Lolita AOU English http://lolita-aou.blogspot.com Twitter https://twitter.com/Lolita_AOU Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lolita.aou Instagram http://instagram.com/lolita_aou Chapter 1 Introduction to Part 1 The word 'Renaissance' means 'rebirth'; it refers to a cultural and educational movement which began in Italy in the fourteenth century and was dedicated to the revival in Europe of the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. - In England during the Renaissance the most remarkable outpouring of literary creativity took place in the theatre. Treatment of love and death These two themes provide profitable angles from which to view the literature of the Renaissance (this is shown in Othello, tragedy) OTHELLO is a tragedy. Tragedy is a rather slippery literary term which tends to change its meaning in different historical periods. Tragedies end with the death of the protagonist, who in Renaissance drama is usually a man of high birth and exceptional abilities. The death of the tragic protagonist is brought about by a conflict: tragedies stage a conflict between a remarkable individual — the tragic hero - and some powerful shaping force — fate, God, established authority — which limits his aspirations and finally destroys him. Context: Elizabethans and Jacobeans lived in a society that was highly stratified, where political power was concentrated in the hands of the monarch and a small ruling elite, and where authorities liked to preach the virtues of 'knowing your place' in the social hierarchy. This play suggests that tragedies in general fulfilled an important social and political function in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England, staging widespread communal tensions and anxieties generated by the society in which they were written. Othello is examined by the conventions of revenge tragedy. It also has another subgenre, the domestic tragedy, so-called because its focus is the domestic sphere, the realm of the family and marriage. The theme of love: Othello is a tragedy concerned with love. Othello concerned with married love, in which sexual desire plays a crucial part. What a marriage ought to be: Tragedies in this period focus on the upper classes, and it was this social group that was most preoccupied with marriage as an economic and political transaction between families, in which the wishes and feelings of the bride and groom meant little. But by the sixteenth century, this idea had to compete with other powerful cultural trends, such as the Protestant view that marriage constituted the fount of human happiness and so needed to be based upon mutual affection and desire if it was to fulfil its exalted purpose. Othello is informed by such contemporary questions and debates about the nature and function of marriage. Marriage for love in this play involves not just defying familial authority but marrying outside one's race or class. This love matches, with their bold challenges to social norms and expectations, prove to be desperately fragile, either because of their own internal weaknesses or because of external pressures. Unable to trigger the happy resolution, they mark instead the start of a tragic cycle of decline culminating in death. The treatment of the themes of love and death in this Renaissance tragedy ___________________________________________ Introduction Love, and the impediments to love, makes up one of the great themes of literature. In Othello the love of the two characters at its centre is met by jealousy, hate, treachery and finally death. ___________________________________________ Reading the play Act 1, Scene 1: making a start Full title: The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice. - A tragedy: the term signified a play involving the death of a great or noble person - The main character, or tragic hero, is called Othello, who is a Moor. The Moors were the Muslim inhabitants of North Africa, mainly Morocco and Algeria. - The term 'blackamoor' came to be used derogatorily of any person considered black-skinned. ___________________________________________ Activity 1 (read the Questions in your book) للفهم Roderigo is dependent on lago, who has been using his money for some purpose not yet made clear, lago also appears to rely on Roderigo in some way. lago has been passed over for promotion ('election' (i. 26)), and consequently feels both angry and humiliated. This is perhaps the most obviously important thing to emerge from the opening moments of the play. lago's tone is sarcastic or mocking, and hardly respectful. When you think that he is apparently referring to his army superior as 'his Moorship', a pun on 'his worship', you can see that he is undermining the conventional sense of the term for someone of higher status. We have been prepared for some kind of conspiracy and disruption -we gather one has already been set afoot - as lago eggs Roderigo on to 'incense' Brabantio (I. 69), who is 'her' father (we do not know who 'she' is yet). ___________________________________________ Roderigo addresses lago as 'thou', while lago uses the 'you' form of the personal pronoun to Roderigo. - That is, lago addresses Roderigo in the polite form, as someone of an inferior rank should (he also calls him 'sir'), while at the same time it becomes clear that lago is actually the dominant force in these exchanges, which have to do with some kind of betrayal regarding Roderigo's money. lago's behaviour and character traits: lago seems to be adept at manipulating those around him, and his expression of resentment at being passed over by 'his Moorship' highlights his disdain, as well as his verbal inventiveness. Shakespeare shows this by contrasting lago's quickness with Roderigo's brief and rather dim responses. From the start, then, lago seems to be presented to us as a bluff and somewhat cynical soldier, who sets up the duffer Roderigo to play a prank on old Brabantio. We are also led by the opening speeches to appreciate lago's alertness, and his readiness to attack those who he believes have been given preference over him — notably Cassio. Cassio is referred to as an 'arithmetician' (1. 18), meaning someone who knows about the abstract theory of war rather than the practicalities of soldiering — which Iago suggests he himself is skilled in, and therefore more deserving of advancement. The dismissive, alliterative phrase 'Mere prattle without practice' (1. 25) is memorable, sounding like a cleverly damning remark about Cassio, the Florentine (citizen of Florence). Since lago's language is at times quite complex and obscure, is that this obscurity in itself seems to be an aspect of Shakespeare's characterisation of him. 'I am not what I am' (11. 43-65). - He is someone who seems to be saying he will not show everyone who and what he is, thereby pursuing his 'peculiar end' (1. 60), that is, his own specific aims and ambitions 'I am not what I am' is a key remark, coming at the end of a speech in which, through a variety of expressions, Iago has effectively announced the kind of person he is: by his wit and energy he invites us to admire him before we realise what the outcome of his behaviour might be. Such speeches do much more than simply engage us with the plot. How devious Iago is, and also how cleverly he manages to project himself and to dominate Roderigo, how manipulative he is. What is Iago saying when he opposes the 'native act and figure of my heart' to 'outward action' (11. 62, 61)? Simply put, he is saying that if his outward behaviour were to become a reflection of his innermost feelings and intentions, then he would in effect be wearing his heart on his sleeve, 'For daws to peck at' (1. 65); that is, dangerously exposing his inner self to everyone. The familiar proverbial expression 'wearing your heart on your sleeve' is itself a figurative or metaphorical way of putting it. Figurative language is language used in a non-literal way. No one ever really wears their heart on their sleeve; what the expression conveys is how it can feel to open one's heart to others unreservedly. Shakespeare uses a proverbial expression at this point in the play to convey to his audience an important feature of Iago's character: that he is intent on hiding his inner self from others. The opening, or exposition of the play: there is a racist element in Iago's repeated references to Othello not by name but as 'the Moor', the negative undertones of which are immediately picked up by Roderigo when he refers coarsely to 'the thick-lips' (1. 66), a remark that we find Brabantio repeating later in the scene. These are hints of what will become increasingly evident: that 'the Moor' is being identified as an outsider by these Venetians, as someone different in ways that will be exploited later. ___________________________________________ The entrance of Othello The play starts in Venice, the great centre of civilisation of the time in Europe, and a city state at the heart of a vast commercial empire reliant on military strength drawn where necessary from outsiders and mercenaries like Othello. Othello is called a domestic tragedy precisely because its action remains strictly within this domestic sphere. ___________________________________________ Activity 2 = important about race and the close reading The language used by lago and Roderigo as they try to provoke Brabantio: the imagery in lines 86-116 Discussion The imagery and figurative language is extremely unpleasant; a register of animalistic sexual activity which, you may have observed, is first introduced by lago and then picked up by Roderigo. lago suggests to Brabantio that 'an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe' (1.1.88-9). As Neill points out: the ram was associated with lust and sexual potency, its blackness here additionally associating it with a traditional image of the devil. The allusion to Othello as 'old' - the first of several hints to the effect that he is substantially older than his wife. Othello's race is being connected - through Shakespeare's use of a metaphor - with rampant sexuality, darkness and evil. Metaphors establish an identity between two apparently dissimilar things: Othello is identified with an 'old black ram', Desdemona with a 'white ewe' and the sexual act with 'tupping', or animal intercourse (1.1.88, 89). lago uses language to suggest that Brabantio's daughter is being sexually defiled and worse: she has not simply been stolen or abducted; rather, she is, according to his fevered imagination, being 'covered' by a 'Barbary horse' (1.1.111), the word 'Barbary' referring to North Africa. lago makes a bad joke out of these implications by remarking that the resulting progeny will be 'nephews [who] neigh to you' (1.1.112). ___________________________________________ This thread of inflammatory suggestion is then picked up by Roderigo, who exclaims that Brabantio's daughter is subject to 'the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor' (1.1.125). The alliteration in Roderigo's phrasing: the V sounds adding to the resonance of his utterance, encouraging the actor almost to spit the words out in disgust. This emphasises the unpleasantness of 'lascivious' in particular, a word which reinforces the association of Moors with unbridled sexuality. Iago's way of representing love: love for him means animal lust, and when it combines with the idea of racial difference, the standard imagery of racial hatred taken to an extreme, to violence, is very near the surface. The potential for violence and intrigue generated by lago and Roderigo at the start of the play is contrasted with and opposed by the order and control invoked by the older Venetian. ___________________________________________ Othello's language = important Othello says that his services 'Shall out-tongue his complaints' (1.2.19). This is a striking metaphor that conveys in a vivid and compact way that his known virtues and achievements shall speak more loudly than Brabantio's accusations. His origins, he says, are 'royal' (1.2.22). He says it would be boasting to announce his royal status publicly, yet it is a part of what counteracts the accusations that might be made against him. The love theme is introduced at this point, as we learn of Othello's love for Desdemona, who is also now named for the first time. Feature of his language: the high-flown, daring comparisons that signal a man of large scope and imagination. It becomes even clearer as the play proceeds that Othello's language has a rhythm and idiom that contrasts sharply with those of many of the characters around him, not merely with Iago. His characteristic rhetoric gives an impression of space and vastness; this is conveyed here by the use of pairs of joined nouns or adjectives which are variations on the same meaning, such as 'circumscription and confine' (1.2.27). 'very noble and approved good masters' (1.3.78) and 'the flinty and steel couch' (1.3.229). The word 'unhoused'. Why is this so striking? As Neill notes, this word describing Othello's 'condition' reflects the fact that he is not a citizen of Venice, unlike the firmly 'housed' Brabantio: he is a soldier employed by the state. The main characters in this play are all to a greater or lesser extent loosed from the ties of property, being soldiers, mercenaries or their womenfolk; and all will move further away from 'home' as the setting changes to Cyprus. What Othello's speech also begins to reveal is how his sense of who he is comes from a profound sense of his difference from those around him, in a number of ways: as we have just seen, 'free' is a hint of his awareness that he was once a slave. It feels quite natural that he should use the imagery of the sea: it is, after all, a sea-bound republic that he serves, and he will soon be upon the seas again. (later speeches in the play, it is characteristic of Othello to create an image of himself as linked to the forces of nature - sea and sky and deserts and mountains — rather than to the order and manners of the city and civilisation. ___________________________________________ Act 1, Scene 3: a lover's 'music'? Othello's calm and majestic appearance: the appearance of the protagonist, his noble manner of speech and action. Othello can be played as mannered and self-regarding, or foolish, almost petty. It is important to notice that in his defence against Brabantio's charges, Othello launches into a powerful and dignified speech that, if anything, amplifies our growing sense of the importance of the position he holds in the Venetian republic. At the same time, we are introduced to what has been aptly called 'the Othello music' — a phrase first introduced by the Shakespearean critic G. Wilson Knight as a way of describing Othello's characteristically heroic mode of speech 'Most potent, grave, and reverend signors' (1.3.77) begins the first of Othello's truly grand speeches, followed by his account of wooing Desdemona, referred to already (1.3.128-70). The claim that he lacks eloquence ('Rude am I in my speech' (1.3.82)) is the conventional modest disclaimer, but also a reminder that he is a soldier, not accustomed to matters of domestic interest such as love and marriage — a lack of experience that we may feel turns out to have fatal consequences. Then he launches into his defence against Brabantio's repeated charge of abduction through witchcraft or magic. ___________________________________________ Activity 4 Othello character What emerges about the presentation of Othello's character from his defence (which is also his life story)? And what clues do we have about the nature of Desdemona? Consider both her father's and her husband's remarks about her in this part of the scene. Discussion How much deeper and broader is Othello's life experience and history than that of the Venetians around him, including lago. He has passed a lifetime of action in the field and had wild adventures in strange and unknown regions. What he says about his earlier life of adventure in 'deserts idle' and of 'hairbreadth scapes' from battle (1.3.140, 136) gives us glimpses of a life led far away, subject to circumstances the Venetians around him would not know of, including of course Desdemona, whom it has so impressed. The sheer richness of Othello's language is surely something that impacts upon us - not only the wonders of his exotic life story, but such phrases as 'She'd ... with a greedy ear/ Devour up my discourse' (1.3.149-50). Some soldier, this, and hardly an 'unvarnished' tale that he tells (as he claimed in line 91), either about himself or about how he impressed Desdemona. Desdemona, in her father's eyes, is a 'maiden never bold' (1.3.95), the epitome of feminine modesty. To Othello, she seemed somewhat more forward than her father's view, giving him hints, he says, of her willingness to be wooed. At the very least, his account of his life, and the range of wonderful, exotic creatures he has come across, from cannibals to 'Anthropophagi' (1.3.144), seem designed to intrigue his listeners, if not bewitch Desdemona It feels both moving and natural that a young woman who has been kept closely confined by her father, and certainly has had the limited life experience of a patrician female, should love Othello 'for the dangers' he 'had passed', and for him to love her 'that she did pity them' (1.3.167—8). Desdemona has been ventriloquised by Othello at the end of his long speech, but she can and does speak for herself too, rather crucially, in this early scene. Her speech in response to the Duke's somewhat ham-fisted attempts to reconcile the parties creates for her a space in the audience's feelings, and one she begins to occupy with increasing strength. Here is a woman in love, who has been fascinated by the exotic stranger, whom she will follow to Cyprus whatever her father or the Duke may say. Desdemona's responses in Act 1, Scene 3 are unquestionably powerful —which stressed her frailty and innocence rather than her challenging quality. This is defiant compared with her more careful, and carefully judged, reaction to her father's call on her loyalties, when she explains that the duty she owed him she now must, like her mother before her, transfer to her chosen husband (1.3.180— 8) And this is despite her insistence (as if to meet any racist implications) that she saw Othello's 'visage in his mind' (1.3.250). This wife wants to be with her husband, in every sense. Marrying Desdemona takes him into intimate connection with Venice, whereas before he was their admired mercenary quite a different relationship. ___________________________________________ Discordance: lago's first soliloquy As the major characters have been introduced, and their interaction developed, we have also been introduced to the variety of perceptions and significances that enrich the theme of love in the play. That death is to follow is anticipated by the final exchanges of Act 1, Scene 3 between Roderigo and Iago, which set in motion the counter-movement leading in the final fatal direction of the tragedy. Brabantio's warning to Othello will echo throughout what follows: 'She has deceived her father, and may thee' (1.3.291). In many of Shakespeare's plays, there is an opposing voice, acting as a kind of foil to the hero. In Othello, this role is played by Iago. Iago is not interested in how anybody else sees love, reducing even Desdemona's love for Othello to the level of simple physical gratification: 'when she is sated with his body she will find the errors of her choice' (1.3.343—4). The belief that there is something more than bodily satisfaction in love presents a challenge to the brutal view of life he endorses, which is, we presume, one reason why he must undermine the idea of love as more than merely a matter of physical attraction whenever he can. Soliloquy — one of the most important techniques of the early modern theatre. Activity 5 The function of lago's soliloquy Discussion It reveals to us lago's motivation and his plan to use Cassio to bring Othello down. Iago exposes his hatred for Othello, and the fact that he thinks Othello has cuckolded him (that is, slept with his wife Emilia). His plan is to use Othello's 'free and open nature' (1.3.388) and Cassio's smooth appearance and manners against them. we are surely drawn into sharing his viewpoint and inner thoughts, maybe even to feeling complicit with his plotting. ___________________________________________ Soliloquies and asides — encourage us to share that character's viewpoint, potentially to sympathise with them, but not necessarily to agree with what they say. lago's soliloquy certainly seems aimed at making us co-conspirators. Iago resents Othello's choice of Cassio for his lieutenant; now he appears to find another motive for hating him -his fear that Othello has cuckolded him. Does this suggest that he is actually searching for reasons to injure Othello? Samuel Taylor Coleridge: According to Coleridge, lago was driven by his 'malignity', or pure destructive wickedness, rather than by any clear, comprehensible motive. As the play progresses and he shares his thoughts with us in subsequent soliloquies, there appear to pop into Iago's head, only to leave it again, suspicions and ideas he uses to justify his purposes. Later, he says it is Cassio's 'daily beauty' that makes him want to have him murdered (5.1.19). lago is: a devious 'machiavel', or manipulator: lago constructs plots by knowing others better than they know themselves. His words also serve to underline the contrast between himself and Othello, whose 'free and open nature' will, he says, lead him to think men 'honest that but seem to be so'. 'Honest': It picks up and ironically echoes Othello's earlier use of it to describe lago as a man of 'honesty and trust' to whom he will give the job of conducting Desdemona to Cyprus. The word is then repeated many times through the play. each time with a slightly different twist The word was used to mean honourable, trustworthy or faithful, worthy, forthright and, regarding women, chaste. Playing with the meanings of a word, often in a punning though, was much in favour at the time, especially when the word might have sexual overtones.