Act 1, Scene 1

Act 1, Scene 1

1. AO2

   • Argumentive tone
     • Foreshadows conflict
   • Motifs
     • Light and Dark
     • Hell and Devil
     • Poison
   • Animalistic imagery
     • Zoomorphism
   • Metaphor
     • "Old black ram is tupping your white ewe"
   • Sexual Language
   • Racial slurs
   • Dramatic Irony
   • symbolism
   • Possesive prounoun
   • Foreshadowing
   • Biblical allusion

2. Plot

   • Starts in the city of Venice at night
   • Iago is bitter about not getting the promotion
     • Iago mocks cassio
   • Iago is not all he seems
   • they wake Brabantio and tell him about the marriage

3. AO3

   • Desdemona presented as property reveals the patriarchal context of the play
   • The physical description needed to be verbal
     • In Elizabethan time there were no black actors
   • Reducing Othello to a ram denotes him to a position below humanity in the great chain og being
     • Shocking for Elizabethan who believe god set order for everything
   • They believed black men had an animal like hyper sexuality
   • Slavery hadn't yet been fully introduced in England
   • Exodus- Iagos echoes statement made by God to Moses
   • Elizabethans believed a black man was a decendent of Cannon
     • Therefore associated with the devil

4. AO4

   • Tragic Villain
     • Iago
   • Tragic Victims
     • Othello and Desdemona
   • Revenge Tragedy
   • Fate
   • Machiavellian

5. Themes

   • Jealousy
   • Good vs Evil
   • Prejudice
   • Manhood
     • Honour
     • Reputation
   • Revenge
   • Appearance vs Reality

6. Significance

   • Introduces Iago as the tragic Villain
   • Introduces the theme of jealousy
   • Introduces the context of the play