Othello, a celebrated general, has just married Desdemona in secret when his trusted ensign Iago — passed over for promotion and nursing a grievance he barely explains even to himself — begins a campaign of manipulation designed to convince Othello that his wife has betrayed him. There is no truth to any of it, only a dropped handkerchief and a series of engineered half-truths, but by the time Othello sees through the lie, it is far too late. Shakespeare's tragedy of jealousy and manipulation is driven by one of his most chilling villains, a man who destroys a marriage for reasons that never fully add up — which is precisely what makes him so unsettling.
