How effective is this scene as an opening to Shakespeare’s play? Essay

Othello begins on a street in Venice; Act 1 scene 1 of Othello is a good opening to the rest of the play as it starts in the middle of an argument. This argument is between Iago, an evil, manipulative and jealous man, and Roderigo a rich man who is susceptible to everything Iago tells him. I think this is a good opening because it begins by telling the main point of the story straight away – from the first few opening statements it is clear that Iago knows something that he is going to use against a man whom he hates, Othello, it is a simple conversation between two men, but they are plotting something, this could instantly grab the audiences attention as they would be intrigued to find out what it is about. Just from the opening scene the audience finds out that Roderigo has been paying Iago to help him win the love of Desdemona; the one he loves, but he has seen no progress, and he has just found out that Desdemona has married Othello, the general whom Iago serves and hates. One of the main reasons that Iago hates Othello is because Othello promoted Cassio over Iago; the job Iago wanted and believed he deserved was taken. In spite of Iago’s service in battle and the recommendation of three â€Å"great ones† of the city, Othello chose to give the position to a man with no experience leading men in battle. As he waits for an opportunity to get his own back, and plots to get the job he wanted, Iago only pretends to serve Othello. He believes he will get the job: â€Å"I know my price: I am worth no worse a place† â€Å"In following him I follow but myself; Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, But seeming so for my peculiar end.† This quote is spoken about the Moor Othello; Iago plans to get his own back in some way for the loss of the job offer, but he will not let out too much of his schemes in the first scene, all of the plotting fits together later on in the play, this is also a good way to get the audiences attention throughout the play as it all builds up gradually, the suspense and the different ideas, they are all put into place for an effect that has eventually gathered from beginning to end to reveal the many mysteries made in the play. This also causes a lot of confusion later on, and involves the audience through soliloquies, the audience may appreciate being included in the play as though the characters are speaking to them as it makes them part of the story. The opening scene also shows the deviousness of Iago, just by giving advice he automatically tells Roderigo to lie and manipulate Desdemona’s father, Brabantio. â€Å"Call up her father, Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight† All of Iago’s advice of telling Brabantio involves influencing his side of the story to make it unfair – he is telling Roderigo to explain to Brabantio that Othello is bad news, and to advertise the fact that Othello is black, where as Roderigo is white – making him a better choice for his poor daughter. In order to do this, the two men come to the street outside the house of Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, and cry out that he has been robbed by â€Å"thieves.† Brabantio, a Venetian senator, comes to the window. At first, he doesn’t believe what he hears, because he has told Roderigo to stay away from his daughter before and thinks Roderigo is merely scheming once again in order to see Desdemona, which ironically he is. Iago makes it seem worse than it is, by vulgarly telling the senator that his daughter and Othello are having sex by putting it as though they are â€Å"making the beast with two backs†, this makes it seem very vulgar. Brabantio begins to take what he hears seriously and decides to search for his daughter. Iago’s plan was successful and so he went to Othello. This scene has already made the play exciting by stirring things up in Othello’s relationship – we haven’t even met the character yet although we know that he is very high ranking in his work and that he has dis-owned the trust of a senator. Seeing as this is all the doing of Iago and his poisonous words we get the picture that Othello is a respectable man but for some reason he can easily loose trust in people. By not meeting the main character in the first scene it makes the audience keen and interested to find out more about this character, another good way to start off the story. Like Brabantio, Othello has no idea of Iago’s role in Roderigo’s accusations. Iago is with Roderigo whilst he tells him of the doings of his daughter, but as soon as they have informed Brabantio Iago departs on the note that he wasn’t to be involved any more, Brabantio comes out of his house, furious that his daughter has left him. Declaring that his daughter has been stolen from him by magic â€Å"charms,† Brabantio and his men follow Roderigo to Othello. The first scene of act 1 shows a small amount of what is to come in the rest of the play, such as, Iago always creates the tension in the atmosphere by messing around with peoples feelings and emotions – managing to get them to do reckless things (also happens a lot later on) yet he always manages to leave the scene before he gets involved in the situation. I think that this is also another good way of beginning the play as it shows signs of what is soon to come next. Overall I think that this is a very effective way to open a Shakespeare play as it is very dramatic instantly and gives enough of the story to know vaguely what the story will be about but it also leaves a lot out to make it very interesting – I think it would make the audience want to carry on watching to see what will happen is it is not entirely predictable of what may happen just from the opening scene – although it is very informative. It is almost like a cliffhanger as it keeps the audience in suspense about the main character, as they do not get to meet him to begin with, this is a dramatic way to begin the play.