English 12
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No warm-up. Return to your groups and
complete the close reading assignment.
Your journals are due today and we have
plenty to do before you turn them in.
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Read Iago’s soliloqy 1.3.401.
Write a loose paraphrase of this speech in your
journals.
Use natural, coloquial, modern speech.
 Avoid boring, wimpy phrases
 Avoid swear words, no matter how appropriate they
seem to Iago’s character.
 Use imaginative language
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Before the Play:
1. Dialogue excercise: Write dialogue for a scene where a lover and a friend
are discussing a girlfriend's loyalty. Add the friend trying to say the girlfriend
wants another guy
2. A slightly cut version of 1.1.74-160
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1. What is going on in these scenes? Who are these people and what are they doing?
2. Who are Roderigo and Iago? What kind of people are they? Who’s in control? What has just happened?
What about Brabantio’s daughter—how do you picture her? Why is it that neither Othello or Desdemona is
mentioned by name in this scene?
3. What sort of language does Iago use to tell Brabantio of his daughter’s elopement? On what sort of fears and
prejudices is Iago playing?
Act 1 scene 1
1. 3 questions: why do Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio hate the man they are
discussing? what reasons does Iago give for continuing to serve his master?
and What kind of person do you expect Othello to be/how do you imagine
him?
2. Summarize lines 1.1.1-73 and lines 1.1.161-206
3. Describe the hat you chose for Iago, Brabantio and Roderigo and explain
how it shows his character
Act 1 scene 2
1. Paraphrase in your journals your assigned scene (1.2.1-32, 1.2.33-64,
1.2.65-100, or 1.2.101-123)
2. Choose a hat/prop for Othello and explain how it shows his
character
Act 1 scene 3
1. prompt: What do you think about Romance?Are you ready for
Desdemona and Othello's love story to be true love or are you a
skeptic?
2. Prompt: Two modern day actors to play Desdemona and Othello
3. "Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see / She has deceived her
father and may thee" (1.3.333-4
4. Close Reading
5. Iago's Bestiary (staple into your journal)