Othello
Historical Background
Venice





Venice was a city-state
It was extremely wealthy due to trade – it
was ideally positioned to trade with Western
Europe, Greece, Africa and the rest of the
world
It was a republic ruled by the wealthiest
families
The wealth of Venice helped to fund the
Renaissance, the building of impressive
architecture
It was a centre of culture
The Renaissance





Renaissance means ‘rebirth’ and refers to
a time when great artistic, cultural and
educational advances took place
Partly inspired by classical Greece and
Rome.
Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci
Titian and Tintoretto lived in Venice
The wealth of Venice meant great
artworks and buildings were
commissioned




It protected its trade with strong
military force
Venice was cosmopolitan – Jews,
Arabs, Europeans came together
However it was also seen as a barrier
defending Christian Europe from the
Muslims of Turkey and the Middle East
Cyprus was of extreme strategic
importance
Setting




The play uses the comedy structure of
old husband + young bride
And the typical Shakespearean comic
geography of dual locations (e.g.
Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Venice is a city and place of reason
Cyprus is a wilderness and place of
irrationality and emotion
Setting/Character





How does Othello act in Venice? In
Cyprus?
In Venice Othello acts calmly
He is concerned with honour and virtue
He is content with his life
In Cyprus he is emotional and irrational
Shakespeare



He never left England
Which was a very different place
Venice would hold an exotic fascination
for Shakespeare and his audience
The Moor




The slave trade had just begun when
Shakespeare was writing Othello
He and his audience would have begun
to see slaves being led through the
streets in chains
Black people were often seen as primitive
The play depicts Othello as an outsider –
object of fascination and suspicion and
himself insecure
Turks



These were Muslims
They were seen as a threat to
Christianity and Venetian prosperity
map
Tragedy




Hubris – extreme pride, overconfidence
Anagnorisis - realisation
Hamartia – error or fatal flaw
Catharsis - acceptance and healing
Shakespearean Tragedy




Heroes are victims of their own
excesses or self-deception
Lack of understanding prevents them
from seeing the truth
Suffer from inner conflict
Characters of high power of status