“I take it much unkindly that thou, Iago, who hast had my purse as if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.”
-Roderigo Act 1 Scene 1
“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving.”
-Iago Act 2 Scene 3
“Think’st thou I’d make a life of jealousy, to follow still the changes of the moon with fresh suspicions? No, to be once in doubt is once to be resolved.”
-Othello Act 3 Scene 3
“I am not what I am.”
-Iago Act 1 Scene 1
“The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief; he robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”
-Duke of Venice Act 1 Scene 3

“They are all but stomachs, and we all but food. They eat us hungrily, and when they are full, they belch us.”
-Emilia Act 3 Scene 4
“From this time forth I never will speak word.”
-Iago Act 5 Scene 2
“God me such uses send not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend.”
-Desdemona Act 4 Scene 3
“To you, Lord Governor, remains the censure of this hellish villain.
The time, the place, the torture,
O, enforce it! Myself will straight aboard, and to the state this heavy act with heavy heart relate.”
-Lodovico Act 5 Scene 2
“I peace? No, I will speak as liberal as the north. Let heaven, and men, and devils, let ‘em all, all, all cry shame against me, yet
I’ll speak.”
-Emilia Act 5 Scene 2

Cast:
Othello – Anthony Hopkins
Iago – Bob Hoskins
Desdemona – Penelope Wilton
Cassio – David Yelland
Director: Jonathan Miller
Company: BBC

* Hopkins is a white actor, so there is not much racial tension that adds to the movie
*Race is not a major factor
*When he says “as black as my face” in Act 3 Scene 3, the
“wedding scene”, it seems more of an expression, not an actual comparison of his race
*Final speech does not touch on Othello’s “race” or
Hopkins’ tan

*Portrayed by Bob Hoskins
*The final scene is stolen by Iago
- Iago laughs in Othello’s face, in everyone’s face when the truth is exposed
- He is the “mad villain”, Othello is barely affected by the tragic outcome that took place
*In the wedding scene, Iago is so rational and cool, he is prepared to be abused by Othello, which makes him more trustworthy in Othello’s eyes
- At the end of the scene, he looks behind him, in a way to acknowledge the evil he is shaping
- Also important about the cinematography is how it is filmed at a distance, close, but not too close, you do not know everything that the characters, like Iago, what they are thinking

Cast:
Othello – Laurence Olivier
Iago – Frank Finlay
Desdemona – Maggie Smith
Cassio – Derek Jacobi
Director: Stuart Burge
Company: BHE Films

Cast:
Othello – Laurence Fishburne
Iago – Kenneth Branagh
Desdemona – Irene Jacob
Cassio – Nathanial Parker
Director: Oliver Parker
Company: Castle Rock Entertainment

*Characterization
*Performance
*Setting
*Signification
*Variation/Deviation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA5ZXr4Gyk0
(Soft you…) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhx7LCBHwLc (wedding)

*Black is perceived as “bad”
- ex: Brobantio rejects the marriage between Othello and his daughter However, Othello breaks this perception through his reputation: noble, virtuous, good, fair, wise
- Quote from senator: “your son-in-law is far more fair than black”
*Othello’s blackness is a targeted spot for Iago
*Irony: Iago is the fairest (in skin and hair), yet the most villainous and evil
-Iago preys on Othello’s insecurity
*Othello loses self-control and his sense of civilization
Setting: Ship sailing from Venice (civilized society) to Turkey
(barbaric state)

*Union to Iago
- Contrast of color when kneeling and facing each other
*Iago fairest and Othello darkest
*Kneeling symbolizes their equality
*Quote: “black vengeance”
- Connotations of black equated to evil
- Calling to his savagery
*Irony: “I am now yours forever” Iago
- Othello is played by Iago and now Iago owns him
Iago is the fairest and his evil conquers Othello (Black has the inherited connotation of being evil, but white is now portrayed as evil)

*Othello is dressed in the clothing that defines his culture and heritage
-Proud of who he is, despite that he is an outsider
*His stance and position is holding what dignity he has left in himself
*Othello is by himself, everyone facing him (distinction)
*Iago is kneeling, Othello standing

*D steps up to her father by stating what she will do
- She professes that she will commit to her duty as her mother did
- To live with him and be subdue to the upmost pleasure
- How through her life and education taught by her father

*Starts with her re-vows to herself as a wife saying,
“His unkindness may take my life, but never take my love”
*D commands why Othello’s insistence with her is unkind
- She questions and stares him up
- After she confines with Emilia about the “world’s vanity”, Iago says to be “content”

*Othello creeps in to kill D
*D again takes a final stand by asking Othello to instead punish her
*D wants to pray first
- She copes by struggling to save her own life
- Perhaps she was all theirs “world vanity”

*Mom’s song
- Willow expressed misfortune
- Mom had a love, love prove mad, and it forsaken her
*Sycamore tree
- She died singing about it

Cast:
Odin (Othello) – Mekhi Phifer
Hugo (Iago) – Josh Hartnett
Desi (Desdemona) – Julia Stiles
Michael (Cassio) – Andrew Keegan
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Company: Chickie the Cop

*Modernizing blackness
- Devil – thug
- General – basketball star
- Europe – American South
- Bewitching – physical force, rape
*Racial Stereotyping?
*Final speech: is post racial discourse possible in a racist society?
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/EkB
OBIEz-2Q/ (13:45)

* No soliloquies
- Opening and closing monologue (“I want to soar like a hawk”)
*Jealousy
- Odin (Othello) the star of the team
- Father is basketball coach
- Ignores Hugo but regards Odin “as his own son”
*Josh Hartnett as Hugo
- Not overtly sinister
- Humanized
- Fear and envy seem to inform his actions
-Overwhelmed by plan spiraling out of control…?
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/EkB
OBIEz-2Q/ (16:20) http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/pgTf
BDJKgOM/ (17:20)

* Stronger representation
*Daughter of the Dean, so still a character from high means
*Stands up to her father and Odin
*Choked to death, not suffocated as in the text and other representations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxIrDxj_B6w