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Dramatic Structure in Othello - Coggle Diagram
Dramatic Structure in Othello
Location
There are two principal locations, Venice and Cyprus, but gradually our attention becomes fixed on a single bedroom, creating a feeling of claustrophobia.
The use of Venice as a location is significant.
At the end of the sixteenth century, dramatists began to use Italy as a suitable location for revenge tragedies; the Italians were thought to be worldly and Venice in particular was associated with everything that was culturally sophisticated; it was a location that suggested power, order and wealth to the audience.
At the beginning of the play, Othello appears to have succeeded in Venice on its terms; he has gained both power and wealth. But he is also an outsider: different. The play explores what happens to the hero when he is made to feel this difference.
It is appropriate that the Machiavellian trickster, Iago should originate and appear in an Italian setting before being transported to Cyprus.
Sense of claustrophobia
Location tends to be fixed within a single bedroom.
No subplot, focus is wholly on Iago's effect + Othello and Desdemona.
This heightens tension, audience's can't get away from Iago.
Our sense of claustrophobia is also heightened because we are aware that we are observing a group of characters who exist in a tightly knit social network, where each person has a clearly defined position and role and a view of each other member of the group.
Iago disrupts this.
Reversal and Repetition
Act 1
In Act 1, Iago is clearly the underdog, overlooked and perhaps irrelevant except as an escort for the general’s wife.
Othello is at his most secure here and in Act 2.
Act 2
In the second act he forms his plans and sets up his revenge.
Act 3
In Act 3 Iago is able to ‘triumph’ over Othello.
In Act 3 Othello struggles to resist the jealousy that threatens to overpower his reason, succumbing to it in Act IV .
Act 5
In Act 5 Othello sinks further still when he smothers his wife – he becomes what Iago is: a destructive revenger.
At the end, Othello regains his admiralty by seeing the truth, whilst Iago's downfall is imminent.
Othello finds himself on trial in Act I and is then placed in a position where he must judge his lieutenant and his wife in subsequent acts.
Roderigo is repeatedly tested and used by Iago until he gets involved in Iago's plot against Cassio (which proves fatal to Roderigo).
Desdemona’s repeated attempts at pleading for Cassio are increasingly dangerous to the heroine; as he smothers her Othello believes she is weeping for the lieutenant
Brabantio’s bitter words about Desdemona’s deception in Act 1 Scene 3 come back to haunt Othello in Act 3 Scene 3 via repition.
The repetition of ‘honest’ in relation to Iago is a source of heavy and alarming irony. All the main characters (with the exception of his wife, interestingly) call Iago honest and Iago makes extensive use of the word himself when gulling his victims; it is as if Shakespeare is showing his insidious power to "enmesh ’em all" (II.3.357) through his ability to get his victims to think of and describe him in the same way.
The Handkerchief
The whole plot revolves around this object and it passes from one character to another.
It becomes a symbol of Desdemona’s chastity and worthiness as wife, which are abused, as the handkerchief itself is ‘abused’ when Emilia passes it on to her husband.
It is also a symbol of deception and lack of knowledge; Desdemona is puzzled as to how she lost it, Othello believes she gave it away, Emilia does not know why her husband covets it, Cassio does not know how it came to be in his chamber, Bianca falsely assumes he received it from another sweetheart.
Only Iago knows the whole truth about the handkerchief, which is appropriate given the dramatic structure of the play; for four acts he is the only character who fully understands what is happening, because he has set events in motion.
Long scenes of painful exchanges or confrontation are punctuated by short scenes or moments of violence – verbal and physical.