Comparision between old and new "Othello" stories

The Story That Started It All William Shakespeare based his play "Othello" on a story called "Hecatommithi" by Giraldi Cinthio's. This was a collection of a hundred tales that was printed in Italy in the sixteenth century. It is thought that Shakespeare read the original Italian version and got inspired to write his own. In writing his own version, Shakespeare kept most of the original ideas but also added some of his own twists. Giraldi, …

…Othello, inventing an exotic past for him and for the handkerchief, a past that makes him a romantic as well as a faithful military man (Othello) Shakespeare was remarkably faithful and superior to his source. He kept the main message of Hecatommithi but made the story more personal and deeper. In the original the reader did not even know the name of the main character, but Shakespeare gave each character a physical and psychological identity.