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Contents
Contents
Conflict in Literature
Introduction
38
Part 2 Othello
47
Introduction
48
49
Shakespeares Othello
58
66
Act I
66
Act II
76
80
83
88
Desdemonas submissiveness
96
Act V
97
105
111
choice of approach
Conflict in Literature
The second module you will be studying is called Conflict in Literature. In
this module you will examine how literary texts can be structured around a
central conflict or a series of conflicts. Often the conflict is between two
characters, or between a character or characters and a particular situation, or
else the conflict might be internalised within the protagonist (main
character).
The texts which are set for study for your assignments are:
You will study the two texts in relation to their particular personal, social,
historical, cultural and literary contexts, and you will identify how these
contexts have influenced the composers of the texts and the language forms
and features which they have used in the texts. You will analyse the
meanings of the texts within their specific contexts and evaluate their
effectiveness and significance, both then and now.
Prescribed texts
Ambrose Bierces short story has been printed in this learning resource.
However, you will need to locate a copy of Shakespeares play.
There are several film versions of Othello available. You might like to view
the 1995 film directed by Oliver Parker and starring Laurence Fishburne as
Othello and Kenneth Branagh as Iago, or any other version.
Othello (1995) directed by Oliver
Parker Columbia Pictures
The film can also be downloaded from iTunes or other online movie stores.
Learning Journal
As you are studying this elective you should keep making notes in your
Learning Journal. You should:
reflect on your own ideas and the texts you have composed, the texts
you are studying and the opinions of other people
Include copies of relevant sections and quotes from your texts and related
material in your journal.
The notes and reflections in your Learning Journal will assist you in
completing your assignments.
Introduction
In this part of the elective you will read a short story written by Ambrose
Bierce, a 19th Century American short story writer and satirist. Bierces
story is called A Horseman in the Sky. It describes a difficult choice faced
by its hero, a young soldier named Carter Druse, during the early days of the
American Civil War.
In studying this part, you will learn about:
Learning Journal
Have you ever had a difficult decision to make? What were the
circumstances or situation that forced you into this position? What were the
consequences of the choice you made?
Write your thoughts and reflections in your Learning Journal.
Civil war broke out in the United States of America in March 1861. The war
between the southern and northern states lasted four years, cost more than
620,000 lives and left destruction everywhere. If you study history, you may
have learned about this war. If not, you must be wondering why a country
like the United States fought such a destructive war.
10
America in this period was still extending its territories westwards. These were the
territories depicted in cowboy and Indian movies. One such new territory was
modern-day Texas. It had been won from Mexico in the Mexican War. The main
settlements of the period were, however, along the Eastern seaboard. It was these
states which would soon become embroiled in civil war. This was because, although
the northern and southern states of the country were interdependent, they were very
different.
The North
The North was more densely settled than the South with a population of about 18
million people. The countryside was hilly and rocky with dense forests. This meant
that the farms tended to be small. Because most of the population lived on the coast,
many made their livelihood as seamen, fishermen, shipbuilders and merchants. The
North became rapidly industrialised in this period and manufactured goods for
export to the South and to Europe. It soon owned four-fifths of the countrys
factories where the huge numbers of migrants flooding into the country worked.
The South
The South, by contrast, was mainly rural. Its cities were small and there were few
towns. The South was known for its plantations which tended to grow single crops
such as tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton. These plantations were large and depended
on African slaves to work them. The cotton was in particular demand in the textile
factories being set up in England and in the North. The South supplied seven-eighths
of the worlds cotton by the 1850s. The lifestyle and cultural values that the
Southerners lived by were very different from those of the Northerners.
Growing differences
The South became increasingly resentful at what it saw as the disadvantages it
suffered as a consequence of these differences. One such disadvantage was the
introduction of tariffs to protect manufactured goods. This may have helped the
North but prices went up in the South. Even today, people argue how much
protection should be given to farmers and manufacturers.
Americans of this period were very interested in politics and were strongly partisan,
supporting their causes with passion. Because the earliest settlers had fled
persecution in Europe, Americans were fervent supporters of democratic ideals. This
led to a growing number, especially in the North, questioning the moral rightness of
slavery. The intense debates in Congress about whether new states, as they joined
the Union, should be slave states, exacerbated the differences that were already
festering. This was despite the fact that not all the states who chose to stay in the
Union were slave free. The issue was as much about state rights versus the Union as
about slaves.
The slavery issue was important, however, as the South was very dependent on slave
labour as it expanded its plantations. Slaves made up one-third of the nine million
people who lived in these states. The South believed that if slavery were abolished,
its economy would collapse.
The outbreak of war
On 19 December 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. On 4 March 1861,
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as president of the United States. He was
unacceptable to many in the South. He had promised to introduce high tariffs on
imports to protect manufacturers. He also intended to pass legislation that would
prevent slavery being extended to new areas of the country. On his election, several
other southern states followed South Carolinas example. Lincoln was determined
11
not to fire the first shots in any war but he also made it clear that he would not
accept the United States being broken up into separate countries. When the South
attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, at that time held by Union troops, civil war
had officially begun.
Below is a map that shows which states supported the Union (and opposed the
break-up of the United States), and which states supported the Southern secession.
How were the North and South different from each other?
Use your own paper for this activity. You should practise handwriting your
responses to prepare for the HSC exams. Write approximately 100-125
words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
12
13
What does this extract tell you about the attitude of the Southerners
to the war?
What did you learn about their preparedness for the war?
flyer calling for recruits West Point Museum Collection, United States Military Academy
14
Extract 2
The heroine of the novel, Scarlett OHara, has learned some distressing news. She
wants to talk to her father, Gerald, alone.
It was time for Geralds return and, if she expected to see him alone, there was
nothing for her to do except meet him where the driveway entered the road. She
went quietly down the front steps, looking carefully over her shoulder to make sure
Mammy was not observing her from the upstairs windows. Seeing no broad black
face, turbaned in snowy white, peering disapprovingly from between fluttering
curtains, she boldly snatched up her green flowered skirts and sped toward the
driveway as fast as her small ribbon-laced slippers would carry her.
The dark cedars on either side of the gravelled drive met in an arch overhead,
turning the long avenue into a dim tunnel. As soon as she was beneath the gnarled
arms of the cedars, she knew she was safe from observation from the house and she
slowed her swift pace. She was panting, for her stays were laced too tightly to permit
much running, but she walked as rapidly as she could.
(Gone with the Wind, p. 27)
Extract 3
Scarlett is at a large social gathering at a wealthy neighbours home.
When the last forkful of pork and chicken and mutton had been eaten, Scarlett hoped
the time had come when India would rise and suggest that the ladies retire to the
house. It was two oclock and the sun was warm overhead, but India, wearied with
the three-day preparations for the barbecue, was only too glad to remain sitting
beneath the arbour, shouting remarks to a deaf old gentleman from Fayetteville.
A lazy somnolence descended on the crowd. The Negroes idled about, clearing the
long tables on which the food had been laid. The laughter and talking became less
animated and groups here and there fell silent. All were waiting for their hostess to
signal the end of the morning festivities. Palmetto fans were wagging more slowly,
and several old gentlemen were nodding from the heat and overloaded stomachs.
(Gone with the Wind, p. 108)
What did you learn about the way of life of the Southern plantation
owners and their families?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 300-350 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
15
West Virginia
The story you are now going to read is set in the state of Virginia in the first
year of the war. It takes place in the mountainous countryside of the Cheat
River area near Grafton. The western part of Virginia was especially
vulnerable during the war. The Union (or Northern) capital, Washington,
and the Confederate (or Southern) capital, Richmond, were only a hundred
and sixty kilometres apart, with western Virginia between the two cities.
Seven of the twelve fiercest battles of the American Civil War were fought
in Virginia. Look at the map of the United States again and find the state of
Virginia. Note that the state of West Virginia was created in 1863, during
the war.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac
Rivers July 1865 James Gardner
Virginia, at the outbreak of war, joined the Confederates. Those who lived
in the western part of the state were hostile to those who lived on the coast,
however, and, when the Union troops defeated the Confederates in western
Virginia early in the war, the West Virginians organised their own state and
joined the Union.
As you will see in the story, the officers and their men were very
inexperienced just like the Southern conscripts in the extract from Gone
with the Wind. As a result of this inexperience, neither side was adequately
prepared at the beginning of the war, nor understood what would be
involved in the savage fighting that lay ahead.
The regular army of the North, for example, consisted of no more than
16,000 men. The President had to rely on volunteers joining the fight in
large numbers. In 1861 there were, however, insufficient officers, uniforms
and weapons for these volunteers. Nearly a third of the Northern armys
16
officers had resigned to join the South. The state militias which joined up
had never received combat training. Most of the regiments learned how to
fight while they were in the civil war itself.
The reality of war came as a tremendous shock. The inexperienced officers
found it difficult to keep discipline. One story tells of soldiers stopping to
help the casualties instead of continuing fighting. Another story tells of a
group of Confederates who broke rank in the middle of a charge to go
picking blackberries. Many soldiers collapsed because their thick woollen
uniforms and heavy gear were too much in the summer heat.
Despite these problems, the population at large had a romanticised view of
war. As regiments left for battle, they were farewelled by large, cheering
crowds, parades, bands and flag waving. People were idealistic and saw the
soldiers as romantic heroes. One father refused his daughters hand in
marriage to her suitor because he had not enlisted.
A Southern soldier wrote home: I am absent in a glorious cause and glory
in being in that cause. One young soldier who gained popular fame with the
Northerners was Johnny Clem who ran away from home to enlist at the age
of ten. He gained the nickname of the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga and
was promoted to sergeant after he shot a Confederate colonel who had
demanded his surrender with a musket which had been trimmed down to
suit his size.
The orientation
On the following page is the opening section of A Horseman in the Sky. In
the exposition or orientation (i.e., the storys introduction), the author
familiarises the reader with aspects of the storys context and setting.
As you read, you will notice that the beginning of the story is written using a
matter-of-fact tone. Bierces narrator (the character or observer recounting
the story) describes the setting in some detail. Bierce knew the area well
because he had fought in Virginia early in the war. In fact, he had
distinguished himself by rescuing a comrade under fire. He also had a keen
eye for detail. Because of his skill, he was made a topographical officer by
his commanding officer, General William Babcock Hazen, in 1863. His job
was to reconnoitre (i.e., make a survey of) the battlefield alone prior to the
battle and make maps of the area. It was a very dangerous job.
In this section, Bierce answers the questions who, where, when and what.
He also introduces a complication or problem. When you read the
orientation and first complication of a story carefully, you can also make
some predictions about how the story will unfold.
diagram showing the structure
of a narrative
17
18
What have you learned from the opening paragraphs of the story? In your
answer, address the following questions:
Who is introduced?
What is happening?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 400-450 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Making predictions
It is often written that, in a short story, there should be no superfluous
details. Anton Chekhov, the Russian writer who helped pioneer the modern
short story, described as follows: If you describe a gun hanging on the wall
on page one, sooner or later that gun must go off.
Edgar Allan Poe, an early and influential American poet and short story
writer, known for his Tales of Mystery and Imagination, explained that in the
whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency,
direct or indirect, is not to one pre-established design. In other words, short
story writers include all of the details in their orientation for a reason.
What do you think will happen next in Ambrose Bierces story?
In making your predictions, you should consider all of the details that Bierce
has included in the storys orientation. Ask yourself the following questions:
Why does the author describes the scene in such detail? For example, why does
he say that the soldier is behind a laurel bush? Does it matter that, from his
vantage point, he has a clear view of his surroundings? Is it relevant that it is a
sunny day? Why does he mention the second protruding rock? Why does he
write that the road is hidden in the trees? Why does he note that it is a sheer
drop to the bottom of the cliff? Why does he mention that an open meadow is
visible from the summit? Why does he make reference to the stream?
Consider also why he includes details such as:
the fact that the soldiers had been marching for a day and night
that the regiments were camped in the meadow at the northern end of
the valley
19
that the enemy army was camped on the other side of the ridge
that the sentry was asleep and that the punishment for falling asleep
was death.
Learning Journal
Write your predictions about what will happen in the story in your Learning
Journal.
When you have finished reading the story, you will be able to review your
predictions and see why such details were included in the orientation by the
author, and how they were used. The more able you are to note the details
given in the opening of a story, the more insight you will gain into its meaning.
Definitions
It is now time to read Ambrose Bierces story A Horseman in the Sky.
Definitions of some of the uncommon words from the story are provided
below. You should keep a dictionary handy to check the meanings of any
other words that are unfamiliar to you.
acclivity
accoutrements
Apocalypse
apprise
cameo
caparison
carbine
configuration
inclosing
laurel
leonine
obliquely
pommel
salient
sinuous
swooning
verge
vigilance
whence
whither
20
21
midnight. Their hope was to surprise it, for the road led to the rear of it. In case of
failure, their position would be perilous in the extreme; and fail they surely would
should accident or vigilance apprise the enemy of the movement.
II
The sleeping sentinel in the clump of laurel was a young Virginian named Carter
Druse. He was the son of wealthy parents, an only child, and had known such
ease and cultivation and high living as wealth and taste were able to command in
the mountain country of western Virginia. His home was but a few miles from
where he now lay. One morning he had risen from the breakfast-table and said,
quietly but gravely: Father, a Union regiment has arrived at Grafton. I am going
to join it.
The father lifted his leonine head, looked at the son a moment in silence, and
replied: Well, go, sir, and whatever may occur do what you conceive to be your
duty. Virginia, to which you are a traitor, must get on without you. Should we
both live to the end of the war, we will speak further of the matter. Your mother,
as the physician has informed you, is in a most critical condition; at the best she
cannot be with us longer than a few weeks, but that time is precious. It would be
better not to disturb her.
So Carter Druse, bowing reverently to his father, who returned the salute with a
stately courtesy that masked a breaking heart, left the home of his childhood to go
soldiering. By conscience and courage, by deeds of devotion and daring, he soon
commended himself to his fellows and his officers; and it was to these qualities
and to some knowledge of the country that he owed his selection for his present
perilous duty at the extreme outpost. Nevertheless, fatigue had been stronger than
resolution and he had fallen asleep. What good or bad angel came in a dream to
rouse him from his state of crime, who shall say? Without a movement, without a
sound, in the profound silence and the languor of the late afternoon, some
invisible messenger of fate touched with unsealing finger the eyes of his
consciousness whispering into the ear of his spirit the mysterious awakening
word which no human lips ever have spoken, no human memory ever has
recalled. He quietly raised his forehead from his arm and looked between the
masking stems of the laurels, instinctively closing his right hand about the stock
of his rifle.
His first feeling was a keen artistic delight. On a colossal pedestal, the cliff,
motionless at the extreme edge of the capping rock and sharply outlined against
the sky, was an equestrian statue of impressive dignity. The figure of the man
sat the figure of the horse, straight and soldierly, but with the repose of a Grecian
god carved in the marble which limits the suggestion of activity. The gray
costume harmonized with its aerial background; the metal of accoutrement and
caparison was softened and subdued by the shadow; the animals skin had no
points of high light. A carbine strikingly foreshortened lay across the pommel of
the saddle, kept in place by the right hand grasping it at the grip; the left hand,
holding the bridle rein, was invisible. In silhouette against the sky the profile of
the horse was cut with the sharpness of a cameo; it looked across the heights of
air to the confronting cliffs beyond. The face of the rider, turned slightly away,
showed only an outline of temple and beard; he was looking downward to the
bottom of the valley. Magnified by its lift against the sky and by the soldiers
testifying sense of the formidableness of a near enemy the group appeared of
heroic, almost colossal, size.
For an instant Druse had a strange, half-defined feeling that he had slept to the
end of the war and was looking upon a noble work of art reared upon that
eminence to commemorate the deeds of an heroic past of which he had been an
22
inglorious part. The feeling was dispelled by a slight movement of the group: the
horse, without moving its feet, had drawn its body slightly backward from the
verge; the man remained immobile as before. Broad awake and keenly alive to
the significance of the situation, Druse now brought the butt of his rifle against
his cheek by cautiously pushing the barrel forward through the bushes, cocked the
piece, and glancing through the sights covered a vital spot of the horsemans
breast. A touch upon the trigger and all would have been well with Carter Druse.
At that instant the horseman turned his head and looked in the direction of his
concealed foeman seemed to look into his very face, into his eyes, into his
brave, compassionate heart.
Is it then so terrible to kill an enemy in war an enemy who has surprised a
secret vital to the safety of ones self and comrades an enemy more formidable
for his knowledge than all his army for its numbers? Carter Druse grew pale; he
shook in every limb, turned faint, and saw the statuesque group before him as
black figures, rising, falling, moving unsteadily in arcs of circles in a fiery sky.
His hand fell away from his weapon, his head slowly dropped until his face rested
on the leaves in which he lay. This courageous gentleman and hardy soldier was
near swooning from intensity of emotion.
It was not for long; in another moment his face was raised from earth, his hand
resumed their places on the rifle, his forefinger sought the trigger; mind, heart,
and eyes were clear, conscience and reason sound. He could not hope to capture
that enemy; to alarm him would but send him dashing to his camp with his fatal
news. The duty of the soldier was plain: the man must be shot dead from ambush
without warning, without a moments spiritual preparation, with never so much
as an unspoken prayer, he must be sent to his account. But no there is a hope;
he may have discovered nothing perhaps he is but admiring the sublimity of the
landscape. If permitted, he may tum and ride carelessly away in the direction
whence he came. Surely it will be possible to judge at the instant of his
withdrawing whether he knows. It may well be that his fixity of attention Druse
turned his head and looked through the deeps of air downward, as from the
surface to the bottom of a translucent sea. He saw creeping across the green
meadow a sinuous line of figures of men and horses some foolish commander
was permitting the soldiers of his escort to water their beasts in the open, in plain
view from a dozen summits!
Druse withdrew his eyes from the valley and fixed them again upon the group of
man and horse in the sky, and again it was through the sights of his rifle. But this
time his aim was at the horse. In his memory, as if they were a divine mandate,
rang the words of his father at their parting: Whatever may occur, do what you
conceive to be your duty. He was calm now. His teeth were firmly but not rigidly
closed; his nerves were as tranquil as a sleeping babes not a tremor affected
any muscle of his body; his breathing, until suspended in the act of taking aim,
was regular and slow. Duty had conquered; the spirit had said to the body:
Peace, be still. He fired.
III
An officer of the Federal force, who in a spirit of adventure or in quest of
knowledge had left the hidden bivouac in the valley, and with aimless feet had
made his way to the lower edge of a small open space near the foot of the cliff,
was considering what he had to gain by pushing his exploration further. At a
distance of a quarter-mile before him, but apparently at a stones throw, rose from
its fringe of pines the gigantic face of rock, towering to so great a height above
him that it made him giddy to look up to where its edge cut a sharp, rugged line
against the sky. It presented a clean, vertical profile against a background of blue
23
sky to a point half the way down, and of distant hills, hardly less blue, thence to
the tops of the trees at its base. Lifting his eyes to the dizzy altitude of its summit
the officer saw an astonishing sight - a man on horseback riding down into the
valley through the air!
Straight upright sat the rider, in military fashion, with a firm seat in the saddle, a
strong clutch upon the rein to hold his charger from too impetuous a plunge.
From his bare head his long hair streamed upward, waving like a plume. His
hands were concealed in the cloud of the horses lifted mane. The animals body
was as level as if every hoof-stroke encountered the resistant earth. Its motions
were those of a wild gallop, but even as the officer looked they ceased, with all
the legs thrown sharply forward as in the act of alighting from a leap. But this
was a flight!
Filled with amazement and terror by this apparition of a horseman in the sky
half believing himself the chosen scribe of some new Apocalypse, the officer was
overcome by the intensity of his emotions; his legs failed him and he fell. Almost
at the same instant he heard a crashing sound in the trees a sound that died
without an echo and all was still.
The officer rose to his feet, trembling. The familiar sensation of an abraded shin
recalled his dazed faculties. Pulling himself together he ran rapidly obliquely
away from the cliff to a point distant from its foot; thereabout he expected to find
his man; and thereabout he naturally failed. In the fleeting instant of his vision his
imagination had been so wrought upon by the apparent grace and ease and
intention of the marvellous performance that it did not occur to him that the line
of march of aerial cavalry is directly downward, and that he could find the objects
of his search at the very foot of the cliff. A half-hour later he returned to camp.
This officer was a wise man; he knew better than to tell an incredible truth. He
said nothing of what he had seen. But when the commander asked him if in his
scout he had learned anything of advantage to the expedition he answered:
Yes, sir; there is no road leading down into this valley from the southward.
The commander, knowing better, smiled.
IV
After firing his shot, Private Carter Druse reloaded his rifle and resumed his
watch. Ten minutes had hardly passed when a Federal sergeant crept cautiously to
him on hands and knees. Druse neither turned his head nor looked at him, but lay
without motion or sign of recognition.
Did you fire? the sergeant whispered.
Yes.
At what?
A horse. It was standing on yonder rock pretty far out. You see it is no longer
there. It went over the cliff.
The mans face was white, but he showed no other sign of emotion. Having
answered, he turned away his eyes and said no more. The sergeant did not
understand.
See here, Druse, he said, after a moments silence, its no use making a
mystery. I order you to report. Was there anybody on the horse?
Yes.
Well?
My father.
The sergeant rose to his feet and walked away. Good God! he said.
24
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 100-150 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your summary with the one
provided in the Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
characters
plot
themes
use of setting
the link between the details given in the orientation and their use in
the unfolding of the plot and in the preparation of the reader for the
resolution or conclusion
or a combination of these.
Remember that, as a reader, you bring your own experiences and viewpoint
to the meaning of the story. You may comment on how your own
25
experiences and opinions affected how you responded to and interpreted the
characters, relationships and events described in the story. For example, you
might be affected by the nature of your own relationship with your father. If
you have no father, this may also affect how you read the story. What are
your feelings about war? Did this affect your response in any way?
However you respond, remember that you are not retelling the story. You
only refer to the text in order to support or clarify your:
ideas
opinions
feelings.
>. In the
>. I enjoyed /
>. It was
interesting to see how the author prepared the reader for the storys
climax by <
Personal response 1
I enjoyed the way Margaret Mitchell captures the laziness of a warm
afternoon after a large meal. The scene reminded me of Christmas
Day after we have eaten the traditional huge feast at lunch. Mitchell
emphasises how large the banquet is by listing the meats the guests
have eaten pork, chicken and mutton and by mentioning that India
has spent three days preparing the meal. I immediately imagined long
tables laden with food.
Mitchell captures the warmth of the afternoon in a number of ways.
She notes that it is two oclock on a sunny afternoon. She describes
the guests slowly becoming drowsier as the food and heat overcome
them. The laughter and talk subside, the fans move more slowly and
some of the old men fall asleep. The phrase lazy somnolence and the
verb idled which are used to describe the Negroes clearing the
table add to the sense of laziness and sleepiness.
26
Personal response 2
Extract 3 really captures for me the inequality of Southern society in
the late 19th Century. You can see how wealthy the hostess and
presumably her guests are. The guests have three meats to choose
from and the meal took three days to prepare. Negroes, who are no
doubt slaves, clear up after them while they laze around in the warm
afternoon.
The women are also treated as inferior to the men. It would appear
that the ladies will move indoors while the men stay outside in the
shade of the arbour. India seems to have been fully responsible for
seeing to the preparation of the feast. This suggests that domestic
chores are the womans responsibility. I must admit I would not like
to be a woman in those days.
Learning Journal
It is now time to write or record a personal response to the short story A
Horseman in the Sky by Ambrose Bierce.
In your response, explore your ideas, opinions and feelings about the story.
Support your ideas, opinions and feelings by using examples and, if
necessary, quotes from the story. However, remember that you should not
summarise the story.
27
What do you learn about the relationship between Druse and his
father?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 400-450 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
28
What are the qualities that Druse exhibits as a soldier? How does
Bierce highlight those qualities by the way he describes them?
Bierce mentions twice that the sentry is standing duty near his
childhood home. Why is this important in the story?
How does Bierce arouse the readers sympathy for Carter Druse?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 250-300 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
29
He was asleep at his post of duty. But if detected he would be dead shortly
afterward, death being the just and legal penalty of his crime.
The narrator gives no opinion about the right or wrong of the matter, he
merely reports what the official penalty would be.
However, at some moments in the story, the narrator does insert a comment
or opinion about what is happening. For example, in the first section the
narrator observes that No country is so wild and difficult but men will
make it a theatre of war. There is an element of cynicism in this statement
which reflects Ambrose Bierces critical attitude towards war and the men
who instigate them.
In the second section, as the story reaches its climax, the narration changes
and directly engages Druses thoughts, as if Druse is speaking his thoughts
out loud. In this way, the story is able to emphasise the inner conflict and
emotional turmoil that Carter Druse is experiencing as he decides whether
or not to shoot his father. Because the author gives the reader an insight into
Druses actual thoughts and reactions, we know how much effort it took him
to recognise that he had no choice. As a point of honour, he had to do his
duty as a soldier. The lives of the troops depended on him.
Just as the reader is presented with different views and perspectives
regarding Carter Druse, we observe Druses father and his death from
different vantage points also.
Examples / quotes
gentlemanly
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31
colossal. The horse in profile appears to look out across a sky described as
heights of air. The soldier and his horse viewed together are described
with the adjectives heroic and colossal and the verb magnified.
Now reread the scene where the officer sees the horseman and his horse
falling to their deaths. Notice how this scene also bestows on Druses father
heroic stature.
Straight upright sat the rider, in military fashion, with a firm seat in the
saddle, a strong clutch upon the rein to hold his charger from too impetuous
a plunge. From his bare head his long hair streamed upward, waving like a
plume. His hands were concealed in the cloud of the horses lifted mane. The
animals body was as level as if every hoof-stroke encountered the resistant
earth. Its motions were those of a wild gallop, but even as the officer looked
they ceased, with all the legs thrown sharply forward as in the act of
alighting from a leap. But this was a flight!
Filled with amazement and terror by this apparition of a horseman in the sky
half believing himself the chosen scribe of some new Apocalypse, the
officer was overcome by the intensity of his emotions; his legs failed him
and he fell. Almost at the same instant he heard a crashing sound in the trees
a sound that died without an echo and all was still.
On the lines below, describe how Bierce uses language to convey a sense of
the horsemans heroic stature in this passage.
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 250-300 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
The reality
What, in fact, is the reality?
Far from being an ancient Greek statue or an Apocalyptic apparition, the
horseman is an enemy soldier and Druses father. The young sentry is faced
with a terrible moral dilemma. He must choose to murder his father or
betray his fellow soldiers. Despite the officers illusion, when Druse shoots
the horse, it and its rider plunge to their deaths at the bottom of the cliff.
Recall Druses first intuition when he wakes to see the horse and rider:
For an instant Druse had a strange, half-defined feeling that he had slept to
the end of the war and was looking upon a noble work of art reared upon that
eminence to commemorate the deeds of an heroic past of which he had been
an inglorious part.
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Bierces purpose is to show the terrible futility and waste of war. The
juxtaposition of these half-defined and fleeting images of heroism with
the reality of Carter Druses awful decision serves to emphasise this
message.
33
Notice how the first sentence of A Horseman in the Sky similarly puts the
reader directly into the action. Remember, also, how much impact there is in
the final spare dialogue of the story when you learn who the horseman is.
This contrasts markedly with the wordiness of many of Bierces
contemporaries.
Secondly, these stories are also forerunners of the 20th Century
psychological short story. In exploring the psychology of the individual at a
sudden point of crisis in his life, Bierce was far ahead of the writers of his
day.
As a soldier, he had confronted the darker side of human experience:
anguish, despair and death. He learned that, at the moment of crisis, human
beings stand alone and must rely on themselves. As they struggle to deal
with their moment of anguish, not only is their personality revealed but also
their character. It is at these moments that they face their innermost being
and learn who they truly are and what it means to be alive. In A Horseman
in the Sky, Carter Druse faces his personal crisis.
Those few minutes change Druse irrevocably and reveal to him the values
he holds and the nature of his inner character.
34
The author does not reveal the identity of the horseman at this point
of the story. He nevertheless prepares the reader for the ending. How
does the narrator prepare the reader for the choice that Druse must
make?
Even without knowing the identity of the horseman, you learn what a
terrible choice it is that Druse has to make. What makes the act so
terrible?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 800-1000 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
35
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 200-250 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
wounded soldiers being tended in the field after the Battle of Chancellorsville
near Fredericksburg, Virginia, 2 May 1863 taken from
Pictures of Civil War, Library of Congress
36
Cornelian dilemma
In literature, a no-win situation is sometimes called a Cornelian dilemma
(choix cornlien). It refers to a situation where a composer places a
character into a predicament where he or she must make a choice between
two courses of action either of which will produce a negative outcome. This
decision typically involves the protagonist experiencing an inner conflict
which forces him to choose between love or friendship on the one hand, and
honour or duty on the other.
The Cornelian dilemma is named after the French playwright Pierre
Corneille. In Corneilles play Le Cid (1636), based on the legend of the
medieval Castilian warrior El Cid, the protagonist, Rodrigue, is torn
between two desires: that of being worthy of his girlfriend Chimnes love
and that of avenging his father, who has been wronged by Chimnes father.
Rodrigue can either seek revenge and lose the love of his beloved, or
renounce revenge and lose his honour.
Learning Journal
What was Ambrose Bierces purpose in writing the short story A Horseman
in the Sky? In what ways has he constructed a Cornelian dilemma or nowin situation for his protagonist? What is Bierces attitude to war?
Write your thoughts and reflections in your Learning Journal.
Assignment 4
Now turn to your Assessment Guide and complete Assignment 4 Task 1.
Then return to this learning resource to continue studying the elective.
37
If you had any problems working through Part 1 please call the English
section at OTEN on (02) 9715 8617 or 1300 369 598. Write down your
difficulties in your Learning Journal before you contact your teacher.
The North was more heavily populated than the South and had been
industrialised. As a result of industrialisation, the number of
factories grew, leading to the urbanisation of the population. The
South, by contrast, was mainly rural and, because of its smaller
population, depended on slaves to work on its large plantations.
The recruits appear to treat the war as some sort of social event.
They can barely wait for it to start and they are more concerned
about what their troop will be named and what their uniforms will
look like than the prospect of fighting on the battlefield. They are
obviously unprepared for the reality of the war.
The troop has only been formed three months previously and there
are few experienced officers. Some of the main criteria for picking a
leader appear to be the ability to ride a horse or the soldiers
popularity.
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guests also appear to be waiting for the hostess to signal the end of
the mornings activities.
4
Without excusing the soldier, the narrator does mention that the troops had
been marching for an entire day and night. This is a long time to march
continuously. Recall how the officers, early in the war, were very
inexperienced. Furthermore, it is a sunny afternoon and the warmth would
no doubt make it more difficult for the lone sentry to stay awake.
In this opening section, Bierce also introduces the reader to what is
happening. Five regiments of the Federal or Union army (in other words, the
army representing the Northern states and those who wish to prevent the
39
partition of the
country) are hidden in
the meadow below, as
they rest before
mounting an attack on
a nearby camp of
Confederate soldiers
(i.e., the Southern
army).
The complication in
this opening section is
that the sentry whose
a Union cavalry column on the march
job it is to protect the
regiments from discovery, or warn them of an imminent threat, is asleep,
thus exposing them to danger. [back]
The narrator explains that Carter Druse is the only son of wealthy
parents. He lives with his father and mother in the mountainous
region of western Virginia close to where the events described in the
first section of the story are taking place. Although he lives in a
country area he had led a life of ease, enjoying cultural pursuits and
a high standard of living.
40
their own home, even though you would expect more formality than
in a modem home where the father is usually less clearly head of the
household. This degree of formality is because of the news Druse
has given his father.
3
Druse is not the only one who knows the area well. His father does
too. If Druse lets him leave untouched he can not only reveal the
whereabouts of the enemy troops but he can also lead the
Confederates into the valley to ambush the Union troops.
At this point of the story the reader has become much more
sympathetic towards the main character. We have found out more
about Carters family background, and the difficulties of his present
duty have been emphasised. After reading Section 1, we know that
Druse has been forced to march for over thirty hours without rest
41
Examples / quotes
gentlemanly
proud
patriarchal
He tells Druse to do his duty even though the father does not
agree with his decision: Well, go, sir, and whatever may
occur do what you conceive to be your duty.
He does not show his grief to his son: He returns his sons
salute with a stately courtesy that masked a breaking heart.
courageous
patriotic
[back]
42
Heroic language
In Section 3 of the story, the scene shifts to the valley below where Carter
Druse is stationed. The narrator recounts the horsemans death through the
eyes of a Confederate officer who is exploring the valley. The officer
perceives the horseman and his horse in heroic terms, just as Carter Druse
had. It is as if the horse is Pegasus, the famous flying horse of Greek legend,
and, indeed, the officer imagines himself to be receiving a vision or
revelation from God similar to that seen by St John of Patmos describing the
end of the world, recounted in the Bibles Book of Revelations.
To the officer, the horseman appears to be in command of his steed as he
falls from the top of the perpendicular cliff. When his son first saw him
paused on the protruding rock, the elder Druse sat erect in the saddle.
Even as he falls to certain death, he is still sitting straight on his horse in
military fashion, holding the rein firmly to guide the horse. The horse is
described as if it is actively galloping through the sky. Its body remains
level and its hooves appear to be resisting the air. Even as the horse sees the
ground approach, the officer sees its feet throw forward as if it is
consciously alighting.
The rider is portrayed in almost Biblical terms, like the men in religious
paintings of earlier centuries. Bierce describes his loose hair as streaming
behind him. He compares the flying hair to a plume, a large ornamental
feather or bunch of feathers traditionally attached to helmets. [back]
From the moment that Druse wakes and sees the horseman, time
seems to slow down. It is in this way that the storys timeframe
reflects psychological time. People experience time speeding up
when they are totally involved in an activity. In situations of duress,
such as in an accident, time seems to slow down dramatically as
each moment impacted on the individuals mind.
As Druse looks at the face of the enemy, the narrator increases the
tension by building the sentence to a climax. Using the rhetorical
technique of anaphora, each phrase repeats the pattern of the
preceding phrase, the last phrase being longer than the others. The
horseman seemed to look into his very face, into his eyes, into his
brave, compassionate heart.
43
prevent the reader seeing the young man as a coward, the narrator
uses a series of adjectives that reiterates Druses qualities as both a
person and a soldier; the young man is brave, compassionate,
courageous, hardy.
The narrator then describes the young man recovering his senses. He
is direct and concise as he lists Druses actions and attitude:
in another moment his face was raised from earth, his hand
resumed their places on the rifle, his forefinger sought the trigger;
mind, heart, and eyes were clear, conscience and reason sound.
The reader does not realise the terrible irony of the moment until the
closing dialogue of the story. The author now lists the soldiers
44
45
honour and duty and the lives of his fellow soldiers over his love and respect
for his father.
The first version of the story is different from this version. In the first
version, the son is driven mad by the decision he has taken to kill his father.
In 1901, however, Ambrose Bierces sixteen year old son, Day, was killed
in a shooting match after an argument over a girl. Bierce learned you can
survive tragedy and stay sane. He changed the outcome of the story. [back]
46
Part 2 Othello
47
Introduction
In this part of the elective you will study William Shakespeares play
Othello. You will learn about the social and historical context of the play.
You will also consider the theatre of Shakespeares time and the language
used in his plays.
You will learn about:
how the context of the responder influences the ways texts are
perceived.
You will complete your study of the elective by analysing Ambrose Bierces
short story A Horseman in the Sky and William Shakespeares play
Othello within their particular social, historical and cultural contexts. You
will explore how the texts represent different values and attitudes by writing
an extended response essay in which you compare the way the themes of
loyalty and betrayal are represented in each text.
48
Learning Journal
Write down some examples of dramas that you have viewed or listened to
recently. For example, you might watch particular television shows, such as
soap operas or crime dramas, or you might have seen a movie or a play or
listened to a recording of a script.
What aspects of the performance appealed to you? For example, did you
enjoy the plot, the dialogue, the acting, the special effects, the scenery?
What elements are required to make a drama successful?
Write your thoughts and reflections in your Learning Journal.
The theatre
Theatre is the art of writing and performing plays. In order to produce a
play, both a theatre company (the people involved in the production) and a
theatre venue (the actual building and auditorium where the performance is
staged) are required. The word theatre derives from an ancient Greek term
meaning seeing place.
In Shakespeares time, public theatres were generally round or octagonal in
shape, and could hold approximately 800 spectators standing in the yard in
the open air around the stage and 1500 more seated in three roofed galleries.
The stage was elevated and jutted out from a wall into the centre of the yard.
It was partly roofed, and there would be two or more levels to represent
different scenes.
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50
51
are a few reasons for this. Remember that Shakespeare probably wrote
Othello in 1602 or 1603. That is over four hundred years ago. Language
changes with time.
As well as the unfamiliar vocabulary, two of the major differences in
Shakespeares dialogue are the longer sentences used and the fact that the
register of the language is much more formal than the language we use
nowadays.
Blank verse
Another reason that Shakespeares language seems different from modern
English is that his plays are written in a combination of blank verse and
prose. Plays and movie scripts today are almost always written in prose, the
form of language used when we speak conversationally.
Blank verse is unrhymed verse and employs the rhythm patterns of speech.
The standard metre used in blank verse is iambic pentameter. In other
words, each line consists of ten syllables to the line. These syllables are
arranged in five feet (or pairs of syllables). Each foot consists of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
The following line is an example of iambic pentameter. The strong stresses
are marked by a sloping straight line above the syllable. The unstressed
syllables are marked by the U or cup shape. Marking the metre or rhythm
pattern of a line in this way is called scansion.
U
U /
Note how the line begins with an unstressed syllable and is followed by a
stressed syllable. This pattern continues until the end of the line.
Notice how the spoken sentence sounds quite natural. Shakespeare used
blank verse in his plays to emulate the rhythms of everyday speech.
Although Shakespeare wants to capture the sound of ordinary speech, he
also wants to draw the audiences attention to the important words in the
line. To emphasise the key ideas, he places his words so these key ideas
carry the stress in the line. For example, in the line quoted above, he stresses
the contrast between fair and black, which is an important theme in the
play. In this instance, the Duke is reassuring Brabantio that Othello is fair
in virtue, even though his skin might be black.
Along with this, the regular rhythms and rhymes of verse make the lines
easier to remember.
52
Jane Lapotaire: It makes a pattern on the page which is easier for the mind to
retain than prose.
Lisa Harrow: Yes, it helps to give us our phrasing.
David Suchet: Its also full of acting hints if you know how to look for them.
Ian McKellen: And because the verse is a more economical way than prose
of saying something, its more likely to be concise and more particular and
exact. At the same time, because verse has a rhythm and a flow, its perhaps
more attractive to listen to and helps the actor to keep the audiences
attention.
taken from John Barton, Playing Shakespeare (1984), pp. 25-26
Notice how the two phrases in the first sentence are balanced, the rhythm of
the lines, and the effects of the rhetorical question and exclamations.
It is interesting to think about why Shakespeare sometimes chooses to use
prose or verse within a particular scene. Generally speaking, noble
characters speak in verse while commoners speak using prose. However,
this rule is sometimes varied for particular purposes.
One example of when Shakespeare uses prose and verse unexpectedly
occurs in Act IV of Othello. In the play, Othello, who is both a nobleman by
birth and a general, usually speaks in verse. Othello is also an idealist and a
romantic (i.e., someone who views life according to set ideals, often
unrealistically.) Othellos use of language which is very heightened conveys
these attributes.
By contrast, Iago is not of noble birth. He is cynical and speaks ironically
much of the time, and so generally he uses prose.
Learning Resource 6492EA Elective 2: Loyalty and Betrayal, Edition 3
State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Communities, January 2014
53
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 50-75 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
54
neither rhyme nor reason The Comedy of Errors (1594) and As You
Like It (1599) III ii 384
though this be madness, yet there is method int (i.e., method in his
madness) Hamlet (1601) II ii 207
the lady doth protest too much, methinks Hamlet (1601) III ii 219
the course of true love never did run smooth A Midsummer Nights
Dream (1594-5) I i 134
truth will come to light truth will out The Merchant of Venice
(1596-8) II ii 74
all that glisters is not gold The Merchant of Venice (1596-8) II vii
65
55
Quote
Meaning
My salad days,
When I was green in judgement, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.
Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7) I v 72
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
56
Dramatic structure
As well as the chronology of the action, plays are usually presented in a
certain format, with a particular number of acts and scenes. Usually the end
of an act indicates a break where the audience can get up and walk around.
Some plays, especially those of the first part of the 20th Century, have three
acts each consisting of one scene, and employ elaborate fixed scenery. Other
more modern plays have lots of scenes with little scenery, and with breaks
(or intermission) where the director decides.
Shakespeares plays had little scenery with lots of scenes but seem to have
been presented in a format of five acts. The acts sometimes vary slightly
according to the version of the text being used by the editor.
Critics and academics have identified a particular structure in the sequence
of a Shakespearean play, as follows:
Act I
The opening scenes of any play are important because they contain the
exposition or explanation of what the play is about. They also contain the
initial incident that will trigger off the action of the play.
rising action
Act III
Act IV
Act II
Act V
57
Shakespeares Othello
In Shakespeares Othello, you will read about a noble and admired warrior
whose overwhelming pride and jealousy leave him open to treachery and
eventually cause him to destroy all of the things that matter most in his life.
You will consider how he became so angry and jealous that it affected the
decisions he made.
The text of the play referred to here is the Cambridge edition, edited by Jane
Coles (Cambridge University Press, 1992). If you are using a different
edition of the play, you will find that most of the line references are within
one or two lines of the references given in this learning resource.
You can purchase CDs or download the recording of a recent stage
production of Othello from the Internet. The play was staged in London
from November 2007 to February 2008 and starred Chiwetel Ejiofor as
Othello (a performance which won him the Olivier Award as best actor),
Ewan McGregor as Iago and Kelly Reilly as Desdemona. See the website at:
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Audio-Books/Literature/Drama/Othello/28781
58
more cynical and pessimistic view of human affairs and society. Some of
that cynicism and pessimism can be seen in Othello.
Othello is one of Shakespeares most popular plays. It was frequently
performed in Shakespeares own day and was one of the first plays staged
when theatres were reopened after the monarchy was restored. This
popularity has continued up to the present day. Perhaps this is because
passionate love, pride and jealousy are universal and timeless emotions that
everybody can relate to.
Venice
Act I is set in the city of Venice in the early 16th Century. Although the
playscript provides all the information that you need in order to interpret the
action, by completing the following activities you will learn a little more
about the setting, and the social, historical and cultural context of the play.
These activities will give you a greater understanding of the events and
additional insight into the characters of Othello, Iago and Desdemona, their
relationships, and their status in the society.
59
60
and had extensive trading routes there. Cyprus was a strategic possession
because it protected Venices trade routes between the East and West.
Now look at the map below. What does it tell you about Venetian empire?
Crete
Cyprus
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Cyprus
The setting for the rest of the play is the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
In Act II, the action of Othello moves to a military encampment on Cyprus.
There is a symbolic element in this geographical movement away from the
civilised city and safe heart of the empire to a remote military outpost which
is much closer to the forces of raw nature and the threat of invasion by
Venices barbarian enemies.
By the time that the play was first staged, the Ottoman Empire controlled
most of Eastern Europe and a third of the known world. Cyprus, the island
that the Venetians are so eager to retain against the Ottoman Turks in the
play, was eventually conquered by the invaders in 1571. Knowledgeable
members of the audience would have realised the implicit political
ramifications of the loss of a great general at this time in Venices history.
Although Othellos tragedy is apparently a private one, the loss of a military
leader of his calibre would have important consequences.
The Turks against whom the Venetians are defending the island in the play
were greatly feared, especially as they were Muslims while the Europeans
were Christians. Because of this, many tales circulated concerning their
cruelty in war. One writer speaks of how, after the battle of St Elmo on
Malta in 1565, they cut the hearts out of their opponents chests while they
were still breathing and then decapitated them.
The defender of the city of Famagusta where Othello is thought to be set had
his ears and nose cut off by the new ruler and was beaten to death.
Throughout the centuries, popular and historical accounts of wars have
demonised the enemy by recounting tales of the atrocities committed. For
example, most Australians are familiar with the accounts of German and
Japanese atrocities committed during World War II. However, the stories of
the cruelty and brutality perpetrated by our own forces and allies are not
portrayed in the same way, or else they are not revealed for a long time.
62
only as the Moor (Othello), the squadron leader (Cassio), the ensign
(Iago) and the ensigns wife (Emilia). The moral of Cinthios tale (which
he placed in the mouth of Desdemona) is that European women are unwise
to marry the temperamental males from other cultures.
Activity: Cyprus
Look at the photos below. What do they tell you about Cyprus?
Now look at the map of the Mediterranean area and the extent of the
Ottoman Empire during the 16th Century on the following page.
Can you tell from the map why the Venetians and the Turks saw Cyprus as
strategically important?
63
64
What does the article tell you about Cyprus and the conflict that is described
in the play? From whose perspective is this account of the conflict reported?
How does this affect the way the situation and events are represented?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 100-125 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Then write or record your personal response to the play. Because this is a
first response, you are not expected to analyse the play in detail yet.
65
In your response, discuss your ideas, opinions and feelings. You may choose
to write about any aspect of the play but remember to include comments on
the themes of loyalty and betrayal.
If you need to, review the instructions on writing a personal response in the
previous part of this learning resource. Remember to support your views by
referring to examples from the play (you do not need to use quotations) and
avoid retelling the story.
Act I
Imagine the following scene. The flag has gone up on Shakespeares Globe
Theatre to signal to Londoners that a performance of his play Othello is
about to begin. The theatre has quickly filled up. Noblemen and women are
crowded in the three tiers of covered galleries around the perimeter of the
auditorium. They talk eagerly to one other about the latest London gossip or
crane their necks to see who else has arrived. In the pit which is open to the
sky, commoners jostle one another as they try to find a spot near the stage.
Vendors wander around the crowd selling oranges.
Two actors walk onto the stage, one dressed in the wealthier clothing of a
member of the upper class. They too are already deep in the midst of
conversation.
The audience turns to watch the actors. The play has begun. As Iago pours
out his grievances to Roderigo, the audience becomes aware that some dark
conspiracy is afoot.
66
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 800-900 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Building suspense
By opening his play in the middle of a conversation between two characters,
Shakespeare has immediately created intrigue and suspense. The audience
does not learn until later in the scene what Roderigo is talking about in the
opening lines. The audience does realise, however, that Iago intends to
create mischief. He has already made a decision to be disloyal to his general
and the newly-appointed lieutenant, even though he owes allegiance to both
of them. Furthermore, the audiences first impression of both Othello and
Cassio comes through the eyes of their enemy. Think about the dramatic
effect that would have for the audience.
You will also meet Othello and Desdemona, Desdemonas enraged father,
Brabantio, and the Duke and senators of Venice.
After you have finished reading Act I, answer the following questions:
1
67
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 450-500 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Learning Journal
In any play, the first few scenes are crucial in introducing the audience to:
the setting
Activity: Othello
In Act I scene i, the audience first learns about Othello from his secret
enemy, Iago. However, when Othello appears in company with Iago in scene
ii, our view of the general is instantly modified by the way he behaves and
speaks.
68
In what ways does Othello contradict the first impression created by Iago by
his actions and speech in scenes ii and iii?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 250-300 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Desdemona
We also meet Desdemona for the first time in Act I scene iii.
In Act I scene ii, Brabantio had referred to his daughter as a maid so tender,
fair, and happy (I ii 66). He claimed that Desdemona, who has rejected the
courtship of all the most eligible bachelors of Venice (including Roderigo),
would never have willingly accepted Othello as her husband. In his
description, Brabantio creates an image of an innocent, inexperienced girl.
In a similar way as Othello, when we meet her in scene iii, Desdemona is
quite different from the initial portrait of his daughter provided by
Brabantio.
When she enters the scene, Desdemona quickly reveals herself as an
independent and confident young woman. She is polite and respectful
towards her father, acknowledging what she owes him, but she also outlines
her duty to her new husband.
Othello has already spoken of how fascinated Desdemona was by his stories
when he entertained her father and his guests. He indicates that she took the
lead in the courtship:
She thanked me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. (I iii 162-165)
Learning Journal
Write down your impressions of Othello and his new bride. Support your
views by referring to quotes and examples from the text.
69
Describe how the director staged the opening scene in the film
version you watched. Comment on how successively you felt the
director exploited the setting. Remember to give the directors name.
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 350-400 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
70
Use these paragraphs as a model for the program notes you will write for
Othello.
Research points
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Europeans saw Moors and East and West Indians as inferior in both
culture and race.
Writers of the 18th and 19th Centuries recalled the Old Testament
story of Ham (or Cham), Noahs son, who angered his father. Noah
pronounced a curse on Hams son, Canaan, to be a servant of
servants. These writers advanced the theory that black Africans
were the sons of Ham and were therefore cursed, physically
blackened by their sins. The connection was used as a justification
of slavery by the elite classes in Europe and America.
72
Women
73
The military
Both the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic religion had spread widely
in the 16th Century. Many Europeans feared that Christian European
civilisation was in jeopardy.
Soldiers were viewed as separate from the rest of society. They were
depicted as aggressive, adventurous, virile and skilled in military
matters.
74
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 600-700 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
young <
has <
Othello, a <
>
local nobleman, Brabantio. Iago persuades Roderigo, who has been paying
Iago to help him win Desdemonas hand, to arouse Brabantio from his sleep
and tell him of the <
> and
>. They
realise that they need their general to lead the defence of their military
75
outpost on <
>
>
> his
own lifestyle. Iago has now determined to plot against Othello and his new
<
>. It is
> him
> his wife. What is clear by the end of the act is that Iago is
determined to <
You might like to copy or print out the CLOZE passage above to fill in the
blanks.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Act II
In Act II, Iago begins to set his plot in motion. After you have read and
viewed or listened to Act II again, complete the following synopsis.
>. A
>s
> also arrives
> he
76
feels at <
>.
> and
the <
convinced <
>
able to <
>
>. He tells
>
>
>
<
You might like to copy or print out the CLOZE passage above to fill in the
blanks.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
77
You might like to copy or print out the diagram above to complete the
activity.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
78
Learning Journal
Copy the reasons in the order you have ranked them into your Learning
Journal.
Underneath each reason, explain why you have chosen that particular
ranking. Find quotes to support your explanation.
79
Frank Finlay as Iago and Laurence Olivier as Othello in the 1965 film
80
The references to Iagos honesty continue in Act III. For example, Cassio
observes of Iago that I never knew / A Florentine more kind and honest
(III i 38) and Desdemona remarks of Iago to Iagos wife, Emilia: O, thats
an honest fellow. (III ii 5)
Iagos persuasiveness
Shakespeare also takes care to show just how persuasive Iago is. The viewer
first sees Iagos persuasive powers in Act I when he convinces Roderigo to
wake Brabantio and tell him that his only daughter, Desdemona, has eloped
with Othello. Iago then persuades Roderigo to follow the war party to
Cyprus so he may win Desdemonas heart.
Iago makes very little attempt to hide his contempt for Roderigo or the fact
that he is extorting money from the young nobleman for his own gain. As a
result, the audience feels little respect for Roderigo. He seems stupid and
easily tricked.
Iagos passionless character, all will in intellect; therefore a bold partisan here of a
truth, but yet of a truth converted into a falsehood by absence of all the
modifications by the frail nature of man. And the last sentiment
our raging motions, our carnal stings or unbitted lusts, whereof I
take this, that you call love to be a sect or scion.
81
There lies the Iagoism of how many! And the repetition of Go, make money! a
pride in it, of an anticipated dupe, stronger than the love of lucre.
IAGO:
Go to, farewell, put money enough in your purse:
Thus do I ever make my fool m purse.
The triumph! Again, put money, after the effect has been fully produced. The last
speech [Iagos soliloquy], the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity how awful!
In itself fiendish; while yet he was allowed to bear the divine image too fiendish for
his own steady view. A being next to devil, only not quite devil and this
Shakespeare has attempted executed without disgust, without scandal!
Lectures 1808-1819 on Literature Volume 2, pp. 314-5
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 300-350 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
Learning Journal
Can you remember a time when you gave in to peer pressure? Many people
recall experiences in their youth when they drank too much alcohol at parties
or on a night out because they wanted to be like their friends or other young
people. Advertisements often play on the perception that people want to
82
keep up with the Joneses; in other words, they want have what everyone
else has so their social status will be the same.
Think back to a time when you gave into peer pressure or when you
observed a friend doing so.
Note why you think you or your friend was susceptible to the peer
pressure at the time.
Think about what insight this gives into the reasons why Cassio gave in to
Iagos persuasion.
Write your thoughts and reflections in your Learning Journal.
> as
Iago has suggested. Iago wastes no time in suggesting to Othello that there is
something <
planted the seeds of doubt, however, Iago becomes increasingly explicit and
<
and <
> to Othello as
his confidence and influence over his general grow. He claims to have heard
Cassio talking in his sleep about his <
Iago vividly describes the <
83
Desdemonas <
handkerchief to Cassio. By the end of Act IV, Othello has decided that
Cassio must definitely <
> him
>.
Emilia <
>, Othello is no
> and
>.
> sheets.
>. He plans to
> that he believes Iago has given her on his behalf. Iago
>
to support Roderigo.
You might like to copy or print out the CLOZE passage above to fill in the
blanks.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
84
When Othello asks for visual proof, Iago becomes crude and asks if
he wishes to see Desdemona making love to Cassio.
Iago hints that there is something worrying in the fact that Cassio
acted as an intermediary in Othellos courtship of Desdemona.
Iago tells Othello that he saw Cassio wipe his beard with the
handkerchief that Othello gave Desdemona.
Iago agrees to have Cassio killed but asks that Desdemona be spared.
As he planned, Othello immediately decides his wife must die too.
85
Iago sets the scene for the ocular proof. He talks to Cassio about
his lover, Bianca. He leads the watching Othello to believe that he
has seen proof of his wifes guilt.
Iago tells of hearing Cassio talk in his sleep of his love affair with
Desdemona.
Why does Othello believe Iago rather than Emilia, who is constantly
in his wifes company, or Desdemona, who had been willing to
marry Othello even though it meant rebelling against her own family
and the customs of her culture?
The fact that the characters are isolated on Cyprus also makes it
easier for Iago to deceive Othello. Why is this the case?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 300-350 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
86
Peggy Ashcroft and Paul Robeson in Othello in London, 1930 Robeson was the first African-American
actor to play Othello on the English stage
87
88
widowed mother. As he explained in his autobiographical Words, it was their fantasyland escape from an austere reality. Later he would analyze the medium to
demonstrate how much more mind control over the audience the movie has compared
to the stage play. In the theatre the stage set is fixed in time and place; members of the
audience are free to look wherever they choose. They need not attend to the actor who
is speaking, but can focus on a piece of furniture, a minor actor, or the spotlighting of
the stage. In the darkened movie house, a member of the audience can only close his
eyes or submit and follow the moving images on the screen. The actors are larger than
life, and a director can force the entire audience to watch a single face on the screen
waiting to be kissed. The separate members of the audience are constituted as an
anonymous collectivity of voyeurs peeping through the cameras keyhole. The
director who commands the camera thus has more power over the audience than any
actor, and the cameras compelling visual images have more impact than the actors
words.
But Shakespeare is primarily about words; an actors challenge is to speak the poetry,
capture the deeper meaning, and sustain the dramatic intensity. One might therefore
expect the film versions of his plays to be disastrous. Not so. There have been many
marvelous films of Shakespeare plays. Olivier and Branagh both did Henry V in
versions that rival each other but surpass any stage production. The same can be said
of Zefferelis Romeo and Juliet, Mankiewiczs Julius Caesar, and Peter Brooks
magnificent King Lear. Director Oliver Parkers film falls far below this standard, but
then Shakespeares Othello is a peculiarly challenging text.
Fifty years ago, Paul Robeson played Othello on Broadway to wildly enthusiastic
audiences. But Othello has become a notoriously difficult stage play to perform and it
can be painful, even distasteful, to watch. It is the only Shakespeare play about which
many thoughtful people have said that they prefer Verdis operatic version. The
problem in every modern performance is that Othello is so unreflective, Desdemona
so helpless, and Iago so mysteriously evil that the painfulness of the storyline is
unmitigated: There is no one with whom the audience can identify and empathize.
Unthinking jealousy compounded by racism is a better formula for the stylistics of an
opera than an engrossing theatrical performance.
Comparison with The Merchant of Venice is instructive. Both plays are set in Venice,
the great maritime city-state of Marco Polo and Andrea Doria, an empire of its time,
which imported ethnic and racial diversity along with commercial goods; this made
the Rialto a natural setting for tales of racism and anti-Semitism. But as in
Shakespeares other plays that invoke racial and ethnic stereotypes, these Venetian
plays reveal the cultural biases that confine even Shakespeares genius. Jessica,
Shylocks daughter, is saved by stealing some of her fathers fortune and running off
with a Christian spendthrift. And, although audiences remember Portia for her line
about mercy, she strips Shylock of every single penny and his religious identity as
well, forcing him to convert to Christianity on pain of death, much as the Inquisitors
of the Church did to his brethren. Although Shylock has his great speech ( does a
Jew not have feelings ), Shakespeare wastes little sympathy on him. The audience
was meant to be amused by the judgment meted out to this vengeful Jew.
Although Othello has been assigned nobility and great poetry, he is one of
Shakespeares most unreflective characters. Unlike Shylock, who reflects on his status
as a Jew and is bitterly aware of his degraded position as such, Othello never
questions his Blackness or reflects on his precarious position in a world of White men.
Othello acts, overreacts, has epileptic seizures, suffers terribly, but does not reflect.
Taking Iagos bait of jealousy without caution or consideration, he flashes into
violence against his innocent bride. Bradley, the famous Shakespeare scholar, says
that Othellos mind, for all its poetry, is very simple. He is not observant. His nature
89
tends outward. He is quite free from introspection, and is not given to reflection.
Emotion excites his imagination, but it confuses and dulls his intellect. (It is no
answer to say that Othello is a warrior; after all, Macbeth is a much bloodier warrior,
and he reflects on his situation.)
Recognizing Othello as different in this way is not the same as understanding why
Shakespeare conceived the Moor as so simple and unreflective. Reading the Venetian
plays, however, one might well conclude that though Shakespeare understood almost
as much about anti-Semitism and racism as we do today, his knowledge about Jews
and Blacks was narrowly circumscribed by stereotype.
Thus the difficulties for 20th Century audiences. Thus, too, the standard tactic of the
directors seeking to reach them: give the roles of Shylock and Othello to actors of
enormous talent and star power in the hope that the actor will transform the character
and give it grandeur. Laurence Olivier did this with both roles brilliantly but it was a
theatrical trick, not a solution to the fundamental problem of the stereotyped
protagonists.
Oliver Parker had a different idea. Cognizant of Othellos empty unreflectiveness, he
filled the void with sex and violence, all of it realized through Fishburnes visual
presence made all the more stunning because someone had the ingenious idea of
tattooing the side of his shaved head, making him unforgettably iconic.
Fishburne will be remembered as the wife-battering Ike Turner of Tina Turners
autobiographical Whats Love Got To Do With It? The film had a great impact in
England and Fishburnes performance earned him the role of Othello. Parker was
looking for a Black actor who would give Othello an Ike-Turner-edge of sexual
intimidation and violence. The idea was to make the erotic relationship between
Othello and Desdemona the emotional fulcrum of the play. Parkers experience
playing Iago in repertory had convinced him that for modern audiences the play had
become unbalanced and the relationship between Othello and Desdemona had lost its
dramatic energy. Othello was supposed to be Shakespeares most psychological play,
a drama of private passions, but the diabolical evil of Iago and his hatred for the noble
Othello was more intriguing to modern audiences than the almost platonic love
relationship between the noble Moor and his childlike Desdemona.
Fishburnes physicality and his stilted American speaking of the lines make him the
embodiment of the alien other summoned from the racists nightmare of
miscegenation. The casting for all of the other parts is bold, creative, and in line with
this premise. Desdemona, in particular, is not the blond-haired ingenue we have come
to expect in traditional productions. The sensual, dark-haired Swiss actress, Irene
Jacob, has been given the role. And although Shakespeares Othello says she loved
me for the pains I have suffered, this Desdemona, speaking in heavily accented
English, conveys the full measure of erotic chemistry that can precipitate a sudden
elopement.
This is not Shakespeares Desdemona, who asks Emilia, her maid and Iagos wife,
whether women are ever sexually unfaithful to their husbands. Desdemona cannot
believe the truthful answer; that is the measure of her virginal naivete. Parker has
sacrificed all these innocent lines. Irene Jacobs heavily accented reading labors over
her few lines; like Fishburne, she earned her part because of her erotic screen
presence. Critics who object to this heavy-handed vulgarization of Shakespeares play
must concede that in the 20th Century, when ten-year-old children are sexually
sophisticated, Shakespeares Desdemona would be something of a joke.
An ambitious director might have bitten the bullet and cast a very young girl as
Desdemona. But adding discrepancies in age to racial difference would have provoked
even greater outrage than Irene Jacobs fleshy and sensuous Desdemona. She is an
90
erotic match for Fishburne on the screen and Othello does not have to be crazed to
imagine her making love to another man especially after Parker inserts a scene in
which Othello watches Desdemona dance with Cassio, with a spark of sensual
pleasure in her eye. All of this makes Othellos jealousy more believable.
Though Parker sacrifices the complexity of the play and most of its greatness to make
it coherent for modern sensibilities, Branaghs Iago somehow survives, and with new
dimensions. Othello and Iago in Shakespeares play are in a certain sense more
intimate than the Moor and his bride. An orthodox Freudian reading of the play uses
this intimacy to resolve the mystery of Iagos evil nature into his repressed
homosexual attraction to the vibrantly sexual and brutal Moor. And in the film the
body language between Fishburne and Branagh implies dominance-submission,
sadism-masochism.
Fishburne may not accept the Freudian reading, but an improvised scene demonstrates
his psychological understanding of the relationship. In a show of brute strength he
holds the scheming Iagos head underwater until the man almost drowns. According
to Freudian formulas, the subordinate Iago first feels sexual jealousy because he has
projected his own repressed passive and masochistic desires onto his wife Emilia; his
first soliloquy of revenge tells the audience that Othello has done my service in
Emilias bed. In his own paranoid mind a victim of sexual betrayal, Iago has the
blueprint of the idea to make Othello believe he has suffered the same fate.
The Freudian interpretation, as usual, overstates the case, but the play certainly
suggests this motive for revenge. Iago reiterates the charge in his second soliloquy.
Furthermore, when Emilia realizes what Iago has done, she immediately attributes it
to his unjustified belief that she had betrayed him with Othello. The attribution comes
so quickly that Iago must have accused her of betrayal. And Fishburnes Othello
would seem to justify such beliefs. He is the kind of man Iago would take pleasure in
hating.
Several stage actors have played this Freudian Iago, most notably Christopher
Plummer. His Othello (James Earl Jones) stabs him in the groin at the end of the play
to punctuate this reading. Branaghs Freudian gesture is less obvious. In his conniving
interchanges with Roderigo, Cassio, and Othello, his Iago sometimes assumes a
seductive feminine demeanour, wooing them with yielding words and promises. There
is a particularly striking scene after Othellos arrival in Cyprus where the celebration
of the Turkish fleets destruction has become a drunken orgy. In a cart rocking above
them the camera reveals, without being overly graphic, that a couple is having
intercourse while below a gleeful Iago embraces Roderigo and deviously sets him on
to further machinations.
But if Branaghs performance suggests repressed homosexuality, he is too great an
actor to let Freud dominate Shakespeare. His mercurial Iago has not one great motive
but rather several, all suggested in Shakespeares text. He has served Othello faithfully
for many years in campaigns of war only to have Othello appoint Cassio, an untested
soldier, over him at least so he claims. Thus Iago has been doubly wronged by the
Moor; resentment and envy abet sexual jealousy. So Cassio is a perfect target against
whom Iago will foment Othellos jealous rage. Furthermore, the play gives us reason
to believe or suspect that Cassio is from the ranks of Italian gentlemen while Iago is a
self-made man. Such parvenus fare poorly in Shakespeares plays; they are
overreaching and flawed in character, and even when they are wronged they end
badly. Iago, one of these, is not just a vengeful malefactor, but a con-man and a thief
as he manipulates Roderigo, Desdemonas embittered suitor, to sell all he has and put
money in thy purse, most of which ends up in Iagos pocket.
91
92
would bring emotional coherence to a play that has puzzled Shakespeare critics for
two centuries. But he addresses the racial problem by eliminating Othellos grandeur
and Desdemonas innocence a solution that required him to sacrifice most of their
poetry and the miracle of their love.
Othello by most accounts was the tragedy written after Hamlet, when Shakespeare
was at the height of his powers. But unlike Hamlet with its Ghost, Macbeth with its
witches, or Richard III with its bloody scheme of royal succession, Othello is an unShakespeare-like tragedy without supernatural forces or great political-historical
significance. And is there any other noble hero in the Shakespeare canon who hits his
wife in public, treats her like a whore, and kills her with his own hands?
Shakespeares script prepares us to be shocked by that public blow the tragedys
defining moment. The old warrior Othello loves Desdemona because she pities him,
not because she excites him. And the Moor gives assurances in every respect that he
will be gentle with his innocent bride. Othello is the very antithesis of Iagos
Negrophobic black ram. Far from Fishburnes incendiary Othello, Shakespeares
Moor assures us that the days of his hot-blooded youthful excesses are finished. He
can conduct the war against the Turks without being distracted by his new bride.
Frank Kermode compares Othello and Desdemona in the first act of the play to Adam
and Eve before the fall. Be that as it may, when Othello strikes Desdemona the
audience sees the beast in man revealed, and that savage beast is a Black man.
Shakespeares Othello speaks sublime poetry but he confirms Elizabethan stereotypes
of race.
But the failure of Parkers film is less severe when measured against the Olivier and
Welles films. Pauline Kael might now prefer to expunge her rhapsodic review of the
Olivier production from her collected works. She opined that no Black actor, not even
Paul Robeson, could bring to the role of Othello what Olivier had. But an Othello in
black (or brown) face is an affront to contemporary sensibilities. And the brilliant
Olivier production, as Kael herself admits, isnt even much of a movie. Branagh
described it as a narcissistic English interpretation of Shakespeare. Orson Welles is
not English, but in black face he is today as out of place as Olivier, and his Othello is
more notable for its exotic cinematic style than its substance. The failure of all three
films suggests that Shakespeares play may have no contemporary cinematic solution.
And this is because it was written for an audience that could accept racist stereotypes
as truisms without acknowledging their own racism.
I mentioned earlier that many people prefer Verdis opera to Shakespeares play.
Shakespeares poetry, surely, is at least the equivalent of Verdis music. The most
useful insight into Shakespeares Othello emphasizing the poetry comes from
Bradleys lectures. Though he acknowledges all of the plays difficulties the pain
and dismay produced in the audience by the sudden explosion of savagery that comes
from the noble Moor he makes brilliant excuses for Shakespeares racist stereotype.
He quotes with approval Swinburnes line that we pity Othello even more than we
pity Desdemona. He acknowledges that no rationalization satisfactorily explains this
unsettling tragedy and that the many troubling issues it raises cannot be decided by
argument. More simply, I would say, no solution will make the racism of
Shakespeare and his audiences disappear.
But Bradleys consoling insight is that Othello may be Shakespeares greatest poet
and if we read the play and its poetry with all our force we will feel these objections
less. Parkers Othello does not and cannot provide us that consolation. Unfortunately,
with all its technical powers over mind, the medium of film has found no way to
heighten, or even to convey, poetrys magical powers.
taken from the April/May 1996 issue of the Boston Review
93
Now complete your first journal entry. Use the notes in your copy of the
play to help you interpret the speech.
94
Learning Journal
Write four entries in an actors journal kept by the actor who is going to play
Othello in an upcoming performance.
Select four extracts from Acts III and IV that show Othellos changing state
of mind and which reveal why he ultimately makes the decision to strangle
Desdemona. One of your entries can be the one you have just completed on
Othellos soliloquy.
Discuss how you, as the actor, would portray Othello in each scene
to show the emotions he is feeling and the degeneration of his mind
and character.
When you write each journal entry, remember to include the act, scene and
line numbers you are referring to.
Assignment 4
Now turn to your Assessment Guide and complete Assignment 4 Task 2.
Then return to this learning resource to continue studying the elective.
95
Desdemonas submissiveness
You have considered why Iago decided to plot against his general and how
he executed his revenge against both Othello and Cassio. You have also
looked at the choices Othello and Cassio made as a result of Iagos devious
manipulations.
Now you will investigate Desdemonas response to the situation, and her
behaviour when Othello turns against her in Acts III and IV.
Audiences and readers have often expressed frustration that Desdemona is
so submissive to Othello in Act IV. They compare her behaviour then to her
spirited defence of her actions before her father and the senators in Act I.
In the following exercise, you will imagine that you have the opportunity to
speak to Desdemona directly and ask her why she did not defend herself
more strongly in Act IV.
Assignment 5
Now turn to your Assessment Guide and complete Assignment 5 Task 1.
96
Act V
In Act V, the audience witnesses the fatal consequences of Iagos plotting as
the play rapidly moves towards its tragic climax. After you have read and
viewed or listened to Act V again, complete the following synopsis.
> immediately.
>.
>, Gratiano
condemned to <
> in his
>
>,
>.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
97
The denouement
The denouement of a narrative is the final unravelling of the storyline; it
usually occurs in the final scene in a play where the plot is resolved.
Once the tragic climax of Othello has taken place Othellos murder of his
beloved wife the denouement of the play follows on quickly. By the end
of the Act V:
With Cassios appointment it would appear that the rule of law has been
restored once more to the island outpost. Those members of the audience
who were familiar with recent Venetian history, however, would have
known that Cyprus was lost soon after to the Turks. Some critics suggest
that the audience is meant to see Othellos private tragedy as having public
consequences after all. Venice had lost its great general.
Certainly, in many of his plays, Shakespeare explores the consequences for
the nation of the fall of great men.
Critics also draw attention to the concern of Lodovico at the end of the play
that Othellos fortune be seized by Desdemonas uncle, Gratiano. They
contrast this mercenary
concern with the call to a
new beginning which
concludes other of
Shakespeares tragedies,
such as in Hamlet. In
Hamlet, the new ruler
Fortinbras calls for the
people to hear Hamlets
story so the nation may
have a new beginning. He
also praises Hamlet,
stating he would have
proved most noble if he
had become king.
In Othello, it is left to the
character to speak his own
eulogy.
Critics also draw attention to the fact that the real villain of the play is Iago,
a Venetian. It is he who is labelled a slave (V ii 328) by Lodovico not
the Turks, and not the outsider, Othello, despite his guilt in murdering an
innocent woman.
98
Othello
Othello is emotionally torn apart by his decision to kill Desdemona. He
looks at her as she lies sleeping and is almost overwhelmed by her beauty.
He is also painfully aware that, once she is dead, she cannot be brought back
to life.
Yet Othello also remains true to character. He hates doubt so he reminds
himself of Desdemonas assumed guilt. Having taken on the role of her
judge, he sees himself as her just executioner. From the beginning, he has
believed in his own abilities and he has shown himself to be an idealist and
a romantic. Seeing himself as carrying out justice fits the perception he has
of himself.
When he kills himself at the end of the play, Othello is similarly carrying
out his ideal of the honourable act. He realises that he is guilty of a horrible
crime but he also remains a great warrior. He stabs himself to death rather
than die dishonourably.
Iago
By contrast to Othello, Iago acts dishonourably to the bitter end, as would
be expected. He kills Roderigo surreptitiously when he believes no-one is
looking and stabs Cassio in the leg. His aim is to protect himself in the first
case and to complete his revenge in the latter case.
When Emilia reveals his deceit, he also kills her to protect himself. He
possibly also reacts in fury to the fact that his wife dares to betray him. Once
his treachery is revealed, he then refuses to speak. At no time does he show
remorse for what he has done.
Desdemona
Desdemona acts selflessly throughout the final scenes which also seems in
keeping with her character. She tells Emilia that she has killed herself to
protect the husband she still loves. Ironically, Desdemona dies without
learning of Iagos treachery.
Emilia
Emilia is perhaps the only character who seems to behave in an
uncharacteristic fashion. When she speaks of love in Act IV to Desdemona,
she seems to share her husbands cynical view of the world. She says she
would be prepared to cuckold her husband if it meant gaining the whole
world. After all, she explains, men have only themselves to blame if their
wives are false as they treat their wives poorly and women share the sexual
appetites and weaknesses of their spouses.
99
In Act V, however, when she is faced with the truth of Iagos villainy,
Emilia reveals how she was also deceived by her husbands behaviour. Her
ignorance of Iagos true character explains why she gave him the
handkerchief. It had never occurred to her that he would use it for such
terrible ends. She reveals her loyalty and love for her mistress as well.
He also tries to explain his actions to Lodovico when the Venetian asks him
why he has reverted to the behaviour of a slave. He tells him that he may
call him
An honourable murderer, if you will;
For naught I did in hate, but all in honour. (V ii 291-2)
How well does Othello understand himself? Does his analysis of why he
strangled Desdemona and what it meant to him adequately explain his
actions?
In the following activity, you will consider the factors that led to Othellos
decision to murder Desdemona and what that decision meant to him.
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 200-250 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answer with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
100
Values in conflict
Despite the characters adherence to a code of honour, the play Othello
shows a world where the old moral values are being challenged by the new.
In the first act, Brabantio responds cynically to the pragmatic political
approach adopted by the Duke and the senators in exonerating Othello,
observing ironically that, as long as you smile, the Turk cannot really rob
the Venetians of Cyprus (I iii 208-213).
Brabantio recognises that the Duke is prepared to overlook the lovers
flouting the rights of the father because he needs Othello for the defence of
Cyprus. This decision challenges the family and civic values underpinning
Venetian society, sacrificing cultural tradition for political advantage.
The Dukes decision accords with the political philosophies outlined by the
Italian statesman, Niccol Machiavelli. Machiavelli was a political writer
who published a political treatise in 1527 called The Prince. In the treatise,
Machiavelli analyses leadership in a pragmatic, or realistic, way. This
pragmatism contrasts with the idealistic approach to politics where the
ruling classes hold to a set of principles that define the values of the society.
The Europeans were greatly shocked by Machiavellis work and, somewhat
unfairly, his name quickly became linked with adjectives like cunning,
scheming and unscrupulous. Thus might Iago be called a Machiavellian
villain: he acts purely for his own desires and gains.
There were many other significant changes which occurred during
Shakespeares lifetime. Throughout the latter part of the 16th Century, old
traditions were constantly under challenge and replaced by new cultural
values. These changes often caused conflict as the old values were
vigorously defended by more conservative members of society.
The final ascendancy of Protestantism over Catholicism as the state religion
in England under Queen Elizabeth I and the demise of the old rigid feudal
system led to a new emphasis on the individual and individual achievement.
Previously, society was strictly organised according to a hierarchical order.
The individual was subservient (or subordinate) to both the state and church.
By the 1560s, the Elizabethans had lost faith in the dependability of religion
which they had seen used for political ends since 1532 by a succession of
rulers. With the increasing choice of religions came other individual
choices. In London, even women had increased freedom, for example, being
able to engage in litigation on their own behalf.
The middle class became increasingly powerful as trade expanded in Europe
and spread to Africa, the Americas and the East. The population of England
increased by 35% under Elizabeth 1. Yet economically there were
difficulties. In the 1590s, inflation, war taxation (there had been an increase
of military activity in Europe during the period), harvest failure and a
depression in Europe led to an economic collapse in England.
When James 1 ascended the throne in 1603, he was less interested in the
details of government than Elizabeth and corruption soon became a major
problem.
Learning Resource 6492EA Elective 2: Loyalty and Betrayal, Edition 3
State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Communities, January 2014
101
102
Why does the persona (speaker) in the poem choose going to war
over staying with his loved one?
In what ways does the persona describe his lover as being the ideal
woman?
Use your own paper for this activity. Write approximately 100-150 words.
Once you have completed the activity, check your answers with the
Suggested responses to activities at the end of this section.
103
New values
104
For your final assignment on this elective, you are going to write a
comparison essay in which you explore how the actions and behaviours of
the central characters in both Othello and A Horseman in the Sky are
affected by the changing value systems of the worlds depicted in the text.
Topic
Both Othello and A Horseman in the Sky depict societies where the
beliefs and values which guide those societies are changing, and
where characters come into conflict with one another and with their
societies as a result.
Do you agree? Explain how the loyalties of the main characters in both
texts are affected by the changing beliefs and values of their societies.
Write approximately 1000 words.
Then, write down what you think the question is asking you to do in
your own words.
105
2 Brainstorm
Print out the mind map below or draw a mind map of your own to
brainstorm your ideas. Remember that you can add extra boxes.
106
When you develop your thesis statement, note that you are being asked to
write a comparison. There are a variety of positions you could choose to
take. For example, you may believe that the characters are totally influenced
by the old values or you may believe that they are completely influenced by
the changing world they find themselves in. On the other hand, you may
decide that they are affected both by the old and the new even though one is
more important. You might even decide that one character acts according to
the old values while another is influenced by the new ones.
Below are three possible ways you could begin your essay, depending on
the point of view you plan to take. Read each thesis. Think about the
position taken in each one. It may take one of the following positions:
Othello and/or Druse are acting according to the old value system.
107
The first method you can use is to develop a series of points and
refer to both texts in your elaboration of each point.
The second method you can use is to divide your discussion into two
parts. You will then discuss the first text in the first half of the essay
and the second text in the second half. If you use this method, link
the two texts to the central line of argument in your opening thesis or
introduction and in your final recommendation or conclusion.
Othello
108
First point in
argument
Elaboration
(discussion,
examples,
quotes, etc.)
Second point
in argument
109
Elaboration
(discussion,
examples,
quotes, etc.)
Third point in
argument
Elaboration
(discussion,
examples,
quotes, etc.)
Fourth point in
argument
Elaboration
(discussion,
examples,
quotes, etc.)
Fifth point in
argument
Elaboration
(discussion,
examples,
quotes, etc.)
Conclusion
It is now time to write your essay. As you write, you may make changes to
your plan. Revising your plan will help you to keep to the topic and ensure
that your ideas are structured logically.
110
Assignment 5
Now turn to your Assessment Guide and complete Assignment 5 Task 2.
how the context of the responder influences the ways texts are
perceived.
If you had any problems working through Part 2 please call the English
section at OTEN on (02) 9715 8617 or 1300 369 598. Write down your
difficulties in your Learning Journal before you contact your teacher.
111
Quotable quotes
Quote
Meaning
My salad days,
When I was green in judgement, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.
Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7) I v 72
[back]
Learning Resource 6492EA Elective 2: Loyalty and Betrayal, Edition 3
State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Communities, January 2014
112
Iago says that Othello is arrogant. He asserts that the general acts out
of pride. He describes Othellos speech as being pompous,
describing the reasons he gave for not appointing Iago as bombast
circumstance / Horribly stuffed with the epithets of war (I i 13-14).
In other words, he compares Othellos language to the padding used
in clothes and claims that he uses an excess of military jargon.
113
114
The exposition
1
115
Othello
By his dignified behaviour, Othello immediately contradicts the negative
impression given by Iago in scene i. This can be seen in his simple and
straightforward reply to Iagos feigned regret that he could not stab
Brabantio when the latter was abusing Othello:
Tis better as it is (I ii 6)
Othello then speaks of the service that he has given the state. He tells Iago,
whom he views as his trusted follower, about his background which he has
not made generally known as he does not wish to boast. This directly
contradicts Iagos account of Othello as loving his own pride and purposes
(I i 12). The audience learns that Othello is of royal birth, a status which he
sees as equal to Desdemonas. He also declares his love for her.
Othello confirms this more favourable view of his character when he refuses
to flee from Brabantio and his men, and in the way he responds to
Brabantios aggression by calmly calling for peace:
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. (I ii 59).
In the following scene, when he is asked to explain his actions by the Duke
and the senators, Othello again speaks candidly and convincingly about his
courtship, revealing none of the bombast previously referred to by Iago.
What he does reveal is that he is an experienced warrior who has travelled
widely and that he is used to hardship. The Duke and senators reinforce this
perception of Othello when they welcome him as the valiant Moor (I iii
47) and determine that he must be sent to Cyprus to defend this Venetian
possession against the looming Ottoman threat. [back]
The following answer describes two versions of the way the opening
scene is represented, the BBC version and the William Marshall
version. In the BBC version, the opening shot shows a dark, narrow
Venetian lane enclosed on both sides by tall buildings. Iago and
Roderigo come hurrying along the lane towards the front of the
screen, as Roderigo complains to Iago. The camera then focuses on
them with a medium close-up throughout the ensuing dialogue.
Roderigo is taller than Iago and he speaks up to Roderigo in a
conspiratorial manner. Iago dominates the scene because of the
116
certainty with which he expresses his views and because he faces the
camera while Roderigo stands in front of Iago and looks back at him.
The William Marshall version takes a different approach. The two
men come out of what appears to be a tavern door. They have
carnival masks and Iago is holding a tankard (a large drinking cup,
usually with a handle). They talk loudly, in the manner of men who
have been drinking. Roderigo is short and speaks in a high, squeaky
voice. Iago dominates with his voice and stature. Although the
atmosphere is less eerie than the BBC version, the scene is livelier
and is more effective in showing the relationship and balance of
power between the two characters.
2
There are many ways in which you coul establish the setting of Act I
scene i. You will have to choose where the scene takes place. Some
possibilities include:
You will need to think about how you will create the atmosphere of
conspiracy. What use will you make of light, dark and shadows?
What music and sound effects will you use? How will the characters
be dressed? Is your film or stage version set in the period of the text
or have you transformed it to a more modern era? If you are filming,
how can camerawork help you? Do you open with a wide shot that
shows the whole scene and then zoom into a medium shot of the
characters or do you begin with a close-up of the two characters
speaking? How can close-ups and reaction shots (shots where the
camera focuses back and forth from the speaker to the listener) be
used effectively? [back]
[back]
117
118
However, she was probably also aware of the fact that Brabantio would
never give his permission for her to marry Othello, which is why she is
driven to act as she does.
As a result of Desdemonas defiance of paternal authority, Brabantio warns
Othello:
She has deceived her father, and may thee. (I iii 289).
forces, has < eloped > with Desdemona, the daughter of a local nobleman,
Brabantio. Iago persuades Roderigo, who has been paying Iago to help him
win Desdemonas hand, to arouse Brabantio from his sleep and tell him of
the < marriage >. Brabantio is < outraged > and convinced that Othello
has < stolen > his daughter. He instantly seeks < restitution > from the
< senate > which is sitting in a late night council of < war >. However,
Othello and Desdemona are ultimately <
excused
< senators >. They realise that they need their general to lead the defence of
119
their military outpost on < Cyprus > against the < Turks
>. Othello is
told that he must leave < immediately > for < Cyprus > and Desdemona
is permitted to accompany her husband. Othello entrusts <
Iago > as a
chaperone to accompany his new wife to the island. Iago is pleased. He has
< reassured > Roderigo that he may still <
claims will soon < tire > of Othello. Iago also ensures that Roderigos
money will continue to < finance > his own lifestyle. Iago has now
determined to plot against Othello and his new < lieutenant >, Cassio,
both of whom he < despises >. It is uncertain whether Iagos < hatred >
is caused by Othello < bypassing > him for the position of < lieutenant >
or because he suspects Othello of < sleeping with > his wife. What is clear
by the end of the act is that Iago is determined to < destroy > his generals
happiness. [back]
Act II synopsis
In Act II the action moves to the military outpost on < Cyprus >. A wild
storm < scatters > the < Turkish > fleet. As a result, the threat of war is
< averted >. Cassio is the first person to reach the island, closely followed
by < Desdemona >, <
Iago
Iago
< Desdemona >s relief, < Othello > also arrives safely and the < lovers >
are reunited. Othello expresses the depth of his <
<
wife
the <
joy
love
time in beginning to orchestrate his < revenge >. His first target is
< Cassio >. He cleverly plays on Cassios < weakness > for < drink >
and the < courteous > young lieutenants desire to please everyone. Iago
persuades Cassio that he will offend < Montano >, the governor who
Othello has replaced on < Cyprus >, and his fellow Cypriots if he does not
<
share
< Roderigo > that Desdemona favours Cassio, and that he is a far more
< natural > object for her < affections >. He tells Roderigo to pick a
<
fight
<
guard
rival
anger
120
approach to Desdemona to < intercede > on his behalf. Iago outlines how
he will use Desdemonas < goodness > to arouse Othellos < jealousy >.
He will convince the < Moor
Cassio because she is having an < affair > with him. [back]
Character relationships
[back]
Honest Iago
But Ill set down the pegs that make this music, / As honest as I
am. (II i 198-9)
OTHELLO: Iago is most honest. (II ii 6)
OTHELLO: Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving / Speak. (II iii 158-9)
OTHELLO: I know, Iago, / Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter
(II iii 227-8)
IAGO:
As I am an honest man (II iii 245)
CASSIO:
Good night, honest Iago. (II iii 302)
[back]
IAGO:
121
reassures Iago that it is his breeding that gives him this bold show of
courtesy (II i 98-99). When he tells Desdemona not to mind Iagos
bluntness he takes her hand in his (II i 163). This act of gentlemanly
diplomacy later enables Iago to convince Roderigo that Cassio and
Desdemona are lovers: Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his
hand? Didst not mark that? (II i 240-41)
Like Othello, Cassio appears to trust in Iagos honesty and loyalty as a
friend. Notice how he takes Iagos advice when he wishes to regain his
position. Quite possibly he is being only all too human in giving in to peer
pressure in a situation where he wishes to impress others.
Cassios dismissal is important to the plot as it gives Iago the opportunity to
make Cassios supposed relationship with Desdemona seem more credible.
Iago suggests that Cassio ask Desdemona to intercede on his behalf with
Othello. As a result, Iago can draw Othellos attention to the frequency with
which Cassio and Desdemona are together. He can also use Desdemonas
pleas on Cassios behalf as evidence against her.
The dismissal of Cassio is also important because, if the audience is to retain
any sympathy for Othello, it must find his acceptance of Iagos accusations
believable. By the time that Iago directs his poison against Othello in Act
III, the audience has seen that not only the foolish Roderigo has been duped
by Iago but also the newly-appointed lieutenant.
Furthermore, Montano, the governor of Cyprus, has readily accepted Iagos
slander that Cassio drinks regularly and is a doubtful choice for lieutenant.
No-one questions Iagos friendship for Cassio even though he is the one
who tells Othello about the incident and Cassios role in it. [back]
crude
<
anger
lies
and influence over his general grow. He claims to have heard Cassio talking
in his sleep about his < liaison > with Desdemona. Iago vividly describes
the <
<
bedroom
stages
> a scene with Cassio where he leads Othello to believe that the
122
first gift to her. Emilia, Iagos wife and Desdemonas < handmaid >, finds
it and gives it to her husband. Iago then leaves it in < Cassio >s room,
and Cassio gives it to his lover, Bianca, to copy the < design >. Iago uses
this incident to < convince > Othello that he has seen direct proof of
Desdemonas < unfaithfulness > after he sees Bianca angrily return the
handkerchief to Cassio. By the end of Act IV, Othello has decided that
Cassio must definitely <
die
Desdemona. He even suggests the method: < strangulation >. Lodovico and
< Gratiano >, Desdemonas uncle, arrive from Venice with orders for
< Cassio > to take over command of Cyprus and for Othello to return to
< Venice >. They have arrived too late, however, to < prevent > the
success of Iagos <
plot
obeys
Emilias misgivings. Desdemona lies waiting for him on their < wedding >
sheets. Roderigo, unlike Othello, continues to <
confront Desdemona and will give up his <
suit
doubt
>. He plans to
< jewels > that he believes Iago has given her on his behalf. Iago now
moves swiftly. He < persuades > Roderigo that he has one last chance. If
he wishes Othello and Desdemona to stay in Cyprus and not go away to
< Mauritania >, he must kill < Cassio >. Iago < promises > to support
Roderigo. [back]
Iago hints that there is something worrying in the fact that Cassio
acted as an intermediary in Othellos courtship of Desdemona.
123
The following points are some of the possible reasons why Othello
trusts Iago rather than Emilia or Desdemona:
Othello has been a bachelor and army man for most of his
life. He is used to trusting the men he serves with.
124
Iago rouses Othellos passion by describing Cassios socalled dream in explicit detail to the point where Othello
becomes incapable of viewing things rationally.
Othellos soliloquy
Below is an example of how you might write your journal entry:
This soliloquy shows that Iago has made Othello entertain the possibility that
Desdemona may be unfaithful. At first I will show Othello as being
thoughtful. He is thinking about Iagos reputation for honesty. When he
addresses the audience, he shows no doubt in the reality of that honesty.
Iago has reminded his general of how inexperienced Othello is in the ways
of Venetian society. Othello can recognise the truth of Iagos reminder. He
has total faith in his ensign whom he has fought with many times on the
battlefield. However, his faith in Iago has also forced him to acknowledge
the possibility that Desdemona could be unfaithful. He explores how he
would feel if Iagos accusations were true.
Othellos belief in his own nobility and importance is still secure at this point
in the play. There is almost something impersonal in the way he reflects on
how he would act if she were indeed unfaithful. His opening metaphor is
drawn from falconry, a pursuit of the nobility in Elizabethan and Jacobean
England. Later in the speech he equates himself with the great ones whose
fate it is to be cuckolded by those who are inferior to them.
125
[back]
her isolation from all of her family and friends in Venice and the fact
that she is living as one of only two women in a remote military
encampment. [back]
Act V synopsis
Act V opens with the attack on < Cassio >. Roderigos sword fails to
pierce Cassios <
coat
successfully murders < Roderigo >. He also attacks Cassio but only
wounds him in the <
leg
126
the aid of < Cassio > when they feel sure they are not in danger
themselves. <
Iago
Othello, passing nearby, hears Cassios desperate cries of < Murder >
and believes that Iago has < avenged > his honour as planned. He then
vows to go and kill < Desdemona > immediately. Desdemona pleads for
her life but Othello remains <
firm
her < beauty >, he remains deaf to her insistence that she is < innocent >
of betraying him by having an affair with < Cassio >. Othello < strangles >
her. Emilia calls from outside the door to tell of the attack on < Roderigo >
and Cassio. She discovers her mistress dead. Her cries bring < Montano >,
Gratiano and < Iago >. An incredulous Emilia learns that her it was her
huband, Iago, who incited Othello to < kill > Desdemona. She reveals
too late that she found the < handkerchief > and gave it to Iago. Iago
murders his wife to silence her. His efforts to < protect > himself are in
vain, however, as Roderigo had < letters > in his pocket that reveal the
ensigns < guilt >. When Othello tries to attack Iago, he is < disarmed >.
He has another < sword >, however, which he uses to kill < himself >.
He is left to speak his own <
< Cyprus > and Iago is condemned to < torture >. [back]
127
Still concerned to uphold his reputation and good name at the end of the
play, Othello chooses suicide as the only honourable option left open to him
after he learns that Desdemona is innocent. [back]
New values
128
[back]
Othello
[back]
129