Reminders:  

Commentary on Othello passage

•   Remember first to place the passage in context of the play -- picking out its significance in terms of plot, development of character, etc.   You may have forgotten this as we have been looking at poems.  

•   Remember to have an organized approach to the order of comment, and to make your approach clear before you launch into it.    aspect by aspect or part by part.   If the latter, establish the overall structure first, and then make it clear that you will examine it part by part.  

•   Remember that you must comment on everything -- on plot, character, themes, language, dramatic effect . . . .   on everything!

•   Remember that you must focus your attention on the 40 lines in front of you, and refer directly to lines and words -- close textual comment!   However, if images, methods of characterization etc. are part of a pattern that runs through the play, you must link the specific example in front of you to the overall pattern.   (e.g.   image:   animals or heaven/hell.   e.g.   soliloquy as a recurring device for Iago)

Theo and I gave you a summary sheet entitled "Some Recurring Issues."   Study it.  

Some recurring images to bring quickly to mind.   They are, of course, interconnected:

•   heaven/hell.   fiends.   role of Des & Iago

•   white/black.   race.   heaven/hell

•   animal imagery -- chain of being

•   appetite -- passions, sexual feeding

•   reputation, honour

•   appearance vs reality

•   wit vs witchcraft,   magic

•   order vs chaos.   symbolic geography of Cyprus beset by Turks, Othello and D's ordered love beset by Iago's manipulation

•   music, harmony -- music of spheres

Don't forget to comment on:

•   sentence order and pattern -- imperative command?   interjection?   question?   long sentences, or short, broken ones?  

•   pauses and stresses -- mid-line break?   end-stopped lines?   enjambement?  

• use of iambic pentameter or prose

•   imagery

•   tactics of persuasion, argument

AND BE SURE THAT YOU'RE NOT JUST LISTING FEATURES, BUT AT THE SAME TIME COMMENTING ON THE EFFECT

Reminders:  

Commentary on Othello passage

•   Remember first to place the passage in context of the play -- picking out its significance in terms of plot, development of character, etc.   You may have forgotten this as we have been looking at poems.  

•   Remember to have an organized approach to the order of comment, and to make your approach clear before you launch into it.    aspect by aspect or part by part.   If the latter, establish the overall structure first, and then make it clear that you will examine it part by part.  

•   Remember that you must comment on everything -- on plot, character, themes, language, dramatic effect . . . .   on everything!

•   Remember that you must focus your attention on the 40 lines in front of you, and refer directly to lines and words -- close textual comment!   However, if images, methods of characterization etc. are part of a pattern that runs through the play, you must link the specific example in front of you to the overall pattern.   (e.g.   image:   animals or heaven/hell.   e.g.   soliloquy as a recurring device for Iago)

Theo and I gave you a summary sheet entitled "Some Recurring Issues."   Study it.  

Some recurring images to bring quickly to mind.   They are, of course, interconnected:

•   heaven/hell.   fiends.   role of Des & Iago

•   white/black.   race.   heaven/hell

•   animal imagery -- chain of being

•   appetite -- passions, sexual feeding

•   reputation, honour

•   appearance vs reality

•   wit vs witchcraft,   magic

•   order vs chaos.   symbolic geography of Cyprus beset by Turks, Othello and D's ordered love beset by Iago's manipulation

•   music, harmony -- music of spheres

Don't forget to comment on:

•   sentence order and pattern -- imperative command?   interjection?   question?   long sentences, or short, broken ones?  

•   pauses and stresses -- mid-line break?   end-stopped lines?   enjambement?  

• use of iambic pentameter or prose

•   imagery

•   tactics of persuasion, argument

AND BE SURE THAT YOU'RE NOT JUST LISTING FEATURES, BUT AT THE SAME TIME COMMENTING ON THE EFFECT