Othello leaves Cassio and Iago in charge of the party and goes to spend time alone with Desdemona. Alone with the audience, Iago offers more reasons why he hates Othello. Left alone with Roderigo, Iago convinces him that Desdemona is already bored with Othello and has switched her attention to ‘handsome, young’ Cassio, and that since Cassio is ‘rash and very sudden in choler’, Roderigo should provoke him into a fight later that evening. Finally Othello’s ship arrives and he and Desdemona are delighted to be together again. Observing how close Cassio and Desdemona seem, Iago tells the audience ‘with as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio’. Cassio describes Desdemona as ‘a maid that paragons description and wild fame’ and greets her very affectionately. The next ship to arrive carries Desdemona, Iago and Emilia. The messenger announces that Michael Cassio, ‘lieutenant to the warlike Moor, Othello / Is come on shore’. News is brought to Montano, the Governor of Cyprus, that ‘our wars are done!’ because the Turkish fleet has been badly damaged by storms. Alone, Iago tells the audience of his plans to make Othello believe Desdemona is being unfaithful to him with Cassio ‘to get his place, and to plume up my will / In double knavery’. Alone with Roderigo, Iago persuades him to follow them to Cyprus, saying Othello and Desdemona’s love will not last long. Othello asks Iago to bring his wife Emilia to Cyprus to ‘attend on’ Desdemona. Desdemona asks to go with Othello to Cyprus and Brabantio warns Othello ‘she has deceived her Father, and may thee’. Desdemona is called for and she tells the Senate she married Othello for love and her duty is now to him rather than her father.
The Duke listens to Othello who explains that she fell in love with him as he told her stories about his life and that ‘she loved me for the dangers I had passed’.
Brabantio tells the Duke that Othello has bewitched his daughter saying she is ‘abused, stolen from me and corrupted’. Brabantio, Othello, Cassio, Iago and Roderigo arrive at the Senate while they are talking about the war.
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