Learner Resource 2
Scenic Structure
In your Othello exam, as well as analysing the extract you are given closely, you will need to
discuss it in the context of the play as a whole. Having a firm grip on the play’s structure, in
the sense of how its individual scenes work and how they relate to each other, will enable
you to do this effectively.
As you read through Othello, use the table below to make brief notes on what you think
Shakespeare was trying to achieve in each scene (some suggestions for the first two scenes
have been provided for you, though you may want to add points of your own). The blank
boxes between the ‘scene’ boxes are for notes on the relationships between scenes - you
are looking for points of similarity or contrast. Though it is impossible to be sure of a writer’s
precise intentions, speculating about these will also encourage you to consider
Shakespeare’s characters as constructs, or inventions created through language, rather than
as real people.
Points to consider:

Where set (Venice? Cyprus? Inside? Outside)?

Time of day?

Who is present/absent?

Who dominates?

Mood?

What key aspects of character/motivation are revealed?

How are relationships represented/developed?

Key points in the action?

Key aspects of language?
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Scene 1 (the ‘exposition’)
Act 1

Play opens in Venice: establishes Othello’s host culture.

Scene set on the street, at night: suggests menace.

Iago dominates scene and Roderigo: suggests his desire for/ability
to maintain power over others.

Iago’s antipathy for Othello and Cassio established immediately:
creates dramatic tension as the audience are made aware of the
potential for conflict.

Iago revealed as a mischief-maker: tries to rouse Brabantio
against Othello.

We learn a lot about Othello (including his relationship with
Desdemona) but he doesn’t appear in this scene: tantalises the
audience.

We learn about Othello only through the negative accounts of
Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio (his name is never used): hints at
his potential vulnerability.

Coarse sexual language, often involving animals (‘tupping’, ‘a
Barbary horse’), establishes a mood of cynicism in relation to sex.

Racist language used to refer to Othello (‘the Moor’, ‘the thick lips’,
‘an old black ram’) foregrounds an aspect of his ‘otherness’.
The direct juxtaposition of the ‘two Iagos’ (the openly malicious and the
ostensibly honourable) in these two sequential scenes establishes
dramatic tension from the beginning of the play: how will this duplicity play
out?
Iago dominates the first scene and Othello the second: at this point they
seem tensely, but equally matched.
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Scene 2

Othello’s first entrance, ‘with attendants’: suggests his high status.

Othello enters with Iago: a visual shock: contradicts the
sentiments Iago expresses in the first scene.

Iago’s duplicity is revealed in the first speech; audience is aware
of this but Othello isn’t (dramatic irony); again, hints at Othello’s
potential vulnerability.

Othello reveals that he’s of royal birth: contributes to audience’s
impression of his status.

It becomes evident that Othello is highly valued by the State of
Venice for his military prowess: status again.

Othello is dignified, courteous and controlled: audience is
persuaded that he may be a match for Iago.
Scene
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