1. Jealousy Quick Write
Jealousy can be interpreted in several different ways--it can be envy of what others have, but it can also be fear of losing what one already has. Write about a time when you experienced jealousy OR a way jealousy was depicted in a text you have read previously. Describe the situation, what brought on the jealousy, and how the situation ended.

2. 15 Minute Othello
Rehearse your lines: What is the tone of the lines? What word(s) will you stress?
Afterwards: What are possible theme topics of the play you might predict based upon this exercise?

3. Verse vs. Prose
Verse:
poetic language that includes meter and sometimes rhyme;
organized in lines with a consistent number of syllables;
used for high status characters, great affairs of war, and tragic moments
Prose:
written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure;
organized in sentences
used for low status characters (servants, clowns, drunks), comedic moments, and to express madness
In Othello, pay attention to situations in which characters (specifically Iago) switch between verse and prose and the importance these choices have

4. Meter, foot, and iambic pentameter
the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
is responsible for creating the rhythm of a line
Foot:
a group of syllables that forms one complete unit of a metrical pattern
Meter is described in terms of the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables AND the total number of metrical feet in a line of verse
Iambic Pentameter is the most metrical pattern in Shakespeare’s plays and poetry

5. Iambic Pentameter:
a rhyme scheme in which each line consists of ten syllables
syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet
an iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this:
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
This is 10 syllables, with an unstressed and then stressed pattern (grouped into five units)
Shall I / com PARE / thee TO / a SUM / mer’s DAY?
Thou ART/ more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE (Sonnet 18)

6. Othello vs. Iago Othello’s early speeches are in iambic pentameter
Lines are often run on (enjambement) as ideas are developed in a coherent and confident way (see for example Act 1, scene 3, lines )
In contrast, Iago’s speeches are often end-stopped or have a mid- line caesura (a pause). This suggests he is a plain-speaking man.

7. Blank VErse vs. Free verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Free Verse:
No regular meter

8. Citing a play Act, Scenes, and Lines: A play is broken up into acts;
Acts are broken up into scenes;
Scenes are broken up into lines
Citations of Plays: (Act.scene. Line numbers)
Example quote and citation: “O beware, my lord, of jealousy!/It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock/The meat it feeds on” ( ). .

9. Dramatic terminology
Monologue: a long uninterrupted speech one character gives onstage to everyone, including the audience and actors.
Soliloquy: a long uninterrupted speech one character gives alone on stage, inaudible to other characters.
Aside: a short speech one character gives, traditionally so that other character(s) cannot hear.

10. Tragedy
Tragedy
a serious play representing the disastrous downfall of a hero
Shakespeare’s Tragedies
audience believed people’s decisions and mistakes have consequences and people sometimes have to pay a high price for their mistakes
main characters make decisions that upset proper order of their world, affecting them and everyone around them
the situation is resolved only when others learn lessons from death(s) of main character(s).

11. tragic hero Classical Tragic Hero a good man, important to society
suffers a downfall brought about by something in his nature (the tragic flaw)
fall provokes emotions of pity and fear in audience/reader
comes to some kind of understanding or new recognition of what has happened

12. the moors and the venetians
The Moors (from OED): “A native or inhabitant of ancient Mauretania, a region of North Africa corresponding to parts of present-day Morocco and Algeria. Later usually: a member of a Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent inhabiting north-western Africa, who in the 8th cent. Conquered Spain. In the Middle Ages, and as late as the 17th cent., the Moors were widely supposed to be mostly black or very dark-skinned, although the existence of ‘white Moors’ was recognized.”

13. the moors in Shakespeare’s day
characterized in Elizabethan England as being alternately or even simultaneously noble or monstrous, civil or savage.
Being a different race meant, primarily, being an Other, non- English, as well as non-Christian.
The term Moor was fairly vague in definition, but most likely the title character would have been Arabic in appearance

14. the moors and the venetians
During the late 1500’s and early 1600’s, the Venetians were a wealthy and therefore powerful people
Wealth was due to Venice’s canals, ideal for trade.
Wealth and Power (both important in the plot of Othello)- made Venice a city of high importance to military and political officials and also gave the natives a great pride in their background

15. Othello: The Setting
Journey from Venice, Italy to Cyprus (Island in Mediterranean Sea south of Turkey)
VENICE=order, rule of reason
CYPRUS=disorder, rule of passion

16. Othello: Motifs
Motif: any recurring element that has symbolic significance. Through its repetition, a motif helps emphasize other literary aspects such as theme or mood
Motifs in Othello to notice/annotate:
Animals
Plants
Hell and the devil
Reality vs. Illusion (seeing vs. not seeing)

17. What motivates each character’s actions?
The work revolves around four central characters:
Othello,
his wife Desdemona,
his lieutenant Cassio, and
his trusted advisor Iago

18. The plot
It is the story of an outsider (Othello, a moor) in Venice who is a soldier, and having moved up in the ranks, now commands great respect in Venice. When the story opens, we learn that he has married Desdemona, a woman of incomparable beauty and the daughter of a wealthy and powerful Venetian senator, Brabantio. This is their personal story but also one of a political body and how it preserves and protects itself.
A man, disappointed of promotion which he thought he had a right to expect, determines on revenge and in part secures it. By a series of careful moves he persuaded the General (Othello) of the adultery of the General's wife (Desdemona) with the lieutenant (Cassio) who has been promoted ahead of him. As a result, the general first kills his wife then himself, but Iago fails in the second part of his design, since the plot is disclosed. Cassio receives yet a further promotion and Iago is left facing trial and torture. The plot "scheme" is concerned with one of the strangest and most distressing of human emotions - jealousy - and this is what makes the plot powerful.

19. Important theme topics to consider
Friendship, love, and marriage
Gender (How are women defined or given limited roles?)
Class (social status)
The individual vs. the state (Othello’s or Brabantio’s personal interests vs. the interests of Venice, for example)
The nature of evil (Iago as its representative and what makes him tick)
Jealousy
Reputations (men and women, professional and personal)
Appearances vs. Reality (and deceit, truth, and performances)