Name 4 major themes
Jealousy
Loyalty/betrayal
Oppression
Social higherarchy
Misogyny
What are the three units of a tragedy
Time (Play takes less than 24hrs)
Place (Only one setting)
Action (One principle action)
What is ‘the great chain of being’?
In Shakespear’s society they belived in a higherarchy of God, angles, white people, black people, animals
How does Shakespeare contradict society’s ideas about racism at the time?
He presents Othello as the atithesis of such steriotypes, thus exposing the blamenessless of racism.
How does Shakespeare use the theme of gender?
Woman were considered the ‘domestic sphere’. Shakespear showed Des. rebelling but remaining as the innocent womanly figure…
What was the culture of Venice at the time?
Prostitution was very common.
Children were brought up “in so much liberty,” that “his greatest exercise…” was to have sex.
What are the three major genres
1) Romance
2) tragedy
3) morality
How does Shakespeare use the romance narrative
He makes it comical, this was unusual in his time but it provides light relief and it’s invoked to highlight the absence of Othello’s military heroics which would be the forefront of a normal romance of that era.
Why did Shakespeare start the play I thé same structure as a morality play?
To tempt audience members to think they know what will happen as it dates the same as any moral play.
What is different about the mankind figure and vice figure in Othello?
The vice figure is a native Venetian which contradicts most plays especially since the mankind figure is explicitly racialized
What does Cyprus represent?
War and chaos. Due to the fact it was a war zone and the land was fought over.
Also freedom and wilderness as only colonies lived there with no social structure
Why does Iago switch between prose and verse throughout the play?
As a way of manipulating people. It’s about appearance verse reality. Iago also uses prose to exaggerate the vuglurness of Othello and Des.’ relationship at the start of the play.
What happens to Othello’s speech as the play goes on?
At the start of the play, he speaks in perfect verse to show his high class in society. As he gets manipulated, he ends up speaking in prose as Iago has convinced him he doesn’t belong in the upper class.
