context

Question 1

Othello is the first Moor…….

Answer 1

Othello is the first Moor Tragic hero in Jacobean drama

Question 2

The Italian play that was Shakespeares inspiration

Answer 2

Hecatommithi

Question 3

Name the 3 differences between Othello and Hecatommithi

Answer 3

The ensign was nameless and kills Desdemona brutally. Othello has the extra characters of Brabantio and Roderigo

Question 4

Christian traditions suggested that Africans were descendants of which biblical character?

Answer 4

Noahs son Ham who was cursed by his father

Question 5

Why was a wide range of foreigners in Venice not unusual?

Answer 5

It was a major trading port

Question 6

Cyprus is where which goddess arose from the sea?

Answer 6

Venus (goddess of love)

Question 7

Contemporary society though Iago was immoral because he was what type of villian?

Answer 7

Machiavelli

Question 8

In what film was homoerrotic love between Othello and Iago a key focus (‘I am yours forever’)

Answer 8

1995 Parker

Question 9

In Renaissance times a wife’s chastity amounted to her husbands…..

Answer 9

honour

Question 10

Handkerchiefs were a symbol of…

Answer 10

status and wealth

Question 11

Possession of a lady’s handkerchief was proof of…..

Answer 11

adultery

Question 12

Aristotle thought that a tragic hero shouldn’t be truly ……. or ……

Answer 12

good or bad - his tragic flaw should invoke pity

Question 13

What does the name Bianca mean?

Answer 13

white

Question 14

Othello’s character may have been inspired by a translation of what book?

Answer 14

John Leo’s - A geographical history of Africa

Question 15

Elizabeth I ordered edicts demanding the removal of black people from England because they were an ‘……..’

Answer 15

annoyance

Question 16

Seneca tragedy was characterised by …..

Answer 16

long narrative accounts and soliloquies

Question 17

Intelectual women were though to be …… to men and incapable of ……….

Answer 17

inferior, rational thought

Question 18

What did the the man playing Othello do in the 1870 production that set Othello apart from the other characters?

Answer 18

spoke his lines in Italain

Question 19

Loomba - ‘Black people are……..’

Answer 19

godless, bestial and hideous

Question 20

Loomba - ‘Female openness was…..’

Answer 20

dangerous and immoral to Elizabethan society

Question 21

Elements of greek tragedy

Answer 21

Harmartia - Fatal error of judgement
Hubris - overwhelming ambition and pride
catharsis - purging of emotions
Heros - tragic end is inevitable

Question 22

Emilia can be likened to a …….. in the final scence

Answer 22

greek chorus

Question 23

Unlike most Jacobean tragedies who dosen’t die at the end?

Answer 23

the villian - iago