The play opens with Roderigo, a rich and dissolute gentleman, complaining to Iago, a high-ranking soldier, that Iago has not told him about the secret marriage between Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator named Brabantio, and Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army.

Iago hates Othello for promoting a younger man named Michael Cassio above him, and tells Roderigo that he plans to use Othello for his own advantage.

By emphasizing Roderigo's failed bid for Desdemona, and his own dissatisfaction with serving under Othello, Iago convinces Roderigo to wake Brabantio, Desdemona's father, and tell him about his daughter's elopement.

Iago schemes to use Cassio to ruin Othello and takes the opportunity of Othello's absence at the celebration to persuade Roderigo to engage Cassio in a fight.

Roderigo complains that he has received nothing for his efforts and threatens to abandon his pursuit of Desdemona, but Iago convinces him to kill Cassio instead, because Cassio has just been appointed governor of Cyprus, and — Iago argues — if Cassio lives to take office, Othello and Desdemona will leave Cyprus, thwarting Roderigo's plans to win Desdemona.

Roderigo attacks Cassio in the street after Cassio leaves Bianca's lodgings.

When Cassio identifies Roderigo as one of his attackers, Iago secretly stabs Roderigo to stop him from confessing.

Brabantio, Roderigo, and several minor characters are not found in Cinthio, for example, and Shakespeare's Emilia takes part in the handkerchief mischief while her counterpart in Cinthio does not.

Roderigo calls Othello ' the thicklips ', which seems to refer to European conceptions of Sub-Saharan African physiognomy, but Honigmann counters that, as these comments are all intended as insults by the characters, they need not be taken literally.

He has an ally, Roderigo, who assists him in his plans in the mistaken belief that after Othello is gone, Iago will help Roderigo earn the affection of Othello's wife, Desdemona.

Iago then engineers a fight between Cassio and Roderigo in which the latter is killed ( by Iago himself, double-crossing his ally ), but the former merely wounded.

John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970 ) was an American novelist and artist.

The younger Dos Passos received a first-class education, enrolling at The Choate School ( now Choate Rosemary Hall ) in Wallingford, Connecticut in 1907 under the name John Roderigo Madison, then traveling with a private tutor on a six-month tour of France, England, Italy, Greece, and the Middle East to study the masters of classical art, architecture, and literature.

The Porter scene in Macbeth, the grave-digger scene in Hamlet and the gulling of Roderigo provide immense comic relief.

Another tale says it was named by Roderigo Lopez, the first mate of José Gaspar ( Gasparilla ), after his beautiful lover Sanibel whom he had left behind in Spain.

Other works included playing the role of Roderigo in Othello at a local drama production.

Trials in this hall have included those of Anne Askew ( Protestant martyr ), Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Lady Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley, Thomas Cranmer, Henry Peckham, John Daniel, John Felton ( Catholic ), Roderigo Lopez, Henry Garnet ( in connection with the Gunpowder Plot ), Sir Gervase Helwys ( in connection with the Overbury plot ) and it contains memorials to Pitt the Elder, Pitt the Younger, Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, William Beckford, and Winston Churchill.

Scene 4 — The Cardinal ’ s apartments in Milan: The Cardinal enters, trying to dissuade Pescara, Malateste, Roderigo and Grisolan from staying to keep watch over Ferdinand.

Brabantio makes his first appearance in 1. 1 when Iago and Roderigo rouse him with the news that Desdemona has eloped.

) After smashing Tom on the head with a hammer and tying him in a bag, the two henchmen, dimwitted Gonzorgo and silent Roderigo, pass by a gypsy camp.

Gonzorgo and Roderigo return and tell Mary, Barnaby, and the citizens of Mother Goose Land that Tom has accidentally drowned.