For Wednesday: Othello, Act Three

For Wednesday: Shakespeare’s Othello, Act Three

Only ONE question this time... (which you must answer!)

Act Three is the heart of the play and easily the most controversial, especially as regards how we read our hero, Othello.  In Scene iii, Othello swallows Iago’s suggestions about Desdemona’s unfaithfulness and rages,

Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!

Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate.  Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For ‘tis of aspics’ tongues!...O blood!  Iago, blood! 

An Elizabethan audience would expect a Moor to speak like this, and ultimately for a ‘good’ Moor to turn ‘bad’ as was his nature.  So far, Shakespeare seems to confirm his audiences’ racial prejudices by showing a Moor who is easily deceived (unintelligent?) and prone to wild rages and fits (a savage?).  For this reason, some African-American actors have refused to play the role, seeing it a crude stereotype or even an out-and-out racist portrait.    Of course, before this scene Othello was entirely ‘gentle’ and Iago has been working on him for three entire acts now; would anyone—white, black, or other—turn into a lunatic if they suspected their wife’s infidelity? 

Read Act Three carefully, particularly scene iii, and try to respond to the accusation that Shakespeare creates a stereotypical Moor in Othello, one who is prone to violence and cannot truly love (or think) like a European.  How might you prove OR contradict this reading through what he says—or what Iago says?  If you were the actor or the director, how would you want Othello to be portrayed?  Is there something fundamentally human in him—or is he meant to be a caricature of the “other”—someone who isn’t us and thus cannot share our values? 

For Monday: Shakespeare's Othello, Act Two

Answer TWO of the following…

1. In a way, Iago is like all the ‘clerks’ the Wife of Bath complained about who slander women in their books.  Where do we see Iago doing this—and provoking others to see women in this light as well?  Consider how he acts to his wife, Emilia, and how he talks to others about Desdemona. 

2. A truly adept liar doesn’t make things up, but bases his lies on truth by clever distorting.  Based on this logic, does Cassio love Desdemona?  Iago claims he does, but does the play itself verify this information?  Examine a scene where we see Cassio interacting with Desdemona or with others who discuss her.  What might Iago be basing his ‘information’ on? 

3. What other motives does Iago give for hating Othello and plotting his downfall?  Does he have some affection/loyalty to Roderigo?  Has Othello offended him?  Does he ‘want’ something that only Othello—or Cassio—can prevent him from taking?  Examine a scene which seems to answer (at least partially) this question.

4. Once Cassio loses his position for drunkenness in Scene iii, he and Iago have a discussion about reputation.  How does this scene show us the different ways both men view the world—as well as understand the meaning of honor and soldierly values?  Related to this, why does he agree to follow Iago’s advice in the end? 

For Friday: Othello, Act One

Answer TWO of the following:

1. As you might expect in a play written in the early 17^th 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?

2. 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? 

3. 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? 

4. 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).  

For Monday: Introducing Shakespeare's Drama

Did you miss class on Friday?  About 1/3 of the class did, so you're probably wondering what we did and what you have to read for Monday.  We finished discussing Book XXII of The Iliad on Friday and watched a final scene from the film (between Achilles and Priam).  If you haven't finished the poem, be sure to do so, since it will be an important part of Paper #2, which I will assign soon (and which most of you have to do).  

For Monday, I'm going to introduce Shakespeare's Drama and help you understand the world and times he wrote in.  On Friday, we'll start discussing Othello, which is NOT in your World Literature Anthology; I ordered a separate book which is in the ECU bookstore and you should have purchased already.  If not, get it immediately, since the bookstore will send all of the books back very soon.  On Wednesday I'll help you understand the language of Shakespeare and assign the first reading and questions from the book.  

Until then, remember to watch your absences (some of you are beyond reasonable limits) and try to stay on top of your response questions.  Mid-term grades are right around the corner!  See you on Monday... 

For Friday: The Illiad, Book XXIV: Catharsis or Catastrophe?

 

For Friday: Book XXIV: Achilles and Priam (pp.158-177)

Only ONE question this time, a short essay response (so give me a good-sized paragraph full of thoughtful ideas and try to connect it to a specific passage or two in the reading)…

This is the last book of The Illiad, and it literally ends with the line, “That was the funeral of Hector, breaker of horses.”  The Greeks believed in a term called catharsis, which means a sense of cleansing that invokes the audiences’ fear, pity, and understanding.  Usually a tragedy contains some element of catharsis so that the audience can see themselves in the drama, feel sympathy/understanding for the characters, and leave feeling renewed or enlightened.  Do you think Book XXIV of The Illiad does this?  Does it leave us feeling emotionally “cleansed”?  Are good and evil, right and wrong, somehow balanced once again?  Is the world made right?  Or are things still left askew, broken, and confused?  What do you think the poet’s intention was in this final book/chapter of the poem? 

For Wednesday: More on The Illiad, Book XXII

Be sure you've completed the questions for Book XXII (below) for Wednesday's class.  Otherwise, we'll watch a few more scenes from Troy, chiefly the scene between Hector and Achilles.  I also want to discuss the women in the book a bit more, particularly Andromache, Hector's wife. 

If you've fallen behind in responses, now is an easy time to catch up, since we only have 1 more for The Iliad, then we'll have a short break before we start on Shakespeare's Othello.  Remember that mid-term grades come out soon, and frequent absences and lack of daily responses are the major factors that will hurt your grade.  The only way to fail this class is simply not participating and doing the work.  Don't be a mid-semester casualty! 

For Monday: The Iliad, Book XII

For Monday:

The Iliad, Book XII (pp.145-158)

Answer TWO of the following…

1. Why does Hector refuse to listen to his parents—and perhaps, common sense—in fighting Achilles?  What arguments do both of his parents use to sway him, and would these arguments be persuasive to us (a modern audience)?  Does he offer a specific reason for refusing their counsel and insisting on meeting Achilles in a suicidal showdown?

2. When Zeus contemplates saving Hector from his fate, his daughter, Athena, exclaims: “You may be the Lord of Lightning and the Dark Cloud,/But what a thing to say, to save a mortal man,/With his fate already fixed, from rattling death!/Do it.  But don’t expect us all to approve” (149).  Why doesn’t she and the other gods approve?  Is it simply because they favor the Greeks?  Or does it suggest a deeper social taboo that even affects the gods of Olympus? 

3. How is Hector portrayed in this Book?  Since he is the other hero of the epic (in some ways, a “good” version of Achilles), what qualities/ideas does he portray?  Does he seem more ‘human’ than Achilles?  Can we sympathize with him more?  Or is he more or less the same—another man guided by fate, war, and honor? 

4. Why does Achilles refuse to honor Hector’s pleas for a decent burial if one of them dies?  Is this meant to be heroic—inspirational, even?  Or does it question the very nature of heroism in Achilles?  How do other people in the poem react to the treatment of Hector’s corpse?  Is this acceptable conduct in the ancient world…or has he broken a taboo of civilization? 

5. King Priam of Troy (Hector’s father) acts as a voice of wisdom throughout the poem.  What is his essential worldview or philosophy of life as expressed in this book?  What might this say about the poet’s own ideas about life and death, as well as heroism and honor?  In other words, how might Priam’s speeches help us see how some Greeks truly felt about the people and events that shaped their world?