Othello William Shakespeare Because of the dense nature of the play s text, we have developed prompts for the five SCASI aspects of each scene. Act One Scene One: (Setting) How does Shakespeare establish a sense of place in this opening scene? (Character) In what ways does Iago show himself to be a man of principle? (Action) How does Shakespeare prepare for future developments in the play s action? (Style) Show how Iago uses language and its power to get others to move forward while he stands back. (Ideas) Which of the ideas in this scene seem as if they may recur throughout the play and thus become themes? Act One Scene Two: (Setting) How does Othello challenge, by being what he is and doing what he has done, the materialistic and restrictive values of Venetian society (as exemplified by Brabantio)? (Character) How does Othello demonstrate both skill in controlling the situation and his stature as a man? (Action) How does Shakespeare emphasise the equal weight of the two sides in this conflict, and why is it important, from a dramatic point of view, that he does that? (Style) Show how Othello s style of speech can be most effective when it is most simple. (Ideas) What does this scene suggest about the standards by which a man s worth can be judged? Act One Scene Three: (Setting) By what means does Shakespeare present Venice as a place where order prevails and the book of law applies? How at the same time does he suggest that its orderliness is not very robust? 1
(Character) How does Shakespeare emphasise the strength of the relationship between Othello and Desdemona? Why is it important for him to do that at this early point in the play? (Action) Show how this play s dramatic impact derives mainly from its constantly changing pace. (Style) What is the effect of the movement back and forward between verse and prose? (Ideas) How does this chapter convey the difficulty (which will become important later in the play) of knowing anything with certainty? Act One (overall): 1. What indications have we been given by the end of Act One that the action will move towards a tragic conclusion? 2. What would you regard as the satirical elements in Act One? Act Two Scene One: (Setting) Show how in this scene Shakespeare places three levels of the play s setting (the local, the atmospheric and the cosmic) in contrast to each other, and brings out the significance of each. (Character) How are Othello s and Desdemona s heroic natures displayed here, and how does Shakespeare also work to humanise them both? (Action) How does Iago darken the celebratory mood of this scene? (Style) What differences do you note between the style of language employed by Othello and Cassio on the one hand and Iago on the other? (Ideas) How does the theme of reputation show in this scene? Act Two Scene Two: (Setting) What is significant (symbolic) about the time of day? (Character) What is implied here about Othello s character and frame of mind? (Action) What developments in the action might a celebration of this kind make possible? (Style) What does the formality of this announcement emphasise? (Ideas) What is suggested here about human behaviour and the importance of exercising some control over it? 2
Act Two Scene Three: (Setting) What sense of the Cyprus community does Shakespeare give us? What details suggest that it is a volatile place? (Character) What parallels do you perceive in Cassio and Roderigo in their characters and behaviour and in the control Othello exercises over them? (Action) How is the action formalised here, in a way that will take it forward? (Style) Explain why prose (rather than verse) is an appropriate choice for much of the dialogue in this scene. (Ideas) What does this scene suggest about human nature - its changeability, imperfections and contradictions? Act Two (overall) 1. In what ways may the play s relocation to Cyprus be key to the development of its action? 2. In what ways does Act Two represent a collision of Idealism and Realism? Act Three Scene One: (Setting) How does Shakespeare remind us that there is a normal life being lived beyond these ominous events? (Character) What evidence is there of Iago s watchfulness? How is that watchfulness likely to be significant in the play s action? (Action) How does Shakespeare give us a sense of time passing and events moving forward? (Style) How does Shakespeare draw our attention to the ambiguity of words? How might that ambiguity feed into later events? (Ideas) What views of the concept of urgency does this scene offer? Act Three Scene Two: (Setting) What, about Cyprus, are we reminded of? (Character) What, in Othello s character and status, are we also reminded of? (Action) How does luck play a part in events here? 3
(Style) What is the mood of this scene, as reflected in the characters style of speech? (Ideas) What soldierly principles does Othello adhere to? Act Three Scene Three: (Setting) Why do think Shakespeare make the setting of this scene less distinct, less particularised? (Character) How are the relationships between Iago and Emilia on the one hand and Othello and Desdemona on the other set in contrast here? (Action) How is this scene pivotal? (Style) Find examples to demonstrate the varieties of style in this scene. (Ideas) How does this scene suggest something of the difficulties that can arise when one takes a new direction in life? Act Three Scene Four: (Setting) Why is this scene s setting comparatively unimportant? (Character) What causes Desdemona to behave unexpectedly, but perhaps realistically? (Action) In what ways and for what reasons does the intensity of this scene increase? (Style) We may find the humour of the scene s opening unfunny and contrived. How, despite that, does it add to the scene s pathos? (Ideas) How are soldierly values re-asserted here? Act Three (overall) 1. Using evidence from Act Three, examine the suggestion that Iago is simply a projection of Othello s mind. 2. Discuss the suggestion that Act Three is the climax of the play. Act Four Scene One: (Setting) How does Shakespeare remind us at this point that there is a world elsewhere, and also hint at Othello s increasing awareness that he does not belong in it? (Character) What is the dramatic impact (effect on the audience) of Othello s fainting fit? 4
(Action) Argue for and against Shakespeare s decision to have Othello to strike Desdemona in this scene. (Style) Consider the effectiveness of this scene s prose sections, paying particular attention to the characteristics of prose as compared with poetry. (Ideas) What more is suggested in this scene about human nature, and about some of the particular characteristics of men, and also of women? Act Four Scene Two: (Setting) What further reminders of a more real world elsewhere are we given in this scene? How do they provide a stark background for Othello s expressions of anguish? (Character) What characteristics of Emilia s are clearly established here? How might they become significant later? (Action) How do both the pace and intensity of this scene increase as it progresses? (Style) How does Shakespeare use prose to convey Roderigo s mood? (Ideas) How does this scene highlight the importance of clarity in both meaning and identity? Act Four Scene Three: (Setting) What aspects of Venice and Venetian life does Lodovico represent? Why does Shakespeare use him for that purpose at this point in the play? (Character) How does Shakespeare convey Desdemona s state of mind here? (Action) What part do omens play in this scene? (Style) What does the shift in Emilia s speech from prose to poetry suggest about her changing position in the play? (Ideas) How is imagination viewed in this scene? Act Four (overall) 1. Defend Act Four against the charge that it doesn t really bring anything new to the play. 2. Othello s cruelty towards Desdemona in Act Four is so severe that his killing of her in Act Five will be something of a relief. Discuss this view. 5
Act Five Scene One: (Setting) Comment on darkness as the setting for this scene. (Character) How does Iago struggle (albeit with some success) to remain in control in this scene? How does Bianca s arrival help him? (Action) In what ways might we regard as a strategic mistake Iago s decision to send Emilia to Othello and Desdemona to tell them what has happened? How might we see it as a dramatic error on Shakespeare s part, also? (Style) What is the dramatic effect of Iago s short sentences? (Ideas) What different acts of concealment figure in this scene? Act Five Scene Two: (Setting) How is the play s setting enlarged once more, at this point? (Character) How are Othello s slowness of mind and nobility of spirit set in contrast to each other in this scene? (Action) Show how Shakespeare manages the timing of events in this scene so as to maximise its dramatic impact. (Style) Analyse what we might regard as the choppiness of this scene s dialogue, and consider its effect. (Ideas) How is life represented, in this closing scene, as both paradoxical and ironical? Act Five (overall): 1. How can the killing of Desdemona be seen as both a murder and a sacrifice? 2. In what ways may the conclusion of Othello be satisfying to an audience? 6
General Essay Prompts Questions are ordered according to the SCASI structure (Setting, Character, Action, Style and Ideas), with some overlap among the various areas. * Questions from past AP exams (modified as necessary) ** Questions derived from past IB exams Setting 1. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.* 2. In many works of literature a physical journey the literal movement from one place to another plays a central role. Choose a novel, play or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole.* 3. Plot depends for its movement on internal combustion (Elizabeth Bowen). Show how in a novel or play of your choice the fact that the story takes place in a restricted environment (a closed society, an institution, a remote place) provides one of the necessary conditions for internal combustion to occur. What other elements necessary to the process (e.g. combustible materials, heat, pressure, ignition) are also present in the story you have selected? 4. How have dramatists you have studied made their audiences aware of the wider historical or social background against which the events of particular plays are taking place? How has that background affected those events?** 5. Show how in one or more works of literature you have studied a character s isolation (physical, social, psychological) within the work s setting plays an important part in the story. How does that isolation lead to either self-knowledge or self-destruction or both? * Character 6. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. Select a novel or play in which a major character exhibits heroic qualities but suffers a tragic downfall. Examine the relationship between the character s heroic qualities and his or her downfall. 7
7. Literature often depicts individuals who are, or who see themselves as, different from the people around them. Write an essay in which you explore some of the struggles that arise from such differences (real or imagined) in a novel or play you have studied. 8. Morally ambiguous characters characters whose behaviour discourages the reader from identifying them as wholly evil or wholly good are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole.* 9. Examine Othello s attempts, as the story develops, to understand both himself and what is happening around him. Has he made any progress in either of those attempts by the end of the play? 10. Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it. Discuss how true this is of the central figure in a tragic novel or play you have studied.** 11. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time. From a novel or play choose a character or characters whose minds are pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a wellorganized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict within characters illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. * 12. An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. Thomas Jefferson. Explore the means by which, in a novel or play of your choice, one character exercises control over other people. How successful is he (or she)? How does the writer want us to feel about the character s success or failure? 13. Iago can be seen as either a simple (but clever) stage villain or a complex tragic figure in his own right. Compare these two views of Iago. 14. Explain, with reference to works you have studied, why writers are frequently drawn to tell stories about characters who are rebellious towards or in some way alienated from society.** 8
15. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much the reader's friend as the protagonist's. However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. * 16. Man has to suffer. When he has no real affliction, he invents some. Jose Marti, 1853-1895. Write about a novel or play in which a central character makes a major contribution to his own suffering. If the character comes to realise that he is responsible in some way for what has happened to him, show how he handles that realisation. How central to the work are the themes of suffering and responsibility? 17. How does Desdemona help bring about her own tragedy? 18. Minor characters in a play are often included simply because there are minor characters people on the fringe of events in real life. Can you give a better justification for the presence of the minor characters in the plays you have studied? Action 19. A character's attempt to achieve something he or she sees as important is central to many plays, novels, and poems. Choose a literary work in which a character undertakes such an attempt. Show with clear evidence from the work how the character's efforts are used to develop a theme in the work.* 20. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as whole.* 21. Nobody speaks the truth when there is something they must have. Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo- Irish novelist, 1899-1973 Select a novel or play in which a major character is deceitful in order to get something they want very badly. Trace the course of their deceit (which could be self-deceit) and show how the novelist or dramatist carefully controls the means by which the deceit is uncovered. 9
22. The course of true love never did run smooth. Illustrate that saying from plays or novels you know well, showing how the writer in each case makes use of love s complexity and unpredictability to create a suspenseful narrative.** 23. The breaking of taboos, or indulgence in forbidden behaviour, can be a source of tension and conflict in plays and novels. Show how this is the case in one or two pieces of writing you know well.** 24. Among the most powerful tools at a storyteller s disposal are suspense and surprise. Explain the difference between those two features of novels and plays, illustrating your answer from literature of quality you have studied.** 25. Show how in novels, short stories or plays you have studied writers use uncertainty as a means of introducing tension into their writing.** 26. How has the contrast between rational and irrational behaviour played a part in at least two plays you have studied?** 27. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a wellorganized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.* 28. Visual action can be as important on the stage as speech. Apply that statement to Othello.** 29. Sometimes what happens off stage, or has happened before the play begins, is as important as what takes place during the course of the visible action in the present. By what methods and how successfully, in the plays you have studied, do dramatists let us know about off-stage or previous events? 30. How have dramatists, in plays you have studied, introduced and maintained an air of foreboding? Pay some attention in your response to moments in those plays when the atmosphere is briefly lightened, or when the possibility of salvation is glimpsed.**. 31. In the end is my beginning. This has been said by an author to explain how he organises his writing. Examine one or more novels or plays to see whether their structure reflects a similar mode of planning.** 10
32. Story involves action. Action towards an end not to be foreseen (by the reader) but also towards an end which, having been reached, must be seen to have been from the start inevitable (Elizabeth Bowen). How true is this of the action of Othello? 33. Dramatists must balance a sense of inevitable consequence in their plays against the possibility of surprise. Show how the dramatist in a play of your choice does this. 34. By the mid-point in a tragedy, movement towards a disastrous outcome will be well under way; but the possibility of redemption and triumph must still be preserved. Discuss Othello in relation to the above statement. 35. Discuss the ways in which writers you have studied prepare their readers or audiences for the conclusion of the stories they are telling.** Style 36. Show how in Othello characters differing personalities, attitudes and moods are reflected in the style of speech they adopt. 37. Symbols and images often play a significant part in stage plays. Explore the use of such devices in plays you have studied.** 38. Which of the play s major themes are expressed mainly through its imagery? 39. Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree (Ezra Pound). By that definition, would you regard Othello as great literature? 40. In every play some lines or scenes are especially significant and memorable. Show how some of these moments stand out in Othello and help the audience focus on an essential aspect of the play.** 41. Othello is about the power of language to persuade and the power of the imagination to destroy. Discuss this view of the play. 42. Ambiguity of both language and action is at the heart of Othello. Examine some of the play s ambiguities. 11
43. Show how in Othello Shakespeare makes skilful use of both poetry and prose and of the differences between them. 44. When we are not exactly sure what the words of a play mean, we should see that as an opportunity rather than a problem. What opportunities for interpretation have you found in the texts of your chosen play(s)? How can that freedom strengthen rather than weaken a play? Ideas 45. Discuss the writers treatment of one or more of the following themes in novels you have studied: love, deceit, power, wealth, war, change, courage, illness and death, self-discovery, redemption.** 46. Examine the ways in which novelists or playwrights whose work you have studied present stories of failure or suffering. What do you gather about the effect they are trying to produce in their readers?** 47. Literature illustrates the heights to which humans can aspire and the depths to which they can sink. Examine this spread of human behaviour in a piece of literature you have studied, and show how far the author makes any kind of moral judgement of his or her characters. 48. How important is it for us to feel, at the end of a play or novel, that justice has been done? What sort of justice, if any, has been done by the end of Othello? 49. Explore the attention playwrights have paid to the gap either between dreams and reality or between appearance and reality.** 50. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.* 51. Othello illustrates more clearly than any other Shakespeare play the idea that our lives are shaped by how other people see us, and by our desperate need that they should see us as we want to be seen. How important is this feature of the play? 12
52. Show how the dramatists in plays you have studied explore the relationships between men and women, and discuss the means by which they make that exploration dramatically interesting. 53. Plays ask questions but don t give answers. That can make the theatrical experience an unsatisfying one, at least from a philosophical point of view. What questions do the plays you have studied ask? What if any answers do they attempt to give? If the answers are unsatisfying, does that mean the plays themselves are? General 54. What do you think makes for a successful opening to a play? Illustrate your answer by referring to plays you have studied. 55. Discuss the contribution made by the soliloquies of Othello to the audience s understanding of the play. 56. If love is judged by its visible effects, it often looks like hatred. How far is that comment borne out in Othello?** 57. A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this healthy confusion. Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the pleasure and disquietude experienced by the readers of the work.* 58. The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it (Elizabeth Drew). Are we likely to live more intensely for having read (or watched) Othello? Whether your answer is yes or no, try to explain why. 59. The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish (Terry Southern). In what ways may Othello astonish us? 60. How have plays you have studied presented what happens inside a human being in dramatic terms?** 13
61. An Irish dramatist once gave this advice to a younger writer: Set your play first in tenthcentury Byzantium, then in fourteenth-century Florence, then in modern Ireland, and if it remains equally true of all, write it. What timeless elements have you found in plays you have studied?** 62. Self-discovery has replaced discovery as one of Drama s most powerful features. Discuss the ways in which dramatists present the processes of both discovery and selfdiscovery in plays you have studied. 63. A play is in the end a mechanical thing which must work on the stage. What characteristics of the plays you have studied might make them work well in performance? 64. Show how dramatists can use comedy to increase the impact of tragedy. 65. Unless a dramatist establishes a corridor down which the audience can approach his play nothing will be communicated, the play will not work. How far and in what ways in the plays you have studied do the playwrights attempt to bring the audience close to the events taking place on stage? 66. Argument leading to action the argument giving meaning to the action. How accurate a description is this of a play of your choice? How important is it for a dramatist to maintain a balance between discussion and events? 67. We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action (Ralph Waldo Emerson). How is that account by Emerson of the nature of life reflected in the structure and the action of Othello? 68. All literature, however dark, has some light. Discuss that suggestion, illustrating your argument by reference to two or more works of literary merit.** 14