| Shakespeare Birth & Death | Born: April 23, 1564Death: April 28, 1616 |
| Shakespeare Birthplace | on Henley Street, Stratford – upon – Avon, Warwickshire, England |
| Who was Shakespeare’s Wife | Anne Hathaway; married at 18+-; 8 years his elder |
| Shakespeare’s Children | Suzanna/ Judith + Hamnet (died at 11; twins) |
| Shakespeare in London | Moved 1592; wrote sonnets (theaters were shut down); |
| Shakespeare’s 1st Acting Company | Lord Chambermen’s Group |
| What happened in 1599? | Built the Globe Theatre; burnt down because of a cannon misfire |
| Shakespeare’s 2nd Acting Company | Kingsmen |
| Shakespeare’s number and types of plays | 37; tragedy (classical focuses on the role of FATE), history, comedy |
| Shakespeare’s number and type of sonnets | 154; about fair youth; dark lady (darker poems – Tragedies) |
| Shakespeare’s words | coined more than 3000 words |
| Shakespeare’s type of writing style | Blank verse: no rhyme scheme; 5 units, memorable, sounds like the heart |
| Shakespeare’s being remarkable | would take a one page story and turn it into a long 3 – 5 act play with events and emotions mixed into it; use of language –> uneducated people like it because it’s raunchy but educated people like it because of the amount of sophistication; integrated types of psychology into it |
| Where did Shakespeare get most of his poetics? | Aristotle: |
| What does Aristotle say that Art is? | An imitation of Reality; encapsulated existence |
| Tragic Hero | Person born of Nobel/Royal character; Hamartia (tragic flaw); Peripeteia (reversal of fortune); Pathos (uncommon suffering); Anagorisis (self-realization); |
| What is Catharsis? | Compassion and fear |
| What is Othello’s full name | Othello: Moor of Venice (“we open, in Venice / the next play / paroma / then on to / cramona . . .) |
| When was the first performace of Othello | 1604 (written in 1603) |
| What is Othello about? | A Moorish general who falls in love with a Venetian, aristocratic woman and is tricked into thinking she was unfaithful |
| What did Othello originate from? | Cinthio; a short Italian story |
| Where was Othello set? | Act 1: Venic: 1500sAct 2-5: Cyprus: outside the moral, social codes of Venice; savage place |
| What was Venice like in the 1500s? | a cultural centre; powerful empire that spanned the Mediterranian coast; the pleasure capital of Europe |
| Why/What did the Turks and Venice fight (over)? | land, honor, money, religionConflicts: Christian vs. Muslim; European vs. Foreign; “Civilized” vs. Barbarian/Savage (we see a connection to Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart here) |
| What is a Moor? | a man of arab and caucasian decent; the “Moor of Venice” : a North african man, well – educated, raised Muslim but converted and baptized Christian as an adult |
| 8th Century Moorish art | Does not have humans or animals in it –> insulting; all geometric shapes |
| What is a Moor of Barbary | a darker skin, but not black like a native of the Congo (moor or Blackamoor) |
| What did Queen Elizabeth Proclaim in 1596? | “Her Majesty understanding that several blackamoors have lately been brought into this realm, of which kind of people there are already too many here . . . her Majesty’s pleasure therefore is that those kind of people should be expelled from this land” Attitude: Racism. Bigotry. Fear of outsiders. Xenophobia She pretty much wanted to get rid of all of the “blacks” |
| Moors in Elizabethan England | A moor like Othello in this time would be viewed with the same curiosity, fascination, fear, and hate |
| Shakespeare’s Time Schemes | Double time scheme; plays are suppose to take place within one revolution of the sun, but this one was 3 days in 5 acts = Confusion |
| Main Chatacters of Othello | OtHELLo; DesDEMONa (greek for unlucky); Brabantio; Cassio; Iago; Roderigo; Emilia; Blanca |
| Themes of Othello | Love, Jealousy, Manipulation, Loyalty + Honor; Trust; The “other”; Violence |
| Motifs in Othello | Color, Water, Plants, Satan, Slaves, Music, Lightness vs. Darkness; Vision; Animals; Poison; Disease vs. Medicine |
Othello Background Info
September 10, 2019