ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role that pity plays in the narrative structure of Othello. Although Othello's mastery of the rhetorical conditions of love helps him to succeed in arousing the pity and love of Desdemona when he woos her, the play's dramatic conflict can be located in Iago's efforts to raise doubts about those “proofs” of love and pity. Iago's manipulation of pity is effective because it recognizes that the ambivalence of pity in rhetorical situations can be exposed visually and dramatically. And Iago's manipulation of this ambivalence is a key factor in his deception of Othello.
