The Turkish army is destroyed by a storm so they quickly become irrelevant to the plot and all of the sudden there becomes a lot of free time for all of these soldiers. Cassio apparantly has been spending much of his free time with a courtesan (an intelligent, upscale prostitute) named Bianca.
The last few days I happen to have been spending a lot of my time memorizing lines from scenes between Cassio and Bianca. It's a fascinating relationship. Bianca is clearly in love with Cassio. Cassio likes Bianca but he certainly is embarrassed to show it in front of his friends. During one encounter with her, he is trying to get her to leave and says:
I do attend here on the general;
and think it no addition nor my wish,
to have him see me woman'd.
When Iago says that he hears that Cassio is going to marry Bianca, Cassio replies:
I marry her! what? A customer! Prithee bear some
charity to my wit: do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, Ha, Ha!
So on the one hand, it appears that he is just toying her along. He even says to Iago that he "must leave her company." But there are other times where it appears that he could have real have feelings for her.
Terms Cassio calls Bianca -
Sweet
Sweet Love
Sweet Bianca
Most fair Bianca
(some of these he uses multiple times)
The character Bianca appears in three scenes, all of which are in the 2nd half of the play, and she is playing off Cassio the entire time but she seems a much bigger character. Part of this is probably because Iago craftily uses the relationship to his own benefit. However, the point is that Cassio says an awful lot of sweet things to Bianca in a relatively short amount of dialogue with her... but he also says some not so sweet things. Their first encounter together actually seems to be a bit of comic relief for the audience. Bianca and Cassio read almost like a nagging wife and an insensitive husband a la Edith and Archie Bunker or Peg and Al Bundy.
So one of three things might be going on here...
1) Cassio considers her a convenience (both sexually and in other regards) and he talks a really good game in order to keep her from complaining. When she becomes too much of a nuisance, he talks of leaving her.
2) He actually likes her but he is embarrassed by the fact that he has feelings for a courtesan so he acts one way around his comrades and another way around her. I'm not supposed to fall for a girl like that. I'm supposed to fall for someone like Desdemona.
3) None of the above.
Possibilities 1 and 2 certainly aren't outside the realm of humanity. I think we see people embody possibilities 1 and 2 all of the time. I put option 3 out there because it isn't my job to make this decision right now. I need to see how the rehearsal process goes before coming up with the final answer... and it is probably that the final answer is something I haven't even thought of yet. Why? Because I'm not acting in a bubble... I'm acting with other people... so what they do must and will influence what I do... and vice versa. But, it's fun to think about since I have been spending time with these scenes.
Bianca really has a great moment in Act 5. Cassio gets attacked and he is injured pretty badly. She comes running out and it has what appears to be such a pure, loving concern for him. It kind shines when set against all of the jealousy, violence, lying, and schemeing.
Side note:
Those of you who have had me in acting class know that much of the acting technique that we center our work on was crafted from the works of Constantin Stanislavski. Here's a picture of Stanislavski (in some sort of make-up to darken his face) playing Othello in 1896.
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