‘The immortal part’: Othello, Giraldi Cinzio’s novella, and the Power of Words

Shakespeare’s Othello is deeply concerned with language, its use and mis-use, the unspoken and unspeakable. Iago refuses to reveal the motive behind his malignity; Desdemona refuses to pronounce the word whore, even in self-defence; Othello struggles with the description of ‘the cause’. At the same time, all three characters develop an elaborate linguistic code that is unique to each – based on poetic rhythm and hendiadys for Othello and on the interrogation of courtly-love motifs for Desdemona. As for Iago, language is a weapon: his prose is adaptable, and can include the plainest of speeches or the most remote of metaphors. My analysis of language in Othello pursues this hypothesis by looking at the play’s most immediate source, Giraldi Cinzio’s novella: by foregrounding the spoken word, and assigning each character a well-defined name, Shakespeare not only enriches Giraldi’s dry narration: he adds through the characters’ speeches the psychological depth that is so markedly absent in the novella. The novella shocks its readers through its extreme yet soulless violence; the tragedy investigates what happens to a soul when it is possessed by violence, setting an uncomfortable mirror in front of the spectators.