Introduction to

Shakespeares Othello
Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well
Shakespeare Vocabulary
Verse vs. Prose Aside
Meter Monologue
Foot Soliloquy
Iambic Pentameter Allusion
Blank Verse vs. Free Foil
Verse Tragedy
Quatrain Tragic Hero
Couplet Tragic Flaw
Foil
A character whose personality or
attitudes are in sharp contrast to
those of another character in the
same work
Allusion
Allusion: reference to an event, person,
place, or another work of literature

Shakespeares work contains numerous

allusions to Greek and Roman mythology.
Allusion: Janus
Roman god of gates and
doors, beginnings and endings
Depicted with a double-faced
head, each looking in opposite
directions
Worshipped at the beginning
of the harvest time, planting,
marriage, birth, and other
types of beginnings
Also represents the transition
between primitive life and
civilization, between the
countryside and the city, peace
and war, and the growing-up
of young people
Tragedy
A serious play representing the disastrous downfall
of the hero
Achieves a catharsis by arousing pity and terror in
the audience
Hero is led into fatal calamity by hamartia (tragic
flaw or error) which often takes the form of hubris
(excessive pride leading to divine retribution
Tragic effect depends upon audiences awareness of
the admirable qualities of the hero which are wasted
in the disaster
Classical Tragic Hero
The tragic hero is a good man, important to society
The hero suffers a fall brought about by something
in his nature
The fall provokes the emotions of pity and fear in
the reader
The tragic character comes to some kind of
understanding or new recognition of what has
happened
Tragic Flaw
Defect of character that leads to
the heros disastrous downfall
Othello Terminology: Moor
Muslim person of Arab and
Berber descent from
northwest Africa
Moors invaded Spain and
established a civilization in
Andalusia lasting from the
8th -- 15th centuries
Term Moor comes from the
Greek work mauros
meaning dark or very black
In Renaissance drama,
Moors often symbolized
something other than
human - and often, indeed,
something devilish.
Othello Terminology: Cuckold
a man whose wife is unfaithful to him
Represented with horns growing out of his
forehead
That cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But O, what damned minutes tells he oer
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves!
(3.3.197-200)

I have a pain upon my forehead, here (326).

Othello: Setting
Journey from
Venice, Italy to
Cyprus

Venice = order,
rule of reason ?

Cyprus = disorder,
rule of passion ?
Othello: Poetic Images
Focused on the natural world
Most important pattern contrast
of light and dark, black and white
One cluster is domestic and
animal: goats, monkeys, wolves,
baboons, guinea hens, wildcats,
spiders, flies, asses, dogs, horses,
sheep, serpents, and toads
Other images include green-eyed
monsters, devils, poisons, money
purses, tarnished jewels, music
untuned, and light extinguished
Diabolic Images (64 in total)
Iago: I am not what I am Othello takes on this
biblical allusion to God: I diabolic imagery as the
am that I am Exodus
play progresses: death
Iago: The devil will make a
and damnation ~ hellish
grandsire of you
revenge ~ damns
Brabantio: damned ~ sooty
bosom ~ practices of
Desdemona to hell ~
cunning hell divinity of hell ~ spite of
Iago likens women to hell ~ O devil, ~ hellish
devils appearance ~ like a liar
gone to burning hell
Bestial Imagery
Iago: Othello:
Old black ram ~ daughter
covered with a Barbary
As Othello falls he
horse~ making the beast takes on Iagos
with two backs ~ wild cats imagery ~ foul toads ~
~ spiders webs ~ asses ~ summer flies ~ toad ~
dogs ~ monkeys ~wolves dog ~ raven ~ beast ~
crocodile ~ goats and
monkeys
Meter
Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables.

Meter is responsible for creating the rhythm

of a line.
Meter and Foot
Foot: a group of syllables that forms one complete
unit of a metrical pattern.

Meter is described in terms of the pattern of stressed

and unstressed syllables AND the total number of
metrical feet in a line of verse.

Iambic pentameter is the most common metrical

pattern in Shakespeare.
Iambic Pentameter
Iamb: unstressed syllable, stressed
syllable /
Pentameter: Lines of five iambic feet; 10
syllables
Example:
/ / / / /
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
Quatrain and Couplet

Quatrain: four-line verse stanza,

usually rhymed

Couplet: a pair of rhyming verse lines

Aside, Monologue, and Soliloquy
Aside: a characters remark, either
to the audience or another
character, that other characters
on stage are not supposed to
hear
Monologue: an extended speech by a single
character that is uninterrupted by
others
Soliloquy: a speech a character gives
when s/he is alone on stage
Verse vs. Prose
Verse: Poetic language that includes
meter and sometimes rhyme;
organized in lines with a
consistent number of syllables

Prose: Ordinary written language with no

meter or rhyme; organized in
sentences
Prose Verse
Sir, hes rash and very Most potent, grave, and
sudden in choler, and reverend signoirs,
haply may strike at you. My very noble and approved
Provoke him that he may, good masters:
for even out of that will I That I have taen away this old
cause these of Cyprus to mans daughter,
mutiny, whose qualification
It is most true; true I have
shall come into no true
married her
taste again but by the
displanting of Cassio
(1.3.91-94).
(2.1.294-298).
Verse vs. Prose: Usage
Poetic style of verse used for high status
characters, great affairs of war and state, and
tragic moments.
Prose used for low status characters (servants,
clowns, drunks, villains), proclamations,
written challenges, accusations, letters,
comedic moments, and to express madness.
Visual Clues
In most modern editions of the plays, each
line in multi-line verse passages begins with a
capital letter:
Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence,
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
Into your favour.
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes
depended.
Visual Clues
Each line in multi-line prose passages begins
with a small letter except the first line or a
line beginning with the opening word of a
sentence:
It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission
of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself!
drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed
me thy friend and I confess me knit to thy
deserving with cables of perdurable toughness.
Rhyme
Rhymed verse in Shakespeare's plays is usually in rhymed
couplets, i.e. two successive lines of verse of which the final
words rhyme with another. The rhyme pattern of verse in
rhyming couplets is conventionally represented aa bb cc etc.

A single rhymed couplet may also appear at the end of a

speech or scene in blank verse, in which case it is called
a capping couplet.
Blank
Blank Verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Blank verse resembles prose in that the final words of the
lines do not rhyme in any regular pattern ~ although an
occasional rhyming couplet may be found.
Unlike prose, there is a recognizable meter: most lines are
in iambic pentameter, i.e. they consist of ten syllables
alternating unstressed and stressed syllables ~ there may be
some irregularities, such an occasional troche mixed in with
the iambs or an extra unstressed syllable at the end of a line.
 If you are unsure if a passage is in blank verse
or in prose, READ IT ALOUD. If you can
discern the regular rhythmic pattern of iambic
pentameter (da DUM da DUM da DUM da
DUM da DUM), it is in blank verse.
The Functions of Prose
PROSE is used whenever verse would seem bizarre: in serious letters, in
proclamations, and in the speeches of characters actually or pretending to be mad -
- verse is apparently too regular and orderly for expressing madness.
Prose is used for:
cynical commentary
reducing flowery speech to common sense terms.
to contrast the rational to the emotional.
simple exposition, transitions, or contrast
scenes of everyday life
for low comedy
and for bantering, relaxed or unbuttoned conversation
PLEASE NOTE: it is NOT ACCURATE to say that "the lower classes speak prose and the
upper classes speak verse." The highborn cousins Rosalind and Celia speak prose to one
another in As You Like It, as do King Henry and Katherine of France in Henry V.
Similarly, when the lower classes figure in serious or romantic situations, they may speak
verse.
The Functions of Rhyme
RHYME is often used for ritualistic or choral effects and for highly
lyrical or sententious passages that give advice or point to a moral
Rhyme is used for songs, in Prologues, Epilogues and Choruses and in
plays-within-plays , where it distinguishes these imaginary performances
from the "real world" of the play.
It is also used for many manifestations of the supernatural ~ the witches
in Macbeth; the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Ariel in The
Tempest -- but not for ghosts who retain the human use of blank verse.
The Functions of Blank Verse
BLANK VERSE is employed in a wide range of situations because it
comes close to the natural speaking rhythms of English but raises it above
the ordinary without sounding artificial
Art elevates and distills the everyday; writing in blank verse helps sharpen
that distinction.
Blank verse, as opposed to prose, is used mainly for passionate, lofty or
momentous occasions and for introspection; it may suggest a refinement
of character.
Many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches are written in blank verse:
As noted above, a speech or scene in blank verse may end with a single
rhyming couplet known as a capping couplet. It is used to lend a final
punch, a concluding flourish or a note of climax to the end of a speech or
scene.
Othello
Othello speaks in Blank Verse throughout the play
except once before he falls into a fit (IV. I. 35 43)
35 Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when
36 they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome.
37 Handkerchiefconfessionshandkerchief!To
38 confess, and be hanged for his labor;first, to be
39 hanged, and then to confess.I tremble at it.
40 Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing
41 passion without some instruction. It is not words
42 that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips.
43 Is't possible?Confesshandkerchief!O devil!
Falls in a trance.
Othellos Verse
In 1.ii. his verse is straight forward and dignified ~ he gives simple commands
that show his authority
Uses normal sentence order: Subject .. Predicate
Except the inversion:
Rude am I in my speech,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
He uses Anaphora (beginning with the same word in sequence to create a
cumulative effect and to condense the narrative
Of moving accidents by flood and field
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
He is the only one to use imagery of the classical gods (except Iagos By
Jove
In Cyprus Othello uses short commands followed by longer speeches
with many metaphors
Disintegration of Othello
Doubt is signified with the repetition: as if there were, as if
thou ~ Othellos countenance begins to crumble
Begins to use Bestial images
Rhetorical devices reflect his tortured Imagination
Contradictions I think my wife is honest, and I think she is
not
Violent exclamations death and damantion
Invocation Arise, black vengeance
Othello in Act 1 does not pun or quibble but he does so in the
final acts using bestial imagery
Soliloquy in the chamber
Beginning ~ put out the light, pluck thy rose
Middle ~ short sentences to reflect Othellos rage and
Desdemonas fear
End ~ Othello becomes confused and this is shown through
broken utterances. V.ii.92-99
When Othello realises his error he states:
Heres my journeys end and the image of him being dragged into hell
Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulphur!
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!
Final speech

As he delivers his last lines, Othello reflects upon the span of his life and
his record of service in the Venetian army. Before he is dragged away to a
new life as a close prisoner, Othello demands audience from his captors.
In the lines that follow, he describes his transformation from proud soldier
to base murderer, highlighting the plays major themes of jealousy,
passion and racial identity.
Speak Of Me As I Am

Othellos initial plea to Lodovico invokes his history as a decorated

general. I have done the state some service, he says, and they knowt.
He then makes a request common to many of Shakespeares tragic heroes.
Looking toward the future, Othello asks Lodovico to record his story
faithfully, as Hamlet demands of Horatio with his own last words.
The idea of reputation and persona are paramount to many of the
characters in Othellos Venice; when Cassio is caught in a drunken brawl,
his thoughts turn first to his ruined good name. Othello has clearly
resolved to take his own life and urges Lodovico not to speak of him
maliciously when he is gone. By concentrating on the future that awaits
the surviving characters, Othello speaks to the classical tragic form. It is
important for the audience to believe that the world of the play will
continue, purged of its sins and restored to order. Thus, Othellos final
lines help further the tragic goal of creating catharsis.
 One Who Loved Not Wisely, But Too Well

Othello then goes on to describe the circumstances through which he was

deceived. He instructs Lodovico, Then must you speak / Of one that
loved not wisely, but too well; / Of one not easily jealous, but being
wrought / Perplexed in the extreme. With these lines, Othello reviews the
plays dramatic arc. At the beginning of the play, he is a hero, proud,
dignified and noble in spirit. His fall is engineered by forces outside his
controlthe machinations of the cunning villain, Iago, who preys on the
baser nature common to all people. Othello condemns his own actions as
unwise but motivated by a positive force, further reinforcing the archetype
of a tragic hero.
 A Malignant and Turbanned Turk

In his final words, Othello breaks down. Though unused to the melting mood, he allows
himself to express his sadness at his own fate. He encourages Lodovico to record his tears,
then goes on to demonstrate a maneuver he perfected in the military. With his sword drawn,
he tells Lodovico how he once came upon a Turk beating a Venetian and violently killed
him. Othello insists that he is killing himself the same way; smote him, thus are the words
that precede his stab. ThroughoutOthello, characters use the name Turk, the common enemy
of all Christendom, to refer to anyone lacking in judgment, morals and character. By placing
himself in the role of the Turk as he recounts his story, Othello characterizes himself with
these same ideas. Though he began the play as far more fair than black, he has now
turned Turk, and become what he always feared Venice might make him: a true racial
outsider.
Othellos final words summarize his position at the end of the play. Though he began as a
noble figure, he dies a murderer and an outcast. His last speech emphasizes the tragedy of
his downfall and perfectly encapsulates the themes of the play.