lecture 1 othello the moor of venice by william shakespeare world of othello; othello’s world
TRANSCRIPT
Lecture 1 Othello the Moor of Venice
by William Shakespeare
World of Othello; Othello’s World
Areas of focus
Introductory remarks; A different time; a different place Historical and cultural factors A word on Shakespeare’s Theatre Shakespearean Drama Shakespearean Tragedy; and Tragic Hero Literary, linguistic, rhetorical elements Key Concepts
Introduction: Note the title
Othello the Moor of Venice
Introduction (cont)
To study Shakespeare enables you to acquire all kinds of knowledge, ideas, insights, skills, and most of all, wisdom
Increased vocabulary, and use of English Enriched historical & cross-cultural awareness
and intellectual understanding Enhanced personal development—growth of
self confidence and self-esteem Fosters critical thinking
‘It sometimes seems to me that the whole of philosophy is only a meditation of Shakespeare.’
- Emmanuel Levinas
Words of Wisdom
Good name in man or woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their soul,
Who steals my purse steals trash, ’tis something,
nothing
‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he who filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Drama and Conflict
In Othello, as with any play—
Conflict is the essence of drama.
Themes / Issues / Concerns
Insiders and Outsiders; Locals and Foreigners Racial Prejudice; Racism The Weak and the Strong; the Smart and the
Stupid; The Struggle of Existence; Life as a Struggle Good and Evil; Love and Hate Appearance and Reality; Sight and Blindness
Introduction: Reading and Studying
As with any play, Othello should be treated as a script to guide a live performance on stage;
For active, imaginative, and co-operative inhabitation of Shakespeare’s world
His language is an invitation to imaginative, dramatic enactment
Play reading: Must visualize the script of the play in your mind;
A different time, different place
Clearly a different world; yet not so different; The Elizabethan England of Shakespeare Must distinguish clearly between
Shakespeare’s English world and the European world of his play Othello— Venice, the ‘Hollywood’ of 16th century West
Venice: glamorous, daring, brilliant, wicked city—a city of pearls and perils
The world of Shakespeare's Othello
Notice the names of the characters: Roderigo; Brabantio; Cassio; Iago; Othello
Clearly, Italian sounding names; (though name ‘Iago’ is Spanish for James) Venice (Venetian); Florence (Florentine) Venice—a powerful European city-state Important commercial centre; and to the whole
of Christendom as a protector of the Christian faith against Turkey
16th Century city-state of Venice
Venice is the landless city where different kinds and races meet each other;
The sea is the medium of their wars as money is the medium of their wealth
Venice is for Shakespeare an anthropological laboratory—
Suspended between sea and sky, it receives and utilizes all kinds of people
‘This is Venice’ – Brabantio
Audiences had good reason to see this region of Europe as a natural background to sensational dramatic events
On the one hand, ‘Italy’, and more particularly, city states like Venice and Florence were centres of civilization
Earliest home of the European Renaissance A model of learning and sophistication
Moors? and Othello, the Moor
Issue of Othello’s race: Arab or Negro? Moor (standard definition): a member of the
mixed Arab and Berber people of Morocco (North Africa) and the Barbary coast
However, evidence for the kind of Moor Othello is, in the play, difficult to interpret
In any case, a dark, or black / white opposition is built into the play at every level
Theatre in Shakespeare’s time
Shakespeare's theatre did not possess the complex stage machinery of modern theatre
to create elaborate sets, lighting, and sound effects;
Thus atmosphere and setting is suggestively created through the power of language—
Scene painting is done in and through words Lighting and Sound effects also achieved
through language; words
Re- Theatre (cont)
Fullest experience of any Shakespearean play — created through words
In Othello, language is used to evoke tempests as in Scene 1 of Act 2
Language is used to create a sense of light and darkness; day and night;
Language used even to create a sense of place;
Features of Shakespearean Drama
Every play has its own distinctiveness; Much of Shakespeare’s plays written in poetry — that
of blank verse; As well as its distinctive use of prose; Blank verse is a very flexible medium; like normal
English speech, capable of a wide range of tones; Speaking Shakespeare—
Iambic pentameter—divide into five feet; Sound Patterning and Rhythm; Imagery – central to the language of Poetry
Features of Shakespearean drama (cont)
High life characters speak in poetry; low life characters speak in prose
Structure: Five act plays, divided into scenes Soliloquies, Asides, and Set Speeches Long speeches—Copia Verborum (abundance,
plentiness of words) Tropical plenitude The nature of Shakespeare’s stage directions
A sense of Shakespearean Tragedy;Aristotle’s Concept of Tragic Drama
Genre? Kind / type of play: Othello is a tragedy In Tragedy (tragic drama), there is always the fall of a
great man who is potentially a person of noble character; The playwright is concerned with its causes, the way it works, its effects
Associated with Tragedy is the notion of the ‘boomerang’
The effect of the Tragic Hero’s actions on himself; totally different effect to that intended
The Concept of Tragic Hero
For the tragic hero, there is also the concept of the acquisition of self-knowledge;
This refers to the knowledge of himself that comes to the Tragic Hero through suffering
In Tragedy—must be a Tragic Hero
Whose situation changes from well-being to misfortune (peretpateia)
Brought upon him by some error of judgment on his part, arising from a flaw in his character, some human weakness (hamartia)
Essential he contributes to some extent to his own downfall
Who must suffer for his wrong-doing on this earth until he has expiated his offences
Definition of Tragic Hero
The Tragic Hero is a potentially noble person Who, through some flaw in his character Helps to bring about his own downfall, a And who by suffering acquires self-
knowledge And so purges his faults
Literary elements
Rich and varied patterned use of poetic imagery Symbolism e.g. the tempest Personification Rhythm e.g. the steady rhythm of Othello’s blank
verse in the earlier scenes of the play; Sound repetition: Assonance, Alliteration, and
onomatopoeia; Rhyme (Sound Patterning) Paronomasia / Puns [The Elizabethans delighted in
witty wordplay] Dramatic irony: Verbal; Situational;
Literary elements—we note Iago uses
Bombastic, patterned, balanced language, abounding in latinisms
when he is speaking to Roderigo For example, ‘it was a violent commencement,
and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration’ – Iago in Act 1, Scene 3, lines 345-346
Use of patterned dialogue - Speeches characterized by Animal Imagery
Linguistic elements
Use of pronouns: ‘You’ and ‘Thee’ Shakespeare’s use of thee, thou, thy, thine Thou can imply either closeness or contempt ‘You’ is more formal and distant form of
address suggesting respect for a superior or courtesy to a social equal
Use of transitive verbs Use of aptly chosen adjectives
Shakespearean / Elizabethan English
Tush - rubbish; Sblood - by God’s blood Forsooth Hath Full hard Marry (swears by the Virgin Mary) Hotly - urgently Moons - months Prithee - pray you Haply - perhaps Note: Words that have changed in meaning
Rhetoric: Art of Persuasion
All the ways of using language to convince others, or move someone to action
Use of particular linguistic techniques to gain the confidence of listeners, appeal to their reason, their emotions, and their imagination
In Othello, as in all plays, powerfully persuasive voices are heard as characters try to convince other characters;
Rhetorical techniques / devices
Lengthy set speeches—copia verborum Bombast (inflated language) Powerful antithesis (a key technique); Hyperbole All kinds of repetitions, and lists (enumeration) Anaphora: the same words beginning successive
sentences Epizeuxis: repeating words in immediate succession Antanaclasis: punning on a repeated word to obtain
different dramatic effects
Some central Concepts
Individual; Outsider; Society; Culture Conflict; Tragedy; (Shakespearean Tragedy) Tragic hero; Concepts of Heaven and Hell; Concepts of Good, and Evil; Love and Hate Concepts of Appearance and Reality Concept of Belief and Knowledge Concept of Cause; Reason and Evidence Concepts of Order and Chaos; Concept of Antithesis
Finally, remember……???
Read the play…carefully, closely and thoroughly In reading the play, (may we suggest) you acquire
and use a CD (aural dramatization) to enable you to follow and make better sense of the context of the play’s text.
Seek opportunities to see the play in performance, to experience it theatrically
Seize opportunities to read literary criticism… Seek opportunities to discuss the play