Villains, villains, villains...

Hello class, welcome to my second blog post of the year. (Sorry for the delay)

During our last English Literature lesson of this half term we looked at the controversial topic of 'Villains'. As we came into the classroom we were asked to write down what makes a good villain in our own opinions.
Here are some of the points I came up with :

A good villain is someone who uses people's flaws and discrete weaknesses to bring them down, as opposed to brute strength.
A successful villain is always more complex and generally intriguing than the hero.
There must be a valid reason as to why the anti-hero became a villain in the first place.
Villains are not bound by any rules, the way heroes are, which is truly fascinating because technically anyone can be a villain is we let go of our boundaries.

Next, in groups of three, or in some cases four, we looked at Iago's soliloquy from Act 2 Scene 3 (which you can find on page 87 of the 'Othello' book), after reading his speech in turns we then decided upon the most important word from each line. This is what my group ended up with:

play
honest
thinking
win
subdue
framed
element
renounce
redeemed
infiltrated
unmake
God
villain
counsel
divinity
devils
suggest
fool
Desdemona
pleads
pestilence
lust
strives
credit
virtue
net
enmesh

The point of this exercise was for us to see what Iago's speech reveals about him as a character, here he talks about playing the role of the villain which suggests that in reality he might only be acting evil. Another thing that comes through in his soliloquy is the Iago's dual personality as at some points he talks of his monstrous plan of bringing Othello down through Cassio and Desdemona, however he then goes on to talk about the valid advise that he has given to Cassio in order for him to get his position back.A conclusion that I, personally came to is that, although Iago has the greatest iteraction with the audience, as he is the only character who directly speaks to the public we know nothing about him. He is very much hidden away behind the mask on a villain.

Mr Sadgrove then introduced the class to the literary concept of antithesis. According to dictionary.com antithesis is :

opposition; contrast: the antithesis of right and wrong.

the direct opposite (usually fol. by of or to ): Her behavior was the very antithesis of cowardly.

Rhetoric .
a. the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas, as in “Give me liberty or give me death.”

b. the second sentence or part thus set in opposition, as “or give me death.”

The use of antithesis confirms the idea that Iago posseses a dual-personality, we can also see throught his linguistic flexability, more specificaly- his ability to change from speaking in verse to prose. This means that he can adapt to any situation, whether it requires him so speak to someone of a higher status like Othello or a commoner like Roderigo.

Earlier during the lesson Mr Sadgrove asked us whether we thought Iago was a believable character or just a dramatic devise that Shakespeare uses to move the narrative along. We came to the conlcusion that we would possibly understand Iago better at the end of the play, when his motives might finally be revealed, because at this point he remains a mystery.

We then listened to the rest of Act 2 Scene 3.

Finnaly, we were asked to write down three things that we had learned about Iago as a villain thins lesson, two questions we had about him and analogy for Iago.

Now the part you've all been waiting for- the homework.

1. Complete the worksheet titled 'Analysing Iago's soliloquy Act 2 Scene 3 Lines 303 - 329'.

2. Write an essay on 'What does Iago's soliloquy reveal about him as a tragic villain?

-Refer to Renaissance views of what tragedy is and the role of a tragic villain.
(Research Machiavelli and Machiavellian villains) (AO4)

-Analyse language, structure and form in detail
(Refer to antithesis, repetition, imagery, rhyming couplets etc) (AO2)

Show that you are aware of different interpretations other than your own.


That is all, hope you all enjoy your holidays because they won't last for long.

Much love,

Aleksandra...

Seeds of Tragedy (5/10/10)

We started off the lesson with a task involving facebook updates, but of course, no actual facebook. We were asked to write a comment about Othello, based on what we know, and literally give any opinion about him that came to mind. A few opinions were given, but cause I’m not that fast of a scribe I’ll share my opinion: that Othello is a man of false modesty, as he often talks down about himself and his achievements, but then quotes the in his favour, and possibly even pride, to boost his footing when describing his tale to the Duke.We then discussed a few things to do with writing essays, which when simplified comes out as:

• Use examples from the text, in quotes, and then integrate them into the Essay.
• Stay on task, and don’t ramble. Be sure to always link back to the question.
• Use Word-Level Analysis, basically analyse the words in the quotes with exquisite detail
• Be sure to paragraph, organise your points into them to make it flow, rather than stutter.

After that was discussed, we started, and hopefully finished this task- that if done properly, could be a paragraph in our impending essay
(Mentioned later on):
Task: What does Othello’s Speech reveal about him in both public and private terms?
• Use evidence from the speech, integrate it, then analyse it in detail
• Write at least half a page.

Just put that in there to (1) Take up space, and (2) Fill in anyone who wasn’t there to ‘experience’ it. I recommend doing this for practice if you weren’t there, due to what happened next... We then did the ‘Two Stars and Wish’ system, where we reviewed our own work and decided upon two good points and one thing that we need to work on- which would in turn help us with the essays.

As a fun example, I put my stars as:
• Successfully integrated evidence into the text
• Linked to the question, to a questionable degree of success.

And my Wish was:
• Could have analysed d in much more detail, and should get in more practice to help out with that. And of course, get to the point faster.

Then we went through more of Scene 1 in Othello, and I’m pretty sure that we finished it. We all came across some interesting points whilst going through and here’s what I got down. From Lines 187-196, Brabantio gives his speech about Desdemona, and uses repetition to emphasise his broken heart- the repeating of ‘I have done’ and ‘All my Heart’ show how he has given up on his daughter altogether, and from his speech we can see how dramatically this has affected him. Then we were informed that we are attune to any changes in the situation, and this affects our mood- like a change in lighting or music in a movie may signal an approaching terror or upcoming joy. This is seen when the Duke speaks to Brabantio about the situation with Desdemona and Othello, as he uses a rhyming couplet, in verse, to signal the end of the situation, and alert us to a change in tone. For those of you who are interested, this was:

“To mourn the mischief that is past and gone”
“Is the next way to draw mischief on”

This can be observed again after that point, when that particular issue is brought up. It can be speculated that this is a differentiation from ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ affairs.


Now for some quick notes about various helpful thingies:
• Dramatic Irony: When the Audience clearly knows more than a character on stage. Can be seen when Othello proclaims Iago as “a man of honesty and trust”, and at various other points..
• Prose: Normal Speech, as me or you would talk.
• Verse: 10 Beats per line, and possibly rhyming. Can be seen to signal a change of tone.
• Soliloquy: A speech in which a character, alone on the stage, expresses his thoughts and feelings.

And finally, the H/W was:
Essay 1: How does Act 1 of Othello establish the tragedy?

• AO1 – Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts and coherent, accurate written expression.
• AO2 – Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts.
• AO3 – Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers.
• AO4 – Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received.

Also, things to consider for your Essays may be:
• Iago as a Character/ 2 Faced? Using Roderigo, Manipulating Brabantio? Villainous?
• Racial Language/Stereotypes
• Othello’s name unused for the entirety of Scene 1
• Othello as a Tragic Hero (What this means, Quotes from Speeches?)
• Foreboding, Dramatic Irony, Iago’s Soliloquy
• Othello’s trusting nature.

Heres a link to something we did in Class, if it doesn't work, please say so <_<

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-jCyWPORublOTk3ZTdiMGEtNjFiYy00ZjI3LTliZjgtM2UzMzc3MzBhM2E3&hl=en&authkey=CKHurJ4O
Thanks all, D. Hughes (:3)

Public & private Othello: Act 1.3 (28/09/10)

At the beginning of today's lesson we were asked to discuss the difference between the words "Exotic" & "Different". After we discussed this in pairs we were asked to feedback to the class, there were a range of ideas that suggested that the word "Different" was more used than the word "Exotic". Next the class decided that when someone/something was "Different" it was often referred to the unknown and was more negative compared to "Exotic" which was seen as unique (more positive). We then established the dictionary definitions of the words:

Exotic: From another part of the world; foreign.
Different: Uniquely new or of experimental nature.

With are gained knowledge of these words we then discussed whether the character of Othello could be classed as exotic or different. We concluded that Othello's character was both exotic and different.

Sir then added a new word to our vocabulary..

Dichotomy - A split that divides something into 2 parts

Following this we then started to read Act 1 Scene 3. (The duke is telling Othello about the Turks coming to invade Cyprus but is interrupted by Brabantio)
At the end of this scene we gather that Othello is a very composed & humble character who feels he is not in the wrong.

The rest of the lesson was focused around Othello's speech during this scene. (Click link to listen to speech)



The class then split into groups and had to act out a portion of Othello's speech & emphasize certain aspects which showed:

1. Othello's bravery and determination as a warrior
2. Othello's love for Desdemona
3. Noble savage
4. His intelligence and ability to argue in public
5. His passionate nature

Our final task was to come up with a conclusion stating if Othello was different or exotic, we also had to evaluate what the speech shows and how the speech reflects Othello's public/private life.

Homework: Note 10 bullet points on the Ottoman empire and the Venetian empire, Due Thursday.

Lesson 3 - An issue of race.

We arrived at the lesson confronted with two images, the one on the right which appears to show a painting of a man and a woman in love and another image of an interracial couple. We were asked to describe what we see in both the pictures and what similar in both of them.

After some discussion we came to the conclusion that both pictures showed a black man and a white woman and were told that race would be a major factor in the play "Othello" which we discussed in previous lessons and how we thought black people would be thought of at the time. Sir explained to us that, at that time, the colour black was associated with being demonic and impure, which we then linked to what the English people would think of people who were black.

After this lines from Othello were cut out and randomly handed out to everyone in the class which lead to an activity where we all stood up and had to walk around the classroom; If we bumped into someone we would have to tell them our line and vis versa. After a few minutes we would be stopped and told to do the same thing however this time when we bump into someone we would have to say our line in a different emotion or expression e.g. as if it was a secret or as if it was some really good news.

When this activity was complete and we had all sat down, sir went around the room asking students what lines they had, what we thought they meant and in which emotion/expression they were best suited for. An example of this was the line i was given which was "I ha't, it is engender'd; Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light." I judged that this would be most likely to be said in a secretive or angry way. The meaning behind it, in my opinion, was that it was about a black person who does not belong as the line reads "monstrous birth to the world's light".

We continued to speak about Shakespeare's preferred method of writing plays, iambic pentameter or blank verse. When writing in blank verse the line must contain ten syllables or "beats" with every second one having a drop. Blank verse is used by Shakespeare and many other poets and playwrights as they feel that it best mimics the sound of a human heart beat and is the closest resemblance to our regular speech pattern. So remember, if you need to remember blank verse or iambic pentameter, then think of a heart beat.

Now equipped with the knowledge of iambic pentameter, we were separated into groups of three and each given a line which was written in modern day English and asked to re write it in old English while keeping it in blank verse (ten syllables in a line). For example, a group was give the line "Get me my hanky or else" and they rewrote it as "Fetch me my handkerchief or feel my wrath", if you count the rewritten line, it is still in blank verse and retains it's meaning even though the words are completely different.

After going through and checking the accuracy of our rewritten lines, we were handed a sheet which contained all the lines that we were all previously given at the start of the lesson and asked to first find any links between the lines then write what we would expect from the plays based on the lines e.g. themes, genre etc. and finally we were told to underline the words that gave us clues about the nature of the play. (If you don't have the sheet because you were away or for any other reason click here.)

After having a short discussion about what a tragic hero was traditionally (essentially recapping on the second lesson) and further discussing how black people would be treated in the 16nth century we read an extract from "What was Shakespeare's England like?" Which explored how black people were seen during Shakespeare's time and his use of black people in his plays, this was extremely useful and if you don't have the extract for whatever reason make sure you get it from Mr Sadgrove as it is extremely useful.

Homework: Answer four questions to do with England's attitude towards black people.

1) What were the dominant views about black people in early modern England?

2) How did dramatists represent black people?

3) How does Shakespeare use/portray black people?
4) Do you think Shakespeare is a racist?

(Use the extract to help you)

R.A