Othello Revision Lecture

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Othello Revision Lecture Part 1
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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

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Reading, and Readings of OthelloInterpretations
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?

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Lecture Overview

• 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

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Remember, lest you forget

• The essence of all drama is
• CONFLICT.

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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

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Common causes / sources of Conflict

• 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

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Shakespearean Tragedy

•     Tragedy? A work of fiction that plays out
  before us with implacable logic, for our moral
  edification    
• OTHELLO a drama of Tragedy?
•         Serious consequences arise from passions
  that disrupt life.
•         E.g. Envy, Jealousy, Resentment, lack of
  faith
• re-persona relationships.
•         Leads to the tragic death of the main
  character / Hero
• also the deaths of the innocent and
  good.

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Tragic Hero whose situation changes from
well-being to misfortune

• A potentially noble person
• who, through some flaw in Heros character (what
  is Othellos tragic flaw?),
• helps to bring about his own tragic downfall,
  (hamartiatragic error / flaw)
• and who, by suffering acquires self-knowledge,
  and so purges his faults.

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Setting VENICE CYPRUS (Knowledge of the
geography of the play?)

•        Venicefirst Act of the play takes place
  in Venice
•         16th Century, Venicea powerful European
  city-state.
•         A centre of commerce and protector of
  the Christian religion against the Turks who are
  regarded as infidels.

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Atmosphere e.g. the creation of an atmosphere
of INTRIGUE EVIL

• 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?

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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?

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Themes and Literature Paper 3This is Venice! -
Brabantio

• The Individual and Society (Antithesis)
• Contrasting individuals contrasting cultures
• Othello, the Outsider Othellos 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

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Dramatic Techniques used by Shakespeare

•         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.

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Language and Characterization

• All speeches reveal states of mind

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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?

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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 Iagos representations of Othello,
  Cassio, Roderigo and Desdemona

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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

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Shakespeares 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

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• Copia verborum (Copia) (Long speeches)
• Extended dialogue

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Diction of Shakespearean Characters

• 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

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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

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Focusing on ImageryImage ideas clusters of
repeated images convey themes
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Imagery in Poetic Drama

• Imagery Carefully developed comparisons
• Arising from the sophistication and precision of
  the language of Shakespeares characters
• Why? To what purpose?
• In order to create / implant a particular picture
  (image) in the mind of the audience

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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
• Nowher delicate tenderness will
  begin to heave the gorge and
• Disrelish and abhor the Moor

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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? Ill pour this pestilence into his
  ear
• Clothing three great ones of the city
  off-cappd to him

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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.

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Othello Revision Part 2
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1. Shakespeare as Dramatist

• Shakespeare as Poet (Noting and commenting on
  elements of poetic language)

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2. Antithesis revisited

• A black / white opposition at all levels
• Poetically physically psychologically
• morally religiously culturally ethnically
• Reflected in the plays language
• Dark Light
• Heaven and Hell Love and Hate

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3. Re- Themes Issues revisited

• Miscegenation O treason of the blood!
• It is only when race is connected with
  miscegenationit becomes a highly charged
  emotional issue
• Envy
• Reputation
• Othellos paranoid and pathological jealousy

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4. Iagos 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- Othellos perceived
  superior authority sexual potency contentment /
  peace of mind?
• of Othellos goodness and innocencethe absence
  of envy?

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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

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Whats 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 whats he then that says I play the villain
• In Machiavellian language, virtue is power

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6. Languagecontains the psychological shading of
the characters

• The awful vulgarity of Iagos mind
• Iagos 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

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7. Othellos stately formal, courtly, slow
moving, dignified poetic language

• Rhetoric and poetic rhetoricRhetorical strategy
  in great set speeches
• Being very consciously aware of your situation,
  and your objective
• Languagefundamentally a weapon in human
  struggles
• Appropriately formal and respectful
• Persuasion by Reason Persuasion by Emotion
  appeal to imagination

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• Poeticsdiscourse that moves people
  artistically/aesthetically/rationally/emotionally
  
• RhythmThe 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
• Dictionuse of emotionally charged words Copia
  verborumaccumulating languagepiling up of
  language to intensify emotional effect / impact
  and consolidate argument

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• 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.

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• This overwhelming richness and abundance of
  wordsnecessary 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.
• Othellos physical attributes and vocal
  endowments as made evident in the Senate Scene.

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8. Othellofrom 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 plays verbal texture.

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Othello Revision Part 3
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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

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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

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Text (of Act 1 Scene 3) in context

• The highlight of the proceedings is Othellos
  justification of what he has done
• Knows that to contradict would arouse hostility
• Othellos 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)

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Critical thinking re- dramatic action

• Critical intelligence / critical thinking
• Critically evaluating his justification
• Critical reservations (of viewer of the play)

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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?

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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 arewhy
  is this here, and not there?
• Emphasis re- sequence of presentation

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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

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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.

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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

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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 anothers
  contributions?
• What distinguishes the language of each speaker?

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Characterization Re- Othello

• Othellos greatness as a public figure
• His adventurous background
• Public image of discipline and self-control
  (Private image?)
• and diplomacy
• Courage, bravery, fortitudevaliant his
  charisma, calmness and confidence
• Personal, romantic, exotic, ethnic and cultural
  background (Different / unusual / stranger /
  outsider)

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Othellos character

• 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?

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Key set speeches soliloquies

• Othellos O MY SOULS JOY! 2, 1
• First soliloquy Act 3, Sc 3
• Othellos Farewell the tranquil mind
• Othellos Pontic sea speech 3, 3
• Othellos Had it pleased heaven 4, 2
• Othellos It is the cause Act 5, Sc 2

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Iagos 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.