Reading & Questions: Shakespeare, Othello, Act One

NOTE: Read Act One slowly and don't worry about getting every word or passage.

Use the scene summaries to help you understand the gist of the story as you go, and read the notes for any difficult words or phrases. Also, watch Act One, Scene 

1 in the post below to help you get on your feet with the play. I'm not worried 

about you understanding everything, but experiencing the play and challenging 

yourself to find meaning in a play that is hundreds of years old, and written for a 

very different audience than 21st century America! 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: As you might expect in a play written in the early 17th century about a Moor (an African—probably from Morocco), the issue of race dominates the play.  How do we know this is a very racially divided society, and that despite Othello’s accomplishments, he is still seen as a “moor” rather than (solely) a great hero?

Q2: Examine the famous ‘trial’ scene in Scene 3, where Brabantio claims that Othello has seduced his daughter through witchcraft.  How does Othello defend himself from these claims, and how does this scene illustrate his ‘heroic’ character and values?  Related to this, why might it make us sympathetic to him instead of Brabantio? 

Q3: In Scene 1, Iago tells Roderigo that “I am not what I am.”  Throughout the play, he tells various people different stories explaining his motivations, hatreds, and values.  Can we trust anything he says?  Do we ever hear him speaking the ‘truth,’ or something that sounds more plausible to our ears?  In other words, when do we hear the ‘real’ Iago—and can we assume that his comment to Roderigo is even authentic? 

Q4: Choose a passage (a few lines, an entire speech) that you find very difficult to understand.  In writing, try to decipher/translate what is going on here.  Look at the images or metaphors the character uses, and consider what the character is responding to (what has just happened).  Try to ‘think out loud’ in your writing and see if you can shed any light on this passage (hopefully we can discuss a few of these in class).