Elements of tragedy in Othello by Neil Hussey https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview Made with a wink and a smile en-us 2019-03-21 10:35:18 UTC 2019-03-27 11:05:53 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700466 Othello is a domestic tragedy - it is a tragedy of marriage:
Othello and Desdemona's love is passionate which is deemed a threat to the rules established by patriarchal order

]]> 2019-03-21 10:52:14 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700466 Overview https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700559  politically controversial and dangerous, challenging 17th century European cultural norms of what it means to be noble and moral. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:52:34 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700559 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700618  It is both a tragedy of love and a revenge tragedy; it is also the tragedy of what happens when soldiers are hotly prepared for war but have no war to occupy them. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:52:44 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700618 Resolution https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700681  We are left to think about our emotions and about moral, social, political and philosophical issues ]]> 2019-03-21 10:53:00 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700681 Resolution https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700803  The resolution is uncomfortable and with the deaths of Desdemona, Emelia and Othello, there is a terrible sense of waste. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:53:37 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700803 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700821  The setting of Cyprus allows Shakespeare to place his characters in a world without the boundaries that would be imposed upon them by an established city state ]]> 2019-03-21 10:53:41 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343700821 Victims https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701053  Othello is a play with many victims - Desdemona is also a victim, murdered by her husband for a crime she does not commit -  ]]> 2019-03-21 10:54:37 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701053 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701066  The main action of the play is set in Cyprus, away from the known, civilised world of Venice, where capitalism thrives. 

]]> 2019-03-21 10:54:40 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701066 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701185  In the first Act which is set in Venice, Shakespeare establishes an ordered world in which Iago’s attempts at disruption are easily thwarted. The movement to Cyprus and the re-location of the characters there allows Iago to work more successfully, ensnaring all in the weaving of his plot. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:55:04 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701185 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701233  For many, Iago is the ultimate stage villain – calculating, manipulative, clever and ruthless ]]> 2019-03-21 10:55:16 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701233 Desdemona https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701282  Shakespeare suggests in the first act that she is a woman of spirit and independence who knows her own mind -  She defies the expectations and desires of her father to marry a man of his choice. Instead she marries the black soldier Othello and determines to travel with him to Cyprus. There she is manipulated by a series of male figures ( strong and independent) , and strangled in her bed by Othello. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:55:28 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701282 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701330  Othello has military power but no status in Venetian society because of his colour and race; his ‘life and being’ is not European. He is a black man, a Moor and was sold to slavery. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:55:38 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701330 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701337 The play includes many generic conventions of tragedy. A tragic hero whose ultimate downfall is his pride and]]> 2019-03-21 10:55:39 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701337 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701443  despite his undoubted cunning and desire for revenge against Cassio and Othello, Shakespeare does not present Iago as having a clear plan from the start of the play: he is more an opportunistic villain whose ideas gather momentum as he tastes success. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:56:02 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701443 Victims https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701518 Emilia is again, along with Desdemona, a victim of love but Emilia is also another victim of the abuse physically and emotionally of women enforced by men]]> 2019-03-21 10:56:24 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701518 Othello’s position as tragic hero is interesting and complex. Although, as ageneral, he holds a high military rank in the Venetian army, in terms of his tragicstatus he is not a European king or a European nobleman and so in one way is afigure much closer to that of an ‘ordinary’ man than most of Shakespeare’s othertragic heroes https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701618 2019-03-21 10:56:43 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701618 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701677  Othello is a play that is a mainstream Shakespearean tragedy and therefore is an obvious text for Paper 1. 

]]> 2019-03-21 10:56:58 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701677 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701749  Yet, in terms of the tragedy, Othello is a worthy hero, despite Iago’s attempts to blacken his name at the start of the play. Although Iago claims Othello loves ‘his own pride and purposes’ and rails bitterly against what he feels is Othello’s poor judgment and mistreatment of him, when the audience meet Othello for the first time he is measured, dignified and commanding. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:57:13 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701749 Iago https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701766  Iago is the ultimate stage villain – calculating, manipulative, clever and ruthless. Despite Coleridge’s claim that Iago’s soliloquies reveal ‘the motive hunting of motiveless malignity’, Iago’s role is more complex - He certainly is the most vill]]> 2019-03-21 10:57:18 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701766 othello https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701881  To elevate his status, Shakespeare gives him musical language. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:57:46 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701881 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701902  Othello’s fall from nobility and grace, from articulate general to brainwashed puppet of Iago, speaking obscenely and incoherently (Lie with her? Lie on her...Pish! Noses, ears and lips. Is’t possible? Confess? Handkerchief? O devil!) is the play’s driving tragic impulse. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:57:52 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343701902 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702015  The final judgments rest with the audience. We are left to think about our emotions and about moral, social, political and philosophical issues. ]]> 2019-03-21 10:58:26 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702015 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702188  Desdemona had challenged the patriarchal order in marrying Othello, had shown a free and open spirit but she is murdered. The patriarchal attitudes that existed at the start of the play are reinforced by Cassio’s appointment. Therefore how safe is the future with him? ]]> 2019-03-21 10:59:10 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702188 'green-eyed monster' https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702472  Like other tragic heroes, he also has a fatal flaw –jealousy – which Iago exploits to the full. His flaw connects Othello with audiences who also might have felt the stab of the green eyed monster. Othello’s fate is perhaps more likely to inspire pity and fear because of that connection. ]]> 2019-03-21 11:00:19 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702472 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702512  For many, Iago is the ultimate stage villain – calculating, manipulative, clever and ruthless. Despite Coleridge’s claim that Iago’s soliloquies reveal ‘the motivehunting of motiveless malignity’, Iago’s role is more complex. ]]> 2019-03-21 11:00:27 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702512 othello as a tragic hero https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702544  Like other tragic heroes, he also has a fatal flaw –jealousy – which Iago exploits to the full. His flaw connects Othello with audiences who also might have felt the stab of the green eyed monster. Othello’s fate is perhaps more likely to inspire pity and fear because of that connection. ]]> 2019-03-21 11:00:34 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702544 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702589 Emilia seems to be the the victim of both the oppression and abuse of women, and the victim of love too. However she seems to go against males much more than Desdemona does.]]> 2019-03-21 11:00:41 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702589 context https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702606  It ispolitically controversial and dangerous, challenging 17th century European cultural norms of what it means to be noble and moral. ]]> 2019-03-21 11:00:45 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702606 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702608 Othello is initially elevated as a character because before we meet him as an audience, he is presented in a negative, wild manner by Iago - this ultimately makes his fall even greater as he falls off his great pedestal ]]> 2019-03-21 11:00:46 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702608 victims https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702681 In Othello it can be argued that there are multiple victims. Desdemona is a victim as she is murdered by Othello for a crime that she did not commit.
Emilia is also a victim of love and abuse from men. ]]> 2019-03-21 11:01:01 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702681 setting https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702923 Act 2 in bedroom- 'I must be open'- by act 4, he is hiding behind in the shadow... contrast between the openess of Othello and then the secrecy of Iago]]> 2019-03-21 11:01:57 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343702923 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343703114 Start of the play - his openness is evident where as by the end of the play he is hiding in the shadows and in the dark

]]> 2019-03-21 11:02:49 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343703114 Desdemona is also a victim, murdered by her husband for a crime she does not commit, and plotted against by Iago, perhaps for challenging the authority of men. A woman of spirit and independence who knows her own mind. She defies the desires of her father to marry a man of his choice and she marries the black soldier Othello. In Cyprus she is manipulated by a series of male figures, and strangled in her bed by Othello. https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343703342 2019-03-21 11:04:06 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/343703342 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/345628432 because of the shift in setting, this means that Othello is tragically isolated in an environment he is not aware of from Venice to Cyprus. Therefore, he is not comfortable with the customs and attitudes of the country. This als gives the character of Iago the opportunity to imput in his breakdown]]> 2019-03-27 11:03:06 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/345628432 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/345629198 domestic tragedy]]> 2019-03-27 11:05:53 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/overview/wish/345629198