Week 17:

Othello

Our goal this week is to put closure to perhaps the most moving of Shakespeare's tragedies, Othello. We encountered one of his vilest villans, one of his purest heroines, and of course, one of his most tragic protagonists. The beauty of reading Shakespeare is that the works crystallize for us the problems of love and death, passion and betrayal, jealousy and nostalgia, power and temporality, memory and imagination...what is our alternative? If we do not read Shakespeare, how will we come to know what we already understand?

Happy New Year to you! Have a good week!

Week 17 MS Word

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If you have questions about these assignments, please leave a comment or email me directly. Remember, I will check the blog until 9:59 pm. You know I need my Seinfeld fix.

Week 16:

Othello

As we conclude Shakespeare's great tragedy it is important to note the lack of genuine communication between the victims and their oppressors. Iago continues to weave his web, while Othello's noble character morally disintegrates. In Act 4, Shakespeare illustrates this through Othello's language, once noble and lofty, and his psychological and physical abuse towards Desdemona. As readers our hatred toward Iago intensifies; he is the devil.

Let us work hard this week by studying and analyzing the play's tragic movements...I am proud of you!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Festivus (I need my Seinfeld analogy), and Happy New Year to you and your family!

Week 16 MS Word

Week 16 pdf

If you have questions about these assignments, please leave a comment or email me directly. Remember, I will check the blog until 9:59 pm. You know I need my Seinfeld fix.

Week 15:

Othello

The fundamental question of philosophy is: Is the nature of man good or evil? Every philosopher, politician, and author intends to answer this question. As a teacher, I might also reach a conclusion depending of the day or week I have experienced. William Golding in Lord of the Flies leaves no doubt about his belief: man definitely tends toward evil. Left alone on an island without societal constraints, man will return to savagery, and destroy all who hold to the beliefs of a previous society. Further, evil lies within mankind itself, not in some outside force or "beastie." Psychologist Victor E. Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning asserts that there are "two races of men in this world, but only these two races-- the 'race' of the decent man and the 'race' of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society." Thus the universal idea surfaces again: can good and evil coexist? The answer is yes: Othello is good and Iago is evil.

Week 15 MS Word

Week 15 pdf

If you have questions about these assignments, please leave a comment or email me directly. Remember, I will check the blog until 9:59 pm. You know I need my Seinfeld fix.

Week 14:

Othello

This week we begin our quest to study how a great poet, Mr. Shakespeare, portrays the fall of a noble soul who is entrapped by jealousy into deeds of violence which bring about their own destruction. "I am not what I am." Iago

Although the story line of Othello is a spin-off of an Italian novella by Cinthio, the Hecatommithi (1565), Shakespeare’s end product is a vastly richer, more deeply probing presentation of human love. As Othello and Desdemona live out their love story in the two-hour condensation of his stage, the author reveals them in shifting lights of hateful Iago (the most hated villain in the literary world), the shallow Cassio, the wordly-wise Emilia, and the foppish Roderigo. Each character, dexterously manipulated by Iago into his web of destruction, is caught by his/her own weakness. As each character in this action-packed drama “struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more,” we realize that Shakespeare has once again held up his magic mirror wherein we can see ourselves and our times reflected clearly.

Note well that imagery expresses the themes of jealousy, revenge, and love; the conflicts of good and evil, of man vs women; of attitudes to love and marriage.

We are involved immediately in the action of the play. How does Shakespeare do this? Why? -- What does the opening scene establish (characterization, tone, imagery).

Have a good week!


Tuesday, December 5: Abstract, The Awakening.
Tuesday, December 5: Blog response, Othello.

Week 14 MS Word

Week 14 pdf

If you have questions about these assignments, please leave a comment or email me directly. Remember, I will check the blog until 9:59 pm. You know I need my Seinfeld fix.