Class notes
Othello Notes (ENGL 210)
- Course
- Institution
- Book
Othello Notes (ENGL 210)
[Show more]
Connected book
Book Title:
Author(s):
- Edition:
- ISBN:
- Edition:
Seller
Follow
heathersham1
Content preview
Topic 5: OthelloOctober 14th, 2022
Backgrounder of Othello
First performed in 1604 and was published later in Shakespeare’s career.
● Shakespeare dies in 1616 (by this time, he already retired and moved back home).
This play comes at a particular point of his career too (part of the “Great Tragedies”)
● Comes after Hamlet but before Macbeth and King Lear.
Why do we continue to study Shakespeare? Why is Shakespeare intensely critiqued?
● Historical reasons – during the reign of Elizabeth I (the Elizabethan age, followed by the
Jacobean age), there was an explosion of creative and artistic energy in Western Europe.
○ Shakespeare is part of that broader slice of time (with lots of impressive art and
ideas going on – political reasons too!)
○ England was in the process of becoming a dominant imperial power (the
dominant power of this time was the Spanish Empire – great rivals with England,
along with some religious undertones as well)
○ English culture had become (and continued to become) very much implicated in
that imperial project.
● Aesthetic reasons – think about the beauty of the language, the breadth of imagination in
Shakespeare’s work (not over sentimentalizing in saying that Shakespeare helps us
understand human interiority)...
○ Very much an important theme in Iago.
Shakespeare himself is something of a mystery – there are periods of time that are blank without
written record (what was he even doing?)
● If it weren’t for the First Folio, half of Shakespeare’s plays wouldn’t survive.
● Shakespeare is inevitably tied to the spread of print (this new technology!)
○ People have been looking at Shakespeare’s plays as reflections of his own life
(since we don’t know much about his life) – however, we find out more about
ourselves and human interiority.
The Globe Theatre is one of the theatres where Shakespeare’s plays were performed (and then it
burned down in the middle of the 17th century!) – archaeology and fundraising rebuilt it.
● It would’ve been outside of the city boundaries of London (probably due to some
religious reasons) – the theatre was filled with thieves and prostitutes and drunken people
and was a “roaring hot mess”
○ You could get into the theatre for very little money.
● It was a messy and smelly disorderly space that was not respectable. It was very much a
feature of the popular (not high culture) of the period.
○ We now see Shakespeare as very high culture instead of pop culture (for instance,
now it might be Rhianna or Lady Gaga)
■ In this period, the idea of “culture” was probably occupied by religion.
, ○ Something people can find about alienating of Shakespeare’s plays is the lack of
democracy (this was not a democratic time).
■ Religious and rigidly hierarchical culture.
● All female roles were played by young men in drag makeup – why?
○ To have mixed-sex theatre was seen by the authorities at the time as too sinful
and sexual – what is often built into Shakespearean dialogue are puns built on the
cross-gendered coordinates of the acting of the play and the world of the play.
● Theatre has to be performed – when we look at theatre, we see the imaginary world that
is being presented to us on the stage, but we are also seeing real-life actors trying to
convince us into this imaginary world.
Introduction to Othello
Othello opens at night in Venice. Venice, of course, was a very powerful trading empire.
● Venice is interesting that it was a republic (but was also imperial!), with a lot of outposts
throughout the Eastern Mediterranean (including Cyprus).
● It is also crucially a cosmopolitan place (it is quite diverse). Is Othello a racist play or a
play about the category of race? Venice is not just inhabited by one race.
Rodorigo is a rejected suitor of Desdemona – he is still trying to figure things out.
● What is Iago doing here? He’s sort of “helping” Rodorigo to advance his desires to get at
Othello. Why? What is Iago’s problem? Why is he so concerned to undermine Othello?
○ The reasons that Iago does offer seem so flimsy and inconsistent. The
commentators have had difficulty assigning a motive to Iago other than pure evil.
He is described as a villain.
■ Reason 1: Envy of Cassio (Othello’s lieutenant)
● Iago has been passed over by Cassio. He believes in advancement
through seniority. He has been serving Othello longer than Cassio.
● Some of his motivation here is that Othello has violated Iago’s
sense of hierarchy. He is trying to revise that.
■ Reason 2: He has been cuckolded (a man whose wife has been unfaithful –
men are particularly worried about controlling women’s sexuality)
● Iago’s true ethic is looking out to be #1. With reference to Othello,
Iago follows Othello to “serve my turn upon him.” (1.1)
○ “I follow him to serve my turn upon him / We cannot all be
masters, nor all masters / Cannot be truly followed” (1.1)
○ “Were I the moor, I would not be Iago: / In following hi, I
follow but myself” (1.1)
○ Iago says that “I am not who I am” – he is giving us right
from the get-go a sense that he is not who he says he is.
■ Unreliability of appearances.
● Iago is an actor – we are not hearing from a person from
Renaissance Venice – this is an actor playing a part.
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller heathersham1. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $12.49. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
76449 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now