Ahmed's Milestone 1 Presentation.

Brief Summary of Othello

This is one of the great tragedy themed plays by Shakespeare. Othello is a highly esteemed general of Venice. Iago is Othello's ambitious friend to him when Iago really is deadly jealous of him. Othello promotes the position of Lieutenant to Michael Cassio and Iago's hate grows for Othello even more so he begins to an evil and malicious campaign against the hero. Othello elopes with Desdemona daughter of Barbainto a rich politician of Venice. So Iago plots against them by telling Othello lies, he tells him that his wife is cheating on him with Cassio. He begins to be suspicious and believes Iago. Othello returns to the castle and kills his wife. Emelia, Iago's wife knows everything and tells Othello he then wounds Iago and kills himself.

Othello & Iago

Othello the Moor is the main character of the play. The hero of the play, as in Shakespeare’s day, racism was common and non white characters were generally described as ignorant or evil. He is also an unusual hero in that he is hurt with a condition that causes fits of rage and image. The tragedy of the character is that, even though he is a brave and brilliant man, he brings about his own death by allowing ego and fear to rule him.                                                                                                                                                                Iago is Othello's most trusted regent. At the beginning of the play, Iago claims to have been unfairly passed over for promotion to the rank of Othello's lieutenant in favour of Michael Cassio. Iago plots to make Othello lower Cassio, and thereafter to bring about the downfall of Othello himself. After Iago plans an evil act to ensure Cassios reduction. he sets to work on his second plan: leading Othello to believe that his wife, Desdemona, is having an affair with Cassio.
Summary of our scene

In our scene Iago is playing Othello's insecurities about Desdemona. He gets Othello to believe him. He builds up his suspicion by manipulating him through words as Iago is very smart and eventually Othello believes him and follows his false thoughts which is the fact that he is black and old Desdemona wouldn't like him.

Themes in Othello.

Jealousy - Othello is the most famous plays that focuses on the dangers of jealousy. The play is a study of how jealousy can be fueled by mere circumstantial evidence and can destroy lives. In Othello, the hero succumbs to jealousy when Iago convinces him that Desdemona has been an unfaithful wife – in the end, Othello murders his wife and then kills himself. It is interesting that Iago uses jealousy against Othello, yet jealousy is likely the source of Iago's hatred in the first place. In Othello, jealousy takes many forms, from sexual suspicion to professional competition, but it is, in all cases, destructive.

Marriage - The play begins with a conflict between Desdemona's husband and her father, who sees his daughter's elopement as a kind of theft of his personal property. The play's two wives Desdemona and Emilia are both unfairly accused of infidelity, and both wives are murdered by their abusive husbands. More famously, perhaps, is the way Shakespeare examines sixteenth-century anxieties about interracial couplings – in Othello, the marriage of a black man and a white woman allows Shakespeare to explore attitudes about race and gender. As it was disgrace for the audience for one of them to marry someone who's black.

Identity - Shakespeare explores factors that play an important role in the formations of one's identity, race, gender, social status, family relationships, military service, etc. Othello is also concerned with how an individual's sense of identity which can break down and be manipulated by others shapes his or her actions.
Again, racism - it could make its contemporary audience think that black people are not as bad as they thought they were.

I believe these themes were very relevant to Shakespeare's audience because religious tension in England during this period, the historical public context which it was written would have contributed to a very negative reaction by the audience to the marriage.

The relevance of the play for both audience of today and then is the fact that Shakespeare's message in Othello is very important to us. You need to be able to trust your significant other and they need to able to trust you.

16th and 17th Century Performance Conditions

The stage was covered with straw or rushes. There may have been a painted wall with trees and hedges, or a castle interior with practicable furniture. A placard announced the scene. The audience was near and could view the stage from three sides, so that no "picture" was possible. Verbal cues given for location and setting as there was no props or scenery

Public performances generally took place in the afternoon, beginning about three o'clock and lasting perhaps two hours. (very fast paced, Hamlet took 2 hours to perform) Candles were used when daylight began to fade. The beginning of the play was announced by the hoisting of a flag and the blowing of a trumpet. There were playbills, those for tragedy being printed in red. Often after a serious piece a short farce was also given; and at the close of the play the actors, on their knees, recited an address to the king or queen. The price of entrance varied with the theatre, the play, and the actors; but it was roughly a penny to sixpence for the pit, up to half a crown for a box. A three-legged stool on the stage at first cost sixpence extra; but this price was later doubled.

 This is something Iago would be wearing at the time.
Shakespearean actors who performed at The Globe theater were paid anywhere from three shillings a week to two shillings a day. A few of the actors became part owners of the theaters and became very wealthy.

original stage for Othello.

Differences:

•  at the time audience would eat and talk throughout the performance it wouldn't be a problem because theatre was consider as a time passing entertainment and it was not a big deal.

• They used sun light for the performace and all performances were held in the afternoon
• women were not allowed to perform on stage so women characters were always played by men.

• the plays used little scenery, they have used language to set the scenes.

 The acting society & Actors:

• theatre companies were always busy performing about 6 plays a week with only having a short period of rehearsals.
• actors had to work extremely hard and learn their lines as soon as it was handed to them
• Actors have only recieved their characters lines without know their que or what the story was about they had to perform.
• Actors had no staging crew, so everything that was needed for the peformance they had to find and desgin for themseleves.