Othello: Writer's Methods and Techniques (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature)
Revision Note
Othello: Writer's Methods and Techniques
The most successful responses discuss the importance of the language, form and structure techniques that William Shakespeare uses to create meaning. Both the extract and essay question will reward detailed discussion of technical features, and the essay question requires you to take a “whole-text” approach by drawing on evidence from across the play.
Remember to refer to evidence from the text for every point that you make, and explain how the use of specific techniques affects the audience.
There are a number of methods and techniques used in Shakespeare’s Othello, including:
Symbolism
Speech styles
Greek tragedy
Symbolism
Shakespeare’s tragedy is full of powerful symbolism, with many of the symbols falling into one of three categories: the magical, the religious, and the animalistic. These symbols tend to represent the conflicts of identity and morality that underline the play’s themes.
Shakespeare introduces ideas of magic and witchcraft early in the tragedy to prepare the audience for eventual role in the tragic denouement:
In Act 1 Scene 3, Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching Desdemona:
Witchcraft was a real fear in early modern Europe and punishable by death
Brabantio’s insinuation seems to spring from racist stereotypes of the un-Christian, black outsider
Unbeknownst to Brabantio, his suggestion of black magic is given some credence later in the play when Othello establishes the importance of Desdemona’s handkerchief
In Act 3 Scene 3 Othello talks about the enchanted handkerchief that he gifted to Desdemona:
He claims that the handkerchief was woven by a 200-year-old prophet and dyed with the blood of mummified virgins
According to Othello, a ‘charmer’ gave the handkerchief to his mother and told her that “while she kept it / ‘Twould make her amiable and subdue my father”
The audience never see any direct evidence of the love token’s alleged powers, but it is important enough to Othello that he interprets Desdemona losing the item as “ocular proof” of her infidelity
Characters in Othello frequently raise religious ideas of sin and forgiveness, often tying these concepts to images of light and dark, white and black:
Iago is associated with images of hell and the devil from the very start of the play:
In Act 1 Scene 3, he describes his plot against Othello as a “monstrous birth” of “Hell and night”
In Act 2 Scene 3, he speaks proudly of his ability to disguise his “blackest sins” with the oxymoronic “Divinity of hell!”
Shakespeare emphasises Desdemona’s innocence and purity by having characters describe her in glowingly religious terms:
Emilia refers to her as “fair” and “heavenly” in Act 5 Scene 2
In Act 2 Scene 1 Cassio terms her the “divine Desdemona”
Othello initially describes Desdemona’s chastity via a religious metaphor: “If she be false, o then heaven mocks itself” (Act 3 Scene 3)
Desdemona later protests her innocence using the same allusion: “By heaven, you do me wrong” (Act 4 Scene 2)
Desdemona’s last act in Act 5 Scene 2 is to forgive Othello, cementing her status as a paragon of Christian virtue
Several descriptions of Othello’s character juxtapose religious concepts with references to his blackness:
In Act 1 Scene 3 the Duke of Venice describes Othello as “far more fair than black”, referring to both his skin colour and Christian morality
After he murders Desdemona, Emilia draws a direct comparison between the two: she calls Othello, “O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!”
The Devil was often imagined in medieval and early modern art as a malevolent black figure
Animal images are used throughout the tragedy to signify immorality and promiscuity, and also as racially-charged attacks intended to dehumanise Othello:
Iago uses derogatory animal imagery in Act 1 Scene 1 to describe Othello and inflame Brabantio’s anger:
He calls the Moor a “Barbary horse” and tells Brabantio that an “old black ram is tupping your white ewe”, an insult that also lewdly dehumanises Desdemona
Iago also describes Othello and Desdemona as “making the beast with two backs”, insinuating that their relationship is unnatural
In Act 1 Scene 3, Iago claims that Othello will be easily led “as asses are”, a comment that seems to draw on Othello’s past as a slave by suggesting his subservience
Iago also famously describes jealousy as “the green-eyed monster, which doth mock / The meat it feeds on”:
While on the surface this line is a warning to Othello, it also demonstrates Iago’s talent for hiding his evil in plain sight
Through dramatic irony, the audience are aware that Iago is in fact mocking Othello even as he abuses his position of trust
Othello, however, also peppers his speeches with references to animals, particularly as his jealous madness overwhelms his judgement:
Iago primes Othello’s jealousy in Act 3 Scene 3 with images of bestial lust, forcing Othello to imagine Cassio and Desdemona “as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys”
In Act 4 Scene 1, Othello reaches his lowest point when he strikes Desdemona, departing from the scene by recalling Iago’s words in Act 3 Scene 3 and exclaiming nonsensically, “Goats and monkeys!”
In Act 5 Scene 2, Othello describes how his pure love for Desdemona has become “a cistern, for foul toads / To knot and gender [copulate] in”, a grotesque image indicative of how utterly Iago has poisoned his mind
Exam Tip
It is always a good idea to say a lot about a little by discussing brief, powerful moments in great detail. Try to glean nuanced and relevant analysis from even brief snippets of dialogue within the play and try to consider different interpretations. Othello’s such as “Goats and monkeys!” line described above, for example, can be analysed in several ways:
The sharpness and brevity of the exclamation marks Othello’s shift in character from his earlier elegant spoken manner
The line recalls earlier images placed into his mind by Iago, demonstrating Iago’s control over Othello’s mind
His fixation on the bestial quality of Desdemona’s imagined intercourse with Cassio echoes Iago’s lewd comments to Brabantio in Act 1 Scene 1
It is ironic that Othello accuses his wife of animalistic behaviour given that he speaks these words immediately after striking his wife in a moment of mindless violence
Speech styles
Shakespeare switches frequently between blank verse and prose in Othello:
He uses these different speech styles to create effects and reveal information about the characters
In drama, blank verse is traditionally assigned to characters of noble bearing and/or high status:
The iambic pentameter rhythm of blank verse also makes it appropriate for speeches about love: the iamb pattern replicates the sound of a heartbeat
Othello’s opening speeches in Act 1 Scene 2 and Act 1 Scene 3 make clear that Othello’s characteristic spoken style is a dignified, measured blank verse:
This is appropriate, given his important status in the play
His poetic spoken style also defies prevailing stereotypes of the time of black, animalistic savages
As Iago begins to poison Othello’s mind in Act 3 Scene 3, Iago and Othello begin to complete one another’s lines of iambic pentameter:
Moments of dialogue such as, “‘You would be satisfied’ / ‘Would! Nay, I will’”, reveal Iago’s growing influence over the Moor
Prose in Othello also reveals a great deal about various characters and Shakespeare often uses it to signal a character’s loss of emotional control:
Cassio speaks in prose when drunk in Act 2 Scene 2
Othello’s speaking style shifts from blank verse to prose in Act 4 Scene 1 as he becomes convinced of Desdemona’s infidelity
Iago switches between blank verse and prose more than any other character, indicating the ease with which he uses rhetoric to manipulate and deceive others
Exam Tip
To discuss language techniques, focus on how certain words and phrases reveal information about the characters. For example, when Desdemona asks Othello what “sin” she is supposed to have committed in Act 4 Scene 2, his exclamations and repetition give the impression that his anger and jealousy have left him barely able to express himself: “What committed! / Committed?”
Greek tragedy
In its form and structure, Othello follows some of the patterns of a classical Greek tragedy, particularly in its representation of Othello:
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined “tragedy” as a story in which the action moves towards catastrophe
It involves a sudden reversal of the hero’s fortunes from happiness to misery, culminating almost invariably in his death
Exam Tip
You might demonstrate your knowledge of the form of the text (drama) by focusing on stage directions, such as that at the very end of the play when Othello “falls on the bed and dies”. Shakespeare’s stage directions are rare, but that makes them all the more important: Shakespeare wants his audience to recognise the tragedy of Othello dying next to the wife he murdered. Is this moment a bittersweet reunion for the two, or a sad reminder of what Othello’s jealousy has cost him?
To discuss structure in the play, you might find it helpful to write about times when characters’ lines run into one another, as Othello’s and Iago’s do in Act 3 Scene 3. Exchanges such as “‘You would be satisfied’ / ‘Would! Nay, I will’” demonstrate Iago’s growing influence on Othello by having the pair complete each other’s iambic pentameter verse. You might also comment on the use of any particularly long (or short) scenes. For example, this scene is by far the longest in the play and Shakespeare uses its length to draw out Iago’s torture of Othello. The longer the scene continues, the more the audience sympathise with the Moor. It is also the turning point of the entire play: the point at which Othello falls under Iago’s spell, and begins his tragic downfall.
A tragic hero, according to Aristotle, is neither pre-eminently virtuous nor completely evil: the reversal of his fortune is brought about by some tragic “flaw” in his character or “error of judgement”:
His (and classical tragic heroes were always a “he”) nature and social position leads audiences to identify with his plight
The hero is ultimately brought to some measure of self-knowledge: often on the very brink of death he will see his situation as it really is
The play finally arouses in an audience pathos en route to a feeling of catharsis
Othello, the play’s protagonist, is therefore modelled after the tragic hero archetype, and possesses all of the required characteristics:
Hamartia: a flaw or error in judgement (Othello’s trust in Iago)
Peripeteia: a reversal of fortune brought about because of the hero’s error in judgement (Othello’s descent into madness beginning in Act 3 Scene 3)
Anagnorisis: the discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero’s own actions (demonstrated in Othello’s final speech in Act 5 Scene 2)
Hubris: excessive pride (demonstrated in several ways, including his elopement with Desdemona, his defence of the marriage and his insistence on how he is to be remembered in his final speech)
Shakespeare’s Jacobean audience would have been well acquainted with the tragic genre and the character type of the tragic hero:
This means that the audience watching Othello in 1604 would likely have expected the play to conform to the conventions of tragedy
At important moments in the play, this leads to foreshadowing and dramatic irony:
In Act 1 Scene 3, Othello proclaims his trust in Desdemona’s chastity: “My life upon her faith!”
Shakespeare’s audience would have recognised the irony of a tragic hero swearing on his life
This line tells the story of the tragedy in microcosm: Othello’s forfeits his life on the issue of Desdemona’s faith
Exam Tip
There are clear moments where Shakespeare creates dramatic irony by presenting events in a certain order (such as the sequence in which the handkerchief is stolen, thought lost and then witnessed in Bianca’s hands) or by having certain characters (often Iago) speak in soliloquys. However, the technique also applies to tragedy as a form of theatre as a whole. As audience members knew tragic conventions well, they would, for example, understand that the tragic hero is destined to die from the very start of the play.
Where possible, show the examiner that you understand that the audience would sometimes feel satisfaction, amusement, pathos and catharsis at various points in the play. Think about how Shakespeare shows awareness of his audience’s expectations, and occasionally capitalises on them for dramatic effect.
Sources:
Shakespeare, William (1975). Othello. Oxford: Clarendon Press
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