50 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.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What phrase completes the play's full title, The Tragedy of Othello, ...?
the Moor of Venice
It is usually ranked 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
Shakespeare added the Turkish threat to Cyprus himself; his source has no war at all.
Q 03What military rank does Iago hold under Othello?
Ensign
His grudge begins when Othello promotes the aristocrat Cassio to lieutenant over him.
Q 04Whom does Othello promote to lieutenant, provoking Iago's resentment?
Cassio
Iago considers the aristocrat a less capable soldier than himself.
Q 05Who is Desdemona's father?
Brabantio
He is a Venetian senator who accuses Othello of winning his daughter by witchcraft.
Q 06Which wealthy, dissolute gentleman pays Iago to help him win Desdemona?
Roderigo
Iago eventually stabs him to death in the dark to stop him revealing the plot.
Q 07Which enemy fleet is threatening Cyprus when Othello is dispatched there?
The Turks
They feint at Rhodes first, but a storm destroys their fleet before Othello even arrives.
Q 08How does Othello say he won Desdemona's love, rather than by witchcraft?
By telling stories of his life
The senate is satisfied once Desdemona confirms she loves him.
Q 09What happens to the Turkish fleet before the Venetians land on Cyprus?
A storm destroys it
Othello orders a general celebration, which gives Iago his chance to get the new lieutenant drunk.
Q 10How does Iago first bring about the new lieutenant's disgrace?
He gets him drunk and into a brawl
Montano is injured trying to calm him, and Othello strips Cassio of his rank.
Q 11In Shakespeare's source story, by what title is the equivalent of Othello's lieutenant known?
The Corporal
Only the wife is named in the source; the other characters are simply the Moor, the Ensign and the Corporal.
Q 12Who 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 13What fruit is embroidered on the handkerchief?
Strawberries
Critics read the red fruit on white cloth as a symbol of Desdemona's virgin marriage.
Who is Bianca?
Q 21Which is the only character given a name in Shakespeare's source story?
Disdemona
Her name means "ill-omened" in Italian; the others are simply the Moor, the Ensign and the Corporal.
Q 22How 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 23What 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.
A courtesan involved with Cassio
Iago gets Cassio talking about her while Othello, listening, believes they are discussing Desdemona.
Q 15How does Othello kill Desdemona?
He smothers her
Verdi's opera restored the pillow as the murder weapon after Ducis's French adaptation had used a dagger.
Q 16Who exposes Iago's plot after Desdemona's death?
Emilia
Iago stabs her to death in the scuffle that follows.
Q 17What does Iago vow once he is exposed?
To never speak again
His refusal to explain himself led Coleridge to write of his "motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity".
Q 18How does Othello die?
He commits suicide
Lodovico then appoints Cassio as his successor and orders him to punish Iago.
Q 19Who apprehends both Iago and Othello for the murders at the end of the play?
Lodovico
He is Brabantio's kinsman and denounces Iago before leaving to tell the others what has happened.
Q 20Whose 1565 collection of novellas was Shakespeare's main source for the plot?
Cinthio
Giovanni Battista Giraldi's Gli Hecatommithi also supplied the plot of Measure for Measure.
Q 24In what year was Othello first published, as a quarto?
1622
It appeared again a year later in the First Folio, with about 160 extra lines including the Willow Song.
Q 25How many lines does the First Folio text of Othello contain that are missing from the 1622 quarto?
160
They include Othello's "Pontic Sea" speech and Desdemona's Willow Song.
Q 26How 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 27How many lines does Iago speak, making his the larger of the play's two great roles?
1,097
Only Hamlet and Richard III are longer parts in the Shakespeare canon.
Q 28Which word is used more than 40 times in the play, usually about Iago and with a double meaning?
Honest
It works both as a condescending term for a social inferior and as a claim about his truthfulness.
Q 29Which critic coined the phrase "motive-hunting of motive-less Malignity" to describe Iago?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Writing in 1818, he also argued that Shakespeare could not have conceived Othello as black.
Q 30Which critic suggested in 1693 that the play should have been called "The Tragedy of the Handkerchief"?
Thomas Rymer
He also offered the moral that good wives should "look well to their Linnen".