Desdemona arrives and confirms Othello's story, then receives permission to accompany Othello to Cyprus. Iago persuades Roderigo that he can still have Desdemona, if he will just disguise himself and come to Cyprus. In a soliloquy, Iago develops his plan to make Othello jealous.
RESOURCES
1.3 of Shakespeare's Othello (Reading)
By Dr. Greg Martin http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/9294569
1.3 Explanation of Shakespeare's Othello
By Dr. Greg Martin http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/9044940
GO!
List the themes apparent in your reading of the play so far
KNOW
Share your ideas from the starter activity with the class
SHARE
Reading/Performing: Act 1.3 (l210-End)
What is the significance of Iago's first soliloquy (l.383-405)?
Consider:
- - His relationship with/ opinion of Roderigo
- - What this tells us about Iago's motivation
- - The imagery that Iago uses
Reading/annotation of (Dis)orientation in Othello
- Why does Shakespeare not introduce the eponymous
protagonist of the play in the first scene?
- What do you think the associations of 'white' and 'black'
are in the play?
PAIR
Create one factual, one inductive and one analytical question on the article
PERFECT
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ON:
SHAKESPEAREAN STRATEGIES OF (DIS)ORIENTATION IN OTHELLO, ACT 1
BY JUAN ANTONIO PRIETO PABLOS – UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA
- What evidence does Pablos present to suggest that Othello’s race was not a central issue in critical appraisals of the character before the 1980s?
- In what sense is it suggested that Othello is, “a hero and an outsider”?
- What is Pablos suggesting when he claims, “recent approaches...can distort our view of the text and character”?
- What does Pablos mean when, referring to Roderigo and Iago’s initial dialogue, he says, “we must follow the lead provided by the speakers,”? What is the significance of the eponymous protagonist of the play being referred to simply as, ‘The Moor’?
- What is the effect of the various inferences and insinuations made by Iago regarding Othello in informing Brabantio of Desdemona’s elopement, according to Pablos?
- In what way would the comments pertaining to Othello up to this point have fed into the view of Moors in Elizabethan times?
- How are the audience’s preconceptions challenged at the beginning of scene 2, during the dialogue between Iago and Othello?
- Why is it significant to Pablos that the first actor playing Othelllo (Richard Burbage) is reputed to have been physically imposing/ attractive?
- What are Brabantio’s arguments against the marriage of Othello and Desdemona? In what way is Othello’s defence against this accusation delayed? What might this suggest?
- Is our sympathy and admiration for Othello intensified by a, “sense of injustice,” by the end of Act 1?
- How, according to Pablos, does Shakespeare manipulate the, “racial and moral preconceptions,” of the audience?
- What, in Pablos’ opinion, may lead us to miss, “the point that Shakespeare wanted to make,” with Othello?
REFLECT
"The issue of race in Othello has only become important in modern times. It has no real relevance in the original context."