1. Othello revision

2. Test yourself : can you remember 3-5 quotes for each topic:
Types of love : romantic /idolatrous /jealousy / forbidden / sexual / paternal / fraternal /sororal Characters: we pity Othello / we like Desdemona / Othello is a jealous tyrant / wives are all victims/ women are strong / men are jealous / Othello is trusting / Desdemona is hard to like / Emilia is a modern wife / men are misogynists Theme: marriage is unequal / love is destructive / love is ennobling / jealousy is inevitable / sexual jealousy undoes marriage Context: race / gender / marriage / cuckoldry / masculinity/ gender roles / Venice / Cyprus Critics your choice ( Bradley / Leavis) Genre & structure & stagecraft: tragedy (domestic) / setting/ dramatic irony / structure / foreshadowing / soliloquy / compressed time frame / tragic flaw / exposition / climax / denouement / stage direction/ foil Language & imagery : use the extract to unpack imagery / vocab / syntax / blank verse / prose / dialogue / entrances & exits / foreshadowing / dramatic irony / repetition / tone /

3. Non-negotiables (in every essay)
As a tragedy it is inevitable that….
Othello’s hamartia, jealousy, …
The play’s action is compressed, as typical for a tragedy, into a short time frame which emphasises…
Acts 2-5 are set in Cyprus, loosely fulfilling the unity of place in classical tragedy, creating a suffocating, claustrophobic mood which adds to….
The play’s exposition establishes………
The denouement in Act 5 reveals/ concludes that….
The play’s pivotal climax in Othello’s switch in allegiance from Desdemona to Iago marks the moment when/ helps us understand why…
The stage direction “……………”
Iago’s dramatic irony is used to / serves to…
Protagonist / antagonist hero/villain

4. Desdemona – character development of the female protagonist
Maiden never bold
Greedy ear / Saggitary
Battles, sieges, fortunes
Gave me for my pains a world of sighs
I saw Othello’s visage in his mind
The rites for why I love him
Our great captain’s captain
Divine Desdemona
Riches of our ship
Fair warrior
My soul’s joy
My advocation is not now in tune: My lord is not my lord
Whore/ false / strumpet
God me such uses send, not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend
She was heavenly true
The sweetest innocent
Act 1 ‘I do perceive here a divided duty…So much duty as my mother showed to you..I may profess Due to my lord’ bold/ assertive/ courageous / defiant / public declaration/ masculine setting Act 2 My dear Othello! [They kiss] affectionate/ public / passionately romantic/ demonstrative Act 3 “I have it [handkerchief] not about me” nervous loss of confidence in Othello’s trust / economical with the truth / dramatic irony Act 4 “I have not deserved this…[exit D] “ having been struck/ calm/ matter of fact/ obeys order to leave Act 5 “I myself. ..Commend me to my kind lord.” self- sacrificing / passive/ obedient / resigned

5. Othello - character development of the tragic hero
Barbary horse
Thick lips
Old black ram
Act One Send for the lady ..let her speak of me
My life upon her faith!
Act Two O my fair warrior … O my soul’s joy / My soul hath her content so absolute / well tuned now
Act Three Tis not to make me jealous to says my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company..for she had eyes and chose me/ haggard / Haply for I am black and into the vale of years / this forked plague is fated to us / If she be false then heaven mock itself/Her name as fresh as Dian’s visage is now begrimed and black / I’ll tear her all to pieces / fair devil
Act Four [He falls in a trance ] [He strikes her] I pray you turn the key
Act Five It is the cause / betray other men / balmy breath persuade Justice to break her sword / [He smothers her] / O ill starred wench / Nought I did in hate but all in honour / one that loved not wisely but too well / threw a pearl away

6. Emilia – character development of Desdemona’s foil and proto-feminist
Act 1 – no appearance
Act 2 you rise to play and go to bed to work … You shall not write my praise
Act 3 I nothing but to please his fantasy /Is he not jealous? / They are all but stomachs, and we all but food / Jealous for they’re jealous
Act 4 I would you had never seen him / who would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch / peevish jealousies / strike us /
Act 5 Fie upon thee strumpet / the more angel she and you the blacker devil / My husband X 3 / I will not charm my tongue / Tis proper I obey him but not now / lay me by my mistress’ side /So speaking as I think, I die, I die

7. Iago –the villain /cynic and misogynist/ dramatic irony / figure of temptation
Act 1: We have reasons to cool our raging motions / Love is a sect or scion /Merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will / Super subtle Venetian /It is thought abroad that …he’s done my office’ [soliloquy] / Moor is of a free and open nature
Act 2: You rise to play and go to bed to work / You are well tuned now! I’ll set down the pegs that make this music [Aside] / The Moor is of a constant loving nature [soliloquy] The lusty moor hath leaped into my seat [soliloquy]
His soul is so enfettered to her love / her appetite shall play the god with his weak function /I’ll turn her virtue into pitch (soliloquy]
Act 3: In Venice they let God see the pranks They dare not show their husbands / She did deceive her father , marrying you / It’s a common thing / Ha! / prime as goats / [They rise ] / I am our own forever
Act 5: This is the fruits of whoring / Charm your tongue / Be wise and get you home /Villainous whore /

8. Bianca – powerless courtesan / unrequited love for Cassio
She haunts me in every place Go to, woman! I must be circumstanced I am no strumpet, but of life as honest / As you that thus abuse me

9. Roderigo – Petrarchan lover / unrequited love / suffering
I will incontinently drown myself
It is silliness to live when to live is torment
It is my shame to be so fond but it is not in my virtue to amend it
She is full of most blest condition

10. Brabantio / typical patriarch/ marriage as socio-economic transaction / miscegenation as unnatural
Thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!
The devil will make a grandsire of you
Your daughter and the Moor are making the beast with two backs
Gross clasps of lascivious moor
A madi so tender, fair and happy
Stol’n from me
A maiden never bold
Of spirit so still and quiet
Against all rules of nature
She has deceived thy father and may thee!

11. Before the extract – key episodes & quotes?
‘Typically, texts present women as essentially passive in the face of male aggression.’ In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Othello and Desdemona in this extract and elsewhere in the play. Act 5.2 “Peace and be still! (46) until He smothers her (86)
Read extract . Setting? Genre & structure? Context? Type of love? Highlight key quotes which help answer the question that you can zoom in on ( that is why they have included an extract in a closed book exam)
Before the extract – key episodes & quotes?
After the extract (incl. Act 5) – key episodes & quotes

12. Section 1/ introduction: discuss the non-negotiables and the extract A01 A02 A03
Types of love – jealousy / lost love / male honour / violence
Genre & structure – this is Act 5 in a domestic tragedy , a tragedy of passion wrought by the villain Iago – dramatic irony positions the audience as aware of Othello’s aggression “ he hath confessed” and Desdemona’s innocence and vulnerability “what my lord?” ; this is the final, inevitable undoing of Othello – Desdemona is doomed to be a victim “ He smothers her”
Setting – bedchamber / and on bed / symbolic of women’s sexuality as source of anxiety . Final setting in a play staged with increasing claustrophobia on the isle of Cyprus (Aristotle’s unity of place). This moment of desctruction in Act 5 has been foreshadowed by Act 2’s storm – Turks were wrecked as Othello is now.
Context – cuckoldry “he hath used thee” (man’s reputation relied upon his wife / assumption all women were lustful “strumpet” / double standard – men could dismiss suspicions)

13. Section 2: Zoom in on extract quotes to establish your argument with close A02 analysis
Yes, we see male aggression– Thou art to die / thou art on thy death- / bed. Increasing anger “ Out, strumpet! Weep’st thou for him to my face? […] Down strumpet!” He smothers her Personal pronouns / declarative sentences mood / repetition / depersonalised nouns / caesura / exclamation / rhetorical question / confrontational / command / clipped dialogue But no, we see Desdemona resists – No, by my life and soul! Never did offend//never loved Cassio …never gave him token” / O, Lord, Lord, Lord!” anaphora / triplet / caesura/ exclamation/ interjection But she is nonetheless resigned and accepting– “Alas, he is betrayed, and I undone” Kill me tomorrow; let me live tonight” caesura / balanced sentence / exclamation – pity & grief / tone of resignation

14. Section 3 before the extract – which events/words show Desdemona facing male aggression and how did she respond? When was there a turning point in this? Section 4 after the extract - which events/ words show Desdemona facing male aggression and how did she respond? How was her response presented to the audience? Section 5 conclusion : Shakespeare’s attitude towards male aggression and female passivity

15. Applying the mark scheme
How will I make my debate at least “coherent & thorough” (Band )? topic sentences / clear line of argument / coverage of whole play / well selected points with no glaring omissions / anchored to context/ discussed as a play via methods How will I make my debate “perceptive and assured” (Band )? as above with sophisticated and confident critical voice (vocabulary/concepts) / assimilation of critical views / anchored to context quotes / cross-referencing to spot links within the play / perceptive connections arising out of historicist study (The Winter’s Tale/ Much Ado About Nothing…sexual jealousy)

16. Examine the view that, in this passage and elsewhere in the play, Desdemona is presented as a “modern, independent woman whose love is based on mutual respect and love”