Wood, David Houston. “‘Fluster’d with Flowing Cups’: Alcoholism, Humoralism, and the Prosthetic Narrative in Othello.” Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 4, 2009, doi:10.18061/dsq.v29i4.998.
Wood argues that Shakespeare utilizes disability as the plot driving force in within his play. Modern readers will recognize and identify Cassio’s relationship with alcohol and the effects of alcoholism. Cassio’s reaction to alcohol consumption is explicitly referred to as an “infirmity” in the play--which is on par with modern thinking of alcoholism as a disease. Furthermore, Cassio struggles remembering the details of his actions while drinking and feeling shame while dealing with the ramifications. Wood argues that Cassio’s alcohol abuse is essential to moving the plot, specifically Iago’s plot within the play. Wood writes that alcohol can manipulate emotions and this, in effect, is used by Iago to manipulate Othello’s “heroics and jealousy” (37).
