Othello Background

Genre: Shakespearean Tragedy

Othello was written during the Elizabethan Era (1558–1603), which is considered by many historians to be the golden age of England. The era is named after Queen Elizabeth I, and the period was marked by peace and prosperity. The arts, in particular, flourished during this period. The play is typically categorized as a tragedy, as it narrates the story of a hero who makes a tragic error of judgment (hamartia), which in turn leads to a devastating climax. The play is a perfect example of Aristotelian drama. That is, it involves a small cast of characters, with few digressions from the main plot, concentrating instead on a small number of central themes.

Like other playwrights of his time who based their plays on well-known storylines, Shakespeare, too, created this masterpiece by drawing from an already-existing famous story. The plot of Shakespeare’s Othello is an adaptation of the Italian writer Cinthio’s “Un Capitano Moro” (“A Moorish Captain”), from his collection of a hundred tales called Gli Hecatommithi (1565). When Shakespeare penned down the play, no English translation was available. Notably, Othello is closer to its Italian origin than to the 1584 French translation by Gabriel Chappuy. Othello, it must be said, is one of Shakespeare’s most intense and focused plays.