Lecture 1 ‘Othello the Moor of Venice’ by William Shakespeare

World of Othello; Othello’s World

Areas of focus

Introductory remarks, and Conflict 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

Drama and Conflict

In Othello, as with any play—

Conflict is the essence of drama.

Introduction: Studying and Enjoying

Shakespeare wanted his plays to entertain and to be enjoyed

A play like 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: visualizing the script of the play in your mind;

A different time, different place

Clearly a different world The Elizabethan England of Shakespeare Distinguishing 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

The city 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 Italy as a natural background to sensational dramatic events

On the one hand, Italy, and more particularly, cities 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 is 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;

He therefore had to create atmosphere and setting through language—

Scene painting done in words Lighting effects achieved through language

Re- Theatre (cont)

Fullest experience of any Shakespearean play was created through words

In Othello, for instance, language is used to evoke tempests

Language is used to create a sense of place

Features of Shakespearean Drama

Every play has its own distinctiveness Much of his plays written in poetry; verse—

blank verse As well as in 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

Features of Shakespearean drama (cont)

High life characters speak in poetry; low life characters speak in prose

Five act plays, divided into scenes Soliloquies, Asides, and set speeches Long speeches—Copia Verborum

(abundance, plentiness of words) The nature of Shakespeare’s stage

directions

A sense of Shakespearean Tragedy

Genre? Kind / type of play: Othello is a tragedy In Tragedy (tragic drama), there is always a fall;

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 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

Brought upon him by some error of judgment on his part, arising from a flaw in his character, some human weakness

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 use of poetic imagery Symbolism e.g. the tempest Personification Rhythm e.g. the steady rhythm of Othello’s earlier

blank verse Sound repetition: Assonance, Alliteration, and

onomatopoeia; Rhyme Puns [The Elizabethans delighted in wordplay] Dramatic irony: Irony of situation; irony of speech

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

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 speeches—copia verborum Bombast (inflated language) Powerful antithesis; 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 and thoroughly In reading the play, (may I 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