Context Flashcards
Renaissance views on Venice (4)
- Vice and prostitutes
- Republican constitution
- Wealth
- Europe’s first line of protection against the Turks, who were seen as eastern heathens, because they were not Christian
How is the Venice of Othello different to the Venice of MOV?
Different to the bustling greedy Venice of MOV - much more emphasis on the state and military rather than on wealth
MOV - being performed by 1598
Battle of Lepanto
1571 – Cyprus was rescued from a Turkish invasion by the Venetians
Renaissance views on Cyprus (3)
- Mythic associations with the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite
- Caught between northern civilisation and African barbarism
- Contemporary views of mythical lands as foreign and strange
Moroccan ambassador to Queen Elizabeth
1600 - depicted in a portrait as glamorous and exotic, as well as powerful and a potential ally to the Queen
Queen Elizabeth’s letter
1596 – Queen Elizabeth wrote a letter expelling Blackamoors (a large colony of Moors had grown in London, most of them fleeing Spanish persecution)
Ania Loomba on changing attitudes towards foreigners in England
‘England was increasingly hostile to foreigners, both officially and at a popular level’
Old Testament
Jeremiah associates black skin with evil
Leo Africanus’s book
John Pory translated Moorish Leo Africanus’ book on the popular history of Africa in 1600 in which he seemed proud of his own people’s inclination to murderous sexual jealousy
Prince of Morocco in Merchant of Venice
He is mocked for his complexion but is still seen as a viable suitor (embodies a similar dichotomy between nobility and otherness)
Aaron the Moor in Titus Andronicus
Stereotypical villain, but speaks eloquently
What play was Shakespeare writing at the same time as ‘Othello’?
Measure for Measure
Also derived from Cinthio’s ‘A Hundred Tales’
Both plays are concerned with what humans have the capacity to become
Link between Brabantio and Portia’s father in MOV
Like many Shakespearean fathers, Brabantio thinks of his daughter as his property – e.g. Portia’s father who controls her marriage even in death (links to Renaissance ideas about arranged marriages)
Cuckolded men and horns
Men having horns was the traditional sign for a cuckolded man – cuckolds were universally mocked at the time
Biblical view of women
Women were the ‘weaker vessel’ and that men had control over their wives
Importance of female chastity
Renaissance pre-occupation with ensuring a legitimate heir – impossible to know whether a child was legitimate
Fears at the time of the constructs of masculinity and femininity converging
Women who tried to assert dominance were crushed
Arranged marriages
Arranged marriages were very common, and women were expected to marry with parental permission – heightens the shocking nature of Desdemona’s elopement
Divorce
Very difficult to achieve
Syphilis epidemic
1604 - could actually be life threatening if your wife was unfaithful
The Pathway to Martial Discipline
Thomas Styward (1581) – book on military conduct stated that no soldier should commit ‘ruffian-like behaviour’ or harm another soldier ‘upon the pain of the loss of his life’ (Cassio is getting off lightly when he is just dismissed)
Growth of interest in the mind
English Renaissance marked a growing interest in the mind and psychology – links with Iago as a psychopath
Renaissance individualism
Idea of the importance of the individual and individual will (links to Iago’s simile about men’s minds being like gardens which they can control)
Renaissance ‘self-fashioning’
Early Modern obsession with how to presents oneself – thus ‘Othello’ encourages the audience to think on the plasticity of the human individual (characters are adept at presenting themselves and others in different lights)
James I
King James I had come to power (1603) before Othello was first performed (1604) – comments on the nature of authority perhaps reflect people’s hesitancy and fear over whether he will be a good king
King Phillip II of Spain
Potentially picking up on the supposedly jealous nature of King Phillip II of Spain (who apparently strangled his wife in his bed) – one of Queen Elizabeth’s suitors
Lack of sub-plots
Unusual for a Shakespeare play not to have a sub-plot – makes the tragedy of Othello an unrelenting one
Othello as a stock comic figure
On some levels, Othello seems like a stock comic figure from medieval narratives (old man being cheated on by his younger wife would have been seen as humorous)
Desdemona and Othello’s names
Stanley Cavell points out the ‘satanic cores’ of Othello and Desdemona’s names – hell and demon
Potential origin of Desdemona’s name
Greek meaning ill-fated
Othello is the tragic version of…
Much Ado About Nothing - comedy about a man who thinks he has been cuckolded
Literary convention of eavesdropping
Use of eavesdropping in 4.1 is a comic device
Twelfth Night for example
The play is now deep into the machinery of tragedy despite the use of comic conventions
Gender roles in the theatre
Remember that these women would have been played by men in Shakespeare’s time
Subversion of the normal ending for a villain
Hugely important that the villain in this play does not die (like usual)
John McRae argues that this is because Shakespeare wants to show that charming villains are everywhere and villainy is part of humanity - sense of Shakespeare mocking the audience for not seeing their own Iago and for being complicit with him at the start
Example of protagonists’ pre-occupation with the truth of events being relayed
Hamlet says that to Horatio – dying heroes want the truth of the events to be related
Key components of tragedy (according to Aristotle)
catharsis - arouse pity and fear and then purge the audience of these emotions at the end
harmartia - hero’s error or frailty
peripeteia - reversal of fortunes (start of the tragic downfall)
anagnorisis- recognition (when the hero realises the truth)
To what extent does Othello conform to Aristotle’s tragic unities of time, place and action?
Observed the spirit of Aristotle much more than Hamlet
Apart from Act I, all of the action takes place in Cyprus (place)
Time proceeds logically and although logically it must be a few weeks, Shakespeare creates the impression of an abstract day unfolding starting at night and ending at night (time)
Plot is unified, being one of the few Shakespeare plays without any significant sub-plots (action)
Clowns in other Shakespeare tragedies
Usually an added tragic or human element to the fool figure when placed in tragedies - the porter in Macbeth or the gravedigger in Hamlet
Used to illuminate a turning point/create a moment of comic relief before the play collapses into unrelenting tragic action
Critics on the purpose of clowns in Shakespeare (2)
Videbaek - ‘mere sight of the clown is a signal to the audience and we are ready to laugh before we even know what the jest will be’
Videbaek - Shakespeare usually only uses clowns in tragedy to ‘illuminate a turning point in the action’
Welsford - the fool is ‘partly within and partly outside the action of the drama’
RSC production - Willow Scene
Makes Emilia a soldier - attempt to place her in a modern context
Portrays Emilia and Desdemona drinking beer
Become equals who are able to talk about men - lowering of barriers
Punishment for adultery in England
Not legal to kill an adulterous wife - however, many felt that men had a duty to kill adulterous wives and their lovers
Sense that Shakespeare is questioning this notion in Othello
Punishment for adultery in Venice
It would have been acceptable for a wife to be punished by the hand of their husband rather than by the law - this custom would have been known about in England
How do Iago’s soliloquies break dramatic convention?
He does not reveal himself to the audience like Hamlet and other figures do - he remains aloof and never reveals his true motives
