Othello 1: The Story and the Context

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Othello 1: the Story and the Context

奥赛罗1 故事内容：爱、嫉妒、种族

FKC: Othello is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies

FKC：《奥赛罗》是莎士比亚最伟大的悲剧之一。

FKC: What makes it unique, I suppose, is the focus, the central focus on a black African as an empathetic protagonist

FKC：我认为，这个故事的独特之处在于它关注，它重点关注一位非洲黑人，并且让观众和他产生共鸣。

FKC: Don't let people tell you this play is not about race because we sympathize with Othello and he has been promoted in a white society. On the contrary, Othello is about structural and internalized racism. Interracial marriage and racial fear are at the center, if not the very engine of this play. All the themes we normally talk about military, friendship, sexuality, love, jealousy are all filled by the play's preoccupation with race and the experience of being others.

FKC：如果有人对你说这部戏剧并没有探讨种族问题，你一定不要相信这种说法。因为我们都很同情奥赛罗的遭遇，而且奥赛罗在以白人为主导的社会中，地位是得到了提升的。其实，《奥赛罗》探讨的恰恰就是结构化、内化了的种族主义。就算跨种族婚姻和种族恐惧不是推动剧情发展最直接动力，但它们一定也是这部戏剧的核心内容。关于这部戏剧我们经常谈论的主题，如军事、友情、性欲、爱情、嫉妒都是在种族问题以及与其他种族人物相处的经历推动下展开的。

My name is Professor Farah Kareem Cooper, head of higher education and research at Shakespeare's Globe and professor of Shakespeare Studies at King's College, London.

我叫法拉·卡里姆-库珀，是莎士比亚环球剧场高等教育与研究负责人，也是伦敦大学国王学院的莎士比亚研究专业的教授。

In this course, we’re speaking with Professor Farah Karim- Cooper about Othello. This play, first written and performed around 1604, tells the story of Othello, a black general in the Venetian army who elopes with a white Venetian noblewoman called Desdemona.

本期节目我们将对话法拉·卡里姆-库珀教授，和她聊聊《奥赛罗》这部戏剧。《奥赛罗》写于1604年，同年被首次搬上舞台，戏剧讲述了威尼斯军队中一位黑人将领奥赛罗的故事，剧中他与威尼斯的白人贵族女性苔丝狄蒙娜私奔。

FKC: She falls in love with and can death clandestinely marries a black African. Their love seems to transcend race. But in the end, it doesn't.

FKC：苔丝狄蒙娜爱上了一位非洲黑人，并与他秘密成婚。他们的爱情似乎跨越了种族，但到了戏剧结尾，我们却会发现他们之间的爱情未能成功逾越他们之间的种族鸿沟。

Iago, Othello’s subordinate in the army, decides to destroy Othello by destroying his marriage. Partly by playing on racist ideas in Othello’s society, Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him and that he should punish her with death. Othello realizes too late that Iago has deceived him: he has killed Desdemona, and he goes on to kill himself. Shakespeare took the basic plot of this story from an Italian Renaissance writer called Cinthio. In a collection of novellas, Cinthio tells the story of a white woman who elopes with a black man.

伊阿古是奥赛罗的副官，他企图通过摧毁奥赛罗的婚姻来毁灭奥赛罗。伊阿古一部分利用奥赛罗所处社会中的种族主义思想，巧言令色，让奥赛罗相信苔丝狄蒙娜对他不忠诚，让他相信必须要用死亡来惩罚她。而当奥赛罗意识到被伊阿古欺骗了之后，一切都已经迟了：因为那时，他已经杀死了苔丝狄蒙娜，并准备自杀。莎士比亚这个故事的情节取自意大利文艺复兴时期作家钦齐奥的一部作品。在钦齐奥的一部中篇小说集中，记录了这个有关一位白人女性与一位黑人男性私奔的故事。

FKC: The moral of Cinthio's narrative is to tell young women not to marry those who are so separate in nature from them. This is a key racist tenant. But it's not this simplistic in Shakespeare.

FKC：钦齐奥创作这个故事其实是为了劝说年轻女性不要与其他种族的男性通婚，反映的是典型的种族主义思想。但莎士比亚的这部作品主题思想就并非那么简单了。

In the First Folio, the play’s full title is The Tragedie of Othello, the Moor of Venice. To Shakespeare’s English audience, Venice represented a place where many cultures came together--which is significant for Othello’s identity in the play.

在第一对开本中，《奥赛罗》这部剧的全名是《威尼斯的摩尔人奥赛罗的悲剧》。莎士比亚时期的英国观众眼中，威尼斯是一个多文化融合的地方，这一点对于明确奥赛罗在剧中的人物身份十分重要。

FKC:  His status as an outsider in a world that's run by the patrician elite to Venice collides paradoxically with a prevailing attitude in Venice of multiracial or multi-ethnic tolerance. So this this strange sort of dichotomy of racial tension in the play. Because of its geographical position, Venice was a really important economic player in the Mediterranean basin at this time. It was an intermediary for trade between the east and the west and a center of mercantilism and commodity exchange and wealth. The Venetian state actually saw it was to their advantage to enable the free flow of foreigners into the city to conduct business …The city was bustling with traders and merchants from all over the world, and black Africans lived there as free men as well as with as slaves.

FKC：奥赛罗一直游离于贵族精英统治下的威尼斯的主流社会之外，而当时的威尼斯在大部分人的心目中却又是一个包容各种族、各民族的地方，这两点相互碰撞引发了不少矛盾。威尼斯特殊的地理位置，造成了戏剧中那种怪异的两分种族矛盾。在莎士比亚时期，威尼斯在地中海地区的占据着重要的经济地位，它是中西方贸易的枢纽，是商业、贸易、财富的中心。当时的威尼斯城邦允许外国人自由前来进行贸易，它也将这一点视作自己的一大优势……威尼斯城中总是挤满了来自世界各地的商人，居住在这里的非洲黑人有些是奴隶，但也有一些是享有人身自由的黑人。

One of the anxieties that the English felt, but also they quite liked was that Venice was a place for a multicultural tolerance and free trade. And so what they saw was a sort of space where the black African, the Jew, the Turk, different religions could mix together.

对于威尼斯的文化包容性和自由贸易，英国人既害怕，又着迷。他们看到在威尼斯生活着非洲黑人、犹太人、土耳其人等不同种族人群，这些人信奉着不同的宗教信仰。

Despite Venice’s multiculturalism, Othello is still positioned as an outsider: he is “the Moor of Venice”, and many of the characters refer to him by this term instead of by his name. The term “Moor” had several different meanings in Shakespeare’s time.

尽管威尼斯包容多种文化，但奥赛罗在这里仍像是局外人。他是“威尼斯的摩尔人”，剧中很多人都这么称呼他，而不叫他的名字。“摩尔人”这个称呼在莎士比亚时代有着多重含义。

Farah Karim-Cooper: There's been a bit of a debate about whether or not Shakespeare's Othello is actually a sub-Saharan African. So therefore he's a black Negro or whether or not he is a North African Muslim and or with some sort of Arab background. But what we learn from the language of the play is that Othello is black.

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：关于莎士比亚笔下的奥赛罗究竟是不是撒哈拉以南的非洲人，其实还是有一些争论的。他究竟是非洲黑人呢？还是北非的穆斯林人？又或者带有一点阿拉伯血统的人？这些都不大好确定。但是从戏剧的语言中我们可以肯定，奥赛罗一定是一位黑人。

FKC: So he is of racial other.

FKC：所以说，他属于非白人种族。

The play opens with Iago angrily telling his friend Roderigo that “the Moor” has promoted his despised rival, Cassio, instead of him. Iago explains that he will pretend to be Othello’s faithful follower, but his real goal is to serve his own interests and perhaps to take some revenge. “I am not what I am”, he says. And with these words, Iago defines himself as Shakespeare’s master deceiver.

戏剧开场时，伊阿古就愤恨地对他的朋友罗德利歌说“那个摩尔人”提拔了他的瞧不起的卡西奥做副将。伊阿古表示他会装作是奥赛罗忠实的部下，但这不过是“为了自己的利益”，如果可以的话他还计划进行报复。他说“世人所知道的我，并不是实在的我”。伊阿古的这番言论，让自己成为了莎士比亚笔下一个有名的大骗子。

Iago and Roderigo know that Othello has eloped that night with Desdemona, the daughter of Brabanzio, a Venetian senator. Using grossly racialized and animalistic language, they shout at Brabanzio’s window that his daughter has run off with the Moor. Brabanzio sends his men after her. Iago, pretending to be loyal, goes to warn the newly married Othello. Then we find out that the Turkish army is threatening Venice’s stronghold on the island of Cyprus. And Othello, Venice’s most skillful general, is summoned to the Duke’s war council.

伊阿古和罗德利哥都知道，那天夜里奥赛罗和威尼斯元老勃拉班修的女儿苔丝狄蒙娜私奔。他们朝着勃拉班修的窗户，用下流色情、带着种族歧视的语言大声喊叫说他的女儿和那个摩尔人私奔了。当勃拉班修派人去追自己的女儿时，伊阿古又假装忠心地去向新婚的奥赛罗通风报信。而在接下来的剧情中，我们又了解到那时土耳其军队正威胁着威尼斯的要塞—塞浦路斯岛。奥赛罗作为威尼斯最经验丰富的的将领被召去了公爵的战争议事厅。

The scene at the Senate reveals Othello’s double and precarious state in Venice. He is both insider and outsider, both needed and feared. His military talent makes him valued and necessary as the city’s protector. But as the man who won Desdemona away from her Venetian suitors, he also poses a threat to the city and its social customs. Brabanzio tells the Senators that Othello must have used “witchcraft” to seduce Desdemona. Why else, he demands, would a well-bred young Venetian woman run away to what he calls “the sooty bosom” of Othello? This phrase reveals the racial motivation of Brabanzio’s anger. It also alludes to the way the play was originally performed. Othello, a black character, was first played by a white man: an actor named Richard Burbage.

在议事厅的这场戏中，我们可以感受到奥赛罗在威尼斯所处的微妙地位。他既是局内人又是局外人，元老院的人们既需要他，但同时又对他心存戒备。奥赛罗的军事才能十分出众，因此人们很重视他，需要他来保卫城邦。但同时这个将苔丝狄蒙娜从一众威尼斯追求者手中夺走的男子，对于整个城邦和社会习俗来说又是一个威胁。勃拉班修对元老们说，奥赛罗一定是用“符咒药物”引诱了苔丝狄蒙娜。他表示，否则，一个出生良好的威尼斯女性怎么可能会投入奥赛罗“这个丑恶的黑鬼怀里”，和他一起私奔呢？勃拉班修的用词也体现出他愤怒的根源就是种族问题。而且从戏剧最初上演时表演方式我们也可以看出这一点。奥赛罗是一个黑人角色，但这个角色最初的扮演着却是一个名叫理查德·伯比奇的白人男演员。

FKC: He performed Othello in blackface and impersonated a black African using a variety of techniques such as black paint, which may have been made from walnut shells and oil, or perhaps some burnt cork or the soot of a lamp.

FKC：他扮演奥赛罗这个黑人角色时，会用黑色涂料把自己扮成一个非洲黑人，这种黑色涂料可能是用胡桃壳和油制成的，也可能是用烧过的软木或者灯上的煤灰做的。

But even though there was not a black actor performing on Shakespeare’s stage, there were black people living in Shakespeare’s London.

不过呢，虽然在莎士比亚时期的舞台上，并没有黑人演员参与表演，但在那个时期的伦敦其实是有黑人居住的。

FKC: there were more black people living in Shakespeare's England than we originally thought. And some of them lived free and traded and worked in Suffolk, for example. So is it likely that Shakespeare's audiences may have actually been more racially diverse than we like to think about … We know that because there were black people living in London during this time that they may have had a different notion of racism … But audiences were not homogenous. They were not all white. So it's impossible to suggest that their response to these terms and the staging of racial identity was one way or another. I suspect it was as complex and diverse as the play itself.

FKC:其实在莎士比亚时期，生活在英国的黑人远比我们最初所想的要多。例如在萨克福生活的一部分黑人，他们享有人身自由，可以在那里做生意、工作。那个时期莎剧的观众们的种族构成也许比我们认为的要多元化……我们之所以这么说，是因为在那个时期，英国也有黑人，他们有着不同的种族观念……观众们并不是单一的种族，不全是白人，所以他们对于剧中的语言表达，以及种族身份的舞台表现形式一定是会有各不相同的反应。我觉得他们的看剧时的反应其实会和这部戏剧本身一样复杂多元。

Othello also meets with a mixed response in the Senate. While Brabanzio accuses him of witchcraft, the Duke and Senators invite Othello to give his own account of what happened. Othello explains in a moving speech that Brabanzio often invited him to his home to tell the stories of his travels. His relationship with Desdemona began when she became enchanted by these stories. He says that: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them.” We’ll discuss this full speech in the third episode.

元老院中成员们对于奥赛罗的态度各不相同。勃拉班修指控奥赛罗使用巫术，而公爵和其他元老们则邀请他亲自陈述发生的一切。奥赛罗用了一段动人的陈述解释说，比如勃拉班修之前经常邀请自己到他家讲述曾经的旅行经历，这些故事也深深吸引了苔丝狄蒙娜，他们之间的情愫由此而生。他说：“她为了我所经历的种种患难而爱我，我为了她对我所抱的同情而爱她”。在这单元的第三集解读中，我们将探讨这一整段台词。

Desdemona then arrives. She affirms that she is in love with Othello and freely ran away to marry him. As she puts it, “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind, / And to his honor and his valiant parts / Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.” The Senate absolves Othello of any wrongdoing and sends him to Cyprus, to fight a different kind of foreign “other,” the enemy Turks.

接着苔丝狄蒙娜上场。她承认自己爱上了奥赛罗，是自愿跟他私奔结婚的。她说“在他崇高的精神里，我看见他奇伟的仪表；我已经把我的灵魂和命运一起呈献给他了”。最终元老院宣布奥赛罗无罪，并将他派往塞浦路斯岛与另一个外族——土耳其作战。

FKC: And the Turk represents Islam in this period. And Islam represents a direct threat to Christianity. And Islamic power was immense in this period and sophisticated and extraordinary. And so this is terrifying, actually, to Christian power.

FKC:土耳其代表的是那时的伊斯兰教，伊斯兰教是基督教最直接的一个威胁。当时，伊斯兰教力量强大，是一个复杂且与众不同的宗教，是一个令基督教权威十分恐惧的存在。

FKC: But what's really interesting is that you think Shakespeare is going to give you this play about this credible battle between the Turks and the Venetian would actually it sort of fizzles out and it becomes a domestic tragedy because the Turkish threat is no more. And then we get to narrow in and focus on the marriage.

FKC:但是这部剧真正有意思的地方在于，你以为莎士比亚接下来将向你讲述土耳其和威尼斯之间这场可能暴发的战争，但后来由于来自土耳其的威胁消失了，我们的之后关注点全都集中在了奥赛罗的婚姻问题上。

The threat to the marriage emerges just after the Senate disperses. Roderigo and Iago are left alone onstage. Roderigo, who is infatuated with Desdemona, is in despair about her marriage, but Iago promises to help him seduce her. When Roderigo exits, Iago turns to the audience and unfolds a further plan: he will tell Othello that Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona. In the third episode, we’ll explore some of these key moments where Iago shares his plots.

奥赛罗婚姻的威胁在元老院刚一散会后就出现了，那时舞台上只剩下罗德利哥和伊阿古两人。罗德利哥痴恋着苔丝狄蒙娜，对于她和奥赛罗结婚感到十分绝望，但伊阿古答应帮他引诱苔丝狄蒙娜。当罗德利哥退场后，伊阿古转向观众，向他们陈述了自己的计划：他将骗奥赛罗说卡西奥和苔丝狄蒙娜私通。在第三集解读中，我们将探讨伊阿古对观众们讲述他那些阴谋诡计的一些关键台词片段。

The scene then shifts to Cyprus, where we learn that a storm has drowned the enemy Turkish fleet. That night, the troops celebrate and Othello enjoys a private reunion with Desdemona-- and Iago starts putting his plot into action. In the revelry, he gets Cassio drunk and has Roderigo provoke him into fighting. Cassio wounds Roderigo and Othello enters the chaotic scene to ask “honest Iago” what happened. This name “honest” for Iago is significant in its irony.

接着场景转到了塞浦路斯岛，敌军土耳其舰队因遭遇暴风雨而沉没。那天夜里，威尼斯全军举行了庆祝活动，奥赛罗也私下去见了苔丝狄蒙娜，同时，伊阿古在此刻开始实行他的阴谋行动。狂欢中，他把卡西奥灌醉，并让罗德利哥挑衅卡西奥，从而刺激卡西奥向自己动武。最终卡西奥打伤了罗德利哥，接着奥赛罗来到混乱的现场，询问“正直的伊阿古”发生了什么事情。“正直”这个词对于伊阿古真是十足的讽刺。

FKC: He is often referred to in the play as honest Iago. He has the trust of Rodrigo, of Cassio, Desdemona, of Montaño. And most importantly, of Othello …

FKC:他在剧中经常被称作“正直的伊阿古”，他得到了罗德利哥、卡西奥、苔丝狄蒙娜、蒙塔诺等等很多人的信任，而最关键的是，他还赢得了奥赛罗的信任……

Iago tells Othello, with apparent reluctance, how Cassio struck Roderigo. Othello removes Cassio from his office as lieutenant and Cassio is devastated. Iago suggests he ask Desdemona to intervene with Othello on his behalf. But then Cassio exits and Iago, in another soliloquy to the audience, reveals the next part of his plan. While Desdemona pleads for Cassio out of kindness, Iago will convince Othello that she is pleading Cassio’s case because she is in love with him. He will, he says, “out of her own goodness make the net / That shall enmesh them all.”

伊阿古装作犹豫的样子，向奥赛罗讲述了卡西奥袭击罗德利哥的场景。于是，奥赛罗宣布卡西奥不再是他的部属，这令卡西奥万分沮丧。接着伊阿古建议卡西奥去请求苔丝狄蒙娜为他向奥赛罗求情。但是在卡西奥退场后，伊阿古再次在一段独白中向观众们透露了他接下来的计划。他表示当苔丝狄蒙娜出于善意替卡西奥求情时，自己将诱导奥赛罗，使他相信苔丝狄蒙娜这么做是因为与卡西奥有私情。他说“我就利用她善良的心肠污蔑她的名誉，让他们一个个都落进我的罗网之中”。

Cassio follows Iago’s advice and goes to Desdemona. As Iago predicted, she enthusiastically pleads for Othello to reconcile with Cassio. Othello agrees. But shortly afterwards, Iago asks Othello if Cassio knew about his secret courtship of Desdemona. Othello says, “He did, from first to last. Why dost thou ask? … Is he not honest?” “Honest, my lord?” says Iago. “What dost thou think?” asks Othello. “Think, my lord?” says Iago. Othello finally loses patience: “thou echo’st me / As if there were some monster in thy thought / Too hideous to be shown.” Iago’s rhetorical strategy is a clever one. The suggestiveness and incompleteness of his words convince Othello that they represent some darker thought--some darker truth--that remains unspoken.

卡西奥听从了伊阿古的建议，去找苔丝狄蒙娜求情。正如伊阿古预言的那样，苔丝狄蒙娜非常积极地替他向奥赛罗求情，希望他能与卡西奥重归旧好。奥赛罗同意了。但没过多久，伊阿古就去问奥赛罗是否知道卡西奥与苔丝狄蒙娜之间的私情。奥赛罗回答说“当真！嗯，当真。你觉得有什么不对吗？他这人不老实吗？”“老实?我的主帅!”伊阿古接着说。奥赛罗接着问：“你有什么意见？”伊阿古回答道：“意见?我的主帅！”终于奥赛罗失去了耐心，他说：“你在学我的舌，好像在你的思想之中，藏着什么丑恶不可见人的怪物似的。”伊阿古的说话策略相当巧妙，他言语中的暗示意味和欲说未说的情绪让奥赛罗确信，他的话中藏着一些丑恶得不可见人的事情——一些丑恶得不可见人的真相——一些他未能说出口的真相。

FKC: It's not just that Othello has been naive. I think a lot of people land at the end of the play that Othello is naive. But it's that Iago is a rhetorical giant. He is very, very good with speech.

FKC: 其实这不仅仅是因为奥赛罗容易被骗，我相信很多看完这部剧的人都会觉得奥赛罗太容易被骗了。但主要原因还是伊阿古太巧舌如簧了，他说话真的太有技巧了。

Finally, Iago reveals what this darker thought is. He tells Othello, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster.” Othello insists that he has no jealousy about Desdemona’s faithfulness. But Iago advises Othello, “Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio.” It is “unnatural,” he suggests, for Desdemona not to desire someone “Of her own clime, complexion, and degree”--that is to say, another white Italian noble, like Cassio. Othello does start to wonder if Desdemona may have lost her love for him--perhaps because he is old, or perhaps because he is black. Desdemona enters and sees that Othello looks distressed. She wipes his head with a handkerchief Othello once gave her. When she exits, she drops the handkerchief. Her maid Emilia picks it up and gives it to Iago, her husband, who has often asked her to steal it.

最终，伊阿古说出了这个丑恶得不可见人的事情。他对奥赛罗说：“啊，主帅，您要留心嫉妒啊；那是一个绿眼的妖魔”。在西方文化中，“绿眼”代表的就是“嫉妒”。但奥赛罗坚持说他毫不怀疑苔丝狄蒙娜对自己的忠诚。但是紧接着伊阿古建议奥赛罗“注意尊夫人的行动；留心观察她对卡西奥的态度”，他表示苔丝狄蒙娜对与“她同国族同肤色同阶级”的人不动心是“违反常情的”，而他口中的这个人，这个意大利白人贵族，就是卡西奥那类人。奥赛罗的确怀疑过苔丝狄蒙娜也许因为自己年龄大，或者更因为自己是一个黑人而已经不爱自己了。接着当苔丝狄蒙娜走上舞台时，她发现奥赛罗看上去情绪十分低落。她用奥赛罗送给自己的一块手帕替他揉了揉头。在她退场时，她却不小心弄丢了这块手帕。她的女仆埃米莉亚捡到了这块手帕，并把手帕给了她的丈夫伊阿古，此前伊阿古一直让她去偷这块手帕。

Othello is now in agony at the thought of losing Desdemona’s love. He confronts Iago and demands that he provide proof that she has been unfaithful.

此刻的奥赛罗已经深陷在苔丝狄蒙娜不再爱自己的苦闷情绪中。他找到伊阿古，让他去搜集证据证明苔丝狄蒙娜背叛了自己。

FKC: Othello is fiercely intelligent and he is strategic. He's a tactical thinker. So he's really struggling to reconcile how someone is kind and loving and generous and risk taking as Desdemona, too, as she, you know, she took huge risk marrying him would commit such a blatant act of betrayal to sort of negate everything that she just risked. He needs to see proof.

FKC:奥赛罗很有智慧，也很讲究策略，他是一个有谋略的思想家。所以他不会轻易相信，苔丝狄蒙娜这样善良、有爱心、慷慨且勇敢的女性会这么明目张胆地背叛他，毕竟当初苔丝狄蒙娜和他结婚的是冒了巨大风险的，她怎么可能放弃自己冒这么大风险争取来的东西呢？他需要看到证据。

The handkerchief becomes that proof. Iago stages a conversation with Cassio where Othello can overhear. Iago prompts Cassio to talk about his affair with the courtesan Bianca, but lets Othello believe that Cassio is talking about his affair with Desdemona. What’s more, Othello sees the handkerchief in Cassio’s hands--because Iago had planted it earlier in Cassio’s room. Seeing the handkerchief, Othello is now convinced that Cassio and Desdemona are lovers. 

但这块手帕恰恰就成了证据。伊阿古在明知奥赛罗在一旁偷听的情况下找卡西奥问话，他故意引导卡西奥谈论他与情妇比安卡之间的事情，但这些话听在奥赛罗耳中，就像是在说苔丝狄蒙娜一样。最关键的是奥赛罗看到了卡西奥手中拿着的那块手帕，这其实也是伊阿古事先放在卡西奥屋内的，但是这个场景却让奥赛罗最终确信卡西奥和苔丝狄蒙娜之间的确有私情。

FKC: The handkerchief in the play becomes this proof. It's a really, really important object. Once he sees that his jealousy and despair overtake him when this handkerchief becomes the thing that he relies upon.

FKC:剧中这块手帕就成了证据。它真的真的非常关键。奥赛罗一见到这块手帕，心中的嫉妒和绝望就占了上风，正是这块手帕让他相信了伊阿古的话。

Othello, wracked with grief and anger, plans to strangle Desdemona in her bed. When he next sees her, he hits her and calls her a whore. Desdemona passionately pleads her innocence, but Othello is unmoved. The distraught Desdemona asks Emilia if any woman could do something so wrong as commit adultery and swears that her husband’s unkindness will “never taint [her] love.” We’ll examine Emilia’s unconventional reply to Desdemona in the third episode.

悲伤且愤怒的奥赛罗计划趁苔丝狄蒙娜睡觉时勒死她。他再次见到苔丝狄蒙娜后，不但打了她，还叫她“娼妇”。苔丝狄蒙娜激动地辩解说自己是清白的，但奥赛罗却不为所动。悲痛欲绝的苔丝狄蒙娜问埃米莉亚世上有没有干通奸这种坏事的女人，并发誓说她丈夫的无情“永远不能摧毁她的爱情”。在本单元第三集解读中，我们将重点探讨埃米莉亚对苔丝狄蒙娜的那段不寻常回复。

That night, Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio while he goes to kill Desdemona. Othello represents himself as a minister of justice, but he is almost overwhelmed by the sight of her sleeping form, saying: “Oh, balmy breath that dost almost persuade justice to break her sword!”

那天夜里，奥赛罗命令伊阿古去杀卡西奥，而他自己则计划去杀苔丝狄蒙娜。奥赛罗视自己为公道的审判者，但当他看到苔丝狄蒙娜的睡颜时，他差一点就要放弃了，他说“啊，甘美的气息！你几乎诱动公道的心，使他折断他的利剑了！”

FKC: Othello, enters her bedchamber, sees her sleeping, acknowledges her beauty and her virtue. But then he becomes overwhelmed by his jealousy.

FKC：奥赛罗走进苔丝狄蒙娜的卧房，看着她的睡颜，他承认苔丝狄蒙娜是美丽且高尚的。但紧接着在他内心，嫉妒占了上风。

Desdemona wakes. Othello tells her to prepare for death and to confess her sins. She protests that she never committed any sin with Cassio. When Othello tells her Cassio is dead, Desdemona weeps. Othello’s anger rises again, and he smothers her. Emilia comes in as Desdemona is dying, and hears her final words: “Commend me to my kind lord.” Othello tells the horrified Emilia that Desdemona was unfaithful, and that Iago, Emilia’s husband, knew it. Emilia insists Desdemona was innocent, curses Iago, and calls for help. Iago and the Venetian officers arrive. Othello explains the “just grounds” of Desdemona’s death: he heard Cassio confess their love affair and saw Desdemona’s handkerchief in his hand. Emilia tells Othello that she gave the handkerchief to Iago. Iago stabs Emilia, the officers seize him, and Emilia dies on the bed beside Desdemona.

苔丝狄蒙娜醒了过来。奥赛罗让她做好被杀的准备，并劝她承认自己的罪行。但苔丝狄蒙娜则一再坚称自己和卡西奥是清白的。当奥赛罗对她说卡西奥已经死了的时候，苔丝狄蒙娜哭了，这令奥赛罗再次怒火中烧，于是他掐死了苔丝狄蒙娜。埃米莉亚进来时，奄奄一息的苔丝狄蒙娜说了她最后的那句台词，她说：“可是让我做一次祷告吧！”奥赛罗对惊恐的埃米莉亚说，苔丝狄蒙娜对自己不忠，这件事她的丈夫伊阿古一切全都知道。但埃米莉亚也坚称苔丝狄蒙娜是清白的，她一边咒骂伊阿古，一边找人帮忙。接着伊阿古和一些威尼斯的警吏们匆匆赶来，奥赛罗解释说苔丝狄蒙娜是“死有余辜”，因为他听见卡西奥承认和苔丝狄蒙娜之间的私情，并看见他手里拿着苔丝狄蒙娜的手帕。但是，埃米莉亚告诉奥赛罗那块手帕是她给伊阿古的，听到这些话伊阿古拔剑刺死了埃米莉亚。虽然伊阿古被警吏们制服了，但埃米莉亚也倒在床上，死在了苔丝狄蒙娜身边。

Othello, now realizing how terribly Iago has deceived him, laments over Desdemona’s body, and entreats the officers to find out why Iago did this: “Will you, I pray, demand this demi-devil / Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?” But the rhetorically suave Iago now has nothing more to say. His last words in the play are, “What you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word.” Iago is taken away to be tortured and Othello is arrested.

此刻，奥赛罗终于意识到伊阿古欺骗了自己，他在苔丝狄蒙娜的尸体旁悲痛欲绝，请求警吏们调查清楚伊阿古这么做的原因：“你们问一问那个顶着人头的恶魔，为什么他要这样陷害我的灵魂和肉体？”此刻一向善于言辞的伊阿古也无言以对，他说了自己在剧中的最后一段台词“你们所知道的，你们已经知道了；从这一刻起，我不再说一句话”。之后伊阿古被带下去接受酷刑的惩罚，奥赛罗也被逮捕了。

But Othello still has something to say. He makes a final speech asking the officers to remember the time when a “turbaned Turk” attacked a citizen of Venice and he, Othello, “took [him] by the throat … and smote him thus.” With these words, he stabs and kills himself--thus taking on the role both of his younger self who killed the Turk and the Turk he killed. Othello casts himself both as insider and outsider, the protector of Venice and the enemy that Venice must be protected from. This divided sense of self is one of the great struggles that defines Othello in the play.

但是奥赛罗仍有话要说，他在自己最后那段台词中请求警吏们不要忘记当“一个裹着头巾的土耳其人”殴打一个威尼斯人时，他，奥赛罗“一把抓住了对方的咽喉，就这样把他杀了”。说完这些，奥赛罗以剑自刎。此时的他，既是那个刺死土耳其人的年轻奥赛罗，又像是那个被杀的土耳其人，他既是局内人，又是局外人，既是威尼斯的守卫，又是威尼斯需要防范的敌人。这种自我意识的割裂是奥赛罗所经历的一个巨大挣扎，而恰恰是这种挣扎造就了奥赛罗在剧中的人物形象。

Farah Karim-Cooper: He has a sense of himself as a divided self in terms of his identity. He's the Christian and the Turk, which means he's the civilized social person and the barbarian all at once. So this is really a kind of complex and ambiguous sense of self perception, which makes him really interesting to us as fellow humans.

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：在他的自我意识中，他对自己的身份认知是割裂的。他既是基督教徒又是土耳其人，这意味着在他身上文明教化和原始野蛮并存。这是一种极其复杂模糊的自我认知，也正是这一点深深吸引了我们这些普通观众。

What creates this divided sense of self? Is it Iago’s malicious plots? Or are there larger social forces at work, which provoke destructive racialized perspectives in all the characters, even in Othello himself? We’ll delve more deeply into these questions in the next episode.

是什么导致了他这种割裂的自我认知呢？是伊阿古邪恶的阴谋吗？还是更广泛的社会因素在起作用，触发了剧中所有角色，包括奥赛罗本人在内的那些毁灭性种族观念呢？下期节目，我们将更加深入地探讨这一系列问题。