Devices AO2

Question 1

The origins of the tragedy

Answer 1

• 6th century BC Ancient Greece
• Aristotle decided the rules for a great tragedy in his ‘Poetics’
  1. Tragedy must represent human action
  2. The events of the plot are self-contained
  3. Events are serious, characters have a high social status
  4. Tragedy evokes fear and pity in the audience then purges them at the end in a catharsis
  5. A noble character makes a mistake because of a fatal flaw, it leads to their downfall, before they die, they gain self-knowledge

Question 2

Scene - Cyprus

Answer 2

• Cyprus is an island = isolation, conflict
• The move from strict, civilized Venice to warlike Cyprus is symbolic because it removes the characters from their warlike environment, and the war reflects the domestic tragedy.
• It is unsafe outside the island because of the war, it is equally unsafe in the island because of the domestic war
• Claustrophobia of setting on a small island

Question 3

Setting - Weather

Answer 3

• The storm of Act 2 foreshadows the destructive passions on the island

Question 4

Passage of time

Answer 4

• The passage of time is ambiguous, things appear to progress very quickly, but the characters say things which indicate that time moves much more slowly
• It seems as if the play moves in three days. Day 1 = Venice. Day 2 = arrival in Cyprus. Day 3 = Act 3 scene iii to the end
• HOWEVER. Bianca says that Cassio has spent a week in Cyprus avoiding her: “Keep a week away? Seven days and nights?”

Question 5

Blank verse

Answer 5

• Blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter

- Othello uses this

Question 6

Prose

Answer 6

• Speech that has no meter or rhyme scheme
• Used for informal speech or when addressing a character of a lower social status, or when their mental control slips, like when Othello begins to lose his mind.
• Act 4 scene i = Othello is told that Cassio has Desdemona’s handkerchief and they’ve been sleeping together, he changes to prose: “Is’t possible? Confess! Handkerchief! O devil!”

Question 7

Homophone

Answer 7

• Fancy word for a pun. A word with more than one possible meaning. Example: “bear” meaning both the animal, and “bear with me!”
• Example: “Lie with her? Lie on her? We say lie on her when they belie her!” Act 4 scene i
• “Lie” means both untruthful, and to lie with someone in bed, to sleep together

Question 8

Alliteration

Answer 8

• “Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!” Act 4 scene iii

Question 9

Superlative

Answer 9

• Saying that something is the most or least something

- “Most fortunately”

Question 10

Soliloquies

Answer 10

• Used to show the characters speaking their minds
• A soliloquy is an introspective reflection which communicates the character’s inner thoughts to the audience (AO1)
• Example: Othello thinks about how he trusts Iago because he’s a man of “exceeding honesty” in Act 3 scene iii

Question 11

Aside

Answer 11

• Short outburst directed at the audience which the other characters cannot hear
• Example: Othello sees Bianca with Desdemona’s handkerchief and says to the audience “By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!”

Question 12

Monologue

Answer 12

• A long speech delivered to other characters on stage
• In Act 1 scene iii, Othello explains his relationship with Desdemona to the Duke. The speech lasts 42 lines with no interruption. This is a monologue.

Question 13

Othello’s language

Answer 13

• Othello links the battlefield with poetic declarations of love. Desdemona would “devour up my discourse” and “She loved me for the dangers I had passed”
• Grand and dignified language
• As Iago’s influence over Othello increases, his language becomes more derogatory towards women. He calls Emilia and “simple bawd”, and thinks Desdemona is a “subtle whore”
• Iago’s influence = Othello’s language is full of hell and damnation: “Fire and brimstone!”. He calls Desdemona “Devil” after he hits her.
• This hellish lexis is similar to Iago’s: “Hell and night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light”

Question 14

Iago’s language

Answer 14

• Iago uses varied language. He changes it to take advantage of who he’s talking to
• Iago to Roderigo = flattery. “Why, now I see there’s mettle in thee, and even from this instant do I build on thee a better option than ever before”
• Iago to Othello = crude sexual innuendo to indirectly remind Othello of Desdemona’s infidelity: “Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys”

Question 15

Situational irony

Answer 15

• In tragedy, situational irony is when events turn out to have the opposite result of what was originally intended
• This heightens the sense of misfortune, as unseen forces and events seem to conspire against the characters.

Question 16

Dramatic irony

Answer 16

• When the audience had knowledge of something that the characters do not
• Created when the audience has a double perspective of the play. They are aware of their position as onlookers of the story, and also know the character’s own viewpoints
• Example: the problem of the handkerchief is an example of dramatic irony

Question 17

Verbal irony

Answer 17

• When a character says something that is clearly the opposite of the truth
• Unlike dramatic or situational irony, verbal irony can be used by the characters intentionally
• Example: Iago says he is “honest as I am”

Question 18

Euphemism

Answer 18

• Saying one thing but clearly meaning another
• Usually used sexually
• “your daughter and the Moor are making the beast with two backs” is a euphemism for having sex

Question 19

Colour paradoxes

Answer 19

• Bianca’s name means white. Because she is a prostitute, this created a parody, as the pure connotations of white don’t fit her job title.

Question 20

Double meaning of “fair”

Answer 20

• Othello blurs distinctions between black and white
• The Duke says he is “more fair than black”
• “fair” is a synonym for light colored and also honest
• The double meaning of “fair” introduces the idea that Othello doesn’t fit into the racial stereotypes

Question 21

Oxymoron

Answer 21

• When two words which contradict each other are placed together
• Example: Othello calls Desdemona “the fair devil”. Fair means honest. This shows Othello’s confused attitude towards Desdemona, he still wants to trust her. He also calls her “O thou weed/ Who art so lovely fair”. The oxymoron here is that she is a beautiful weed.

Question 22

Paradox

Answer 22

• When an apparently true statement contradicts itself

- Example: Iago says “I am not what I am” and “In following him, I follow but myself”