Dec 2, 2008

Othello | Brabantio (Character Analysis)

Brabantio is Desdemona's father. A Venetian senator, he is a magnifico, a prominent citizen and landowner in Venice. He charges Othello with bewitching his daughter and dies after Desdemona leaves for Cyprus with Othello and the Venetian forces.

When the play opens, Brabantio's household is being disrupted by Iago and Roderigo, who are crying out to Brabantio that he has been robbed. Brabantio says, "What tell'st thou me of robbing? This is Venice; / My house is not a grange" (I.i.105-06). He believes he is safely within the civilized society of Venice, not on the dangerous and...