Othello
ELA 30-1
Background:
- Source: tale of passion and murderous jealousy Venetian novella “A Moorish Captain” by
Giovanbatista Giraldi Cinthio (1566)
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Shakespeare would have referenced The History & Description of Africa translated into English
around 1600 –biases, considered reliable reference
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Written ~ 1603 (first performe 1604/5) Published 1622
Themes etc:
- Bradley: [Othello] stirs… in most readers a passion of mingled love and pity which they feel for
no other hero in Shakespeare
-
Shakespeare makes us care about characters through complexities & subtleties
-
Author Jean-Paul Sartre: Shakespeare himself…does not describe from the outside; his
characters are intimately bound up with the audience. That is why his plays are the greatest
example there is of people’s theatre; in this theatre the public found and still finds its own
problems and re-experiences them (1959)
-
Understand their weakness & their strengths, their passions & their nobility
-
In our engagement in their lives and our pondering over what has gone wrong and why, we are
given the opportunity to analyze human life.
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This text provides much to ponder: nature of honor, evolution of jealousy, what a powerful and
dangerous tool language can be, the fragility of love, destructive demons of doubt and suspicion
Introduction:
- Othello is a General in the Venitian army – has recently promoted a young soldier, Cassio, to
lieutenant over the older, more experienced Iago (Char.chart)
-
Dramaturges – purpose for background info
** Keep an eye for: plant/seed motif, animal/monster imagery, jealousy, faith/trust/honesty. Have a page in
your journal for each of these items**
ACT I
Scene i
Look at language that characters use – how is Shakespeare communicating info about
characters through their speech?
1-3
Why is Roderigo upset with Iago?
4-6
How does Iago reference the elopement? What does this tell us?
7-35
What reasons does Iago give for his ill-will toward Othello? How does
Roderigo react?
** Key passage I.i.8-33** We get info on the relationships b/w characters
43-59
What is Iago’s plan? What kind of servant does Iago describe himself as?
**Key passage I.i.41-65** We get insight into Iago’s character
69-146
What is the purpose of Iago’s choice of language when speaking with
Brabantio? What is significant about Iago’s placement on stage? How has
Shakespeare characterized Iago?
How does Brabantio react to seeing Roderigo?
147-160
Iago dismisses himself? Why? (reason to Roderigo real?)
How is the audience being effected by intro’d to people to hate Othello first?
Journal 1: (personal) Describe a time you did not receive something you wanted and had to
perservere in pursuit of it.
Scene ii
Make note of Othello’s use of language in this and the next scene – how is he different than the
way that the others have characterized him?
1-12
Of whom is Iago speaking? What is revealed about his character?
13-30
What concern does Iago raise about Brabantio? How does Othello’s reaction
help to characterize him?
38
**Iago swears by Janus**
80-100
How does Brabantio say that Othello won over Desdemona? Why is
Brabantio so upset that he didn’t know of his daughter’s marriage?
**Elizabethan Rules of Marriage**
Scene iii
Make note of Othello’s use of language in this scene. Keep track of the things that may leave a
chink in Othello’s armour of confidence (Brabantio, new locale…). Write a list of animal
imagery Iago uses and in what context.
1-55
What is happening?
91-110
149-196
Othello’s address to audience and description of events. How is Brabantio
convinced? What is Roderigo’s reaction?
254-261
Affairs of state
294
What is going to happen to Desdemona? Why?
321
What is the plan?
331
What does the Duke mean by this? What is it meant to convey?
333-334
Brabantio makes a comment to Othello – what is he saying? What is
Shakespeare doing with this line?
345-425
Roderigo and Iago are left alone – what do they discuss?
347-351
What is Roderigo threatening to do and why?
353
How old is Iago? What can you infer about other characters’ ages
based on their relationships etc.
361-375
What are Iago’s opinions on fate and love?
379-382
Put money in thy purse (you can count on it) – literal parallel,
reflection on Iago’s character
385-404
What reasons does Iago give for thinking the love between Othello and
Desdemona cannot last?
411
Cuckold (bird female habit of changing mates; horned – something
thrust somewhere by use of a tool); watch for this word and references
to it (horned man) throughout play
411-415
To what is Iago refering to as ‘sport?’ What does this tell us about
him?
426-447
**Iago’s 1st soliloquay**
ACT II
Scene i
Make note of Othello’s use of language and how he speaks to/of Desdemona. These opening
Acts display for us the tragic hero in greatness. Iago develops his plan – what are his reasons
for despising Othello? Which characters is he lying to? Keep track of Iago’s use of language.
1-47
What has happened? What are the implications for the characters en route to
Cyprus?
48-51
What sort of person in Cassio?
111-114
How does this exchange between Cassio & Iago help to characterize both of
them?
116-181
Iago and Desdemona debate about relationships – in what ways is Desdemona
unlike the women of her time? What does Iago’s speeches tell us about him?
182-192 **Iago’s 2nd soliloquay** How does he plan to manipulate the
situation?
197-215
How does this exchange between Othello and Desdemona help to establish the
nature of their relationship?
218-220
Keep track of what Iago reveals to us through his asides – how is he using
language to manipulate?
234-307
Iago and Roderigo are alone again. How does he convince Roderido that
Desdemona is in love with Cassio? What do they plan? What evidence is
there that Iago is not revealing the full extent of his plan to Roderigo?
** Key passage II.i.259-282 ** Knave – practice of fraud/trickery
308-334
**Iago’s 3rd soliloquay**
Scene ii
What could be the purpose of this scene? Why would Shakespeare purposefully leave out a
party scene? How much time has passed since Othello and Desdemona were married? Keep
track of time and how much of it passes throughout the play – think about how this would
effect the characters.
Scene iii
How often is Iago referred to as honest? How would this dramatic irony effect
Shakespeare’s audience? How does it help to develop Othello as a tragic hero? Shakespeare
has established a cruel irony around who Othello chooses to trust.
7-10
Othello is wrong about Iago and right about Desdemona. This will change.
16-30
What is the difference between how Iago and Cassio talk about Desdemona?
What is the purpose of Iago speaking so crudely of her?
31-35
What does Iago prepose? What is Cassio’s response?
49-66
**Iago’s 4th soliloquay** What is his plan for Cassio?
72-105
Here, Shakespeare takes some time to establish a mood of revelry. How does
this author choice align itself with Iago’s intentions? How might these lines
effect Shakespeare’s audience?
125-136
What does Iago tell Montano?
153-180
Iago’s plan goes into action – what is the result? Do you believe that
everything is going according to Iago’s plan?
181-199
How does Othello act when he comes to break it up? How does Iago mirror
or play toward Othello?
235-261
Iago isn’t really lying at all. He tells it as it happened, but still is established
clearly as a liar and untrustworthy to the audience. How has Shakespeare
managed to create a character who is seen as a liar when he tells the truth?
265
What is Cassio’s punishment?
281-302 Why is Cassio upset? How does Cassio’s concern contrast those
of Iago? Reputation, or the way we are seen by others is an important theme
in this play, how does each character relate to this idea? What means has
Shakespeare used to establish this theme?
332-346
What does Iago advise Cassio to do?
356-382
**Iago’s 5th soliloquay**
384-403
What does Roderigo want to do? What is Iago’s reaction? What is
Roderigo’s role in Iago’s plan? What is his role in the play?
405-410
Iago has some lines alone – what is his resolve?
ACT III
Scene i
Cassio is following a Rennaissance custom of hiring musicians to awaken newlyweds after
their wedding night.
35-38
What has Cassio done? What is he hoping to achieve?
46-56
What news does Emilia bring? Here, we learn that Othello is willing to listen
to reason and trust who he has known to be good and true. That will change.
Scene ii
What is the purpose of these short scenes? What is Shakespeare doing with them?
Scene iii
This is a key scene. At the beginning of this scene, Othello is wholly in love with Desdemona,
by the end of it he is ready to murder her. How does Iago plant the seed of doubt in
Othello’s mind and how does he make it grow? How has the work Shakespeare done up to
this point make it possible for such an abrupt about-face?
1-30
What does Cassio ask of Desdemona? What is her response? How does her
vehemence play into Iago’s plans?
37-46
Iago plants the seed – very effective strategy
100-102
What is Othello saying in these lines? What is Shakespeare’s purpose with
them? Wretch – alien, forlorn Perdition – ruin
105-298
Iago develops Othello’s doubt; how? What rhetorical devices does he use
here and throughout the play to play on Othello’s insecurities?
299-317
**Othello’s 1st soliloquay** What doubts plague Othello? What is his tragic
flaw?
331
Shakespeare uses very few stage directions, and almost none that involve
props. Why this? What is the hankerchief’s significance?
333-377
Keep track of the hankerchief’s wanderings. Why is the hankerchief
important to Othello? What is its history? What does it come to represent in
the play? Watch for it throughout the play.
369-377
**Iago’s 6th soliloquay** What is his plan for the hankerchief? What does it
represent to Iago? In what ways has Iago’s possession of it changed its
significance?
385-387
Describe the state Othello is in. Othello is telling Iago something he already
knows – in what ways has Iago already used this knowledge?
411-415
What does Othello ask for? How is Shakespeare setting up a tragically ironic
interpretation of “seeing is believing?”
438-447
Othello laments how at odds he is. In what ways is his character set up to
develop this idea of contrast? How does Iago’s reaction further underlie this
idea?
450-483
Iago is the one who planted doubt in Othello’s mind, why is he now telling
Othello that he shouldn’t persue the issue? What is its result on Othello?
How is Shakespeare using rhetoric and language?
491-492
Shakespeare has Iago using a combination of lies, truth, half-truth and
omissions – what idea does this develop about the nature of language?
500-501
How does Iago’s choice of words help pave the way for Othello’s
conclusions?
502-510
In what ways has Othello’s use of language changed from Act I? Go back to
his speech about Desdemona, look at the difference in usage, structure,
content. In what ways would these changes in Othello play into an
Elizabethan audience’s expectations for him?
521
Othello kneels at Iago’s feet. What is the significance of this? What is the
purpose of Iago’s reaction? How is Shakespeare using stage direction here to
establish a change?
545-546
Hasn’t Iago now received exactly what he wanted? What is ominious about
Iago’s reply? What exactly is Shakespeare implying that Othello has aligned
himself with?
Scene iv
After such a dark, ominious scene, we are presented with the ladies and a clown. How would
this juxtaposition effect the audience – what role does dramatic irony play in tragedy?
37
Make note of Othello’s asides – what is Shakespeare’s purpose in
including them?
41-63
In what ways is Othello twisting Desdemona’s words? Keep track of how
Shakespeare questions the reality of truth in language.
92
Desdemona’s reaction clearly establishes that there has been a distinct and
abrupt change in Othello’s behavior.
116-117
What do you see as the root cause of jealousy? What is a jealous person
seeking? How has doubt changed Othello? Why has it managed to work so
well?
120-123
Emilia has a bleak outlook on men, but she’s not wrong of the men in this
play. In what ways is Emilia’s statement proven true? Make note of how
Emilia is both used and refuses to be used by her husband throughout the play.
161-175
Although Desdemona doesn’t know what’s going on, her insights into her
husband are fairly accurate and help paint a clear picture for the audience of
her impressions of Othello. Identify the different ways in which Shakespeare
has developed the idea about how people’s impressions of us effect their
interactions with us.
180-185
Here again is mention of a monster – what connotations does this word have.
To what is Emilia refering to as a monster? In what ways does such a
metaphor suit the subject?
189
Bianca is a prostitute and sometimes-lover of Cassio. What is her role in the
play?