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Othello- William Shakespeare - Coggle Diagram
Othello- William Shakespeare
Key themes
MALE INSECURITY- MAIN IDEA OF PLAY
Jealousy
Race
only weaponised by Othello, shows he sees it as insecurity
Danger of isolation- Moves from Venice to Cyprus
Important ideas
Setting
Venice to Cyprus in act 2
Cyprus divided between white and other world- fight between Ottoman empire and Venice- like Othello
Movement away from Christendom and the white world+ from Othello’s power base
Isolates Othello, all security in white world gone making him more vulnerable, moves from military tragedy to domestic tragedy
Warlike Isle, warlike moor but instead war finished
Male characters insecurities
Iago - Sexual, emotional, reputation
Cassio- reputation
Roderigo- sexual, emotional, independence
Othello- jealousy, outsider status/otherness
AO5
obsession with racial and religious purity in england in 16th century- Loomba
"motiveless malignity"- Coleridge
"Iago simply exploits a weakness that already existed in Othello's character."- T.S Elliot
“black skin white masks” →”if he stands outside himself, to express only his hatred of the negro”- Fanon
"We have to acknowledge the fact that wives are required to be obedient to understand Emilia’s handing over of the handkerchief.’-Simpson
Iago is the ‘stage manager’- Holland
"Mimicry" "slippage"- Bhabha
Like Cyprus, Othello is a ‘battleground’ between the Christian and Islamic worlds- Barnes
In giving the handkerchief to Iago, Emilia is ‘making herself subservient to him and placing her loyalty to her husband above affection for Desdemona.’- Neely
Nearly every scene in the play refers to or depends upon ‘seeing and knowing’- Cox
‘Her stupidity in this matter is gross, but it is stupidity and nothing worse.’- Bradley
AO2
METAPHOR
“It is the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”-
Shakespeare foreshadowing what’s to come with Othello’s comment on happiness at that moment "Never will be happier than this moment" act 2 scene 1
Handerchief
Metonym
- chief symbol of relationhip's stability and D's virginity
Context
Elizabethan/Jacobean attitudes to blackness 'Other' - North Africa the Barbary Coast, barbarous- isn't the expected other
Strong association with darker complexion characters and the devilish behaviour/devil in Elizabethan times- moors seen as evolutionary different
Cyprus- Venus' isle- Venus and Mars, disables Mars and war through lovemaking, calls in Othello's insecurity as a man that he has not yet consummated his marriage
Renaissance theatre- burgeoning sense of humanism that people are complex and have different traits- mediaeval plays were just good and bad character whereas renaissance plays recognise characters are messy, there is a complexity possess both good and bad traits
Character analysis
Cassio
Florentine, gets promotion as lieutenant over Iago, respectful, speaks poetically of D sees her as pure, kisses women on hand possible floretine upbringing, potentially sleazy
Act 2 scene 3
Iago weaponsies cassio’s foreignness -- he is relying on cassio being polite, he cant say no- agrees to just one drink
Iago is trying to gode cassio to say sexual things about desdemona
Behaves like it's the end of the world him being fired/fatalistically- reputation has been damaged
fears reputation tarnished and Othello hates him
Iago says will win back job- encourages him to use D to speak favourably of him to Othello
Cassio's weaknesses exploited
Iago
Possesses characteristics of the malcontent and machiaval figure
Othello
Act 1
"Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
Undermines stereotypes of moors and descriptions of him till now
constantly feels the need to overcompensate for otherness as speaks poetically after this
Roderigo
Characteristics
Easily manipulated
Push over
He has no money any more and has seen no results from iago's plan
Desdemona
Desdemona individual who can come up against the male world- later becomes a victim of the male world- MALE TOXICITY- no got support from father or husband
Emilia
Characteristics
Voiceless, typical woman of the era, submissive
Polar opposite to desdemona
Weak