Lecture 7 Othello the Moor of Venice

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Lecture 7 Othello the Moor of Venice

• Intermezzo focus on skills of analysis

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Reminder!!! HELLO, HELLO, HELLO!!! Creative
Writing Competition

• Themes Time turner Confessions Why not? The
  End Fantasy Childhood Mirror
• The World is Round Love Addiction
• Open Category (choose your own theme)
• Note 1 group submissions are acceptable
• Note 2 You can submit more than one entry
• Note 3 Closing date 17th August 2007

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Speaking of Themes in OTHELLO?

• Theme of nobility or virtue
• The theme of faulty knowledge, connected to
• the theme of Appearance and Reality
• men should be what they seem
• Could be said the entire play is an argument to
  show that things are not really what they seem
• Othellos downfall will be caused by believing
  that what he sees is true.

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Methods of Analysis

• Text as drama
• Make an effort to visualize how the scene appears
  on stage from page to stage
• Ask what EFFECT it would have on a viewing
  audience
• Think about the movement and grouping of
  characters, sound effects
• And other theatrical elements

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Language Critical significance of word choice

• What words and phrases STAND OUT???
• Next, ask yourself whether they have any
  qualities in common
• They may fall into groups you can classify
• Try to group them as similar kinds of words
• Or, as having a meaning or an emotion in common
  with each other

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metaphor

• Origin metaphora
• Meaning to transfer transit carry across
• Hence transfer of meaning
• Metaphors transfer, connect and compare unlike
  things
• To make more clear, graphically vivid and
  concretize the meaning of something

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Imagery style of metaphorization

• Note striking use of imagery
• And proceed as with words and phrases
• Look for what images have in common
• Notice the choice of imagery?
• Notice the form of the imagery? (visual?)
• Notice the degree of novelty that attempts to
  establish new / original / striking connections
• Degree of concretization effects

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Example of imagery from Scene 3, of Act 3

• O beware, my Lord, of jealousy!
• It is the green-eyed monster transfer of
  meaning!!
• Ironically intended as a warning
• Very striking, powerful, impacting, vivid
• Makes more concretely evident the kind and nature
  of the jealousy Iago speaks of
• How potent, dangerous, and destructive it can be
• Once possessed by it, has the power to transform
  a man into a most horrible, wicked, evil person,
  

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Poetic language

• Note use of prose, which can be poetic
• Adorned with rhetorical inflation, or artifice
• Also prose as low, popular speech
• And use of blank verse
• We note Iagos linguistic duality
• Iagos styles of speech vary from situation to
  situation to suit his own hidden agenda
• Iago even assumes the sententious style of
  nobility
• Sententious full of meaning aphoristic

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• Othello speaking verse?
• Creates the effect of largeness and grandeur and
  nobility of character
• Verse is polished form of dramatic writing
• Possessing enormous expressive rhetorical power
• Can effectively summarize and encapsulate an
  issue
• As such, it can dramatically heighten and
  intensify the key issue in a speech

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Analysis of Rhythm

• Note the punctuation that divides language into
  units of meaning (sense units)
• Note where phrases are short, and broken
• Other places where phrases are longer, and the
  speakers speed increases
• Explain how these variations in rhythmic movement
  relate to 1) the character,
• or 2) the subject matter of the speech

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Analysis of syntactical structures and their
Rhythms

• Characters may speak in
  
• Short, simple, and direct sentence structures
• Continuous, articulate, reasoned structures
• Fragmented, loose, emotional structures

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Othellos first soliloquy

• This fellows of exceeding honesty,
• And knows all qualities with a learned spirit,
• Of human dealing. if I do prove her haggard,
• Though that her jesses were my dear heart-
• strings,
• Id whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
• To prey at fortune. Haply for I am black,
• And have not those soft parts of conversation
• That chamberers have, or for I am declind
• Into the vale of years,yet thats not much
• Shes gone, I am abusd, and my relief
• Must be to loathe her

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• O curse of marriage,
• That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
• And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
• And live upon the vapour in a dungeon,
• Than keep a corner in a thing I love,
• For others uses yet tis the plague of great
• ones ,

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Significance of Othellos soliloquy?

• Allows the audience to see into the inner
  workings and troubled state of Othellos mind
• Why only now?
• Thus far audience has had no reason to doubt that
  his outward appearance corresponded to the inner
  workings of his mind
• That is now changing

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Synoptic overview

• Othello is thinking about the possibility that
  his wife is unfaithful
• His thoughts consist of reasons for and against
  being suspicious of her
• Iagos honesty Iagos learned spirit
• Desdemonas appearance makes his love and trust
  return how we know?
• If she is untrue, then heaven mocks itself

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• In between these arguments, Othello reflects on
  reasons which make her adultery plausible
• His colour
• Believes he lacks refined manners
• His age believes he is too old for her
• All of which makes it seem Iago must be right

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Variety of analytical skills

• Looking at, and closely examining choice and
• form of language
• Diction
• Imagery
• Rhythm, and sentence structure
• Sound repetition (rhyme)

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Analytical commentary rhythm and sentence
structure

• Examine the speech in sections
• Note a regular rhythm up to the period stop after
  dealing
• If I do prove her haggard interrupts this, and
  the pace increases suddenly
• Othellos first two sentences fall into two
  distinct categories
• First is measured second, disturbed

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• Third sentence begins how?
• Begins with irregular phrasing
• Ranging from the word haply to eleven words
  between pauses
• Pace here is very broken, then suddenly races
  forward
• Then it breaks again

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• Note the two dashes around the short yet thats
  not much and the sentence breaks off unfinished
• The rhythm shows how disturbed, and ill at ease
  Othello is in this speech
• At the start of line 271, shes gone
• marks an outcry of new emotion

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Six episodes of thought and feeling in six
movements changing with rhythm

• First thinks of Iagos knowledge honesty
• Of Desdemona as a hawk
• Of his own weakness
• Of jealous beliefs and the pain he feels
• Of betrayal in general
• Upon Desdemona appearing his love returns

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Analytical commentary

• Diction? What words stand out (in context)?
• Othello uses what kind of language? Phrases,
  words to describe Iago?
• exceeding honesty qualities learned
  spirit and human dealing
• Suggestive of what???
  Effect?
• Bring to mind noble qualities in human nature

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Word choice re Desdemona? Fall into a group you
can classify?

• Turning his mind to Desdemona, we note a
  transformation. How do we know?
• haggard jesses whistle her off
• let her down the wind prey EFFECT?
• Paints a picture of her as a hawk, bird of prey
  
• Words associated with the animal kingdom
• Iago is associated with the human, civilized
  world Desdemona, with primitive wildness

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• Othello admires beauty of women
• these delicate creatures
• But underminedhow?
• By the word appetites
• This (linked to appearance and reality)
• points to the primitive element that lies beneath
  a seemingly fine outward appearance

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O curse of marriagethis forked plague

• The unfaithfulness of wives
• Forked carries several implications
• The idea of an arrow piercing
• The sense of two-legged
• The suggestion of horns (Elizabethan symbol of
  the cuckold)
• The idea of a very difficult dilemma

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Analytical commentary Imagery

• I had rather be a toad
• And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
• Than keep a corner in the thing I love
• For others uses
• Toad a contemptible creature
• Expressing such a preference?
• Intended to? Suggestive of what?

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• The striking, forceful impact of this imagery
  shows us how much it would horrify and hurt
  Othello should it be firmly established his wife
  has indeed been sleeping around
• To be a toad, an unsightly, ugly creature
• But at least this way hed be devoid of human
  consciousness and therefore the torments of the
  emotional pain of jealousy

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Note the elaboration(noting intended rhetorical
effects)

• The environment of his imagined toad is no
  ordinary pond, but that of a dungeon with its
  stenching surrounds of waste water
• Further dramatically emphasizing what he would be
  prepared to sacrifice (his humanity, marriage,
  and military career) and to bear instead such a
  toady existence rather than having to live in
  the knowledge, pain and humiliation of his wifes
  carnalities

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Dramatic purpose of Act 3 Scene 4

• To unfold the strange history of the handkerchief
• To establish that Othello is undergoing a change
• To relieve the atmosphere of doom in scene 3
• To present a close up picture of the three women
  of the play
• To focus a stronger light on the character of
  CASSIO

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Theme of Witchcraft? Again?

• The strange origins of the handkerchief?
• Important for a proper understanding of the play
• Not an ordinary handkerchiefWhy?
• It is of magical origin, and for Othello
• theres magic in the web of it

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• It was sewn by sibyl and
• The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk,
  // And it was dyed in mummy.
• From whom did he get it?
• Given to Othellos mother by an Egyptian who said
  
• It had the power to preserve love, but if lost or
  given away
• Love would be lost

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Symbolical significance of the handkerchief in
the plays plot

• More then than an ordinary handkerchief
• Symbolical?
• Symbolic of Othellos mysterious and romantic
  past which won the heart of Desdemona
• He in turn gave it to Desdemona as a symbol of
  his love and constancy

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• By Desdemona losing this precious handkerchief
• Symbolically foreshadows the grave possibility
  that she would also lose her love
• Therefore the handkerchief is of great critical
  significance, and not an object of mere trivia
• It becomes and functions as an organic element in
  the whole texture of the play

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• It flutters in and out through several scenes of
  the play
• ominously, like a storm signal
• It is vital to Othellos love
• Causes distress to Desdemona upon losing it
• Emilia involved in finding it
• Passes it on to Iago, because he desired it so
  much

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• Iago in turn insists on Emilias silence whenever
  its topic is discussed
• Cassio also becomes involved admires it
• His admiration for it arouses Biancas jealousy
• When it is lost for a time, we come to see its
  physical presence in the hands of Bianca
• We are thus reminded of imminent tragedy

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• As we watch the play progress, this seeming
  trifle of a handkerchief
• Light as air
• Changes through Iago to become a powerful deadly
  weapon
• Dramatic Effect?
• The poignancy of the tragedy gains by the
  contrast with the pettiness of the handkerchief