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48 free Othello trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Othello trivia quiz covers Shakespeare's tragedy from every angle. The plot questions follow Roderigo and Iago through the elopement, the Turkish threat to Cyprus, Cassio's drunken brawl, the dropped handkerchief, Bianca, the murder of Desdemona and the exposure by Emilia. Then come the sources: Cinthio's 1565 novella, the sand-filled socks, the Moorish ambassador who visited London in 1600, and why the play is dated to 1603–1604. A third strand covers Othello in performance: Richard Burbage, James Hewlett and Ira Aldridge, Paul Robeson's landmark 1943 Broadway run, Stanislavski, Olivier's Oscar-nominated film, Orson Welles's chaotic shoot, Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh, the teen adaptation O and Verdi's Otello. Numbers questions test the 1622 quarto, the 160 folio-only lines, the 1,097 lines that make Iago one of Shakespeare's longest roles and how many times "honest" appears. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Shakespeare and Hamlet quizzes next.
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Q 01What phrase completes the play's full title, The Tragedy of Othello, ...?
the Moor of Venice
The full title is The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice; it is often grouped with Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth as one of Shakespeare's four major tragedies.
Q 02In which two places is Othello set?
Venice and Cyprus
Venice and Cyprus: Act 1 unfolds among the senate and streets of Venice, and from Act 2 the action moves to the garrison island of Cyprus.
Q 03What military rank does Iago hold under Othello?
Ensign
Iago is Othello's ensign, called his 'ancient' in the text: the standard-bearer ranked below the lieutenant, the post he believes he deserved.
Q 04Whom does Othello promote to lieutenant, provoking Iago's resentment?
Cassio
Othello chooses Cassio, a Florentine 'arithmetician' with more theory than field experience, as his lieutenant; Iago, passed over, resolves to destroy him.
Q 05Who is Desdemona's father?
Brabantio
Brabantio, a senator, is the bride's father; he accuses Othello before the Duke of winning her by witchcraft and disowns her when she defends the marriage.
Q 06Which wealthy, dissolute gentleman pays Iago to help him win Desdemona?
Roderigo
Roderigo, a rich gentleman who hoped Iago could buy him the lady's favour, is finally stabbed by Iago in the dark to silence him.
Q 07Which enemy fleet is threatening Cyprus when Othello is dispatched there?
The Turks
The Turks: the senate sees through the Ottoman fleet's feint toward Rhodes and sends Othello to command the island's defence.
Q 08How does Othello say he won Desdemona's love, rather than by witchcraft?
By telling stories of his life
By telling stories of his life: Othello recounts how she listened to his tales of battles, captivity and travels; 'She loved me for the dangers I had passed.'
Q 09What happens to the Turkish fleet before the Venetians land on Cyprus?
A storm destroys it
A storm destroys it: a 'desperate tempest' wrecks the Turkish fleet at sea, so the Venetians land with no battle to fight.
Q 10How does Iago first bring about the new lieutenant's disgrace?
He gets him drunk and into a brawl
He gets him drunk and into a brawl: Iago plies the lieutenant with wine, has him provoked into a street fight, and Othello dismisses him after Montano is wounded.
Q 11Who finds the dropped handkerchief and hands it to Iago?
Emilia
She is Desdemona's attendant and does not know what her husband plans to do with it.
Q 12What fruit is embroidered on the handkerchief?
Strawberries
Strawberries: Iago describes it as 'a handkerchief spotted with strawberries', and critics read the red fruit on white cloth as an emblem of the bride's virginity and the wedding sheets.
Q 13Who is Bianca?
A courtesan involved with Cassio
Bianca is a courtesan involved with Cassio; Iago gets him laughing about her while Othello, eavesdropping, believes the talk is about his wife.
Q 21What is the latest year in which Othello could have been written, based on a recorded court performance?
1604
The performance appears in the accounts of Sir Edmund Tilney, Master of the Revels; the King's Men played it at court on 1 November 1604.
Q 22In what year was Othello first published, as a quarto?
1622
Othello was first published in 1622, a quarto printed for Thomas Walkley, the year before the First Folio collected it.
Q 23Roughly how many lines in the First Folio Othello are absent from the earlier quarto?
160
The Folio adds about 160 lines absent from the quarto, among them Othello's 'Pontic Sea' simile and the Willow Song scene.
Q 14How does Othello kill Desdemona?
He smothers her
He smothers her: the Folio stage direction reads 'Smothers her', and Othello presses the pillow down on her in their bed after she denies any adultery.
Q 15What rank does Othello hold when the play opens?
General
Othello is the general: the senate entrusts him with the island's defence, and his officers address him throughout simply as 'the general'.
Q 16What does Iago vow once he is exposed?
To never speak again
His vow is to never speak again: 'Demand me nothing; what you know, you know. From this time forth I never will speak word.'
Q 17How does Othello die?
He commits suicide
He commits suicide: after learning the truth Othello stabs himself with a hidden weapon and dies kissing his wife's body, 'to die upon a kiss'.
Q 18Who apprehends both Iago and Othello for the murders at the end of the play?
Lodovico
Lodovico, the envoy from the senate, strips Othello of his command, orders Iago held for torture, and closes the play promising to report 'this heavy act' to the state.
Q 19Whose 1565 collection of novellas was Shakespeare's main source for the plot?
Cinthio
Cinthio, the pen-name of Giovanni Battista Giraldi, published the tale in his Gli Hecatommithi in 1565; the same collection also supplied the story behind Measure for Measure.
Q 20How is the wife murdered in Shakespeare's source story?
Beaten with sand-filled socks
The Moor and the Ensign then bring down the bedroom ceiling to make it look like an accident.
Q 24How many quarto oaths are missing from the Folio, possibly because of the 1606 Act of Abuses?
63
There are more than a thousand other variations of wording, spelling and punctuation between the two texts.
Q 25How many lines does Iago speak, making his the larger of the play's two great roles?
1,097
Iago speaks 1,097 lines, the longest part in the play and one of the longest in all Shakespeare, ahead of Othello's own role.
Q 26Which word is used more than 40 times in the play, usually about Iago and with a double meaning?
Honest
'Honest' is used more than 40 times, mostly of 'honest Iago'; the word doubles as a patronising tag for a social inferior and a claim of truthfulness.
Q 27Which critic coined the phrase "motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity" to describe Iago?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in lecture notes of about 1818, called Iago's soliloquies 'the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity' and insisted Shakespeare could not have meant Othello to be 'a veritable negro'.
Q 28Which critic suggested in 1693 that the play should have been called "The Tragedy of the Handkerchief"?
Thomas Rymer
Thomas Rymer, in A Short View of Tragedy (1693), mocked the play's reliance on the handkerchief and drew the moral that wives should 'look well to their Linnen'.
Q 29Which visitor to London in 1600 is thought to have influenced Shakespeare's portrait of a Moor?
The ambassador of the King of Barbary
The ambassador of the King of Barbary, Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud, led a Moroccan embassy that spent about six months in London from August 1600, and Shakespeare's company performed at court during the stay.
Q 30Which actor originally played the title role for the King's Men?
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage, the King's Men's leading tragedian, created the role; a funeral elegy of 1619 lists 'the grieved Moor' among his celebrated parts.