Othello Context

Question 1

Women

Answer 1

• Owned by their fathers and their husbands once they were married.
• Women were not allowed to attend University.
• Could not work in professions such as medicine or law.
• Barred from voting
• Could inherit property from their father or husband but unable to purchase any property themselves.

Question 2

Race

Answer 2

• Shakespeare uses Venice as a space in which he can explore the concerns and preoccupations of his own society, including interacial and intercultural encounters.
• There are records of people of colour living in Tudor England, they were a very small minority and for the most part their lives and stories are unknown.

Question 3

Shakespeare

Answer 3

• Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon
• Wrote plays for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men when their patron became James I) for 20 years.
• His work can be divided into 3 genres: Histories, Tragedies and Comedies.
• Shakespeare wrote Othello in 1603.

Question 4

The Renaissance Period

Answer 4

• The Renaissance was a cultural movement which saw the flourishing of Latin and Ancient Greek philosophies and knowledge in Western Europe.
• Shakespeare draws on Renaissance ideas in his work. For example, he draws on Greek and Roman classical writing in his use of genre and references, and he explores the psychology of his characters in depth.

Question 5

Venice

Answer 5

• In 16th and 17th century England, Venice had a reputation as a cosmopolitian and diverse city, full of wealth and political stability.
• Venice was a rare example of contempary republic government for Shakespeares audience; a concept particularly fascinating due to the approaching end of the Tudor era, Queen Elizabeth I being heirless, the interest in alternative forms of rule growing.
• Venice was also considered excitingly exotic and dangerously other; the place being alluring and mystical but also on the edge of civilisation, thus something to be feared.

Question 6

Cyprus

Answer 6

• Cyprus is even further removed from the English audience than Venice, both geographically and symbolically.
• While Venice holds strong connection to people from a variety of cultural and ethinic backgrounds due its population and trade and cultural exchange, Cyprus is somewhere unknown, therefore more dangerous, and closer to the Arab and Turkish world in the eyes of Jacobean England.
• The further the play is removed from Western Europe, the more civilisation and honour breakdown.