The animals

What It Is

The images of animals with which the play speaks of people. From the first scene, Iago describes the union of Othello and Desdemona as animal mating: an old black ram covering a white ewe, a Barbary horse mounting the daughter of Brabantio, the "eight-legged beast." Later the same language returns and changes owner: Othello says he would rather be a toad than a cuckolded husband, compares Desdemona to an untamed eagle let loose to the wind, declares the betrayed man a beast, and in the end others call Iago a dog and a reptile. The animals change depending on who speaks and whom they speak of: beasts of burden and livestock for the servants and for the couple in Iago's mouth, a bird of prey for Desdemona, toads and goats for the betrayed husband, dogs and reptiles for Iago at the end. Almost every time, the animal serves to demean someone, the other or oneself, and it appears when the speaker has already decided what he sees.

Where It Appears

In scene 1 of Act I, Iago tells Roderigo that some servants, like donkeys, wear themselves out serving for a bit of fodder, tells Othello's enemies to "throw flies" at him, and shouts to Brabantio that an old black ram is covering his white ewe and that his daughter is being mounted by a Barbary horse. He also says that if he showed his heart on the outside, he would hand it to the crows to peck at.

In scene 3 of Act I, Iago tells Roderigo that he would rather change places with a baboon than drown for love of a guinea hen, and that one drowns a cat or a blind puppy, and tells the audience that Othello, for his frankness, will be led around by the nose like an ass.

In scene 1 of Act II, Iago says in an aside that he will catch Cassio, a big fly, in a fine web, and in scene 3 says that Cassio drunk will be more brazen than his wife's little dog. Cassio himself, after the brawl, laments that wine turns men into beasts and that only the beastly part of him has been left.

In scene 3 of Act III, Othello uses animals against himself and against Desdemona. He tells Iago that, if she is an untamed eagle, he lets her loose to the wind to fend for herself by luck; that he prefers to be a toad in a foul dungeon than to keep a corner of love for another's use; and that Iago may trade him for a goat if he has begun to brood without reason. Iago, to tell Othello what an ocular proof would look like, speaks of lewd people as goats, burning as apes, in heat as wolves.

In scene 1 of Act IV, Othello declares that a man with horns is a monster, a beast, says that a woman's tears, if they could nourish the earth, would grow a crocodile with each drop, and walks out calling those around him goats and monkeys. In the same act, Cassio calls Bianca a perfumed bitch, and Bianca tells Cassio to take the handkerchief to his "little mare." In scene 2, Othello compares Desdemona to a summer fly in a slaughterhouse and says the place where he put his heart has become a pool for filthy toads.

In scene 1 of Act V, Roderigo, stabbed, calls Iago a bestial dog. In scene 2, Lodovico, seeing Iago captured, calls him a Spartan dog and a reptile, and the same language that had served to demean the couple is now applied to the man who spread it.

What It Means

Animals give whoever speaks a way of classifying without proving. To call someone a ram, a dog or a toad is to say what he is before any fact, and that is why the image precedes the argument in each scene. In Iago's mouth the beast serves to wound and to act: it opens the play by waking a father with an image of animal mating. In Othello's, it serves to punish himself: when he doubts Desdemona, he compares himself to the toad and the goat, and when he is convinced, he compares her to a summer fly in the slaughterhouse.

The animals change owners like the handkerchief and the monster. In Act I they belong to Iago and demean others; in Act III Othello turns them against himself, toad, goat, eagle let loose; in Act IV he applies them to the cuckolded husband and to the wife; at the end, others apply them to Iago. In each passage, whoever speaks of animals has already decided what the other is.

Relationships

• Standard themes: Prejudice, Jealousy, Truth and lies.
• Characters: Iago, Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo.
• Neighboring symbols: The green-eyed monster, the image of jealousy that is born from the same animals, and The handkerchief, another object that changes owner.