The Clown in Othello: Comic Relief and Symbolism

Introduction: Comic Figures in Shakespearean Tragedy

The Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare is the author of some of the most famous tragedies ever written. The Tragedy of Othello is one of the rawest of all his works, given that it is a romantic drama that hinges upon one of the most primal of human emotions — jealousy. The jealousy of Iago for the great Moorish general Othello, and Othello's debilitating fear that his young wife Desdemona has been unfaithful, is frustrating for the audience to watch, given the unjustified nature of both characters' emotions. However, as he does in all of his dramas, Shakespeare uses humor to provide comic relief during tense situations. This can also be seen in the character of the gravedigger in Hamlet and the Porter in Macbeth.

In Othello, Shakespeare also uses a Clown to please the "groundlings" watching the tragedy — offering light humor and a figure who speaks like a member of the lower classes. The use of comic figures, like the Clown in Act III, Scene 1, also contains important foreshadowing of the tragic events to come.

The Clown's Role in the Plot and Comic Function

The Clown's function in the plot is simple: he tells the musicians outside Othello's quarters to stop playing. However, his language and use of humor and puns is quite elaborate. The impressive nature of his verbal wit is not purely functional. The Clown mocks the musicians' playing ability, suggesting they sound nasal: "Why masters, have your instruments been in Naples, / that they speak i' the nose thus?" (3.1). The Clown's humor softens the impact of the scene that immediately preceded it, when Iago tricks Michael Cassio into behaving in a drunk and unseemly fashion.

The previous scene is extremely significant to the plot of the play. It demonstrates how, although his primary vehemence is reserved for Othello, Iago also loathes Cassio, because Cassio has been promoted instead of him. Iago easily tricks Cassio — a younger man with no tolerance for wine — into drinking more than he should. Iago knows of Cassio's "infirmity" and his intolerance for alcohol (2.5). Cassio becomes drunk, quarrels, and outrages Othello with his behavior.

Iago's actions intentionally cause Cassio to lose his new position and, worse, make him more beholden to Iago. Iago urges Cassio to use Desdemona to become endeared to Othello again. Iago's ulterior motive is to make Othello believe that Desdemona has been unfaithful with Cassio. By engineering even an innocent relationship between Cassio and Desdemona — simply making it seem as if Desdemona is sympathetic to a perceived rival — Iago hopes Othello will become suspicious.

It is Cassio who asks the musicians to play outside Othello's door: "Masters, play here; I will content your pains; / Something that's brief; and bid 'Good morrow, general'" (3.1). This is precisely what Othello does not want to hear, however, and the Clown orders them to leave. Just as Cassio will later use exactly the wrong approach to importune Othello's favor and recover his position and reputation, he symbolically does the same with the musicians. Othello wants silence to enjoy his first night with his bride, not music. This silencing of the musicians will symbolically parallel Othello's later silencing of the truth — from his wife and from Emilia, Iago's wife and Desdemona's handmaid. It will also serve as a symbolic foreshadowing of Othello's smothering of his wife.

Language, Prose, and Social Class

One of the most interesting aspects of the Clown's speech is that it is notably lacking in poetic imagery, in contrast to the speech of Othello, Cassio, and Desdemona. When Iago is trying to trap Roderigo or Cassio, he too often uses wit and plain-spoken prose, much like the Clown. This is typical of lower-class characters in the play, such as Iago's wife Emilia, who also tends to use prose except when speaking formally in public or to someone of a higher social class.

Iago's lower-class register and that of the Clown make their speech far more similar to each other than to any other characters in the play. This can be seen when Iago makes jokes about the nature of women to Desdemona, or when he jokes about English drinking habits. In the latter case, Iago's use of prose would obviously have delighted an English audience, many of whom may actually have been drinking during the performance, as was customary at the time. The Clown similarly uses prose to be blunt and cutting, though his purposes are humorous rather than underhanded. When rebuking the musicians, the Clown says: "Marry, sir, by many a wind-instrument that I know. / But, masters, here's money for you: and the general so likes your music, that he desires you, for love's sake, to make no more noise with it" (3.1). In other words, Othello likes music so much that he would rather not hear the poor "music" of these particular players.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello. MIT Shakespeare Homepage. March 6, 2011. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/othello/othello.4.1.html