Othello

Things you should know about Othello PowerPoint--[[file:Things to know in Othello [Compatibility Mode].pdf]]

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Don't play until we're at Act IV || A little bawdy...Shakespeare would like it. ||
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1. TERMS FROM THE PLAY:
MOOR. In Shakespeare's time, equivalent to "African," with the expectation that such a person would be negro. "Moor" was not a negative or derogatory word. Originally, it meant "native of Mauretania," a country in North Africa, but its meaning had become generalized by the 17th century. ANCIENT. A military rank (same word as "ensign"), properly of a standard-bearer, the man who carried the flag on the battlefield. Because the flag identified the location of the army in battle, it was crucial to allowing the soldiers to find their position. The ensign/ancient had to be extremely courageous and loyal, maintaining his position in the face of death. Of course it is ironic that Iago, the deceiver, should have this particular rank. He is aware of this irony and enjoys it; at one point, Iago says he "must show out a flag and sign of love" to Othello, "which is indeed but [only] sign" (I.l.153-54). Although he likes the irony, Iago resents his rank, which does not require intellectual skills like that of Cassio (trained in battle strategy). Iago is third in command to Othello, behind Cassio. LIEUTENANT **. The rank which Cassio has just been given, literally meaning "place-holder." Second in command to Othello, he holds Othello's place in his absence. Ironically, Othello comes to believe that Cassio holds Othello's place in Desdemona's affections. Even more ironically, the play ends with Cassio literally put into Othello's place as governor of Cyprus. CYPRUS ****. ** This island, near Turkey and Syria, was annexed by Venice in 1489 and conquered by the Turks in 1571 (33 years before Othello was written). The play presents a wish-fulfillment destruction of the Turkish fleet that leaves the island Venetian. Venice did in fact undo Turkish seapower that same year in the victory of Lepanto, but it did not reconquer Cyprus. So Shakespeare is working within the framework of actual history but not following the events as they did happen. VENICE. ** An oligarchic city-state of enormous mercantile wealth, Venice in Shakespeare's time was a byword for luxury and culture and was also famous for its judicial system (perhaps relevant to Othello's death sentence on himself at the end of the tragedy). Its trade was partially choked off by the growing power of the Turkish empire in the 16th century, which extended into Europe as well as Asia and Arabia. Hence the importance of Cyprus. Venice was a Christian state; Turkey was Moslem. OTHELLO'S POSITION AND STATUS **. Othello is a professional soldier who, after much battlefield experience, is currently employed by Venice as general of its forces. He is called "General" or, sometimes, "Captain." He holds a high position and is greatly respected. In Act I, he is sent by the Venetian government to defend Cyprus against an impending attack by the Turks. Othello is a Christian. By the 17th century, this would be unusual for an African, since all countries of Africa that had ever been Christian had become Moslem, except Ethiopia. Shakespeare probably imagined Othello either as a convert to Christianity or as a member of a minority Christian group in an African country. The play is vague about Othello's exact origins. SOCIAL STATUS OF OTHER CHARACTERS **
 * OTTOMAN, OTTOMITES. ** These terms (I.3.49, II.3.170) refer to the Turks.
 * //Cassio//** is clearly a "gentleman," a member of the gentry. He comes from Florence, a city known for its high culture. He has been educated (he is an "arithmetician" trained in the history of warfare [I.i.16-24]: a theoretical strategist). He has fine manners with ladies (II.i.l65-175). Roderigo is also a gentleman, a member of the gentry from Venice. We know he owns land, because he says he is going to sell it all (I.iii.373). We know he is affluent, because Iago has been regularly getting money from him and expects to get more (I.i.2-3; I.iii.374). He has enough money to send gifts of rich jewels to Desdemona (IV.ii.183-85). When we first meet him, he would like to marry Desdemona; this would be an appropriate match socially for both of them.
 * //Desdemona//** is a lady, a member of the gentry from Venice. Her father is a senator, which automatically means he would be of the gentry or nobility.
 * //Iago//** appears to be not of the gentry class. He is sarcastic about Cassio's fine manners (II.i.165-175) and education. He does not seem to be affluent. He has been a foot-soldier and has only now achieved promotion.
 * //Emilia//** also is not a member of the gentry. Neither she nor Iago appear to see anything inappropriate or insulting in Emilia's being asked to act as Desdemona's personal attendant, so we can take it that she is (and her husband as well) below Desdemona in social position.

** 2. THEMES IN OTHELLO

APPEARANCE AND REALITY **

Can we ever know the truth about a person? Is it possible to know if someone is lying to us? How can we discover what lies behind the words someone tells us?

Shakespeare was fascinated with these questions. Many of his most evil characters were thought by others in the play to be sincere and truthful. In Othello, this theme has its most potent and dramatic realization in the character of Iago. Iago fools everyone in the play into believing he's honest. No one even suspects him of treachery, until the final act when Roderago first realizes how badly he's been fooled. In short, Iago proves that evil intentions can be masked behind a facade of honesty.

The theme emerges in other characters: Brabantio is deceived by Desdemona's reaction to Othello, assuming she fears him when she truly loves the Moor. Othello suspects that Desdemona is unfaithful, despite her innocent looks. Othello also feels he's being deceived by Cassio, whom he trusts and who appears loyal. Emilia's exterior suggests salty indifference, but she turns against her husband and dies in defiance of Desdemona. Even Bianca, who is suspected of dishonesty, is ultimately seen as a sincere and caring woman. And Othello, considered a barbarian by many in the play, is gentle and noble until driven to near-madness by the cruel manipulations of his most trusted "friend."

The inability to judge true from false is a human dilemma that we have all faced. In Othello's case, the dilemma proves fatal. Shakespeare dramatizes the problem by showing the consequences of trusting someone whose mask of honesty is perfect, almost to the very last. Everyone has known the feeling of being alienated from a group, whether it's as the new kid at school, as a member of an ethnic or religious minority, or as someone who holds an unpopular opinion. Shakespeare points that problem in Othello by making his hero an outsider, one who doesn't quite belong in the society in which he lives. From the very beginning, when he's held in suspicion by a man who accuses him of seducing his daughter with mysterious charms, Othello stands apart from everyone else. As a man of another race and from another country, much of the conflict he faces is due to the reigning opinion that he doesn't quite belong.
 * SOCIETY'S TREATMENT OF THE OUTSIDER**

Othello's sensitivity to the issue becomes clear when Iago uses it as proof that Desdemona couldn't be faithful to a man so foreign- such a match is "unnatural," he says. Othello's self-confidence, once so strong, is easily eroded by Iago's ability to convince him that he's inferior to the men of Venice. Shakespeare dramatizes through Othello the tragedy of a man whose insecurities about his background, fed by public opinion, weaken his defenses and allow his worst instincts to take over. Othello represents how jealousy, particularly sexual jealousy, is one of the most corrupting and destructive of emotions. It is jealousy (fed by his innate sense of evil) that prompts Iago to plot Othello's downfall; jealousy, too, is the tool that Iago uses to arouse Othello's passions. Roderigo and Bianca demonstrate jealousy at various times in the play, and Emilia demonstrates that she too knows the emotion well. Only Desdemona and Cassio, the true innocents of the story, seem beyond its clutches.
 * JEALOUSY**

Shakespeare used the theme in other plays, but nowhere else is it portrayed as quite the "green- eyed" monster it is in this play. Since it is an emotion that everyone shares, we watch its destructive influence on the characters with sympathy and horror

.

Shakespeare delighted in taking old stories, adding his own particular brand of genius, and creating something new and better. He based Othello on a story in a collection of tales, called Hecatonimithi, written in 1565 by Giraldi Cinthio, an Italian. A short synopsis of the original story gives some indication of how Shakespeare merely borrowed stories and made them his own.
 * THE SOURCE OF OTHELLO**

The heroine, called Disdemona, falls in love with a Moor. Her family agrees reluctantly to her marriage with him, and the couple lives together in Venice for awhile.

The Moor (given no name) is sent to command the troops in Cyprus. The Moor and Disdemona travel there together, and it's in Cyprus that the ensign (Shakespeare's lago) plots against them.

The ensign is in love with Disdemona. He feels that her rejection of him comes from her love of the captain (Shakespeare's Cassio). Therefore, the ensign's plot is against Disdemona, not the Moor.

The captain loses his job when he attempts a fight with another soldier; he isn't drunk, and the character of Roderigo has no counterpart.

The ensign steals Disdemona's handkerchief (while she is holding his child) and places it in the captain's house. The captain finds it and tries to return it to Desdemona, but he leaves quickly when he hears the Moor's voice.

Together, the Moor and the ensign kill Disdemona by hitting her on the head with a sandbag, and then making the roof collapse to make it look like an accident, The Moor is eventually killed by a relative of Disdemona, and the ensign is tortured to death for another crime. The ensign's wife has known the story all along.

By making the Moor the center of his tragedy, Shakespeare created a character of nobility and sympathy. (The Moor in the Cinthio tale is unsympathetic.) He transformed an ugly little tale of sexual jealousy into a character study of a good man who, for all his virtue, is caught in a trap of evil and can't escape. It was Shakespeare's genius to take the stuff of melodrama and transform it into tragedy of the highest.

It's not surprising that Shakespeare chose Venice as the setting of a story filled with passion, jealousy, and sexual tension. For the Elizabethans, the Italians were wicked, murderous, and of loose morals. When playwrights of the day wanted to portray wickedness, they often created Italian characters causing problems in England, or set the plays in Italy.
 * SETTING:**

Venice was particularly exciting to the English. The women there were rumored to be very beautiful, and very interested in making love. Venetian men were considered hot-tempered, aggressive, and easily jealous. An Elizabethan audience watching Othello would have been highly suspicious of Desdemona and her behavior. Running off to get married behind your father's back was simply not done. Because Desdemona was Venetian, however, audiences wouldn't have been too surprised. As for Iago, he probably represented the kind of villain Elizabethans thought ran rampant throughout Italy!

One interesting note is that the name Iago is Spanish. (The Italian form is Giacomo.) Shakespeare gave his most evil character a Spanish name, probably because Spain was England's worst enemy. Italy may have been the home of romantic, exotic sin, but true evil, according to the Elizabethans, came from Spain!

OTHELLO'S TRAGIC FLAW

What is it that causes Othello's downfall? Some have said that he's simply a jealous person whose jealousy of his wife gets out of hand. Others insist that jealousy is not part of his natural make-up that the emotion takes over only when Iago pushes him to the brink of insanity. Most of the evidence in the play tends to support the latter interpretation. Othello doesn't show himself to be jealous early in the play. Manipulated by Iago's skillful lies, Othello must confront emotions he can't handle. His jealousy literally drives \him mad. Anger and hate replace his wisdom and judgment, and the power of these destructive emotions leads to this sorry end. //Adapted from Barron's Educational Series, Inc. Electronically Enhanced 1993, World Library, Inc. //


 * 3. ESSAY ON COLOR**

The use of color in literature and language.