J1Promotional Examination 2012
Literature Paper 3
• Othello the Moor of Venice
Literature Paper 3
• The Individual and Society
• From Act 1 up to end of Act 5;
• Choice of one of two essay questions
Reading, and Readings of Othello;
Interpretations of the play
Different schools of literary-critical thought:
• Marxist, Feminist, Post-Structuralist
• Psychoanalytic; Formalist;
• Conventional; Unorthodox; Radical
• Regurgitations of borrowed points from run
of the mill guide books
• Your own Reading / Interpretation of the
play, Othello?
Lecture Overview
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Genre: Shakespearean Tragic Drama
Concept of Tragedy and the concept of Tragic Hero
Setting, Time, Atmosphere
Critically significant Themes & Issues
Dramatis Personae: Characters and their Relationships
Plot organization and development
Dramatic Techniques re- use of Poetry and Prose;
Dramatic Techniques re Elements of Style: Analysis of
Diction, Imagery, Symbolism, Syntax, Rhythm
• Dramatic Effects
Remember, lest you forget
The essence of all drama is
CONFLICT.
Entry Point?
to the text of the play, ‘Othello’
• Through the language; (speech; dialogue)
• Always through an analysis of the choice
and form of the LANGUAGE of the play;
• The language the characters speak to each
other in speech and dialogue
Common causes / sources of
Conflict
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Money; (Money is the root of all Evil?)
Beautiful women (Desdemona)
Power; power distribution; power dynamics
Passions such as Ambition; Greed; Jealousy
Love (matters of the heart); Sex; Marriage;
Race, Religion, Ethics, and Culture
Ideology (Rival Belief and Value Systems)
Appearances, and Reality
Shakespearean Tragedy
• · Tragedy? A work of fiction that plays out before us with
implacable logic, for our moral edification;
OTHELLO — a drama of Tragedy?
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Serious consequences arise from passions that disrupt life.
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E.g. Envy, Jealousy, Resentment, lack of faith
re-persona relationships.
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Leads to the tragic death of the main character / Hero;
also the deaths of the innocent and good.
Tragic Hero
[whose situation changes from well-being to misfortune]
• A potentially noble person
• who, through some flaw in Hero’s character
(what is Othello’s tragic flaw?),
• helps to bring about his own tragic
downfall, (hamartia—tragic error / flaw)
• and who, by suffering acquires selfknowledge, and so purges his faults.
Setting: VENICE & CYPRUS
(Knowledge
of the geography of the play?)
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Venice—first Act of the play takes place
in Venice;
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16th Century, Venice—a powerful
European city-state.
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A centre of commerce & and protector
of the Christian religion against the Turks
who are regarded as infidels.
Atmosphere
e.g. the creation of an atmosphere of
INTRIGUE & EVIL:
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Notice how the play begins in darkness.
Symbolism? Symbolical significance?
Foreshadowing, as a dramatic technique
Interestingly, Acts 3 & 4 are staged in
daylight.
• Notice it is in the daylight Acts the
deception of Othello takes place. Why?
Critically significant Themes & Issues
(Central Thematic Concerns of the play):
• Love / Romance; Hate; Order & Disorder; Conflict; Change;
• Good & Evil e.g. Cruelty; Magic; Witchcraft; Superstition;
• Appearance and Reality (Deception or Deceitful Appearance,
Hypocrisy)
• Jealousy, Envy, Resentment, Reputation, Trust, Honesty,
Innocence, Credulity;
• Power, Revenge, Fate and Free Will; Racial and Cultural
differences; Miscegenation;
• Race, Colour, Alienation (Important as suggested even by the title
of the play).
• Jealousy, the dominant theme? Would you agree?
Themes and Literature Paper 3
‘This is Venice!’ - Brabantio
The Individual and Society; (Antithesis)
• Contrasting individuals; contrasting cultures
• Othello, the Outsider; Othello’s Otherness
• The racial, and cultural differences and also
cultural distance between Othello as an
African Moor
and white, European Venetians such as Iago
as a rival individual in Venetian society
Dramatic Techniques used by
Shakespeare
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Set Speeches;
Soliloquies; also Asides
Patterned dialogue;
Complex use of patterned imagery;
Poetic language — Noble characters speak in
blank verse; note use of assonance and alliteration;
Prose — lower status characters speak in prose?
Atmosphere, scene setting, lighting effects,
all suggested through the power of language.
Language and Characterization
• All speeches reveal ‘states of mind’
Characterization:
Who is Who in the play?
(Venetians & Florentines?)
• Protagonists and Antagonists?
• Power and influence?
• Relationships:
• Othello – Iago relationship?
• Othello – Desdemona relationship?
• Every character is partly defined by his / her
relationship with other characters;
• Who is Gratiano? Lodovico? Montano?
Characterization and Language
• Characters are the language that they speak
• The choice and form of language and
imagery used by characters to speak about
other characters reveals much about
themselves, as well as those they describe;
• Consider Iago’s representations of Othello,
Cassio, Roderigo; and Desdemona
Characterization and Language
• The character exists from what is spoken;
• This includes not just concentrating
attention on choice of words
• But also on the feelings and motives around
the word, as much as the word itself;
Shakespeare’s language —
Poetry & Prose:
• Mode of diction: energy of words in relation
to meaning; power of words in context?
• Vivid Imagery; Symbolism; Personification;
Rhyme (patterned sound repetition)
Rhythm (movement of thought)
• Rhetoric: Copia Verborum; All kinds of
Repetition, and Enumeration (Lists);
Puns; Antithesis;
• Use of Irony;
• Copia verborum (Copia) (Long speeches);
• Extended dialogue
Diction of Shakespearean
Characters
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Use of Latinisms; Latinated vocabulary
More plain Saxon monosyllabic words
English slang
Vernacular
Dialect
Freely transforming nouns into verbs and
verbs into nouns etc; Ungrammaticality
Iago
• The thought whereof
Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my
inwards;
And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife;
• Till I have got even with him…
Focusing on Imagery—
Image ideas; clusters of repeated images convey themes;
Fate
Order & Chaos
Seeming & Reality
Heaven & Hell
Imprisonment, of Evil
Magic & Witchcraft
Imagery
Nature
Disease and Corruption
War
Animal/Bestial Imagery
Black & White
Prejudice
Light & Darkness
Clothing
Imagery in Poetic Drama
• Imagery: Carefully developed comparisons
• Arising from the sophistication and
precision of the language of Shakespeare’s
characters
Why? To what purpose?
• In order to create / implant a particular
picture (image) in the mind of the audience;
Imagery: Iago to Roderigo
in Act 2 Scene 1 p71; p73
• Her eye must be fed
• What delight shall she have to look on the
devil
• A fresh appetite
• Now…her delicate tenderness will…
begin to heave the gorge and
• Disrelish and abhor the Moor
Some other examples of imagery
• Appearance & Reality: “not I for love and
duty, / But seeming so, for my peculiar end”
• Disease & corruption: “a curse of marriage”
“Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm
of his hand?” “I’ll pour this pestilence into
his ear”
• Clothing: “three great ones of the city
off-capp’d to him”
Shakespeare embodies conflict using
Antithesis, and Effect
• Sets word against word; Phrase against
phrase, Line against line;
• Speech against speech; silence with speech
• Image against image;
• Character against character;
• Scene against scene;
• Why? To keep the audience constantly
engaged through varying dramatic tension.
1. Shakespeare as Dramatist
• Shakespeare as Poet (Noting and
commenting on elements of poetic
language)
2. Antithesis revisited:
A black / white opposition at all levels:
• Poetically; physically; psychologically;
• morally; religiously; culturally; ethnically
• Reflected in the play’s language;
• Dark & Light;
• Heaven and Hell; Love and Hate;
3. Re- Themes & Issues revisited:
a) Miscegenation ‘O treason of the blood!’
It is only when race is connected with
miscegenation—it becomes a highly charged
emotional issue;
b) Envy
c) Reputation
d) Othello’s paranoid and pathological
jealousy
4. Iago’s grievances; and
theories re- his villainy:
A villain with a motive: Promotion of Cassio?
• Unfounded suspicion Othello is having an
affair with Emilia?
• Envious of Othello re- Othello’s perceived
superior authority; sexual potency;
contentment / peace of mind?
• of Othello’s goodness and innocence—the
absence of envy?
Iago, a Machiavellian malcontent?
• Iago, a motiveless villain?
• Iago, not a villain? Does not recognize, only
pretends to recognize conventional moral
dichotomies of good and evil?
• No good or bad; only strong and weak?
• Iago and the will to power; might is right
• Iago, a sadist?
• Machiavellian language; the artful deceiver
What’s immoral about prevailing
over others?
• Evil as neither really evil nor really good
• Just merely useful or counterproductive
• The strong and the smart inevitably desire
to dominate and destroy the weak and
stupid
• “And what’s he then that says I play the
villain”
• In Machiavellian language, virtue is power
6. Language—contains the
psychological shading of the
characters
• The awful vulgarity of Iago’s mind:
• Iago’s fondness to reduce most vividly and degrade /
debase all human activity—
e.g. Love is merely an anatomical function—
‘a lust of the blood’.
• Reputation is an ‘idle and most false imposition
Oft got without merit and lost without Deserving’;
• Darkness is his natural element and he dominates the
three night scenes;
7. Othello’s stately formal, courtly,
slow moving, dignified poetic
language:
• Rhetoric and poetic rhetoric—Rhetorical strategy
in great set speeches:
• Being very consciously aware of your situation,
and your objective;
• Language—fundamentally a weapon in human
struggles;
• Appropriately formal and respectful;
• Persuasion by Reason; Persuasion by Emotion;
appeal to imagination;
• Poetics—discourse that moves people
artistically/aesthetically/rationally/emotionally
• Rhythm—The best judge of rhythm is the ear;
• The ear is offended by harshness; and soothed by
smoothness; tonalities;
• Accumulation of Repeated Sounds to intensify
emotional impact;
• Diction—use of emotionally charged words;
Copia verborum—accumulating language—piling
up of language to intensify emotional effect /
impact and consolidate argument;
• Structure; arrangement; sequence; Patterning; what to
include / exclude; slanting;
• Verbal labeling, or indexing, affects perception very
significantly;
• Proportion; Emphasis; Repetition for emphasis;
• Anaphora; antanaclasis (punning on a repeated word to
obtain different meanings); hyperbole
• Repeated words, phrases, rhythms, and sounds add to
the emotional intensity of a moment or scene thus
heightening its dramatic effect.
• This overwhelming richness and abundance of
words—necessary to convince or enchant.
• Othello is also very much aware of his rhetorical
skill—
• He knows it is the vehicle of his majestic
authority; & the source of his power to win
Desdemona.
Othello’s physical attributes and vocal
endowments as made evident in the Senate Scene.
8. Othello—from Page to
Stage:
• Drama is literature intended for
performance; Audience impact;
• None of the language of the play works in
isolation;
• Lighting, costume, sound effects, actors’
appearance,
• Gesture and movement reinforce the
implications of the play’s verbal texture.
Preliminary Remarks
• Basic knowledge / basic facts (Sound
general knowledge of the play);
– e.g. sequence of acts and scenes; dramatic
action on stage, Now? Before? After?
• Critically significant scenes / events
• Critically significant speeches/soliloquies
Text in context
• Text in context /dramatic situation / From page to
stage / Visualizing the scene;
• Appreciation of, and engagement with the
dramatic situation, and dramatic effects;
• Theatrical experience of the play for the first time,
for a first time audience?
– e.g. Scene 3 of Act 1 – theatrically experienced, it is a
most impressive scene;
Text (of Act 1 Scene 3) in context
• The highlight of the proceedings is Othello’s
justification of what he has done;
• Knows that to contradict would arouse hostility
• Othello’s account of the wooing of Desdemona is
a magnificent assertion of his worth;
• Great dramatic tension, and suspense;
• It holds us enthralled, (Dramatic effect, external)
• as it does the Duke. (Dramatic effect, internal)
Critical thinking re- dramatic action
• Critical intelligence / critical thinking;
• Critically evaluating his justification;
• Critical reservations (of viewer of the play)
Critically Thinking
• Does Othello prove to the Duke he really
loves Desdemona, and Desdemona Othello?
• Does Othello prove to the Duke that he has
done nothing wrong? Is Othello a saintly
figure?
• Is Brabantio completely at fault?
• Is Othello completely faultless?
Structure of the play? Structure of an Act?
Of a scene? Of a speech?
Fundamental questions re- Structure
• Purpose / Intention / Strategy / ‘Game Plan’
(Any hidden agenda?)
• Organization: Why things are where they
are—why is this here, and not there?
• Emphasis re- sequence of presentation;
Structure: Dynamic & Symmetric
• Dynamic: Consists of the sequence of
events which build up a ‘cause-effect’
pattern to create the overall plot
• Symmetric: (a) Through various parallels,
and cross-references, repeated images,
symbols
• (b) and language that creates a network of
threads that runs through the entire play
Examination Questions
Focus in mind
• Proceed with the focus of the question in
mind;
• Essay: Introductory overview plus Thesis,
or
• Controlling Framework of Ideas;
• Paragraph organization; Key leader
sentence for each paragraph.
Dramatic significance of a passage?
• How the content of the passage relates to and
contributes to the whole plot
• What and how it contributes to your understanding
of character(s)
• Its relevance to the underlying themes of the play
• Its contribution to the creation of atmosphere and
mood
• Its contribution to the overall impact on the
audience both at this point in the play / as a whole
Analysis Framework of
Conversation Turns
• Who speaks, how often, and for how long?
• What kind of contribution does each speaker
make?
• Who interrupts and gets interrupted?
• Who influences the agenda and changes the topic?
• How do the speakers address each other?
• Does any speaker comment on another’s
contributions?
• What distinguishes the language of each speaker?
Characterization Re- Othello
Othello’s greatness as a public figure:
• His adventurous background
• Public image of discipline and self-control; (Private
image?);
• and diplomacy;
• Courage, bravery, fortitude;’valiant’; his charisma,
calmness and confidence;
• Personal, romantic, exotic, ethnic and cultural
background (Different / unusual / stranger /
outsider)
Othello’s character
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Othello the successful warrior?
More a man of action than an intellectual?
More a doer than a thinker?
His trusting nature; patient dignity?
Othello the ‘noble Moor’?
Key set speeches & soliloquies
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Othello’s O MY SOUL’S JOY! 2, 1
First soliloquy Act 3, Sc 3
Othello’s ‘Farewell the tranquil mind’
Othello’s ‘Pontic sea’ speech 3, 3
Othello’s ‘Had it pleased heaven’ 4, 2
Othello’s ‘It is the cause’ Act 5, Sc 2
Iago’s advice to YOU!!!
• ’Tis in ourselves that we are thus, or thus.
Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
our WILLS are gardeners.
• …to have it sterile with IDLENESS or
manured with INDUSTRY,
• Why the power and corrigible authority of
this lies in OUR WILLS.”