George Washington University
The Function of Brabantio in Othello
Author(s): Aerol Arnold
Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Winter, 1957), pp. 51-56
Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University
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The
Function
of
Brabantio
in
Othello
AEROL ARNOLD
RIZATION", Northrop Frye wrote, "depends on
function", and dramatic function "in its turn depends on the
structure of the play: the character has certain things to do
because the play has such and such a shape."' This judgment,
I believe, ran be illustrated in the characterization of Brabantio. His function as the father of a daughter who elopes is
to behave in a way that makes necessary Desdemona's and Othello's public
declaration of their love. For developing such a father there was little help in
Cinthio. All he says is that "although the parents of the lady strove, all they
could to induce her to take another husband, she consented to marry the Moor."2
In dramatic tradition, however, there was a pattern of fathers whose
daughters betrayed them. Marlowe is credited with establishing a stock plot "by
introducing the rebellious daughter who steals from her usurious father. Shakespeare [in The Merchant of Venice] carries this one step further by making the
rebellious daughter elope."3 Actually, the father who guards his gold and cannot control his daughter is as old as the miser Euclio in Plautus, who is the
model for all later misers.' Shakespeare, therefore, had a traditional pattern for
the deceived father, which he could call up and modify to suit his needs in
Othello.
My argument will not be that Brabantio must be considered a miser or
usurer because there is a tradition of miserly and usurious fathers whose daughters elope, often with suitors deemed unworthy by the fathers. Rather I shall
attempt to show that by changing the Cinthio story to an elopement story and
by inventing the father who feels robbed, Shakespeare, from the beginning of
his play, motivates the important scene in the council-chamber (I.iii). I shall also
argue that in Brabantio remnants of the miser-father of the elopement plays remain, and that the differences between Brabantio and the stock miser-father
result from the differences in their dramatic functions. The stress is on the dramatic explanation of character as opposed to the "portrait gallery" approach so
common in the nineteenth century, for I share Kenneth Burke's conviction that
CHRACTE
Shakespeareis making plays,not people. And as a dramatisthe must know
that the illusion of a well-roundedcharacteris produced,not by piling on
Northrop Frye, "Characterization in Shakespearean Comedy", Shakespeare Quaterly, IV
(July, k953), 271.
2Variorum Edition of Othello, ed. Horace Howard Furness (Philadelphia, '914), p. 377. All
quotations from Shakespeare'splays are from Shakespeare: Twenty Three Plays and Sonnets, ed.
Thomas Marc Parrott (New York, x938).
3John Edwin Bakeless, The TragicaU History of Chritopher Marlowe (Harvard University
Press, 1942), 1, 372-373-
4Elmer E. Stoll, ShakespeareStudies (New York,
1927),
p. i67.
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SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLY
52
traits of character. .. but by so building a character-recipe
in accordwith
the demands of the action that every trait the characterdoes have is saliently expressedin action or through action. . ..
Let us now look at scene one of Othello. As part of his plot to poison
Othello's delight in his new marriage by incensing Desdemona's kinsmen, Iago
arouses her father by crying:
Awakel what, ho, Brabantio!thieves! thieves!
Look to your house, your daughter,and your bags!
Thieves! thieves.
(I. i- 78-8I)
Iago's words recall Shylock's cries, as reported by Salanio:
"My daughter!0 my ducats!0 my daughter!
Fled with a Christianl 0 my Christian ducats!
Justice!the law! my ducats, and my daughter!
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
Of double ducats,stol'n from me by my daughter!
And jewels, two stones, two rich and preciousstones,
Stol'n by my daughterl Justice!find the girl;
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats."(II. viii.
15-22)
To which Salerio adds:
Why, all the boys in Venice follow him
Crying his stones, his daughter,and his ducats. (IX.viii.
22-24)
Iago's cry also recalls Marlowe's Barabas,who pairs his love for his Abigail with
his love for gold: "O my girl, / My gold, my fortune, my felicityl" (II. i. 47-48)
and "O girl! 0 gold! 0 beauty! 0 my blissI" (II. i. 54)
In both The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice much is made of
this pairing. In Marlowe's play the scene between Lodowick and Barabasis constructed on a play on "diamond." Lodowick wants Barabas to help him to a
diamond and Barabas uses "diamond"to refer to Abigail, to whom he certainly
will not help Lodowick (II. iii. 50-95). Marlowe may have been influenced in
the writing of this scene by Plautus' Aulularia (V.3), in which Euclio thinks
Lyconides is confessing to the theft of his gold when he is in fact confessing to
the seduction of his daughter, so that the daughter and the gold are confused.
ITe scene between Tubal and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice reinforces
such pairing, for the bitter Shylock, lamenting the loss of his jewels, including a
diamond that cost him two thousand ducats, says, "I would my daughter were
dead at my foot, and the jewels in her earl would she were hearsed at my foot,
and the ducats in her coffin! No news of them? Why so-and I know not
what's spent in the search: why, thou loss upon lossl the thief gone with so
much, and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge, nor no
ill luck stirring but what lights o' my shoulders, no sighs but o' my breathing,
no tears but o' my shedding" (-HI.i. gi-0ox). He then learns that Jessica spent
"in one night fourscore ducats" and gave for a monkey the turquoise ring Leah
gave .
Like Shylock, Brabantio had had a warning dream, although we do not
know the contentof the dream (I. i. 143-144). We learnabout it only afterhe
5 "Othello: An Essay to Illustrate a Method". HudsonReview,IV (1951), 187.
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THE FUNCTION OF BRABUNTIO IN OTHELLO
53
has heardof Desdemona'selopement,whereasShylocktells us that he is reluctant to leavethe housebecause"I did dreamof money-bagstonight"(II. v. 18).
Brabantio's words, "This accident is not unlike my dream", follow Roderigo's
news of Desdemona's flight with Othello (II. 120-142), the first full, orderly account of what has happened, for lago's words to Brabantio anger rather than
informhim. The contextsuggeststhat Brabantio,like Shylock,dreamedof gold
or somethingvaluablethat couldbe stolen.Often in Shakespearethe contentof
an undiscloseddreamcan be inferredfrom the context,as in The MerryWives
of Windsor,where we can assume that Ford'sundiscloseddream had to do
with horns (III. iii. I6).
An importantdifferencebetween The Merchantof Veniceand Othello is
that the lines reminiscent of Shylock's are spoken by lago and not by Brabantio.
Looking at them from the point of view of lago's imagery, Professor Heilman
interpreted them as Iago foisting "his moral derangement on the rest of the
world",7 a case of the thief, who alreadyhad Roderigo'spurse, crying thief.
Structurally considered, they must be interpreted differently. They help us get
oriented in a play in which the characters are still unknown. We know Iago is
a villain. He has so declared himself: "I am not what I am." But we don't know
what Brabantiois like or how we should take him. Iago's lines tell us that
Brabantiohas a daughterand money and that they have been stolen.If Shakespearecould count on Jacobeanaudiencesrecognizinga stock situation,Iago's
words "Look to your house, your daughter,and your bags!" would tie this
situationto other plays of elopementand would preparethe audienceto side
with the lovers against the father.8Such partisanshipis necessaryin Othello
becausethe audiencedoes not havea full glimpseof the Othellowho won Desdemona'sheart until scenethree; in scene one only his enemiesspeak of him
and then as "thick lips" (I. i. 66), "old black ram" (I. i. 88) and "lascivious
Moor"(I. i. 127). If our sympathiesmust be with the lovers,somethingmust be
done in the firstsceneto modifythe esteemthe audiencefeels for the fatheropposed.to the marriage.
The techniqueof the firstsceneis one of partialdisclosuresfor the purpose
of suspense.Roughly speaking,the first third of the scene establishesIago's
relationswith Roderigoand Othello;the next third tells us what has happened
to Desdemona,so that we and Brabantioreachfull understandingat the same
time; and the last third shows Brabantioacting upon the informationgiven
him, set in motion by Tagothatgreatmanipulatorof men.
This scene offended Thomas Rymer,but then his sympathieswere with
Brabantio,and he could not tolerateIago's speech to him. "But besidesthe
Mannersto a Magnifico,humanitycannotbear that an old Gentlemanin his
misfortuneshould be insultedover with such a rabbleof Skoundrellanguage,
Barabasdid not dream, but Abigail, addressing "gentle sleep", says:
Give charge to Morpheusthat he may dream
A golden dream, and of a sudden walk,
Come and receive the treasureI have found. (II. i. 36-38)
7 "The Economics of lago and Others", PMLA, LXVIII (June, '953), 56!.
sPlays with such plots were produced through the 17th century (Bakeless, p. 373). The resemblances between the two Shakespeareplays would have been clear to the audience at court who
saw them within a few months of each other: Othello was produced at court on November I, x604,
and The Merchantol Venice was revived, by special command of the king, on February iI, i605Joseph Quincy Adams, A Life of William Shakespeare(New York, 1923), pp. 370, 372.
6
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54
SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLY
with no causeof provocation."9
Nor did RymerunderstandIago'sfunctionin
this scene. Of course Iago has "no cause or provocation"to insult Brabantio,
except the desire to infuriate him into action against Othello.
The "Magnifico" who impressed Rymer is created in the third scene; he is
potential in the closing -lines of scene one (i76ff.) but not realized there. Our
first view of him in the play, "Above, at a window", not fully dressed (Tago
says, "For shame, put on your gown"), confused by the din and clamor, may
suggest that, like other fathers in elopement plays, he is slightly ludicrous. In
most of scene three, however, Brabantio is presented as a senator of dignity and
force, a worthy antagonist to Othello. We never learn anything more of his
profession than that he is a senator. From the first, Roderigo, who has cause to
dislike him, calls him "most grave Brabantio" and "most reverend signior"
(I. i. io6, 93). The Duke calls him "gentle signior" (I. iii. 50). Othello's attitude toward him is one of defiance, the attitude of one who feels the need to
assert his equality (I. ii. 17-24); but in direct address he calls him "good signior"
(I. ii. 6o), and I do not believe we can read contempt into "old man" in the line
"That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter / It is most true" (I. iii. 77-78).
If we examine what Brabantio does in scene three, we see that his function
is to make dramatically necessary Othello's account of how he won Desdemona's love and to give Desdemona the opportunity to choose Othello in the
conflict of duty between her father and her husband. Although the nobility and
directness of Othello's speech convince the Duke and the audience, Brabantio
must remain sceptical until Desdemona has been given her first chance in the
play to speak. Then he bestows "with all my heart" on Othello that which he
already has and which Brabantio, with all his heart, would have kept from him.
TIle scene makes clear to all that Othello does "love the gentle Desdernona',
as he confessed to lago in scene two, that he is not the "foul thief" Brabantio
accused him of being, and that Desdemona was not "abus'd, stol'n" and "corrupted / By spells and medicines bought of Montebanks" (I. iii.6o-6i). She
must speak so that it is known to all why she loves Othello; she must freely
choose him rather than her father; and she must be able to say publicly:
That I did lovethe Moorto live with him,
My downrightviolenceandstormof fortunes
Maytrumpetto the world.My heart'ssubdued
Evento the veryqualityof my lord:
I saw Othello'svisagein his mind,
And to his honoursand his valiantparts
(I. iii. 249-255)
Did I my soul and fortunesconsecrate.
Without an elopement, without a father to bring charges against Othello of
theft and spells cast, there would have been no motivation for this important
scene.
I cannot agree with Professor Heilman (p. 555, note i) that Brabantio
should be sarcastic when speaking "jewel" in these lines:
9 A Short View of Tragedy (London, 1693), p. 99. Samuel Johnson agreed that a "modern
audience would not easily endure" lago's language, but did not agree that the scene at Brabantio's
window injured the scheme of the play -"Preface to Shakespeare",in Johnson on Shakespeare,ed.
Walter Raleigh (Oxford, University Press, 1931), p. iS.
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55
THE FUNCTION OF BRABANTIO IN OTHELLO
For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child;
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them.
(I. iii. I95-198)
The term grows out of the preceding lines, in which Brabantio bestows on
Othello something valuable, something he would, with all his heart, have kept
from him, and jewels are common symbols of value. Othello speaks of murdered
Desdemona as a "pearl . . . richer than all his tribe" (V. ii. 348); and as I have
already demonstrated, in plots where daughters elope, daughters and gold or
jewels are commonly related. Since jewels are often stolen, "jewel" also suggests
the imagery of the Duke's consolation speech:10
The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief;
(I. iii. 208-209)
He robs himself that spends a bootlessgrief.
Brabantio refuses to be comforted with mere words. He knows, because Desdemona chose Othello freely, that his "jewel" was not stolen, that his love for her
was not enough to keep her for himself; and so was Othello to think before he
killed her. Thus, when Shakespeare put into Brabantio's mouth the warningLook to her, Moor,if thou hast eyes to see;
She has deceiv'dher father,and may thee
(I. iii. 293-294)
he planted an idea which Iago was to develop later in the play.
Although Brabantio does not figure in the action after the first act, he is
spoken of in the final scene of the play in a way that points up the consequences
of Desdemona's choice of Othello over her father. Her marriage to Othello
killed her father and led to her own death, so that, in death, Desdemona is seen
as both killer and killed. And to heighten the pity for her, Gratiano describes
Brabantio'sgreat love for his daughter:
Poor Desdemona!I am glad thy father'sdead:
Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain. Did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperateturn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
(V. ii.
And fall to reprobance.
204-210)
Brabantio's function, then, is largely to create situations in which other
charactersreveal themselves or are revealed.11Nothing in Cinthio required that
10 Professor Heilman thinks the image in the first line "not altogether tactful, since in effect it
re-converts Brabantio into 'the robb'd' and Othello into 'the thief'" (p. 562). Yet in their love
duet, Lorenzo and Jessica use "steal" and "stealing" to describe their actions, and in Lorenzo's
"In such a night / Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew", "steal" is ambiguous, for not only did
Jessica secretly leave her father's house to run with "an unthrift love" as far as Belmont, but she
also robbed her father before she left (V. i. 14-20).
11 In producing the play, Stanislavsky felt he had to invent for the actor portraying Brabantio
a background and a history-Stanislavsky Produces "Othello" (London, 1948), PP. 32-33, 35,
56-66. Of Stanislavsky'smethods Kenneth Burke writes:
To read Stanislavsky's notes on the staging of Othello is to realize that, in our novelminded age, at least, the actor is helped in building up his role by such portraitureas
Bradley aims at. We will hypothetically grant that the novelistic method may be best for
aiding the actor to sink himself in his role. . . . But we would still contend that, so far
as the analysis of the playwright's invention is concerned, our proposed way of seeing the
agent in terms of the over-all action would be required of a dramaturgic analysis of the
characters (p. I89).
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56
SHAKESPEAREQUARTERLY
Desdemona'sfatherfigure largelyin the play,nor that therebe an elopement.
Desdemona'sparentsmerely failed to dissuadeher from marryingthe Moor.
But by inventing an action in which Brabantioforces Desdemonato choose
Othello publicly,Shakespearemakesclear that Desdemonachose freely and
proudlythe one who was to kill her.
Universityof SouthernCalifornia
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