Thus, contrary to the received wisdom that Othello is a noble and honorable soul , with perhaps a ‘fatal flaw', I am advancing the thesis that his way of life has already been thoroughly depraved before the play begins. Marriage to Desdemona is decidedly a step up, both in status and in macho gratification; for who at his level of sexual insecurity does not dream of the perfect virgin that he can deflower, preferably before the wedding itself?
Note that from his point of view Othello has every right to be suspicious of Cassio. Cassio belongs to the same caste, the jeunesse d'oréé, or spoiled rich youth, as does Desdemona. However Cassio, a career soldier, wouldn't dare to fool around with the commander's wife! Note in particular how Cassio's own girl-friend, Bianca, is in fact an "army whore".
Othello's sexual dishonesty is clearly depicted in the way he uses a series of ridiculous tall tales about his military exploits, to seduce Desdemona, a young, protected bourgeois maiden whose entire experience comes from books.
Important politics comes to the fore: Venice at the end of the 16th century was a quasi-democracy, an oligarchy ruled by a merchant nobility, with enough features in common with the United States to make it quite different from the rest of Europe at that time. Even generals were subject to overview by a panel of civilians: "while the position of Captain General was introduced in the mid-14th century, he still had to answer to a civilian panel of twenty Savi or ‘wise men'.
Wikipedia, article on Venetian history
In a standard monarchy, like England itself under Queen Elizabeth, the army officers would, by and large, be taken from the aristocracy, the peers of the realm. In a commercial maritime empire like that of Venice (much diminished in Shakespeare's time by plague and warfare) it was possible for an Othello, the "black upstart crow" from North Africa, to rise to a position of eminence and power. Note that Shakespeare wants us to know that, among his own people, in some vague nation out there (the ethnic designation "Moor" had a much more general connotation than origins in Morocco or Mauretania) Othello is a prince.
One should also note that the prestige of North Africa for Europeans was decidedly different in Shakespeare's day than it is in ours.When Othello was first produced (1604) it was only a bit more than 100 years since the Moors had been chased out of the most splendid and advanced cities of Europe, Granada Saragosa, Cordoba and others. English public opinion would not have been unsympathetic to Algeria and Morocco; after all, they shared a common enemy in Spain. Since England is not situated in the Mediterranean, they would have not been so upset by the slaving expeditions of the Barbary pirates; not yet, at any rate.
Furthermore, the living standards and levels of technology in the European, Arab and Ottoman worlds were much closer than they are today. Indeed, throughout the Middle Ages,the level of civilization (in most categories) was much higher in the Arab world than it was in Europe. There is no reason to believe that Othello is "despised" for any reason beyond the traditional prejudices towards skin color.
This interpretation of the context and background of the play also explains why Iago hates Othello as much as he does: to him Othello is a vain,self-centered social climber. Because Othello desires to belong to the class of Cassio and Desdemona, he promotes Cassio to lieutenant ahead of Iago, obviously the better candidate and with more field experience. Shakespeare thoroughly denigrates Cassio as a soldier; he is a ‘schoolbook warrior'; he knows about warfare mostly through courses at an elite military academy; though in a commanding role as lieutenant, he can neither hold his liquor, nor resist the bullying of Iago in getting him to drink.
Blinded by ambition, Othello allows himself to be guided by the shallow notions of standing in the social register that must have been current in the otherwise diverse, multi-cultural and religiously tolerant emporium of late 16th century Venice.
These insights contribute to make the play "Othello" far richer in its resonances in politics, morality, society and human psychology than it is normally viewed: the tragedy is only incidentally the ‘fall of a great soul'. What it is really about is the inherent corruptions in all social structures everywhere, based as they are on power, social standing and greed. To illuminate his insights, Shakespeare invokes the eternal paradigm of the ultimate dislocation of normal human relations, the "mis-match", sanctioned by expediency, between a sexually vulnerable military man, the kind of person who one would expect to consort with prostitutes, and a naïve maiden, fresh from the convent, who lives in fantasies. One of the consequences in Italy of the aftermath of the Council of Trent, was an increased severity in the restrictions on the daily life of women, the imposition of a merciless code of absolute chastity, and strong limits set on the extent to which they were allowed to share in the activities of any of the institutions of public life.
Otello, in the original the story by the gifted Italian author Cinthio is eventually (though not at the onset) pictured as quite a despicable brute. Yet, although Cinthio suggests a moral about the evil effects of marriages between different cultures and races, he is not notably racist. If Shakespeare had the same kind of person in mind,it would consistent with the script to surmise that Desdemona may not have been the first woman that Othello brutalized. Personalities like these do not emerge on the spur of the moment.
Yet perhaps Shakespeare's creation imagines that, this time, Desdemona will not only give him to social standing he craves, but will also save his soul, in the way that Elizabeth saves the soul of Tannhauser in Wagner's opera. Note that Elizabeth also has to die, but her sacrifice reverses the judgment of the Pope and gets her boy-friend into heaven.
However we all know where Othello is going. Hopefully he will be able to join up with Claudius and Gertrude (Hamlet: "Follow my mother"). And-who knows: Hamlet himself? (The rest is silence).