Act 1

Question 1

What does Act 1 establish?

Answer 1

Othello’s nobility against a background of xenophobia

Question 2

act 1, scene 1

Answer 2

• begins on a street in Venice
• R has been paying I to help him win D’s hand, he has just learned that D has married O
• I hates O because of recent promotion of C
• I only pretends to serve O
• The two men come to the house of B, and cry out
• B begins to take what he hears seriously and decides to search for his daughter
• Seeing the success of his plan, I leaves R alone
• B and his men follow R to O.

Question 3

act 1, scene 2

Answer 3

• I arrives at O’s lodgings, where he warns the general about B
• O sees a party of men approaching, who turn out to be C and officers from the Venetian court
• he is wanted by the duke about a matter
• B, R, and his men arrive
• O brings to a halt by calmly and authoritatively
• hearing that the duke has summoned O to the court, B decides to bring his cause before the duke himself.

Question 4

act 1, scene 3

Answer 4

• messenger arrives to report that the Turks have joined with more forces and are heading back toward Cyprus.
• military meeting is interrupted by the arrival
• B demands that all state business be put aside
• The duke is initially eager to take B’s side, but he becomes more skeptical when he learns that O is the man accused.
• O has the chance to speak for himself
• he admits that he married D, but he denies having used magic to woo her
• D was moved to love by O’s stories
• duke is persuaded by O’s tale
• D enters, and confirms that she married O of her own free will
• duke decides that O must go to Cyprus to defend the island from the Turks.
• D asks to be allowed to go with O
• stage is cleared, only R and I
• R feels that his hopes of winning D have been dashed, but I insists that all will be well.
• R leaves, I delivers his first soliloquy, declaring his hatred for O and his suspicion that O has slept with his wife
• he lays out his plan to cheat R out of his money, to convince O that C has slept with D, and to use O’s honest and unsuspecting nature to bring him to his demise.