A* Essay answering the question of, 'Explore the significance of this extract (A1:S3) in relation to the tragedy of the play as a whole.' Thorough use of quotations, context, analysis and references to the entire text. Great for context and looking at tragic conventions/ structure. Even if this isn...
TASK 4: Now, using your annotations and your ideas from both tables (if
you wish!), write the essay.
Explore the significance of this extract in relation to the tragedy of the
play as a whole. Your answer should include relevant analysis of the
dramatic methods used by Shakespeare. [25 marks]
The extract comes in Act One, Scene Three when ‘affairs of the state’ are being discussed, and Othello
evades the meeting with the news of his abrupt, and unapproved, marriage to Desdemona. This moment
bears significance to the tragedy in its establishment of Desdemona’s agency as well as the overriding
issue of the public’s invasion of the private, and vice versa. Shakespeare presents the democratic setting
of Venice, where such a controversial problem is appeased through words and communication, the
‘affairs of state’ that are impending in the end of this scene – place the directly contrasting setting of
Cyprus, where such matters are handled with little order but unruly violence. The 17 th Century had this
dichotomous view of the two settings as Cyprus became known for its war, and therefore embodied
conflict, whereas Venice was its civilised counterpart. The issues of the characters in this scene are
foreshadowed to become implosive in Cyprus, and the tragedy is built for its inevitable downward path.
One of the issues that Shakespeare has here, as an inner conflict within Desdemona, is loyalty.
Desdemona’s ‘duty’ is ‘divided,’ which perhaps already provides some justification for Othello’s
doubting of her faithfulness; though Desdemona demonstrates that her ‘duty’ is now ‘due to the Moor,’ it
introduces perhaps a sense of question surrounding her loyalty. Though this may not be prevalent to the
audience yet, it certainly paves the way for a likely seed to be planted in Othello’s head, for his jealousy
to spur from somewhere. Brabantio only furthers this creation of a harboured jealousy moments after this
extract, warning him, ‘she has deceived her father and may deceive thee,’ the prophetic line adds to the
reasoning for Othello’s jealousy. With the 17th Century views of women being that they were either pure
or evil, wife or prostitute, Brabantio’s suggestion of his own daughter’s deception would have been a
valid view for Othello to believe and use to justify his actions with. The fact that Brabantio will alleviate
the blame from Othello if Desdemona, ‘confess(es) that she was half the wooer, destruction on my head,’
already, in its hyperbole, conveys that men were so easily able to punish women for damages to their
reputation rather than place fault on themselves – the decision could not have been mutual – the only
other option was that Othello had used ‘magic’ on her. From this scene alone, Shakespeare demonstrates
that women are always eventually responsible for issues that concern the men in their lives, and the
jealous seed is planted within Othello’s head.
Simultaneously, Desdemona expresses herself with agency, she is outspoken in a male dominated
situation and the lengths that she goes to in portraying her loyalty to Othello heightens the tragedy further
into the protagonist's downfall. The one quality that Desdemona prizes most is her ‘duty,’ and therefore
her duty to Othello is to be a faithful wife - that Othello’s hamartia is jealousy, and he accuses her of
infidelity becomes even more absurd, and ultimately tragic – as her duty to him is perhaps the only that
has mattered to her from the outset of the play. Desdemona’s lines of desperation remind the audience of
the loyalty she demonstrated from the beginning, in this extract, with ‘his unkindness may defeat my life,
but never taint my love.’ It furthers the audience’s inability to sympathise with Othello and feel that he is
more deserving of his tragic fate as even from one of the first scenes of the play – it was definite that it
was not in Desdemona’s nature to disobey her duty of fidelity to her husband. Additionally, the scene
may empower Desdemona for her ability to speak, despite the controversy, but it is Othello who asks for
this to be allowed and her father who gives the final word of approval, ‘hear her speak,’ which lessens the
agency she is supposedly given. Shakespeare does not write with overt political intent, but merely reflects
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