1: With few exceptions, Iago is always referred to as "honest Iago." Using this phrase is an act of justification for the characters, as many times the characters refer to Iago this way they are involved in some action that they are unsure about. This mentality is a "Freudian slip" of sorts, and the characters are looking for a way to view their own actions as honest.
A few potential passages to look at: (pages referenced are from the Dover edition)
- pg. 36 Cassio is concerned about his good name, Iago refers to himself as honest
- pg. 26 Cassio decides to go to Desdemona and says "I will beseech . . . [her] to undertake for me
- pg. 40 Iago says he will get Othello "out of the way" so Cassio can be with her
- It also could be worthwhile to look at some psychology studies and find information on the "Freudian slip" idea.
2: In Shakespeare's Othello, the title character is a Moor, and there are many references in the text to blackness and dark. Color plays an important role in the text and serves as a metaphor for the darkening nature of Othello as well as his color.
3: Because Othello is a Moor, it stands to reason that the actors that play him should be black. But according to Stanley Wells' "Dictionary of Shakespeare" the first performance with a black man in the title role wasn't until between 1826 and 1853. Richard Burt wrote an article on racial integration in the performance of Shakespeare's works and how the black community responded.
- I am having a harder time developing the preceding ideas than I did the first one. I am struggling to make it argumentative and find research to support it.
- Maybe I could look at costuming?
4: In his work Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human Harold Bloom teaches that it is because of Shakespeare that we know how to be human. The relationships in Hamlet show the benefits and problems that can arise because of good and poor communication. It emphasizes the importance of trust and communication.
A few potential details to discuss:
- pg. 69 "Are you honest?" speech
- The handkerchief
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Moving forward to selecting a topic, I am thinking of combining my first and third claims and making a case for the importance of communication and honesty, and talk about the results of poor communication (obviously the death of Desdemona, the deception, self-justification (by the characters and Iago), etc.
Any insights?
I like the idea of combining 1 and 3 but I LOVE the ideas involved in 2. The idea that your thoughts and actions darken the way that others perceive you is so intriguing to me. (It may just be the Halloween theme but I doubt it. ;) ) And especially as you are looking to teach at the secondary level it could be an interesting moral topic to discuss how someone's actions define their character and how that changes how they are perceived by others. It may not be physically apparent at first but slowly people start to notice. (For example in Much Ado About Nothing Don John's actions initially go unnoticed but then then he is eventually caught.)
ReplyDeleteAre you planning on using only Othello? It would be good as far as pedagogy goes to focus on only one play, but it might be interesting to include other plays as you develop your ideas about communication and trust, since Shakespeare is full of good and bad examples of both. There might be some good sonnets on those topics, too.
ReplyDeleteI personally love the idea of using more than one play for any Shakespeare study. I could see why you'd want to stick with one mainly for the sake of students who would only be studying one play at a time, and wouldn't be as familiar with Shakespeare, but in that way it might actually be really beneficial to use other plays, like in a classroom you might tell your students about some things in another play and they'll be learning more than if you just stuck with the one. In short, I'd recommend incorporating some other works as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what has been said! I think a big strength that we can have as teachers is allowing our students to gain some breadth in what they study... maybe Othello won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if we let students explore other aspects of Shakespeare they may find something that speaks to them. I think Othello is great for this, because it brings up such universal ideas that are still really relevant today and in student's lives-- like others I think you should use this to your advantage. Use Othello as your main tool and then supplement the research and planning with other works that could be related (maybe even non-Shakespeare works, or modern-day takes on Shakespeare). I think you're off to a good and engaging start!
ReplyDeleteI think these are all good points. Have any of you read plays that could fit in this theme of honesty/communication?
ReplyDelete