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Plays › The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice › Gratiano

Gratiano

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice · 19 speeches across 2 scenes

Noble Venetian and Desdemona's uncle. Arrives in Cyprus to discover Othello's tragic aftermath.

Who they are

Gratiano is a secondary nobleman who only appears in Act 5. He is Brabantio's brother and Desdemona's uncle, arriving to deliver news of Brabantio's death. His function is to witness the catastrophe, confirming identities and expressing shock, and to evoke the offstage grief of Desdemona's father.

Playing them

Gratiano should convey dignity and growing horror. As a late arrival, his confusion mirrors the audience's need for clarity. Lines should shift from cautious alarm to stunned grief, especially in the speech about Brabantio. Physicality should be restrained but urgent—the embodiment of Venetian authority confronted with chaos.

Appearance

Typically dressed as a wealthy Venetian nobleman, arriving in Cyprus with Lodovico. Dark, formal attire suggests mourning and authority.

Where they appear

Play Gratiano

Take the part and Yorick reads every other role aloud, following you line by line as you speak.

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These plays were written to be performed, not silently read. Yorick is a rehearsal app that lets you perform them: you take a part in any of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, and Yorick reads every other role aloud, listens while you speak your lines, keeps your place, and prompts you the moment you dry.

It is built for the person who has to be off book by tech week — school and college productions, community theatre, festivals, drama students and classical auditions — and for anyone who wants to hear a scene rather than skim it. Alongside the performance you get a plain-English translation of every speech, scene context, performance notes, and the ability to ask about any line and get an answer that already knows the play, the scene and who is speaking.

The text is the public-domain Cambridge/Globe edition. Translations and notes are AI-generated rehearsal aids for actors and students, not a scholarly apparatus. Yorick runs in a browser with nothing to install, and on iPhone and Android.