Context

Question 1

What do tragedies often present?

Answer 1

Tragedies often present the fall of high-status characters

Question 2

Why was it the fall of high-status characters?

Answer 2

-They so much further to fall than a lower status character. -They have a reputation to lose, love, respect, command, or power

Question 3

Why do the high status character fall?

Answer 3

They have a hubris that is exploited by the antagonist.

Question 4

What is the spiral of tragedy?

Answer 4

The character will start falling until they can’t escape this spiral and blames everyone else but themselves

Question 5

What leads to chaos?

Answer 5

The character will make poor decisions until an event such as a murder occurs and so they are unable to change the events. This is the climax of the chaos

Question 6

What happens to the character at the end?

Answer 6

They tend to show remorse and either get killed by a heroic figure or kill themselves as they can’t live with what they have done

Question 7

What two monarchs ruled during Shakespeare’s time?

Answer 7

• Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

- King James I (1603-1625)

Question 8

What was the Elizabethan era called?

Answer 8

It was called ‘The Golden Age’ or ‘Renaissance era’.
Increased global expansion for the British Empire through naval exploration, and growth in English Literature, theatre and music

Question 9

Why was there instability in this era?

Answer 9

• Political conflict from the church and the widespread poverty
• Most men could not vote and women had hardly any rights

Question 10

Who was the religious conflict between?

Answer 10

• The Protestant and Catholic Church

- The Queen was a protestant and so many Catholics plotted against her

Question 11

Who was at the top of society?

Answer 11

Knights and the nobility were at the top, but there was a huge growth of the gentry class as the Empire expanded into the ‘New World’.

Question 12

What was inequality like?

Answer 12

• There was a rise of in modern commerce and merchant class.

- The was a huge inequality in the working class like: shoemakers, carpenters, and anyone who worked with their hands.

Question 13

What were the gender division?

Answer 13

Boys: attended school, learned to read and write, if they were rich they would go to a grammar school at 7, would study Latin and Roman writing

Girls: expected to stay at home, learn domestic skills, if they were wealthy they could learn to read and write

Question 14

What was the Renaissance a great period of?

Answer 14

Great change, established rules were up ruled

Desdemona and Othello’s union is part of this breaking of traditions

Question 15

What are the two settings in Othello?

Answer 15

Venice and Cyprus

Question 16

How was Venice?

Answer 16

• It was a hugely influential seaport in Italy in the 16th century.
• Took an active role in much of the Italian renaissance literature, music, and architecture of the time
• Also symbolic of political factionalism (rebel), intrigue, and moral corruption, even though it was orderly like in Act 1
• In plays Venice was used as a place to show cultural sophistication

Question 17

How was Cyprus?

Answer 17

• A much more unstable and violent place
• Controlled by Venice and invaded by the Turks in 1570
• King James I was very interested in Turkish history
• Shakespeare uses the threat of the Turks to change the setting to a much more isolated, unruly and claustrophobic Cyprus. It intensifies the ominous, foreboding atmosphere as tragedy unfolds and order is destroyed

Question 18

Views of racism in the play?

Answer 18

Racist:

• Portrayal of black protagonist Othello as irrational, murderous, violent and gullible
• Divisions between characters: Othello vs Iago, Brabantio
• Iago uses the word ‘Moor’ meaning his African Moorish Heritage
• Roderigo calls him ‘Thick lips’

Not racist:

• Othello given incredible respect at the beginning, intelligent military leader, a strategist, and as a lover and husband
• Racist slurs could show Othello’s humanity and grace to the audience

Question 19

How does Shakespeare use language of ‘blackness’?

Answer 19

• Links the notion of ‘blackness’ to the devil, evil and hell
• It is most often found in Brabantio, Iago, and Roderigo

Question 20

‘Other’ how is Othello represented like this?

Answer 20

• A character who is seen by others as exotic yet ultimately barbaric, inferior and animalistic
• However his use of poetic language contradicts this

Question 21

What is Othello’s tragic downfall?

Answer 21

-Discrimination and separation his susceptibility to jealousy and insecurity provided by Iago

Question 22

Gender inequality through marriage?

Answer 22

• Othello and Desdemona
• he thinks that Desdemona is unfaithful and fells ‘cuckolded’, which leads to his cruelty and vicious treatment of her
• At the beginning he gives Desdemona some power and seems more equal

-Iago and Emilia

Both women end up being killed by their husbands
Men think that women are their property
Female sexuality seen as threatening or emasculating