Othello general overview notes

Context notes- Lenny Henry: finding Shakespeare

• father local glove maker- went to grammar school- father ran out of money- taken out of school- London
• was an outsider- most have uni degrees (he didn't have one)
• unusual for him to become a playwrite
• low education "gave voice to the common man

Stage craft- theatrical context

• the higher up in the globe you go= more expensive
• social higherachy
• Shakespeare's audience= varied, everyone from society in the same place at the same time
• staging is interactive- written for audience close to actors

Major themes 

• betrayal
• deception
• death/murder
• state conflict
• appearence vs reality
• jelousy
• power/corruption
• loyalty

Concepts

• racisim
• misogny
• sexism
• bigotry

Relationships between individuals and society

• military order
• duty
• loyalty
• reputation/status
• pride

Shakespearean context

• Shakespeare straddles Elizabethan + Jacobean eras- mostly Jacobean
• population increase from 50,000 to 200,000
• QE issued edicts odering expulsion of groups of black men- 1596
• world shakespeare creates shows complexities of multiculturalisim
• Fashionable to set plays in Italy

Venice context

• Venice= racial + religious melting pot
• rich + powerful- new capitalisim
• reputation for "vices and unbridled passions"
• amoral political theorist, machiavelli = Iago inspo
• Cyprus= sight of conflict- "less secure"- Turks attacked in 1570

Expectations- Othello

• gender politics/perception of women "Delicate creatures"
• deception/appearence "I am not what I am"
• women as manipulators
• violence of murder/obsession
• link between love + violence

Characters

• Bianca- a courtisan/sex worker in Cyprus
• Rderigo- a jelous suitor of Desdemona
• Brbantio- Desdeomona's father, a venetian senator
• Iago- Othello's ensign (bearer of the flag/standard, a military rank)
• Othello- the play's protagonist, a christian black person (moor) and general of the armies of Venice
• Desdemona- the daughter of the Venetian senator Brbantio and Othello's wife
• Emelia- Iago's wife and Desdemona's attendant
• Cassio- Othello's Leiutenant

Film notes

Emelia 

• "No, I will speak…