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