Be sure to re-read the play, even if you read it earlier this year for Core!

Questions for Monday the 29th
1.  Compare the various characters' ideas about why Desdemona married Othello: What is Brabantio's theory? What does Iago think (or say that he thinks) of her motives? What reasons does she herself give? What does Othello think her reasons were?

2. Why are there so many different answers to question #3? What is the dramatic effect of there being so many answers?  Can more than one of them be correct simultaneously?

3.  Medieval and Renaissance Christians often identified three purposes for marriage:  it was 1) for procreation, to generate new Christian souls and to bring them up in faith; this purpose is based on the passage in Genesis where God tells all creatures to "be fruitful and multiply";  2) for "mutual conversation," that is, to fulfill the pronouncement in Genesis that it is not good for man to be alone, and that woman is made as a "help meet for him"; and 3) as a remedy for lust, an alternative to fornication; this purpose is based on St. Paul's 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 7, where he says that it is preferable to remain a virgin, "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let eery man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. . . . it is better to marry than to burn." (verses 2, 9).  None of these purposes necessarily involves romantic love, though #2 comes close.  Do any of them seem relevant to the love and marriage of Desdemona and Othello?

4. Analyze Othello's character as military man. To what extent are his personality and his self-definition defined by his sense of himself as a soldier? To what extent is his approach to love and marriage affected by his soldierly identity?  Pay particularly close attention to I. iii, II.iii.

Questions for Wednesday the 31st:

1.  Reconsider question #4 above in light of Act V, scene ii.

2. What is Iago's attitude toward human sexuality? To what extent does that attitude determine his character? To what extent does his view eventually affect Othello's attitude?

3. III.iii is famous for its conclusion, in which Iago and Othello commit themselves to each other in a parody of wedding vows. Is the scene leading up to those vows a kind of wooing or seduction? Compare the account that Othello gives (in I. iii) of how he won Desdemona's love.

4.  Study with particular attention Othello's speech about the handkerchief at III.iv. 55-75. Analyze the imagery; delve deeply into the language he uses, noting sound patterns, puns, rhythm; consider both the literal meaning and the subtle connotations or implications of specific words. What does the handkerchief mean to Othello on a conscious level? On a subconscious level? How does the handkerchief help to define the nature of love?  Carefully note and interpret any echoes of images, themes, or ideas from earlier in the play.

5.  IV.ii. 19-94 is often referred to as the "brothel scene." Why is this an appropriate name for it? What is the dramatic effect of this scene?

Remember that a paper is due today. You may write an analytic essay on any of the works we've read since the midterm examination.

1. In Renaissance Europe and England, the sheets from the bridal bed were sometimes hung out for all to see the spots of blood shed by the virgin bride when her hymen was broken on the wedding night.  The white sheets with the red blood stains were a symbol and proof of the bride's virginity.  Note Desdemona's reference to her wedding sheets in Act 4, scene 3 and compare the sheets' symbolic function to that of the handkerchief.  

2.  In the soliloquy that begins Act 5, scene 2, Othello's attitude has clearly shifted.  He is no longer raging as he was before.  What do we learn from this speech?  How does Othello himself define the act he will commit in killing Desdemona?  How does this definition affect the reader's or audience-member's sense of his character? Of the nature of his love?

3.  Analyze the role Emilia plays in the drama. How does she compare to her husband? To Desdemona?

4.  The epistles of St. Paul emphasize the subordination of the wife to her husband. In Ephesians 5: 22-29, Paul sets up two interrelated analogies: wife is to husband as body is to head, for wife is to husband as the Church is to Christ, and Christ is the head of the Church. ("Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.") Be prepared to discuss the relationships in Othello in light of this passage: consider the marriage of Emilia and Iago and that of Othello and Desdemona. Consider also Othello's relationship to his Christian faith and his attitude toward "his own flesh."