Questions to discuss

1. Discuss the development of Othello as a character.

2. Briefly contrast Desdemona and Emilia.

3. Discuss Othello's estimation of Iago. Why is Othello duped so easily?

4. Briefly describe Roderigo s motivation and his role within the play,

5. Explain Othello's jealousy and his motivation for killing Desdemona.

6. Who is a thematic character in the play?

Often we discover that the behaviour of certain characters can be explained by themes. Any character in any play may be thought of as a thematic character from one point of view or another - good and evil, love and hatred, loyalty and disloyalty, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, etc.

7. Defend or refute these statements:

a) Emilia’s opinion about betrayal expresses a contemporary view of the relationship between the sexes.

b) Othello’s suicide is an honorable act.

8. Analyze one or more of the play’s bizarre comic scenes: the banter between Iago and desdemona in Act II, scene 1; the drinking song in Act II, scene 3; the clown scenes in Act III, scenes 1 and 4. How do these scenes echo, reflect, distort, or comment on the more serious matter of the play?

Analysing literary devices

1.Find examples of symbols in the play. What do these things symbolize?

2. Find examples of foreshadowing.

3. Find examples of verbal and dramatic irony in the play.

4. In Act III, sceness 1 – 4, identify characters and incidents which provide relief as the drama intensifies.

5. Iago is a master of puns. Find puns in the text.

Analyzing Style

1. Analyse the diction of the main characters. Diction is the choice of words in expressing ideas. For example , in MAGBETH, there is a great deal of vocabulary of witchcraft and many of the ideas are presented in terms suggestive of mystery and horror.

2. Find and analyse the examples of imagery in “Othello.

Imagery is figures of speech employed in such a way that something comes to have a greater meaning that is implied in its literal sense. If throughout a play or poem we find a linking between light and goodness while at the same time we find an association of evil with darkness, we can then speak of the imagery of light and darkness. For example, in Dickens’ novel BLEAK HOUSE, every character is slowly associated with either an animal that is predatory or an animal, which is meek and preyed upon. Thus we can speak of the imagery of hunting.

3. Analyse the figurative language in the play. Find examples of the usage of simile, metaphor, antithesis, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, and hyperbole.

4. Emphasis is simply that the writer devotes the right amount of attention to what is more important; that is, the time spent on certain idea should correspond roughly to the importance of those ideas within the work. Doesn’t the author pay much attention to describing love? What is emphasised in the play?

5. Fill in the style chart.

	EMPHASIS	FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE	IMAGERY DICTION	DICTION
JEALOUSY
OTHELLO
IAGO
LOCATION

5. Find examples of metaphors and interpret them.

7. What role does incoherent language play in”Othello”? How does Othello’s language change over the course of the play? ( Analyse his language at the beginning, in Act III, scene 3 and Act IV, scene 1).

SEMINAR #5

THE POETRY OF THE RENAISSANCE

Analyse stylistic devices and figures of speech of the following poems.

Sir PHILIP SIDNEY

From “ASTROPHIL and STELLA”

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,

That she (dear she) might take some pleasure of my pain:

Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,

Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,

I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,

Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:

Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow

Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burned brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay,

Invention, nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,

And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.

Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,

'Fool,' said my Muse to me, 'look in thy heart and write'.

1. Mark in the rhyme scheme. What do you notice?

2. Why does the poet want to write? (lines 1-2)

3. Where does the poet first look for inspiration? (lines 5-8)

4. What is the result of this?

5. What is the message of the last line? What is Sidney saying about the nature of inspiration?