DEADLINE
Monday 26 January 2015
TASK
Choose 40 continuous lines of dialogue / monologue from Act 1 to the end of Act 4 of Othello. Don't select anything from Act 5.
Write a detailed commentary on the 40 lines.
Your commentary must include the following:
1 Write the context for the 40 lines. What is the action of the play that immediately precedes these 40 lines? And evaluate briefly how these 40 lines influence and change the course of the play.
2 In general, summarise the main action of the 40 lines
3 Identify a structure for the 40 lines. This should be simple and uncomplicated. It may correspond to who is speaking and may be as simple as a question and an answer.
4 Identify the different writing styles in the extract. For example this might be prose or poetry, descriptive writing action, reflective writing, interactive or transactional writing.
Comment on this.
5 What are the motives - the underlying reasons - why charachters speak these specific lines?
6 What is communicated in this extract? Refer to communication between characters and between characters and the audience - us.
7 Identify language and literary features used throughout the extract. Comment on the effect of these features on the audience.
Feel free to use whatever structure suits you. The above list is just a guide to help you think through the task.
Write between 1000 and 1200 words excluding quotations.
I'm expecting a series of analytical paragraphs.
I'm not expecting you to write everything on these lines, be selective, choose the main points to communicate.
Choose really dramatic and powerful extracts, for example, where Iago and Rodreigo disturb Brabantio in Act 1, Scene 1, or Othello defending himself in Act 1 Scene 3, or Iago persuading Cassio to drink in Act 2 Scene 3, or Iago telling Othello that he should watch Desdemona and Cassio in Act 3 Scene 3.
