figure
Othello
also: Отелло
The tragic protagonist of Shakespeare's play, a Moorish general who murders his wife Desdemona in a jealous rage.
Reading notes
- Ionych §9 an Othello
Shakespeare's jealous Moorish general, invoked here as a joke: Vera Iosifovna assures Startsev that her husband's jealousy is all in fun.
- Lights §25 like Othello, "decline into the vale of years"
A near-quotation of Othello's own self-description in Shakespeare's play (Act 3, Scene 3: "declined / Into the vale of years"), used here to describe Ananyev's encroaching middle age and stoutness -- a gently mock-heroic borrowing rather than a claim of any deeper parallel to the tragedy.
- To the Chekhovs, 23 July 1888. Feodosia. §4 Othello
Shakespeare's tragic Moorish general, invoked here as one facet of the many-sided, almost absurd composite character Chekhov sees in Aivazovsky.
- To the Chekhovs, 1891. Venice. §4 where Othello made his case before the Doge and the senators
A nod to the opening act of Shakespeare's \emph{Othello}, in which the Moorish general defends his secret marriage to Desdemona before the Venetian Doge and senate -- a scene conventionally located, for tourist purposes, in the Doge's Palace itself, whether or not Shakespeare's text specifies the room.