the Goodreads Team
asked
Seth Margolis:
Can you a come up with a deleted scene from your favorite Shakespeare play?
Seth Margolis
Othello
I chose Othello, my favorite Shakespeare tragedy since I read it in high school and later saw it performed several times. I think it was the rawness of the motivations and emotions that initially drew me, as well as the sense that Othello’s race, as much as the machinations of Iago, made his downfall inevitable. But was his fate truly inevitable? Was Desdemona’s?
Othello
Down, strumpet!
Desdemona
Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!
Othello
Nay, if you strive –
Desdemona
I had not thought this necessary. Nay, I wish it ‘twere not. But here, see with thine own eyes. Hear with thine own ears.
She hands him an iPhone 6.
Othello
That face. And voice. ‘Tis Iago. And now his own Emilia. What? The screen is small …
Desdemona
Thou wouldst not avail me of the iPhone 6s, my lord.
Othello
Nay, but the image is clear! And the sound! Hark, she hands him the handkerchief!
Desdemona
You see, husband. Beware of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
Othello You are no traitor.
Desdemona Nay. The very opposite.
Othello Yet Iago plays me for a fool. I will suffer him no longer. And he will suffer for it.
I chose Othello, my favorite Shakespeare tragedy since I read it in high school and later saw it performed several times. I think it was the rawness of the motivations and emotions that initially drew me, as well as the sense that Othello’s race, as much as the machinations of Iago, made his downfall inevitable. But was his fate truly inevitable? Was Desdemona’s?
Othello
Down, strumpet!
Desdemona
Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!
Othello
Nay, if you strive –
Desdemona
I had not thought this necessary. Nay, I wish it ‘twere not. But here, see with thine own eyes. Hear with thine own ears.
She hands him an iPhone 6.
Othello
That face. And voice. ‘Tis Iago. And now his own Emilia. What? The screen is small …
Desdemona
Thou wouldst not avail me of the iPhone 6s, my lord.
Othello
Nay, but the image is clear! And the sound! Hark, she hands him the handkerchief!
Desdemona
You see, husband. Beware of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
Othello You are no traitor.
Desdemona Nay. The very opposite.
Othello Yet Iago plays me for a fool. I will suffer him no longer. And he will suffer for it.
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