How is Othello’s jealousy presented? Revision for Y12 mock

Revision tasks On slides 4-11 there is a key quote (learn these) and a prompt to annotate with A02 and/or A03 inference. Print these slides ( two per sheet) and annotate and use as flashcards. On slide 3 is an example intro (partially complete – finish relevant to extract provided in exam) On slide 12 are additional quotes that you should select from and learn On slides 13 & 14 are two key critical perspectives – learn the key point for each critic. If you want to be original though you will have to research other critical viewpoints . A02 is ‘next step’ for everyone, so make sure you address this in the extract close analysis and in the quotes from the rest of the play that you revise.

Introduction – overview including A02 and A03 As 17th century Jacobean tragedy it is inevitable that Othello, the tragic hero, will succumb to his hamartia : jealousy. True to generic convention, Act 5 sees Othello’s misjudged murder of his wife and the fall of a man who earlier in the paly was characterised as proud, noble and supportive of his proto-feminist wife Desdemona. In this extract which comes when …. shows ……

Act 1: O: My life upon her faith! A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – what does Brabantio say prior to this and how does this contribute towards the undoing of Othello’s trust?

Act 2: Iago: “O, you are well tuned now!” A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – what stage direction in 2.1 confirms visually their unity? How does Shakespeare use the shift to Cyprus as a setting to set the scene for jealousy?

Act 3: Exit Cassio Iago “Ha! I like not that” A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – when does Othello start imitating Iago’s language and what character trait is revealed by the interjection ‘ha’?

Act 3: Othello “Tis not to make me jealous to say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company” A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – find another quote which shows Othello’s continued trust in Desdemona from Act 3

Act 3: Othello : If I do prove her haggard , Though that her jesses were my dear heart strings I’d whistle her off” A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – find another quote in this soliloquy in 3.3 that shows his loss of trust in Desdemona

Act 4: Othello: I will chop her into messes [he strikes her] A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – find another quote which shows Othello’s increasingly violent sexual jealousy

Act 5: It is the cause[…]it is the cause[…] it is the cause’ She must die, else she’ll betray more men’ He kisses her A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – how does the willow song foreshadow this outcome?

Act 5: Othello “ You must speak of […] one not easily jealous but, being wrought, perplexed in the extreme’ A01 inference – how does this show Othello’s jealousy? A02 develop point with understanding of methods of presentation? A03 develop point with understanding of context of production/ reception A01 – find another quote which shows Othello’s continued trust in Desdemona from Act 3

Other useful jealousy quotes: Lodovico “ My lord, this would not be believed in Venice” (4.1) Emilia “Husband’s faults…break out in peevish jealousies” (4.3) Othello: “Cunning whore of Venice” (4.2) Othello: “Cuckold me!” (4.1) Iago: Othello shall go mad; And his unbookish jealousies must construe Poor Cassio’s smiles…quite in the wrong” (4.1) Othello: He falls in a trance (4.1) Othello: ‘the fair devil” (3.4 Othello: Her name that was a fresh as Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black as mine own face’ (3.3) Emilia: Is he not jealous? Desdemona: he is “made of no such baseness as jealous creatures are.” (3.4

Leavis’ critical views on Othello: F. R. Leavis (‘Diabolic Intellect and the Noble Hero’,1952) also rejected Bradley’s reading of Othello’s character. He argued that the tragic protagonist was responsible for his own downfall: Iago’s role is ‘subordinate and merely ancillary’. Leavis claims that Othello has a propensity to jealousy and possesses a weak character, which is sorely tested by marriage; ‘the stuff of which he is made begins at once to deteriorate and show itself unfit’. Othello’s love is dismissed; it is ‘composed very largely of ignorance of self as well as ignorance of her [Desdemona]’. Othello emerges as ferociously stupid in Leavis’s reading. Leavis claims that Othello has a propensity to jealousy and possesses a weak character, which is sorely tested by marriage; ‘the stuff of which he is made begins at once to deteriorate and show itself unfit’. Othello’s love is dismissed; it is ‘composed very largely of ignorance of self as well as ignorance of her [Desdemona]’. Othello emerges as ferociously stupid in Leavis’s reading.

Bradley’s critical views on Othello: In 1904 A. C. Bradley presented an overwhelmingly positive analysis of Othello, whom he saw as blameless. For Bradley, Othello was ‘the most romantic figure among Shakespeare’s heroes … [he] does not belong to our world’. Bradley’s Othello is a man of mystery, exoticism and intense feeling, trustful, open, passionate but self-controlled, ‘so noble … [he] inspires a passion of mingled love and pity’ which none of Shakespeare’s other heroes is able to inspire. Bradley also commented on Othello’s poetic qualities and argued that the newness of his marriage makes his jealousy credible. Iago’s methods are also considered to be plausible in this critic’s reading of the play. Bradley believed that Othello never falls completely and suggested that at the end of the play we feel ‘admiration and love’ for the hero

A03 context – relevant to jealousy Othello shares the contemporary anxiety of being cuckolded Renaissance idea of masculinity involved passionate violence and decisive action Venetian women were considered at the time as sexually promiscuous Othello assimilates contemporary racial prejudice and begins to doubt that Desdemona could have loved a man “for I am black […] and into the vale of years” Jacobean society categorised women as virginal or promiscuous resulting in Desdemona's position as innocent and pure as fragile and vulnerable For each of the above, a secondary source historical quotation would be more sophisticated than your own paraphrased understanding.

Modern audience In 2017, audiences would be in disbelief that a woman could be murdered as the result of sexual jealousy. Legislation protecting men and women from domestic violence means that the abusive treatment of women would be unacceptable. Cuckoldry is no longer a measure of a man’s dignity and it is hard today to feel sympathy for Othello’s sense of shame Unfortunately racial prejudice still exists and therefore it is possible to empathise with Othello’s feelings of vulnerability and paranoia.