Context

Question 1

Renaissance views on Venice (4)

Answer 1

1. Vice and prostitutes
2. Republican constitution
3. Wealth
4. Europe’s first line of protection against the Turks, who were seen as eastern heathens, because they were not Christian

Question 2

How is the Venice of Othello different to the Venice of MOV?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Battle of Lepanto

Answer 3

1571 – Cyprus was rescued from a Turkish invasion by the Venetians

Question 4

Renaissance views on Cyprus (3)

Answer 4

1. Mythic associations with the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite
2. Caught between northern civilisation and African barbarism
3. Contemporary views of mythical lands as foreign and strange

Question 5

Moroccan ambassador to Queen Elizabeth

Answer 5

1600 - depicted in a portrait as glamorous and exotic, as well as powerful and a potential ally to the Queen

Question 6

Queen Elizabeth’s letter

Answer 6

1596 – Queen Elizabeth wrote a letter expelling Blackamoors (a large colony of Moors had grown in London, most of them fleeing Spanish persecution)

Question 7

Ania Loomba on changing attitudes towards foreigners in England

Answer 7

‘England was increasingly hostile to foreigners, both officially and at a popular level’

Question 8

Old Testament

Answer 8

Jeremiah associates black skin with evil

Question 9

Leo Africanus’s book

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Prince of Morocco in Merchant of Venice

Answer 10

He is mocked for his complexion but is still seen as a viable suitor (embodies a similar dichotomy between nobility and otherness)

Question 11

Aaron the Moor in Titus Andronicus

Answer 11

Stereotypical villain, but speaks eloquently

Question 12

What play was Shakespeare writing at the same time as ‘Othello’?

Answer 12

Measure for Measure
Also derived from Cinthio’s ‘A Hundred Tales’
Both plays are concerned with what humans have the capacity to become

Question 13

Link between Brabantio and Portia’s father in MOV

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

Cuckolded men and horns

Answer 14

Men having horns was the traditional sign for a cuckolded man – cuckolds were universally mocked at the time

Question 15

Biblical view of women

Answer 15

Women were the ‘weaker vessel’ and that men had control over their wives

Question 16

Importance of female chastity

Answer 16

Renaissance pre-occupation with ensuring a legitimate heir – impossible to know whether a child was legitimate

Question 17

Fears at the time of the constructs of masculinity and femininity converging

Answer 17

Women who tried to assert dominance were crushed

Question 18

Arranged marriages

Answer 18

Arranged marriages were very common, and women were expected to marry with parental permission – heightens the shocking nature of Desdemona’s elopement

Question 19

Divorce

Answer 19

Very difficult to achieve

Question 20

Syphilis epidemic

Answer 20

1604 - could actually be life threatening if your wife was unfaithful

Question 21

The Pathway to Martial Discipline

Answer 21

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)

Question 22

Growth of interest in the mind

Answer 22

English Renaissance marked a growing interest in the mind and psychology – links with Iago as a psychopath

Question 23

Renaissance individualism

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

Renaissance ‘self-fashioning’

Answer 24

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)

Question 25

James I

Answer 25

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

Question 26

King Phillip II of Spain

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Lack of sub-plots

Answer 27

Unusual for a Shakespeare play not to have a sub-plot – makes the tragedy of Othello an unrelenting one

Question 28

Othello as a stock comic figure

Answer 28

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)

Question 29

Desdemona and Othello’s names

Answer 29

Stanley Cavell points out the ‘satanic cores’ of Othello and Desdemona’s names – hell and demon

Question 30

Potential origin of Desdemona’s name

Answer 30

Greek meaning ill-fated

Question 31

Othello is the tragic version of…

Answer 31

Much Ado About Nothing - comedy about a man who thinks he has been cuckolded

Question 32

Literary convention of eavesdropping

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Gender roles in the theatre

Answer 33

Remember that these women would have been played by men in Shakespeare’s time

Question 34

Subversion of the normal ending for a villain

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Example of protagonists’ pre-occupation with the truth of events being relayed

Answer 35

Hamlet says that to Horatio – dying heroes want the truth of the events to be related

Question 36

Key components of tragedy (according to Aristotle)

Answer 36

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)

Question 37

To what extent does Othello conform to Aristotle’s tragic unities of time, place and action?

Answer 37

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)

Question 38

Clowns in other Shakespeare tragedies

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Critics on the purpose of clowns in Shakespeare (2)

Answer 39

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’

Question 40

RSC production - Willow Scene

Answer 40

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

Question 41

Punishment for adultery in England

Answer 41

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

Question 42

Punishment for adultery in Venice

Answer 42

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

Question 43

How do Iago’s soliloquies break dramatic convention?

Answer 43

He does not reveal himself to the audience like Hamlet and other figures do - he remains aloof and never reveals his true motives