Context Flashcards
Moors
Black nomadic people of the Northern shores of Africa, originally the inhabitants of Mauritania
Converted to Islam in the 8th Century
Invaded spain in 711 AD and dominated until 11th Century
Had great dynasties up until 1492, when the last of their cities where conquered by Spain
Virtually exterminated by Spain during the Inquisition (late 1400s-1820)
Iago’s name
‘Iago’ is a shortened version of ‘Santiago’ or ‘Saint James’
Saint James of Spain was aka ‘St James the Moor Killer’
Women
In the Elizabethan times, there was a long and well established tradition in the Church of misogyny.
Women were distusted simply bc they were women. It was believed that women would cheat as it was part of their ‘nature’.
Women were subordinates to men during the 16th and 17th centuries, and we see this manifested in Othello.
Desdemona has few rights and is subordinate to her husband. Although Desdemona is strong-willed and does defy Othello when convincing him to forgive Cassio, she is ultimately a passive character who is powerless in the face of her husband’s anger.
Emilia is even more oppressed than Desdemona: by her husband, her mistress, and to an extent Othello as well as she serves under him. By the final Act of Othello, the normal social order has been so disrupted by Othello’s murder of Desdemona, Emilia is now free to speak up for herself and to contradict the patriarchal hierarchy. However, her exposure of the truth comes too late to achieve any real change: Desdemona is dead, Othello kills himself in regret and grief, and Emilia herself is killed by lago for her disobedience.
Cuckolding
Any man whose wife cheated on him was known as a cuckold
Being a cuckold was considered public humiliation
Cuckolds were often described as having horns- a hangover from the days when a cuckold was forced to parade around his town wearing antlers as a sign of his wife’s infidelity
Jealousy
Jealousy was viewed as something irrational and linked to the deadly sin of envy
It was viewed as a sudden infection against which there was no prevention or cure
It was though of eroding trust and it dissolved bonds holding together marriages, families and social frameworks
Being jealous would let in evil and chaos and it was a state greatly feared by Shakespeare’s audiences
Original publication
First published in 1622 in Quarto (size of print)
First folio 1623
‘The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice’ in both
- Worthy of a tragedy
- A moor
- Of Venice
Sources for Othello
Gli Hecatommithi by Cinthio
= collection of short stories written in Italian and first published in 1565. It tells the story of Disdemona and a Moor captain
Differences in Shakespeares and Cinthio’s Othello
Shakespeare’s lago is far more ambiguous, and therefore seems more evil, than Cinthio’s Ensign. Shakespeare gives more time to lago’s soliloquies, and although we never truly know his motives, it is clear that Shakespeare intended for lago to be bloodthirsty and merciless for seemingly little reason.
The addition of Brabantio adds more depth to Othello’s situation: Desdemona’s father being entirely opposed to their marriage offers us another reason for Othello’s insecurities, and a potential reason why he so easily succumbs to lago’s manipulations. The addition of Roderigo, on the other hand, adds more depth to lago’s character. It is another character for him to manipulate, and so we have a greater impression of lago’s web of authority, and the extent to which he will go to ruin Othello.
The renaissance period
Shakespeare was writing during the English Renaissance period, which lasted from the 15th through to the mid-17th century.
Cultural movement which saw the flourishing of Latin and Ancient Greek philosophies and knowledge in Western Europe.
Shakespeare draws on Greek and Roman classical writing in his use of genre and references, and he explores the psychology of his characters in depth
The flourishing of literature and culture can also be seen in the very vocabulary of Shakespeare’s writing: Many words and phrases are recorded in writing for the first time in Shakespeare’s works. Although this does not necessarily mean that he coined these phrases himself, it does demonstrate the development and flourishing of language in this period.
Race
Although there were people of colour living in Tudor England, (eg a trumpeter at the court of Henry VII who is pictured on the Westminster Tournament Roll of 151) they were a very small minority and for the most part their lives and stories are unknown.
It is not possible to define Othello’s race for certain, and it is questionable if this is something we should be attempting to do. Although today we might assume that the term ‘Moor’ refers to an Arab inhabitant of North Africa, in Shakespearean England the term had numerous definitions and could also describe people from any region in Africa. In some senses, pinning down Othello’s specific race is unimportant. His precise origins do not matter to the other characters: they are aware of his Otherness, and the very fact that he is not white and European is enough to set him fully apart from them.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, black could refer to both morality and race; white stood for purity and innocen This association of blackness with evil is one reason why Othello and his ‘otherness’ are feared by white Venetian society, and black was the antithesis.
Othello is treated with a mixture of respect, fear, and fascination and this all plays into his race.
Despite the fact that he is respected as a military leader, he is ultimately purged from the white European society to which he only ever partially belonged. But as an ethnic minority, Othello is also a source of fascination for the European characters.
Religion
Explores relationships between Christians and Muslims in the late 16th Century. Set against the backdrop of the ongoing wars between the Christian Republic of Venice and the Muslim Ottoman Empire throughout the 16th Century,
The religious conflict is an important background to a play whose protagonist is a convert to Christianity from Islam. The wars are a subtle reminder of the conflict between Christians and Muslims, and yet another reminder of how Othello stands apart from society.
Great Chain of Being: This concept informs several of Shakespeare’s works and it is the notion of a hierarchy of all creation, from God at the very top, down through the angels, to kings and other men, to animals, and then plants. Iago frequently compares Othello to animals, and according to the GCOB animals are considered lower than humans in the Christian hierarchy ordained by God, Iago perceives Moors and people of African descent to be less than human in his eyes, and in the eyes of God as well.
