Scene One: Events

3.1.2Key Events 2

3.1.3Key Ideas: Love & Tragedy

3.1.4Scene Two: Events

3.2Scene Three

3.2.1Key Events

3.2.2Key Ideas

4Act Three: Summaries & Themes

4.1Key Events

4.1.1Scene One & Two

4.1.2Scene Three

4.1.3Scene Three: Key Ideas

4.1.4Scene Four

5Act Four

5.1Scene One

5.1.1Key Events

5.1.2Key Ideas

5.2Scene Two

5.2.1Key Events

5.2.2Key Ideas

5.3Scene Three

5.3.1Key Events

5.3.2Key Ideas

6Act Five

6.1Scene One

6.1.1Key Events

6.1.2Key Ideas

6.2Scene Two

6.2.1Key Events

6.2.2Key Ideas

7Character Profiles

7.1Major Characters

7.1.1Othello

7.1.2Iago

7.1.3Desdemona

7.1.4Emilia

7.1.5Cassio

7.2Minor Characters

7.2.1Roderigo & Brabantio

7.2.2Other Characters

8Key Themes

8.1Love & Tragedy

8.1.1Love

8.1.2Love 2

8.1.3Tragedy

8.1.4Tragedy 2

8.2Other Key Themes

8.2.1Public versus Private

8.2.2Appearance & Reality

9Writing Techniques

9.1Writing Techniques

9.1.1Structure

9.1.2Genre

9.1.3Form & Language

9.1.4Language & Imagery

10Critical Debates

10.1Criticism & Performance

10.1.1Shakespeare's Legacy

10.1.2Traditional

10.1.3Modern & Contemporary

10.2Approaches

10.2.1Feminist Approach

10.2.2Psychoanalytic Approach

10.2.3Marxist Approach

11Approaching AQA English Literature

11.1Specification A

11.1.1Specification A

11.1.2Love Through the Ages

11.2Specification B

11.2.1Specification B

11.2.2Aspects of Tragedy

12Issues of Assessment

12.1The Exams

12.1.1AOs

12.1.2Mark Scheme

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