Explore the ways Shakespeare presents Iago, Othello, Desdemona and their relationships to his audience in the first act of the

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Explore the ways Shakespeare presents Iago, Othello, Desdemona and their relationships to his audience in the first act of the play. What hints does he give of the tragedy which is to follow?

    From the very beginning of the play ‘Othello’ Shakespeare presents the friendship between Iago and Othello as a lie. Shakespeare makes us see that Iago is only pretending to serve Othello for his own ends and following this on, Othello completely trusts Iago and is able to speak in confidence with him. All the way through the play, Shakespeare shapes the audiences response to make us want to like or dislike them, admire or have sympathy for them. From the moment the play opens, Shakespeare gives us a negative impression of Iago. Shakespeare presents Iago to us as a dishonest and false-hearted character. In contrast, Othello has been presented as an articulate and persuasive character. In the play we are able to see his calm reaction to a very heated disagreement and this to the audience creates a positive impression. Desdemona is presented as a very feminine and elegant character that is but not confident just ‘bold of spirit’. Shakespeare creates strong dramatic irony in the play which creates suspense and makes the play more exciting for the audience, through Iago’s conversations with Roderigo and soliloquies.

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   Many of Shakespeare’s plays highlight the very high importance in Shakespeare’s day of a woman being ‘chaste’. This was very vital for women in Shakespeare’s day. This means that a woman must not have any extra marital sex of any sort. Before she was married she was to be kept as a virgin and whilst she is married, she must not have sex with another man apart from her husband. If any of these rules was to be broken, she would become a total outcast and would be difficult to be accepted again by her family. Iago used this ...

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