WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Born in April 1564 in Stratfordupon

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE • Born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon. Avon • Most likely began as an actor • Wrote 38 plays, including comedies, histories, and tragedies • Wrote 4 lengthy poems and a sonnet cycle

OTHELLO : A TRAGEDY • Written in 1604 • One of the major tragedies -- after Hamlet and before King Lear and Macbeth • Fascination with evil Thematic Ideas… • Nature of love and marriage • Nature of jealousy • Deception / Honesty • Importance of reputation

OTHELLO : SETTING • Late sixteenth century during the wars between Venice and Turkey. • Most of play takes place in Venice, but some parts of the play are set in Cyprus.

OTHELLO TERMINOLOGY: MOOR • Muslim person of Arab and Northwest African descent • Term Moor comes from the Greek work mauros meaning dark or very black. • In Renaissance drama, Moors often symbolized something other than human- and often, indeed, something devilish.

OTHELLO TERMINOLOGY: CUCKOLD • Any man whose wife cheated on him (without his knowledge) was known as a cuckold. • Cuckolds were often described as having horns – an idea from the days when a cuckold was forced to parade around his town wearing antlers as a sign of his wife’s infidelity.

OTHELLO : IAGO l. Iago is one of Shakespeare’s most sinister villains l. Shakespeare contrasts Iago with Othello’s nobility and integrity. l. The name Iago is a shortened version of the Spanish name “Santiago” or “St James”. l. Saint James of Spain was