The Purpose of this Blog

Your task on this blog is to write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was ill or missed the lesson can catch up with what they missed. Over the course of the term, these 'class scribe' posts will grow to be a guide book for the course, written by students for students.

With each post ask yourself the following questions:
1) Is this good enough for our guide book?
2) Will your post enable someone who wasn't here to catch up?
3) Would a graphic/video/link help to illustrate what we have learned?


Wednesday 24 November 2010

23rd November ’10, Tuesday

Othello: Act 3 Scene 3 the tipping point scene.

We started the lesson with an activity that was writing 3 words on each of the 6 pictures that were put up on the board. These pictures showed various things like love, manipulation, pouring of pestilence into Othello’s ear etc. After that we focused on line 229 spoken by Othello of Act 3 Scene 3 i.e. “And yet how nature erring from itself-“ this break in his sentence shows that he is losing the flow in his speech and also shows that the Othello is no more the one who could stop fights with his words. We then went through Othello’s soliloquy which marks the change in Othello i.e. in the words he uses and his behaviour.

We then continued reading Scene 3 and reached an important part of the play i.e. the dropping of the handkerchief by Desdemona. The handkerchief was the first gift that Othello had given to Desdemona. The handkerchief is the main tool used by Iago to bring about the tragedy that he wanted. The next important thing in Scene 3 is the use of Imperatives (commands/orders) by Iago on pg: 119 these give us ideas about Iago which state that he doesn’t love Emilia instead he uses her as a tool, it might also be an hint of homosexuality or the status of women in those times.

Then the course of action is set up by Othello when he asks Iago for visual proof of Desdemona cheating on him. We continued reading and we found that Othello is now in conflict with himself. He has also started making use of violent imagery and antithesis which shows Iago’s influence on him. Iago in his next line i.e.” I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion.” Sums up what has happened to Othello.

As we continue reading we came across a pentameter split (they share the verse, they come together on the basis of their thoughts) between Iago and Othello. And we see a massive change in Othello when he says: “I’ll tear her all into pieces!” at the end of pg: 125, this line of Othello comes in contrast with his line on pg: 115 where he says: “If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself; I’ll not believe it.” This shift in Othello’s thoughts within the span of 150 lines becomes an evidence for his minds instability. We read through the whole of Scene 3 and came across powerful imagery and few lines like “Do not rise yet” which show that Iago is the one in power now.

• For Home Work : Make a flow chart of Act 3 Scene 3 showing the way Othello shifts from being confident in Desdemona to being confident in Iago.
• Read the sheet given by Sir a few classes ago.
• Comment on this blog.
Akanksha

7 comments:

  1. I think that this scene is pretty much the key scene for tipping point in Othello

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  2. I think this scene is the point where Othello pretty much sells himself to the devil...IAGO, his lack of faith in Desdemona is what causes tragedy.

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  3. the flow chart reveals a lot about Othello and how he changes.

    Daniel and Saways (no homo).-

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  4. Really good blog. The lesson was very interesting.And we are getting to know that Iago is turning into a bad person.

    Yahaya.

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  5. I think the play will take a drastic turn after Act 3 Scene 3. othello's duality will be shown significantly from this point onwards.

    Chris W

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  6. I think that this scene shows just how insecure Othello actually is .


    Esmeralda ;)

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  7. good blog, it tells us exactly what we did in that lesson for those who were not in
    Tamsin

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