The Delay of Othello's Entrance in Act 1 of William Shakespeare's Othello

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The Delay of Othello's Entrance in Act 1 of William Shakespeare's Othello

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'. This means

very black people, which in Elizabethan times were believed to be

evil. Nowadays of course, we know that this is not true. Other quotes

highlighting the blackness and mystery of Othello include 'What a full

fortune does the thicklips owe,'[1] quoted by Roderigo early on in the

Act referring to his lips. Another quote that he says is 'to the gross

clasps of a lascivious moor:'[2] again speaking negatively about

Othello. Shakespeare intentionally made Othello a black character to

create an impact on the audience, although it was more effective when

it was acted out in Elizabethan times because they were so critical of

coloured people.

In Shakespeare's play 'Othello', the eponymous hero doesn't actually

make an entrance until the second scene. This has been done

deliberately to give an effective result at the beginning of the play.

Shakespeare uses many dramatic devices in this production and compared

to many other scripts that he has written, in most tragic genres, the

tragic hero almost always enters in the first scene but this is not so

in Othello.

One reason why Shakespeare has done this is so the audience can build

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