{ Othello }
The Beginning of the End
The drama in Act V
I have to confess that I don’t very much enjoy
Othello as a play. I would not want to go and watch
it every night of the week because it is much too
harrowing and too intense…The human
relationships and emotions that it describes seem to
me very immediate, very timeless.
Susan Hill, novelist and radio playwright
How and why does the play evoke such reactions?
{
Dramatic Effect & Presentation
1. How is the scene presented?
2. What is the effect of the scene on your thoughts and
feelings as you read it/see it performed?
3. How is your reaction relevant to the rest of the play?
}
{
How is the scene presented?
Through “Dramatic Effects” i.e. Things which happen
on stage which grab your attention and evoke
reactions
 Lighting
 Music
 Staging
 Texture of the
 Costume
 Actor’s appearances
 Gesture and action
language
}
{
Act 5, Scene 1
}
 Setting: Cyprus, A street
 A public place in which a bloody murder attempt is
about to occur
 The collision of the private and public worlds of
Othello
 The very streets that Othello is supposed to govern has
now become the backdrop for a murder that he has
‘commissioned’ because of his apparent personal
tragedy
{
Act 5 Scene 1
}
Cassio: O help, ho! Light! A surgeon!
Lodovico: Two or three groan. It is a heavy night.
Gratiano: Here’s one comes in his shirt, with light
and weapons.
Iago: Kill men i’th’dark? Where be these bloody
thieves?
{
Setting & Atmosphere
}
 Set in darkness
 The action and busy movement of this scene contrasts
and picks up the pace from the quiet passivity of
previous ‘Willow’ scene i.e. Scene 3, of Act 4
 Noise, confusion, rapid movement, murder
 Begins with conspiratorial whispering; and ends with a
brutal murder
{
Dramatic Effect
 Sense of foreboding from Act 4 develops
 Fearful for Cassio, trepidation at what is to
happen
 Anticipation and anxiety at whether Iago
manages to deceive Gratiano and Lodovico
}
{
Relevance to the rest of the play?
Plot — deliberate sequence of
events bound up to form the
structure
 The darkest point of Iago’s
deception
 Darkness is symbolic of the
moral tone
 But also the beginning of
restoration
 Both discernment and
ignorance
}
Lodovico:
 “These may be counterfeits.
Let’s think it unsafe
to come in to the cry without
more help.”
 [Othello’s ancient]…a very
valiant fellow.
{
Act 5 Scene 1
}
Othello:
‘Tis he! – O brave Iago, honest and just, That hast
such noble sense of thy friend’s wrong!
Thou teachest me. Minion, your dear lies dead,
And your unblest fate hiest. Strumpet, I come.
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are
blotted;
Thy bed, lust-stain’d shall with lust’s blood be spotted.
Dramatic Language
How does Shakespeare linguistically characterize his
tragic hero, Othello?
Often speaks in poetic verse that is hyperbolic (i.e.
language that is deliberately extravagant for dramatic
effect)
“Not I; I must be found. / My parts, my title, and my
perfect soul / Shall manifest me rightly.” (Act 1 Sc 2,
p.17)
Tragic fall of Othello dramatised through
verbal mutation – note changes in tone
“Not I; I must be found. / My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
/ Shall manifest me rightly.” (Act 1 Sc 2, p.17)
“O, blood, blood, blood!” (Act 3 Sc 3, p.143)
“I will chop her into messes. Cuckold me!” (Act 4 Sc 1, p.185)
“Roast me in sulphur. / Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid
fire. / O Desdemona! Desdemona! Dead!” (Act 5 Sc 2, p.249)
“Then must you speak / Of one that loved not wisely, but too
well; / Of one, not easily jealous, but being wrought / Perplexed
in the extreme” (Act 5 Sc 2, p. 253)
{
}
Concerns
A black / white opposition at all levels:
Poetically— through language used
Morally; religiously
Culturally; ethnically
Symbolically linked to:
Heaven and Hell, Love and Hate
{
}
Movement and Positioning
’Tis he! O brave Iago, honest and just,
That hast such noble sense of thy friend’s wrong,
Thou teachest me... Strumpet, I come.
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted:
They bed lust-stained shall with lust’s blood be spotted.
[Exit Othello]
Brief entrance
Serves as a painful reminder that Othello is a party in the treachery.
{
}
Significance to the play
Character Development
 His direct involvement in the attempted murder.
 Reiterates his moral depravity.
 The brief moment on stage crystallizes the fall of the
tragic hero.
{
Costume
}
Cassio:
That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
But that my coat is better than thou know’st.
I will make proof of thine.
 The revelation of this detail provides a sense of relief.
 Cassio is protected (and armed).
{
Significance to the play
}
Thematic Concerns
 Fate/coincidences are no longer in Iago’s favour.
 Is fate malignantly toying man?
 Or has it been independent of Iago’s schemes all along?
 Is fate a cause of the tragedy?
Iago:
{Gesture and Action}
Who’s there? Whose noise is this that cries on murder?
Did not you hear a cry?
What’s the matter?
[about Bianca]
Look you pale, mistress?
Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?...
Nay, guiltiness will speak
Though tongues were out of use.
{Significance to the play }
Dramatic Structure/Conventions
 Clearly feigning ignorance and concern.
 His recurring trickery frustrates and infuriates the audience.
 However, in Act 5, he no longer has full mastery over the situation
even though
“This is the night
That either makes me, or fordoes me quite.”
(Act 5, Scene 1, 129-130)
 Order is slowly restored in the play.
 Elizabethan dramatic convention
{
}
DRAMATIC
STRUCTURE
 Framing/Symmetry within the play
 Echoes of
events/language/behaviour
Dramatic Structure—Identifying the Patterns
Act I
Act II
Act III
Mostly public scenes
involving men
Othello’s public role as
general  highly reputed,
regarded and desired
Chaos is mediated through
social institutions and order
Act V
Moves towards resolution of
the tragedy
Temptation scene
Introduces characters and
central conflict
Act IV
Significant number of private
scenes involving women
Crumbling of Othello’s
private then public identities
Chaos takes centre-stage –
overturning of social and
moral order
{
}
Parallels between ‘Fight scenes’
 Othello’s few moments at the scene of Cassio’s injury take
the mind of the audience back to his intervention—
 In the brawl that led to Cassio’s dismissal in Act 2, Scene 3
{ Character Developments}
Act 2, Scene 2
 A majestic, authoritative figure
Act 5, Scene 1
 A thief in the night, degraded
to a mere conspirator
 Lording it over everybody and
 Remaining concealed from
 Sonorous, grand use of
 Strident, contemptible words
everything around him by
virtue of his mere presence
language speech
view while he relishes Iago’s
treacherous attempt on
Cassio’s life
{Texture of language}
Act 2, Scene 3
Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this?
Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
Act 5, Scene 1
… Minion, your dear lies dead,
And your unblest fate hies.
{
}
What words critically stand out?
Othello:
‘Tis he! O brave Iago, honest and just,
That hast such noble sense of thy friend’s
wrong, // Thou TEACHEST me.
Irony
Iago was not brave, but lurking in the background, ordering
Roderigo
{
Pace and Character
Development
}
 Cumulative listing of Iago’s attributes
 Rapid and horrifying chain of events—shocking
 Pace—Heightens dramatic irony, intensifying dramatic
tension, makes the play riveting
 Also, a great sense of pathos—sympathy and sorrow at
Othello’s now perverted and debased mind
 Where good values have been transformed into bad,
where evil now seems right
{
}
Iago and ironic comedy
 In Iago’s question to Cassio:
O my lieutenant, what villains have done this?
 Touch of ironic comedy
 Audience members can imagine the satisfaction the use of the
word ‘lieutenant’ must give Iago in this context.
 Resurfaces the issue of Iago’s malicious malignancy and his
original intent
{Iago’s concluding Aside}
This is the night
That either makes me, or fordoes me quite
 Prompting the audience to think back to Iago’s initial words
to Roderigo (now dead) at the beginning of this scene:
It makes us, or it mars us; think on that…
What will be Iago’s fate?
{Asides and Soliloquies}
 Dramatic conventions/license
 Moments of introspection—we are to assume that the character
is speaking to himself
 NOT intended for the audience in Jacobean conventions (but
modern interpretations read into the self-consciousness)
{ Relevance to the play }
 Iago’s aside gives us privy to his thoughts
 Shows awareness of him scheming and being aware of
the consequences
 Dawns upon us that Iago is fallible
 Iago becomes more developed as a character, no longer
just evil personified but a fallen man, much like
Othello.
{ All Drama is Conflict.}
Conflict:
Opposition between characters or forces in
a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition
that motivates or shapes the action of the plot.
Characterization is part of the
coherent realisation of the text and
its themes.
{Discussing Character and Conflict }
Within a
character
Iago’s
malignancy and
moments of
moral
consciousness
Between
characters
Power play
between
Iago and Othello/
Roderigo
Between
individuals
and society
Men and
women, and
their place in
society
Between
greater
powers
Fate and
free will
{Relationships}
 How are relationships between characters presented to
the audience?
 How do there relationships shed light on the issues of
the Individual and Society?
 Consider relationships between male characters and
female ones
{Othello’s Suicide}
 Consider Othello’s suicide: final and ultimate act of
exclusion from society and the society at large
 Filled with pathos and tragic poignancy at this inability
to assimilate completely into the Venetian society and
as his role as a husband
{ In conclusion…}
Act 5, Scene 1
 Darkness broken by moving lights
 Confused and rapid action
 Agitated questioning and discussion
 A dramatic effect—It contrasts with the eerie quietness
that will shroud the beginning of Act 5, Scene 2
{ Take-aways }
 Key concerns and dramatic features of Act 5, Scene 1
 Elements of dramatic presentation
 How to respond to questions pertaining to dramatic
presentation
Othello
In the Context of
The Individual and the Society
Important Considerations
 The society in the dramatic world of
Othello
Characteristics of the Venetian society
Social expectations
Stereotypes
Roles & expectations of the society on various
individuals – men/women, soldiers, wives
 Social strata/ social hierarchy
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Important Considerations
 The individual in the society
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Who are these individuals?
Othello – main protagonist
Iago – central antagonist
Desdemona, Bianca, Emilia – women in the play
Cassio
Roderigo
 What is the nature of
 the interaction between the individual and the
Venetian society
 the relationship between individual and the society,
and its significance?
 What is the nature of conflicts between
individual and his/her environment?
 What are the influencing factors, the
nature of the resolution, the outcomes
and the significance of the dramatic
presentation?
 How does the individual’s identity,
role, purpose and place in society
become defined and developed?
 What limitations and/or possibilities
does the individual face?
 To what extent does society influence these
limitations and possibilities or opportunities?
 To what extent are these influenced by the
individual’s decisions?
 To what extent and in what ways
does the individual shape society, and
vice versa?
 Does the individual transcend society?
Relationship between
the Individual and Society
The Individual
-Displacement & Rootedness
-Isolation & Assimilation
-Duty & Desire
-Conformity & Difference
-Otherness
Relationship between
the Individual and Society
The Society
-Societal expectations & roles
-Shapes and defines the individual with
the following:
Expectations of Paper
Demonstrate understanding of these
concepts through showing how
dramatic techniques present the
individual, the society and/or their
relationship.