Literary Terms Othello

Question 1

Aside

Answer 1

A dramatic convention in which a character speaks in such a way that some of the characters on stage do not hear what is said, while others do. This may be direct address to the audience revealing the characters inner thoughts or motives eg Iago

Question 2

Aesthetics

Answer 2

Branch of philosophy which deals with the nature of art, beauty and “good taste” aesthetic approach to othello may consider the ways in which the play could be considered beautiful

Question 3

Blank verse

Answer 3

Unrhymed iambic pentameter: a line of five iambs. Popularity is due to its flexibility and relative closeness to spoken English. used by Shakespeare to convey the intensity of characters feelings

Question 4

Catalyst

Answer 4

Person or thing that brings about an event or change

Question 5

Catharsis

Answer 5

In tragedy, the purging of the effects of pent up emotion and repressed thoughts by bringing them to the surface of consciousness

Question 6

Characterisation

Answer 6

The way in which a writer creates characters so as to attract or repel our sympathy. Different kinds of literature have certain conventions of characterisation. In Jacobean drama there were meany stock dramatic types (Machiavel) who’s characteristics were familiar to the audience

Question 7

Denouement

Answer 7

The final unfolding of he plot; the point at which the audiences expectations, be they hopes or fears about what will Harlem to the characters are finally satisfied or denied

Question 8

Dramatic irony

Answer 8

A feature of many plays, occurs when develop,don’t of the plot allows the audience to posses more information about what is happening than some of the characters. Iago is the source of much dramatic irony

Question 9

Feminism

Answer 9

Political movement claiming political, economic and social equality of women with men. Feminist criticism and scholarship seek to explore or expose the masculine ‘bias’ in text and challenge the traditional ideas about them, constructing feminine perspective on works of art.

Question 10

Foreshadowing

Answer 10

A techinique used to hint and prepare the reader for the later events or a turning point in action

Question 11

Hamartia

Answer 11

A Greek term meaning an error of judgement/fatal flaw

Question 12

Hubris

Answer 12

Self-indulgent confidence that causes a tragic heroes to ignore the decrees, laws and warnings of the gods, and therefore defy them to bring about his or her downfall

Question 13

Idiom

Answer 13

A characteristic mode of expression for a character

Question 14

Imagery

Answer 14

Description of some visible scene or object. May relate to the figurative language in a pice of literature (metaphors and similes). Thematic imagery reoccurs throughout a work of art - othello Shakespeare’s image of he the devil and infection underpin the theme of evil

Question 15

Irony

Answer 15

In speech: saying one thing but meaning another

Question 16

Jacobean

Answer 16

In the reign of James I (1603-25)

Question 17

Juxtapose

Answer 17

To place ideas, image or events side by side so that they can be compared

Question 18

Machiavel

Answer 18

A villainous stock character in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama

Question 19

Malcontent

Answer 19

State archetype who is disaffected, melancholy, dissatisfied with or disgusted by society and life. Iago is not a true malcontent but he demonstrates some of these qualities

Question 20

Marxist criticism

Answer 20

Emphasises the role of class and ideology and seeks to establish if a text reflects or challenges the current social order.

Question 21

Metaphor

Answer 21

Goes further than a comparison between two things by fusing em together. One thing is described as being another, thus carrying over its associations.

Question 22

Mirroring

Answer 22

Character or event mirrors another character or event when the two follow similar plots, act in similar way or contain similar elements or traits

Question 23

New historicism

Answer 23

Discussion of literary works in terms of their historical contexts

Question 24

Oxymoron

Answer 24

Figure of speech in which contradictory terms are brought together in what is at first sight an impossible combination

Question 25

Parody

Answer 25

An imitation of a work or style devised so as to ridicules its characters. Iago mocks othello by imitating his speech style

Question 26

Pathos

Answer 26

Moments in works of art which evoke strong feelings of pity are said to have this quality

Question 27

Patriarchy

Answer 27

Community or family under the autority of a patriarch. MAN IN CHARGE IS A MAN

Question 28

Personification

Answer 28

A type of metaphorical language in which things or ideas are treated as if they are human beings whith attributes and feelings

Question 29

Poetic justice

Answer 29

How literature should always depict a world in which virtue and vide are eventually rewarded and punished appropriately

Question 30

Post-colonial cristism

Answer 30

Explored the ways in which texts carry racist or colonial undertones

Question 31

Prose

Answer 31

Sounds line natural flow of speech. Traditionally associated with “low” and coming characters in Renaissance drama, but Shakespeare uses prose when he wants the dialogue to sound urgent and fast moving

Question 32

Protagonist

Answer 32

The main character

Question 33

Revenge tragedy

Answer 33

Special form of tragedy in which a protagonist pursues vengeance against those who have done wrong. Plays often focus on the moral confusion caused by the need to answer evil with evil

Question 34

Soliloquy

Answer 34

A dramatic convention which allows a character min a play to speak directly to the audience. Enables to give characters psychological depth as they voice their motives, feelings and emotions. Allows acces to innermost thoughts

Question 35

Tragedy

Answer 35

Concentrate on the downfall of powerful men and often illuminate the resulting deterioration of a whole community. Protagonists are not necessarily good.

Question 36

The vice

Answer 36

A figure in morality plays of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries who temps humankind in a half-comic, half-unpleasant manner. Iago may be one of these

Question 37

Xenophobic

Answer 37

Fear of hatred of foreigners

Question 38

Aristotle

Answer 38

A Greek philosopher (384-322BC) who discussed tragedy in his Poetics. Aristotle observed that tragedy represented a single action of a certain magnitude that provoked audience reactions of pity and terror which were then resolved by catharsis of the play’s climax. Tragedies worked on a process of the reversal of fortune with the protagonist making an error of judgement and then learning the truth about his folly, gaining insight into himself and his situation as a consequence