1. Introduction to Shakespeare’s Othello Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely, but too well…

2. William Shakespeare  Born in April 1564 in Stratford- on-Avon  Received a classical education including Latin, Greek, history, math, astronomy, and music  Most likely began as an actor  Wrote 38 plays, including comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances  Wrote 4 lengthy poems and a sonnet cycle

3. Shakespeare Vocabulary  Verse vs. Prose  Meter  Foot  Iambic Pentameter  Blank Verse vs. Free Verse  Sonnet  Quatrain  Couplet  Aside  Monologue  Soliloquy  Allusion  Foil  Tragedy  Tragic Hero  Tragic Flaw

4. Verse vs. Prose Verse: Poetic language that includes meter and sometimes rhyme; organized in lines with a consistent number of syllables Prose:Ordinary written language with no meter or rhyme; organized in sentences

5. ProseVerse “Sir, he’s rash and very sudden in choler, and haply may strike at you. Provoke him that he may, for even out of that will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny, whose qualification shall come into no true taste again but by the displanting of Cassio” (2.1.294-298). “Most potent, grave, and reverend signoirs, My very noble and approved good masters: That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter, It is most true; true I have married her” (1.3.91-94).

6. Verse vs. Prose: Usage  Poetic style of verse typically used for high status characters, great affairs of war and state, and tragic moments.  Prose used typically for low status characters (servants, clowns, drunks, villains), proclamations, written challenges, accusations, letters, comedic moments, and to express madness.  The idea is to identify the switches in language and determine the importance of the switch.

7. Meter  Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.  Meter is responsible for creating the rhythm of a line.

8. Meter and Foot  Foot: a group of syllables that forms one complete unit of a metrical pattern.  Meter is described in terms of the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables AND the total number of metrical feet in a line of verse.  Iambic pentameter is the most common metrical pattern in Shakespeare.

9. Iambic Pentameter Iamb: unstressed syllable, stressed syllable ˘ / Pentameter: Lines of five iambic feet; 10 syllables Example: ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

10. Blank Verse vs. Free Verse Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Free Verse:No regular meter One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

11. Rhymed Verse  While blank verse forms the basis of Shakespeare’s writing, he often uses rhyme.  Frequently, a rhymed couplet closes the scene and sometimes suggests what will come next.  Rhyme is a clue to a character or situation—it is important to think about the purpose of rhyme when you see it (i.e. why did Shakespeare use it at this point and what is the effect of its use?)

12. Shakespeare’s Tools: Alliteration  The repetition of consonants in words close together  Commands attention; emphasizes special words; links ideas.  Can be used for comic or satiric effect.  Ex. And men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too.

13. Shakespeare’s tools: Antithesis  Uses a parallel sentence structure to compare two opposing ideas.  Used for coherence and to point out the key ideas in a passage.  Ex. …not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more…  Ex. This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill, cannot be good.

14. Shakespeare’s Tools: Assonance  The repetition of vowel sounds in the same phrase or verse line.  Vowels carry much of the feeling of the verse and the repetition of them strengthens emotion, mood, or atmosphere.  Ex. O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown. The courtier’s, soldier’s scholar’s eye, tongue, sword. Th’expectation and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th’observed of all observers, quite quite down.

15. Shakespeare’s Tools: Repetition and Word Play  A pun is a play on meaning of the same or two similar words. Some of Shakespeare’s puns depend upon repetition of words and phrases.  Ex: (pun) Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man. (Mercutio when dying)  Ex: (pun with repetition) ViolaSave thee friend, and thy music! Dost though live by the tabor? FesteNo, sir, I live by the church. ViolaArt thou a churchman? FesteNo such matter, sir. I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.

16. Shakespeare’s Tools: Caesura  A marked pause within a verse line usually indicated with a full stop or a semi-colon.  Slows down the line and marks a change of some kind, often an emotional change.  Ex. The emperor of Russia was my father. O that he were alive, and here beholding His daughter’s trial! That he did but see The flatness of my misery; yet with the eyes Of pity, not revenge!

17. Shakespeare’s Tools: Enjambment  A verse line which runs onto the next line to complete its thought.  Can give emotional urgency to a thought by providing the energy to drive it onto the next line.  Ex. The emperor of Russia was my father. O that he were alive, and here beholding His daughter’s trial! That he did but see The flatness of my misery; yet with the eyes Of pity, not revenge!

18. Shakespeare’s Tools  These are NOT the only language devices Shakespeare uses.  When you analyze his language, apply your knowledge of these devices as well we your knowledge of the other literary devices with which you are familiar.

19. The Shakespearean Sonnet  14 line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter  organized in three quatrains and a couplet  typical rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg  four-part organization has greater flexibility about where thematic breaks occur  most pronounced break or turn comes with concluding couplet

20. Sonnet: Quatrain and Couplet Quatrain: four-line verse stanza, usually rhymed Couplet:a pair of rhyming verse lines

21. Sonnet: Example AWhen my love that she is made of truth, BI do believe her, though I know she lies, AThat she might think me some untutored youth, BUnlearned in the world’s false subtleties. CThus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, DAlthough she knows my days are past the best, CSimply I credit her false-speaking tongue; DOn both sides thus is simple truth supprest. EBut wherefore says she not she is unjust? FAnd wherefore say not I that I am old? EOh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust, FAnd age in love loves not to have years told: GTherefore I lie with her and she with me, GAnd in our faults by lies we flattered be.

22. Literary Vocabulary for a Play… Aside: a character’s remark, either to the audience or another character, that other characters on stage are not supposed to hear Monologue:an extended speech by a single character that is uninterrupted by others Soliloquy: a speech a character gives when s/he is alone on stage

23. Foil A character whose personality or attitudes are in sharp contrast to those of another character in the same work

24. Allusion  Allusion: reference to an event, person, place, or another work of literature  Shakespeare’s work contains numerous allusions to Greek and Roman mythology.

25. Tragedy  A serious play representing the disastrous downfall of the hero  Achieves a catharsis by arousing pity and terror in the audience  Hero is led into fatal calamity by hamartia (tragic flaw or error) which often takes the form of hubris (excessive pride leading to divine retribution  Tragic effect depends upon audience’s awareness of the admirable qualities of the hero which are wasted in the disaster

26. Classical Tragic Hero  The tragic hero is a good man, important to society  The hero suffers a fall brought about by something in his nature  The fall provokes the emotions of pity and fear in the reader  The tragic character comes to some kind of understanding or new recognition of what has happened

27. Tragic Flaw Defect of character that leads to the hero’s disastrous downfall

28. Othello Terminology: Moor  Muslim person of Arab and Berber descent from northwest Africa  Moors invaded Spain and established a civilization in Andalusia lasting from the 8 th -- 15th centuries  Term Moor comes from the Greek work mauros meaning dark or very black  In Renaissance drama, Moors often symbolized something other than human - and often, indeed, something devilish.

29. Othello Terminology: Cuckold  a man whose wife is unfaithful to him  Represented with horns growing out of his forehead “That cuckold lives in bliss Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; But O, what damned minutes tells he o’er Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves!” (3.3.197-200) “I have a pain upon my forehead, here” (326).

30. Othello: A Tragedy  Written in 1604  One of the major tragedies -- after Hamlet and before King Lear and Macbeth  Fascination with evil  Study the devastating effects of the deadly sins of the spirit: ambitious pride, ingratitude, wrath, jealousy and vengeful hate

31. Othello: Setting  Journey from Venice, Italy to Cyprus  Venice = order, rule of reason ?  Cyprus = disorder, rule of passion ?