Othello Setting

Want to know where Othello is set? Read on for all the details of this Venetian and Cypriot play, and see each Othello setting on the map below.

Shakespeare’s Othello is subtitled “The Moor of Venice”, and as such the play has a few scenes at the beginning set in Renaissance Venice. However, most of the play is set in Cyprus, in a selection of public places, and various places in and around a castle. In Shakespeare’s time, Cyprus was an island right on the edge of European territory  – a military post to keep an eye on the Turks, who were always ready to disrupt European trade and to fight them if necessary. Shakespeare has made the characters in Othello soldiers, and the setting in a military base is important as Shakespeare wants to make the army the play’s context.

The map below shows all the locations Shakespeare used for Othello. You can zoom in on the map for a more detailed view of an area, and click the icons on the map for more information. Text in quotation marks are the specific locations Shakespeare references in his Othello text.