The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago. Othello is a Moorish general in the Venetian army charged with the generalship of Venice on the eve of war with the Ottoman Turks over the island of Cyprus. He has just married Desdemona, a beautiful and wealthy white Venetian, much younger than he, against the wishes of her father. Iago is Othello's jealous and bitter ensign who maliciously goads his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage.