Othello topics

 

The questions below are designed to stimulate your thinking about a particular issue in Othello, but are not in any way intended to put limits on the topic. Feel free to explore and develop your issue in the way that makes the most sense to you. Your thinking should always begin with the text, but you may also want to read some other critics’ views. The Modern Language Association (MLA) Bibliography on CD-ROM at the library is the best source for finding articles about literature. Ask a reference librarian for help in conducting searches if you need assistance. Be sure also to observe the Honor Code, which requires that you acknowledge the source of any language (including individual phrases) or ideas that are not your own. If you’re not sure how the Honor Code applies in a particular instance, please ask me.

 

1. Source. Read the text on which Shakespeare’s Othello is based, Giraldi Cinthio’s Hecatommithi (III,7), included in the back of the Signet edition of the play. Read also Kenneth Muir’s discussion in Shakespeare’s Sources, Vol. 1 (pp. 122-23). As you read (and re-read), study the main differences between the two texts, consider what underlies the differences in the texts (attitudes toward race, the way plot and dramatic scenes are created, the ‘moral’ of the texts, etc). Develop a thesis that illuminates these differences.

 

2. Tragic Paradigms. Read the essay included in the back of the Signet edition, Madelon Gohlke Sprengnether’s “I wooed thee with my sword: Shakespeare’s Tragic Paradigms.” Be prepared to give the class a clear, succinct summary of the argument, including key pieces of evidence. Your argument, which you should also present to the class, will be a response to (either argument with or elaboration upon) the ideas presented in the article.

 

3. Character Study: Othello. Study the play, identifying and analyzing passages that you believe give us the most insight into Othello’s character. For example, what part does Othello’s profession play in shaping his character and language? (And how is Othello’s language different from others’ in the play?) Othello is seen by some as a person of great stature with admirable attitudes toward himself, love, war, Venice, etc. Others view him as a great warrior who is also a naïve idealist. Which view (or which combination of views) seems right to you? What specific traits contribute to Othello’s vulnerability to Iago? Develop a thesis about Othello, supporting it with specific passages or incidents in the play. Note that you will have to narrow this topic considerably to arrive at a workable thesis.

 

4. Character study: Desdemona. Study the play, identifying and analyzing passages that you believe give us the most insight into Desdemona’s character. A very early Shakespeare critic, Anna Jameson, wrote that Desdemona’s “gentleness gives the prevailing tone to the character--gentleness in its excess--gentleness verging on passiveness--gentleness, which not only cannot resent--but cannot resist” (Shakespeare’s Heroines, 180). Do you agree with this characterization?

    Consider also whether Desdemona’s behavior or speech changes in the course of    the play. If so, how and why? Develop a thesis about Desdemona’s character, supporting it with specific passages or incidents in the play.

 

5. Character Study: Emilia. Study the play, identifying and analyzing passages that you believe give us the most insight into Emilia’s character. What can you glean about her relationship with Iago? With Desdemona? Where do her loyalties lie? What do you make of her role in supplying Iago with the handkerchief? Develop a thesis about Emilia’s character, supporting it with specific passages or incidents in the play.

 

6. Character Study: Roderigo. Frank Kermode says that “Roderigo is dispensable; he serves no real purpose except to keep Iago in funds” (Riverside Shakespeare, 1201). Is this true? Focus not on Roderigo’s usefulness in the plot (for example, in getting Cassio fired), but rather on how he helps to define some larger issues in the play, by what he says and what he is, and by the ways Iago treats him.

 

7. “Honest Iago.” Notice how often the adjective “honest” is applied to Iago (make a list of these instances). Who uses the term and why? Who trusts or distrusts Iago in the play? Is Iago in fact honest? How or how not? How does Iago cultivate a perception of himself as honest, and what role does his “honesty” play in the tragedy? Develop a thesis about Iago’s imputed honesty.

 

8. The Green-Eyed Monster. Othello can be viewed as a psychological study of the nature of jealousy. Consider the issue of jealousy in the play. What images are used to represent it and why—what are their implications? Is there anything about the nature of Desdemona’s and Othello’s love that makes it susceptible to jealousy? Does jealousy appear in other relationships in the play? Develop a thesis (which you can defend with specific passages) about the nature of jealousy in the play.

 

9. Motivation. Critics have argued and debated about Iago’s motivation for destroying Othello and Desdemona. Coleridge argued that Iago operates out of “motiveless malignity” (see excerpt from Coleridge in the back of the Signet). Go through the play carefully, extracting and analyzing any passages that give clues about Iago’s motives. If you wish, you can read some other critics on this question. Then develop an argument—a position that you can defend—about the nature of Iago’s motives.

 

10. The “Seduction” Scene. Othello begins Act III, scene iii without any doubts about Desdemona and ends by plotting her death. Or to put it another way,

      Othello shifts his allegiance from Desdemona to Iago in the course of this single      scene. How does Iago do it? How does Shakespeare make us believe it could          happen? Study the scene (you might consider having parts of it acted out for your    presentation) and develop a theory about how Iago operates here.

 

11. The Handkerchief. Study the passages in the play that recount the history and significance of the handkerchief. Do the accounts vary? Consider also the role the handkerchief plays in the plot, in seeming to confirm Desdemona’s guilt. What, ultimately, does the handkerchief symbolize in the play? --Please be careful not to oversimplify this question. The handkerchief is a complex symbol.

 

12. Race. Read Karen Newman’s article, “ ‘And wash the Ethiop white’: Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello.” In your presentation to the class, please summarize and provide examples of the Renaissance attitudes toward race that Newman cites; also give a clear, succinct account of the connections she draws between Renaissance attitudes toward race and femininity. In your paper, respond to Newman’s argument. You may, obviously, choose to either agree or disagree with her conclusions, to refute or elaborate her claims.

 

13. The Willow Song. What is the significance of the famous “Willow Song” at IV.iii.26-59. Why does it recur at V.ii.246-251?

 

14. The Murder. Critic Frank Kermode states that “Shakespeare’s honorable murders always act like priests at a sacrifice” (Riverside Shakespeare, 1249). How does Othello view the murder he commits—before, during and after? What kind of language does he use in the murder scene? What does he perceive his own role to be? How does he perceive himself after he learns the truth? Develop a thesis about Othello’s perception of the murder he commits.

 

15. Black and White. Reread the play, cataloguing all the imagery of black and white. Work with the imagery until a pattern emerges, and develop a thesis about the way this imagery functions in relation to the events of the play.

 

16. Stage History. Read Sylvan Barnet’s essay “Othello on Stage and Screen” in the back of the Signet Edition. Then conduct further research into the stage/screen history of the play. You may want to bring in photos or clips from various productions for your presentation. You will need to find a way to focus the topic—you could, for example, study various stage/screen portrayals of a single character, or look at the way sets have been used to support interpretations of the play, etc. You may include new film versions of the play ( O, Fishburn’s Othello, and others) in your study.

 

17. Tragic Miscommunication. Miscommunication lies at the heart of Shakespearean tragedy: Think of the letter that doesn’t get delivered in Romeo and Juliet, which prevents Romeo from knowing that Juliet is not dead, but sleeping, or Cordelia’s honest statement at the beginning of King Lear which Lear misconstrues and which sets the tragedy in motion.

 

            Track instances of miscommunication in Othello. Where do they occur, and             more importantly, why do they occur? One interpretation of the play observes         that “The roots of the tragic miscommunication between Desdemona and Othello    lie not in her silence, but in the social forces that contribute to her silencing”             (Bradley and Greene, 86). What are those social forces? Do you agree with this           view? Develop a thesis about the nature and causes of the tragic       miscommunication in the play.

 

18. Views of Desdemona. Do an inventory of other characters’ views of         Desdemona. Find passages in which Iago, Othello, Cassio, Roderigo and Emilia     describe or characterize her. When considering Iago’s view of Desdemona, look         carefully at his conversation with Desdemona and Emilia after landing at Cyprus      (II.i.95 ff.); this passage illuminates Iago’s views of women in general.

 

      Do the men view Desdemona in similar or different ways from one another? Is       anything stable or consistent across all of the men’s views? How does Emilia’s        view differ from the men’s? What part do the men’s perceptions of Desdemona         play in the tragedy?

 

19. “Soft you, a word or two.” Study Othello’s last speech. What is the function of the speech—what is Othello trying to accomplish? What do you notice about the     style and rhetoric of the speech? Research the allusions and look at the textual            variants (“base Judean” or “base Indian”). Which makes better sense to you, and     why? What do you make of the references to the “turban’d Turk”? Of the     reference to the “circumcised dog”? You may want to look up some criticism          about this speech in the process of forming your own opinions.