Othello –Assessment Preparation

Friday 7th January 2022

Learning Purposes

• To consolidate our knowledge of the play.

• To consider how to develop a full response for the assessment.

• To explore Shakespeare’s development of character through the use of language and structure.

Recap of previous learning

➢What happened in the final scene of the play?

➢What is justice?

➢Discuss with your partner: Was justice achieved by the end of the play? Why?

Future Lessons

➢We are developing our understanding of the effect of poetic devices in poetry.

➢We are developing our analytical writing skills

➢We are developing our imaginative writing skills

Othello -BINGO!

1. What reason does Iago give for why he dislikes

Cassio?

2. How does Othello die? Why does he do this?

3. Give 3 sophisticated adjectives to describe

Iago.

4. What is the difference between an antagonist

and a protagonist?

5. How does Desdemona accidentally incriminate

herself with Cassio?

6. How does Brabantio find out about

Desdemona and Othello’s marriage?

7. What does Desdemona’s

handkerchief initially symbolise? Why?

8. Who does Iago stab in the final scene? Why

does he do this?

9. What structural techniques does

Shakespeare use to reveal Iago’s cruelty to

the audience?

10. How and why does Othello’s language change in the play?

11. How are the women in Othello presented? What happens to them

as a result of this?

12. What is blank verse? Why might a character speak in blank verse?

Each colour is worth a different number of points. You must try to secure as many points as possible!

Green = 3 pointsOrange = 5 pointsRed = 7 pointsPurple = 10 points

Give yourself a mark out of 75!

He is jealous of his promotion; he does not think he is worthy of the job.

He stabs himself because he feels guilty about killing Desdemona.

The antagonist causes the downfall of the protagonist.

She persistently begs for Othello to give Cassio his job back.

Iago tells him by suggesting that Brabantio has been ‘robbed’.

It initially symbolises love because Othello gave it to her.

Iago stabs his wife, Emilia, because she defies his patriarchal control.

Dramatic irony – through the asides and Iago’s soliloquies.

He originally speaks in blank verse but later changes to prose. His language becomes a lot more violent: ‘hell’, ‘death’.

The women are defiant and determined, but because of this they are murdered.

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, shows social status and suggests that a character is well educated.

Revision Resources – Online Curriculum

We will be completing more revision in our lesson this morning.

However, over the next week you should also continue to revise at home – your assessment is next week!

To support you, Dr Murray has created a revision video that you can watch at home: https://olc.ttsonline.net/Uploads/English/65718/20211215054215_Othello revision.mp4

If you go to the Online Curriculum → English → KS3 English →Year 9 → Othello, you will find a range of resources to help you.

Your exercise book is also full of resources!

Explore the presentation of Iago

Next week, you will write an essay in response to this question. Today, we will revise the knowledge needed to do this successfully.

• You will have one hour to write your essay and fifteen minutesplanning time.

• During planning and writing you will not be able to use your notes or the text.

• It is important that you revise using your notes, texts and the online curriculum (see revision video). This includes learning quotations.

• Your essay should include: An introduction, three developed paragraphs and a conclusion.

Analytical Paragraphs

Put 1-7 in the margin. Re-order the different features of an analytical paragraph in your book.

Topic Sentence

Embedded Quotation

Explanation of Quotes

Links to Context

Effect on audience

Close Word Analysis

Concluding Sentence

Challenge: What different types of vocabulary does an analytical paragraph need? Give examples for each.

Remember, context should

always enhancethe point you are

making!

Iago’s Character

Create a character profile for our antagonist, Iago.

Your profile should consider:

• Iago’s role in the plot – what does he do and why?

• Iago’s relationship with Othello.

• Iago’s relationship with Emilia (his wife).

• Iago’s key characteristics – why is he like this?

Challenge: Consider how Iago’s speech (the language he uses and the way he speaks) reflect his clever but manipulative personality.

Use the thesaurus on your desk to search for other adjectives that you could use to describe Iago.

Close Word Analysis

Copy the following quote into your exercise book and closely analyse the language (words) and structure (how the sentence is put together) that Iago uses considering how it illuminates his duplicitous nature:

Iago: So will I turn her virtue into pitch;

And out of her own goodness make the net

That shall enmesh them all. (Act 2.3)

Who is the ‘her’ that Iago talking about?

Consider the connotations of at least 2 key words.

What word class are your key words?

What is happening when Iago says this?

Iago – Key Quotes and Explanation

On the worksheet are 8 more key quotes relating to Iago in the play. You need to closely analyse the language that is used, and provide an explanation for the quote – what is happening in the scene, who is he talking about…

Use the analysis that you have just completed as a guide.

For each quote consider:

• WHAT Shakespeare is trying to show?

• HOW Shakespeare is presenting this?

• WHY is this important?

Extension: Can you identify any quotes of your own to add to the list?

Key Quote Close Word Analysis Explanation 1.1: ‘I am not what I am.’

1.3: ‘The Moor is of a free and open nature, / That

thinks men honest that but seem to be so’

2.1: ‘Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward

me. For making him egregiously an ass.’

2.3: ‘I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear’

3.3: ‘O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; / It is the

green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The meat it

feeds on’

4.1: ‘My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are

caught’

5.1: ‘Now, whether he kill Cassio,/

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, / Every way

makes my gain’

5.1: (Othello): ‘O, brave Iago, honest and just, that

has such noble sense of thy friend’s wrong!’

Extension: Can you identify any quotes of your own to add to the list?

Structuring your whole response –chronological order

Introduction – overview of what you are going to write about. You need to make sure youfocus on the question.

Paragraph 1 – Point 1 (an event that happens early in the play). How have things been presented? Why have things been presented this way? Analytical paragraph structure.

Paragraph 2 – Point 2 (something later in the scene/play). How have things been presented? Why have things been presented this way? Analytical paragraph structure.

Paragraph 3 – Point 3 (has anything changed? Is there a significant event?) How is this presented? Why is it presented this way? Analytical paragraph structure.

Conclusion– Why has Shakespeare presented ------ in this way? Why is this important to the play?

Structuring your whole response

Using that structure as a guide, you need to ensure that your response is coherent and works as a full piece of work.

To ensure that your response is coherent, you should begin each new paragraph with a conjunction.

• Furthermore…

• Additionally…

• Moreover…

TASK: Write a list of any other conjunctions that you could use.

Planning a full response

Using your quotes, analysis and explanation from the previous task, create a plan (4x paragraphs) for a full response.

You should aim to meet all of the points on our analytical paragraph success criteria in each paragraph. However, try to avoid being repetitive –always ensure that what you are saying is relevant!

Topic sentences

Good: Iago is presented as a duplicitous character.

Iago, the play’s antagonist, is presented as….

Better: Iago is presented as an evil, duplicitous character with a clear desire for power. This is evident in…

The theme of jealousy is integral to Othello, and Iago is the main character in which this theme is evident. This provides the reason for his evil, duplicitous nature which is clear when…

Your topic sentence should inform your paragraph – you must have quotations to support your topic sentence.

Theme – an recurrent idea that runs throughout a text

Topic Sentences

Using your plan, write a topic sentence for each of your paragraphs. Consider how you can make it relevant to the exact point that you will be making in your paragraph.

E.g.

Paragraph One: The theme of jealousy is integral to Othello, and Iago is the main character in which this theme is evident. This provides the reason for his evil, duplicitous nature which is clear when…

Introduction

Explore the presentation of Iago

Using your plan, write your introduction to the essay question.

Example starter: Throughout Shakespeare’s tragic play, Othello, Iago is presented as…

Introduction –overview of what you are going to write about. You need to make sure you focus on the question.