OTHELLO: SHORT PLOT SUMMARY

The story of William Shakespeare's Othello is set in

16th-century Venice and Cyprus. Othello the Moor, a
noble black warrior in the Venetian army, has secretly
married a beautiful white woman called Desdemona,
the daughter of a prominent senator, Brabantio. When
he finds out, he is outraged, and promptly disowns her.

Othellos ensign, Iago, harbours a secret jealousy and

resentment towards the Moor, partly because another
soldier, lieutenant Cassio, has been promoted ahead of
him, and also because he suspects that Othello has had
an affair with his wife. Intent on revenge, Iago hatches
a devious plan to plant suspicions in Othellos mind that
Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Cassio. He
orchestrates a street fight, for which Cassio is wrongly
blamed, and is then dismissed from his post by Othello.
Desdemona takes up Cassios case with her husband,
which only further inflames his suspicions that the pair
are lovers.

In the meantime, Iago manages to procure a treasured

handkerchief from Desdemona that was given to her by
Othello. He plants it on Cassio so that Othello sees it,
then concludes that it is proof of their affair. Maddened
by jealousy, he orders Iago to murder Cassio, and then
he strangles Desdemona. Immediately afterwards her
innocence is revealed, and Iagos treachery exposed. In
a fit of grief and remorse Othello kills himself. Iago is
taken into custody by the Venetian authorities.