Why does Shakespeare delay Othello's entrance in Act 1 of the play? In your opinion, are his motives for doing so effective?
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Introduction
OTHELLO Why does Shakespeare delay Othello's entrance in Act 1 of the play? In your opinion, are his motives for doing so effective? In this piece of coursework I will be looking at the reasons why Shakespeare delayed Othello's entrance until Scene 2 of Act 1 in the play. I will also look at points such as the audience's perception of Iago, and our views of Othello before and after his entrance. I will also talk about the historical, social and cultural contexts and I will look at critical opinions, authorial intentions and language analysis. Othello is set in the early 17th Century when Shakespeare (the playwright) was in his middle ages. The location it was set in was Venice (a pleasurable, tranquil place) and Cyprus (a bad atmospheric, violent place). In the first scene in Act 1, we see Iago and Roderigo talking to each other. Iago is the character telling us all about Othello. The word often used to describe him is 'the Moor'. ...read more.
Middle
This makes the audience slowly agree with these characters, and we believe that Othello is a nasty man. The reason Iago speaks with such poison is because of jealousy that Michael Cassio was promoted to Othello's lieutenant rather than Iago, who is still an ensign. Another reason is that Iago thinks that Othello was having an affair with his wife, we do not know if this is actually true though. Shakespeare has used Iago's character to tell these lies so immediately when we see the kind of person Othello really is, the audience will doubt Iago's honesty and not trust him as much, with this tool, Shakespeare is slowly revealing the audience his plot and the machiavellian mind of Iago. Roderigo and Iago go to Brabantio's house who is the father of the woman (Desdemona) that Othello is in love with. They confront him and tell him about the relationship between the two people and Brabantio is absolutely furious. ...read more.
Conclusion
His status slowly rises as we see more and more of his true self. Yet bit by bit, Iago is slowly manipulating Othello's mind making him seem more and more evil as the thought of Desdemona having an affair becomes more and more realistic. Through this manoeuvring we can see Othello's covetous and infuriated side which is not to be dealt with otherwise we would see him become very vicious. To conclude, in my opinion, Shakespeare's motives for delaying Othello's entrance were effective. I am not racist but the use of language displayed in the first scene was very triumphant in making us despise this character that we had not yet met. He was also successful in making the audience be hesitant of Iago's honesty. This was effective for the play because it was unusual and it played with the audiences mind. 1 Act 1, Sc 1, Line 66 2 Act 1, Sc 1, Line 126 3 Act 1, Sc 1, Line 88-89 4 Act 1, Sc 1, Line 160 5 Act 1, Sc 2, Line 25 6 Act 1, Sc 3, Line 60-61 7 Act1, Sc 3, Line 91-94 Sarah Troy, 2835 ...read more.
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