Name ______Period _____
Othello
Act I, Making Meaning Questions (Post Reading)
1. What kind of man does Othello seem to be? Would you want to put the safety of your country in his hands?
2. In Scene I, Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio all reveal their feelings about Othello. Why are Roderigo and Brabantio hostile toward him?
How does Iago’s hostility differ from that of the other two?
3. How does Othello react to Brabantio’s outrage over his marriage and to the argument between Iago and Roderigo in Scene 2?
What do these actions reveal about Othello’s character?
4. How does Othello characterize himself in his first address to the duke and the senators? Does his self-description seem accurate, from what you have seen and heard of him so far? Explain.
5. At the end of Scene 3, in lines 391-394, Iago ridicules Othello for believing that others are honest just because they appear to be so. Some people might agree with Othello’s standard for judging the honesty of others. Do you agree with it? Why or why not?
6. In addition to learning about Othello from his own words and actions, we learn about him through the opinions of the other characters. What is the duke’s and the senators’ opinion of Othello?
What does Iago say privately about Othello’s character?
7. What account of his courtship of Desdemona does Othello give the senators?
How does Desdemona describe her feelings for Othello when she asks to accompany
to Cyprus?
8. Although Iago and Roderigo share a hatred of Othello, they are foils, or opposites, in many ways. How are their differences revealed in their dialogue near the end of Scene 3?
9. Through Iago’s soliloquies—the speeches he makes when he is alone on stage—we glimpse his true feelings and motives. What additional grievances against Othello does he reveal, and what plan does he hatch, at the end of Act I?
10. In Brabantio’s view, Desdemona’s love for Othello is unnatural, yet she asserts this love and acts on it. Why do you think Desdemona is attracted to Othello?
Do you find their love believable as Shakespeare presents it?
11. In whose care is Desdemona left at the end of Act I?
12. For the following quotations, name the speaker, and discuss how the quotation reveals a conflict within the character and/or between that character and another.
- “I know my price; I am worth no worse a place.”
- “She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted.”
- “I am hitherto your daughter. But here is my husband.”
- “I will incontinently drown myself.”
Name ______Period _____
Othello
Act I Study Guide/Work Packet
Plot Synopsis and Literary Focus
Act I
Scene 1 Iago complains bitterly to Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman, that Othello, the leading military figure in Venice, has chosen Cassio to be his lieutenant, or second in command. Iago is convinced that he is the better soldier and deeply resents what he sees as Othello’s unfair preference for Cassio. He tells Roderigo that he will continue to pose as Othello’s loyal follower, but will secretly be acting to further his own interests. The pair rush to the house of Brabantio, a Venetian senator, to tell him that his daughter, Desdemona, has just eloped with Othello. Roderigo, who had wanted to marry Desdemona, enjoys giving Brabantio, who had rejected him as a suitor for his daughter, the bad news that Desdemona has married without her father’s permission.
Literary Focus In the first scene we are given insight into Iago’s motives and his plan of action. He is angry and jealous, and his ambition has been thwarted by Cassio’s promotion. He plans to play the hypocrite, seeming to be loyal but secretly plotting vengeance: “I am not what I am” (line 63)
Scene 2 Iago goes to the place where Othello and Desdemona are spending their wedding night and tells Othello that Brabantio is angry about the marriage, pretending to be concerned for Othello’s safety. Othello expresses his love for Desdemona and his confidence that because of his personal virtues and military value to the state, the duke of Venice and his nobles will not turn against him. Cassio arrives with an urgent summons for Othello from the duke. Venice’s enemies, the Turks, appear to be heading for Venetian-controlled Cyprus. Next, Brabantio and Roderigo arrive. Brabantio calls for Othello’s arrest, accusing him of stealing Brabantio’s innocent daughter by trickery or enchantment. Othello says he is willing to answer any charges against him, but then he suggests that the emergency facing the state is more urgent than these domestic conflicts.
Literary Focus The characterization of Iago as a hypocrite continues with his pretense of wanting to harm Brabantio for Othello’s sake after having said that he could not contemplate violence outside war. The ironic contrast between appearance and reality recurs when Iago and Roderigo present themselves as opponents although they are really confidants united in their enmity toward Othello.
Scene 3 The duke and the senators are tying to sort out confusing reports about the movements of the Turkish fleet when Brabantio and Othello enter, accompanied by Iago and Roderigo. Brabantio tells the duke that Othello must have cast a spell on his daughter, for a modest and obedient girl like Desdemona would never freely marry a man like Othello. The duke declares that he needs more proof than Brabantio’s account of his daughter’s character and asks Othello for his version of the marriage. Othello suggests that Desdemona herself be questioned. She is sent for, and while waiting for her, Othello explains that as a guest in Brabantio’s home he recounted his wide-ranging adventures as a soldier, and Desdemona listened with great interest: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them” (lines 166-167). When Desdemona appears, she addresses her father respectfully, but unequivocally professes her loyalty and devotion to Othello. Reluctantly Brabantio accepts what he cannot alter.
Arrangements must be made for Desdemona since the welfare of Venice requires that Othello leave for Cyprus immediately. Desdemona request that she be allowed to accompany her husband, and Othello agrees in order to please her, he says, not to satisfy his personal desires. Desdemona is left in the temporary care of Iago, whom Othello believes is honest.
Finally, Iago and Roderigo are alone on the stage, and Roderigo, disappointed and jealous because he has lost Desdemona, threatens to drown himself. Iago mocks Roderigo’s willingness to end his life on account of disappointed love and cynically advises him to raise cash and with patiently for another chance to get what he wants. Alone, Iago hatches a plan to ruin Othello. He will slyly suggest to the Moor that the handsome Cassio is secretly seeing Desdemona.
Literary Focus The exposition of the conflicts that drive the play expands in this scene, as does the exploration of Othello’s character and that of his antagonist, Iago. The major conflicts are both interpersonal and internal. Brabantio suspects Othello of sorcery and rejects him because of his race. Iago and Roderigo are motivated by hatred and jealousy of Othello. Othello presents himself as a simple man who has spent his life in military service. His fatal flaw, according to the critic G. B. Harrison, is his belief that others are what they seem. Othello’s status as a tragic hero (a good person who suffers because of a weakness) is foreshadowed in Brabantio’s suspicious warning “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: / She has deceived her father, and may thee” (lines 288-289).
In his dialogue with Roderigo and the closing soliloquy, Iago is revealed as a calculating and sly cynic whose only passion is for revenge. In the extended metaphor of the body as a garden (lines 316-322), Iago extols the supremacy of willpower over all human emotions.