Othello part 1: ‘O, Beware, my Lord, of Jealousy’
Episode 205:
Last time Ben Jonson’s retelling of a slice of Roman Imperial history failed to impress at the Globe theatre. As an actor in that play Shakespeare had first-hand experience of the way the audience in the theatre could turn on the poet and the players alike, but it is difficult to think that his confidence in his own work was much dented by the experience. His next play ‘The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice’ is, I would say, brim full of the confidence of an experienced playwright who knew that his play would both entertain on several levels and provoke much thought in the audience.
The dating and first performance of the play
The early publication history of the play
Details from a performance in 1610
The source material for the play
The structure of the play
The significance of Venice and Cyprus
The structural balances in the play
The poetry and imagery in the play
The use of language as a dramatic technique
The urgency of the opening of the play
The character of Iago and how he manipulates his victims
The character of Brabantio
What the Elizabethan audience might have thought of a ‘moor’
Queen Elizabeth’s attitude to immigrants from Africa
How Shakespeare handled the racial aspects of the play
The character of Micheal Cassio
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