Othello Social and Historical Context
- Created by: tommyleefoy
- Created on: 29-01-18 14:22
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- Othello - Relevant Contextual Factors
- Cultural Context
- Venice
- Oligarch city state with reputation of wealth and sophistication, but also perceived as having loose morals
- Italian setting would have been used for plays about secret love affairs, revenge and intrigue as foreign courts synonymous with sexual perversion and villainy
- Established Othello as an outsider as he is not Italian; Iago is typical Italian villain
- Cyprus
- "Warlike island" under Venetian occupation
- Conflict stricken and dangerous setting mirror tragic events that unfold there
- Cyprus threatened by the Turks / Othello mindset and marriage threatened by Iago
- Tragic irony that a soldier should die for love in a warzone
- Northern Africa
- 16th Century Europe expanding their trade routes.
- Mauritania culture discovered, people referred to this area as 'Moors'
- Venice
- Hierarchical Chain of Being- God, angel, King, man, woman, animal, vegetable and mineral
- Cuckold- husabnd of an adultorous wife, cuckoldry- becoming a horned beast and ridiculed
- The Renaissance caused a revival into intellectual and artisict endeavours
- Challenged old assumptions and traditions and supported human reason and potential
- Othello is a black man who is in love with an assertive young woman.
- Cultural Context
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