Among the extensive list of plays signed by William Shakespeare, there is a bunch of books that have become a symbol not only of theater, but also of human behavior. In that selection appear titles such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear or Macbeth. And of course the work that interests us here, Othello, must also be cited. A text written around the year 1603, performed on the London stage for the first time the following year and since then considered one of the best stagings of what jealousy is and how far it can lead us.
This is a drama divided into five acts whose protagonist is obviously Othello, a Venetian soldier who is commissioned to be the governor of Cyprus. Othello is married and deeply in love with his wife Desdemona and also surrounds himself with several loyal soldiers at his service.
Actually, not all of them are so faithful, since Iago wanted to be his lieutenant, but Othello has chosen to appoint Cassius. And that unleashes Yago to start plotting intrigues against his boss. Causing above all doubts about whether his wife is faithful to him and also intriguing against Cassio
The play develops all these maneuvers with the usual entanglement of plots that there is in the Elizabethan theater of the time, of which William Shakespeare is its great exponent.
And the result of all thoseplots, plots, secondary characters and intrigues is that Othello goes mad with jealousy and everything ends in a bloody tragedy, with almost all the main characters dead.
Interestingly, the protagonist is someone with a dark complexion and a Muslim creed. In fact the full title is Othello, the Moor of Venice. However, the allusions to his race and creed are not too important in the plot. The truth is that there are only passages in which these conditions are cited to capture a certain insecurity in the protagonist. Which is kind of weird, since at the time, it wasn't uncommon for the villains in stage plays to be non-white, non-Christian characters.
The reality is that Othello continues to be performed on stages around the world, and adaptations of it are constant. He is the ultimate symbol of jealousy. And he has taken not only to the theaters. He has also been the inspiration for several operas and musical compositions by great geniuses such as Rossini,Verdior Dvorak. In addition to dozens of film versions, created by top-level directors and actors such as Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier o Kenneth Branagh. In short, this is an immortal and universal classic.
