background context (Shakespeare)

Question 1

Shakespeare’s drama and the Renaissance

Answer 1

Shakespeare’s drama examines and questions the beliefs, assumptions, and politics upon which Elizabethan society was founded.

Question 2

stage history of Othello

Answer 2

In the eighteenth century, because of the presence of women on stage and in the audience, refinements were made so the play met standards of decorum.

Desdemona’s willow song was removed as it was thought unladylike, and Othello’s speeches were cut to emphasise his nobility.

Question 3

types of Othello were defined and played

Answer 3

1. What Norman Sanders describes as the “blazing portrayal of torrential sexual passion and wild jealousy”. Salvini’s Othello was noted for his eroticism and savagery, prowled around stage like a tiger and pounced on Desdemona.

Question 4

Machiavelli being misunderstood

Answer 4

the portrayal of Iago demonstrates Elizabeth’s misunderstandings of the works of the Florentine writer, Machiavelli. Shakespeare and his contemporaries believed that his ideas were immoral, so they created the stage Machiavelli who was devious.

Question 5

refinements of the play overtime

Answer 5

in order to meet contemporary standards of decorum. Desdemona’s willow song was removed because it was thought unladylike, and Othello’s speeches were cut to emphasise his nobility.

Question 6

Iago’s character presentation in plays

Answer 6

According to Hitchings, Kinnear’s Iago made deception “seem creepily amusing”. This Iago was portrayed with “sickly intensity and occasional bursts of thuggish jubilation”.

Question 7

race portrayed in other plays by Shakespeare

Answer 7

villainous Moor Aaron in Titus Andronicus (1593). He fathers a child with a white woman, their babies are described in terms “ a joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue.”

Question 8

Malcontent and Machiavellian villains in Renaissance drama who share Iago’s cynicism

Answer 8

In Shakespeare’s King Lear the illegitimate son Edmund plot against his brother and father to get what he wants, and also exploits women as Iago does.

Question 9

Othello’s main teachings

Answer 9

Othello teaches the audience of the tragic happenings which can occur if one trusts to easily, gives into jealousy, acts irrationally and focuses too much on oneself

Question 10

Shakespeare perhaps twists the idea of “morality play” concept by making it so even the characters who seem good and virtuous have something to learn

Answer 10

though Desdemona is the ideal Venetian woman, she is also subservient to the point where she would rather die than take a stand against her abusive husband.

Question 11

The plotline of Othello was heavily influenced by a story in Cinthio’s Gli Hecatommithi

Answer 11

The focus of the story was marital infidelity- perhaps the inspiration for this being such a principal theme in the play (Othello’s tragic downfall culminates with Desdemona’s death as a result of what he believes to be disloyalty)

Question 12

jaocbean society- system of patronage

Answer 12

reputation

Question 13

African-American actor Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was the first black actor since 1860 to perform the role of Othello in a major production.

Answer 13

undermines the message