Riassunto Heart of Darkness, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Riassunto Heart of Darkness e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! 4) Otello (William Shakespeare) I.I The first scene is set in Venice with Rodrigo and Iago (the two bad characters). These men have Spanish names. At that time Spain was the 1st enemy of England with Elizabeth I that defeated the Spanish float (grande armada Spagnola). In the first lines there’s a tension between Roderigo, that is quite impatient and annoyed at Iago’s behavior, and accuses him of not having told him something. It must be a very negative thing, but the reader doesn’t know what happened. This strategy is used by Shakespeare to increase curiosity. Iago knows what was happening, but he lays to Rodrigo: “if I had known it, I surely told you that because you know how I hate him.” “him” is referred to the protagonist of the play, Othello the moor of Venice (moro). They are talking about a person that both hate and about an event: Othello, who is a Venetian official, has secretly married to Desdemona. Roderigo was in love with her. Iago is Otello’s attendant. They go to Desdemona’s father to tell him that her daughter has run away (with a black person). Language The language is Elizabethan English so it’s very different from the today’s one. It’s very hard to understand cause it is a rude language, used in the soldier environment (soldiers were supposed to be rude). In 1606 James 1st: act of Abuse, law against rude terms referring to religion, such as “sblood”, “wounds”. So these terms were cancelled in the second written version of the play. Difference between “thou” and “you”: the first one is much more informal (for inferior and younger people) while “you” was a sign of respect. “shouldst”: Use of “st” for the second person singular. Roderigo is an aristocrat, so he doesn’t need to show respect as Iago is just a soldier. In spite of this difference between the two, the person in power is certainly Iago because he’s going to deceive many people in the play, he’s going to use and manipulate Othello but also Roderigo himself. It is clear from the very beginning that Iago is defined as a villain (l’antagonista). V 8-10: Iago in order to convince Roderigo that he didn’t know what happened, he explains the origin of his hate for Othello by recalling the day when he sent three people (“three great ones”) as intermediates to Othello to make him his lieutenant (luogotenente). Othello didn’t accept Jago as a lieutenant, so, this is the origin of Iago’s hate. V 11: “but he as loving his own pride and purposes”: artificio retorico, a hendiadys typical of Shakespeare. The terms pride and purposes are united by a conjunction when in reality they should be united by a subordination. “Othello’s purposes are originated from his pride”: that’s what Iago is trying to say. But Shakespeare puts them on the same level to make it rhetorically efficient. This is not the only case when Iago projects his negative qualities on someone else. He’s dominated by pride (l’orgoglio ferito per non essere stato nominato luogotenente). La sua duplicità lo porta spesso ad usare altre persone per i suoi fini. V.19 “what was he?” Michael Cassio was chosen by Othello as his lieutenant while Iago was only his ancient (alfiere). Iago is saying “only words but not practice” so that Cassio only knows about the military life by theory, he has no practical experience. He criticises Othello for choosing him. V.20 to 23 Iago uses images metaphorical expressions in order to describe Cassio. “spinster” (zitella) refers to women so he’s revealing his misogynistic character. And then, in line 29, he uses the term “be- leed” (rimanere bloccato senza vento) that is a maritime term to say that he remained stuck in being Othello’s lieutenant. V.33 “moor” is the first mention of Iago, that calls Othello not with his proper name but through a reference to his ethnic identity. It is a significant thing because his ethnic identity is going to be another key question for the matter of this play. Elizabeth 1st had expelled black people from England at least two times before the composition of this play. There was a considerable number of black people at the time in London. That’s why this play has been analyzed by postcolonial critics. Racism is one of the issues in the play. Where do the names of the characters come from? In this case so there has been a debate about the origin of the name Othello. Some say that it come from the Othman (ottoman), some say that is contains the term “hell”. V.57-64 Iago is not just lying to Othello, but also to Rodrigo. The last sentence Iago says is a phrase that incarnates his character: “I am not what I am”, which is a sentence incarnating Iago’s character: double and falsity Iago wants to convince Othello that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him, he wants to destroy what Othello has dearest in his life, so his intention is to push Othello to commit a crime for jealousy. V.77 Roderigo and Iago decide to go under Desdemona’s father window to wake her family up to tell them that their daughter ran away with a moor. The two start shouting so they wake up a third character: Brabantio, an important man in Venice. Roderigo starts the noise and Iago immediately intervenes to be much more shocking and offensive, as if Roderigo was not strong enough. Iago makes a triple reference to what is more important for this family: the property, the daughter and money. V. 95: we understand that Roderigo had already proposed to Desdemona, but her father refused. The characters are speaking in verse and not in prose, in iambic (the first syllable is not stressed, the second one is stresses, the third one is not stressed, and so on). La metrica inglese è basata sul numero di accenti e sull’intonazione mentre quella italiana sul numero di sillabe. Grammatical words are usually not stressed (conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries) while lexical words are. This is the kind of verse in which Shakespeare writes. The verses are unrhymed, iambic and pentameter (ha 5 accenti) and so this kind of verse is called blank verse. This is the standard verse employed by Shakespeare. During Shakespeare’s time, English language was quite open to alternative options, in grammar, in pronunciation and in spelling as well. The English language was still shaping itself into a literary form. Shakespeare uses, for example, the inversion “tell’st thou” in order to maintain the regularity of the verse, but it was grammatically correct at the time. V105-106: the verses are shared between two characters (it is called shared line), it’s a strategy employed by Shakespeare to write very fast and emotional dialogues. Iago’s speech here is written in prose. Othello is 20% prose and 80% verses. So, these criteria were used as it depends both on the kind of play (verses are used in tragedies while prose in comedies) and the social class of the character (verses are used by aristocrats while prose by low-class characters). But in this case Iago first speaks in verses and that with prose, so it depends also on the context V. 143: Brabantio realises that the two are right, also because he finds out that her daughter is missing. He wants to organise a search squad for Desdemona. Iago scappa per non essere identificato. Why did Othello is going to choose him as a lieutenant, he is still going to hate him. He also thinks he had seduced his wife, Emilia, so we understand that he’s jealous of Othello. In this case it is a soliloquy (someone speaking to no one) and not a monologue (someone speaking to someone). Vedi manuale p. 168-169 Act 2 The play is set in Cyprus and not in Venice anymore. Montano is the Governator of Cyprus. V11 focused on a very dangerous tempest taking place in the sea. There’s a description of it, the violent and powerful event may cause a shipwreck and Othello may die. This event is described sometimes with regular (pentametro giambico) and irregular verses (three consecutive accents). V 80 The most important news is that the tempest has destroyed the Turkish fleet (flotta). Desdemona arrives first and with Iago, Emilia and Cassio all start a conversation about women. In these pages, all the way to line 160, Iago pronounces a series of jokes against women. This is the reason why even Desdemona speaks in prose here. At first, she laughs at his jokes but then her patience seems to run out (line 161). “impotent” She is emphasizing Iago’s defects: sexual and social defects. Desdemona employs “thy” when referring to Iago and Emilia, but she uses “You” when talking to Cassio, cause of different social classes. Line 167: this is the moment in which Iago reveals his plan. He describes himself as a spider capturing his victims, “with a little web…”(ragnatela); this is a play about the monstrous human nature that’s why there are many animal references and metaphors. When Othello arrives, he can notice a sort of friendship between Desdemona and Cassio (he is just being nice to her because she is his general’s wife). This is the moment when Iago uses his machination: he’s speaking on the stage without being heard by anyone, so it is an “aside” (solo il pubblico lo può sentire): musical metaphor. Iago still has to convince Roderigo that he’s going to have a chance with Desdemona. He wants Cassio to be demoted (punito) by Othello so he employs again Roderigo for this plan. Coleridge, when commenting on “Othello”, describes Iago’s intention as “motiveless malignity” as his malignity is never fully explained. Iago immediately identifies Cassio’s weakness spot: he’s not a good drinker as he gets drunk very easily. Iago and some gentlemen are having a party and he makes sure that Cassio is drinking. II.3 V 1 – 105 Iago is able to punish Cassio thanks to his clever plan, because he wants to become the lieutenant. So, Iago identified Cassio’s weakness: he can’t stand alcool. Indeed, he gets drunk very easily. So, Cassio is losing control of his actions and of his words, so the alcohol is already having a heavy effect on him. When Iago speaks badly about someone, he always begins by saying something nice: “he is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar”. This is the moment when Iago says to Rodrigo to provoke Cassio, cause he knows he’ll not be able to react in a proper way cause he’s drunk. V217 to 300: Hyperbole “I had rather have this tongue cot from my mouth”. Othello -v.241- says to Cassio he’s not his lieutenant anymore. So, Iago’s plan is going in the right way. At this point, Iago should be satisfied, but he keeps going with his machination. V.309 to end Iago says to Cassio that Desdemona is on the way to have her job back. Iago knows that if Cassio insists with her, Othello will get more and more gelous of this inexistent relation between them. Iago is using a bodied metaphor: he describes the relationship between Cassio and Othello like a broken bone, that to become a natural body there’s the need of Desdemona. Othello is accused again of using a witchcraft on Desdemona. Act 3 It has the presence of a clown pulling a series of jokes, it is a sort of comic interlude in the course of a tragedy. The average of Elizabethan theatre audience was composed for both low and high life people. Comic interlude were supposed to make people laugh, even if in the middle of a drama. 3.3 Iago starts tempting Othello, in order to make him more jealous. Othello arrives on the scene and Cassio wants to go away, but Desdemona tries to tell him to stay. Now, Iago uses the ambiguity in order to induce Othello to ask him many times what he’s talking about. For this, Iago starts a gradual strategy with ambiguity thanks to deictic, deissi “Ha! I like not that…”: a deictic è l’indicare qualcosa in scena che non c’è, sia spazialmente, concettualmente e temporalmente. Iago is very undecided whether to say it or not, so, he uses mysterious sentences in order to say and not to say at the same time. On one hand he wants to protect Cassio, on the other hand when Iago firstly pronounces Cassio’s name, Othello starts being suspicious. Desdemona has been manipulated by Iago. She uses the word “suitor” that contains an ambiguity: she doesn’t realize that “suitor” could mean either someone who bags for something- implora qualcosa- (in this case Cassio is bagging for giving his job back), but it also means “corteggiatore”. This is the point when Iago starts his strategy again because he realises that Othello is still in love with Desdemona. He continues alluding: “no further harm” he denies when affirming at the same time that something is going on. Iago continues with this pretend: he keeps repeating Othello’s phrases, not answering. Othello a causa della fiducia assoluta che nutre nei confronti di Iago, arriva a conclusioni sbagliate, scambiando per autentici, i sentimenti di imbarazzo e di cautela: meccanismi finalizzati a dare credibilità all’inganno. P 120: Iago plays some more resistance before telling him: “My lord, you know I love you” he cares about him so he pretends he doesn’t want to tell him. Iago is excusing himself and he denies every responsibility for what he’s going to say, that nobody’s perfect. Othello is so impatient that he begins to swear: “Zounds”. These expressions have been sometimes censored in some versions of the play. P124: Iago “O, beware, my lord, of jealously”. Finally pronounces the word “jealousy”. Again, he is telling Othello not to give importance to jealousy but at the same time he mentions it. He describes it as a monster eating his victims, a sort of gothic image in a way (monster, mock, meat: alliteration). This is a very powerful image. On line 168 there’s a structure repetition reinforced by 2 alliteration: who dotes yet doubts – suspects yet fondly loves! This is the most important scene of the play as Iago begins his strategy and he’s clearly successful with it. From now on Othello is going to be trapped in Iago’s “web”. P 126: Iago calls Venice “our country” but at the same time he says “I know Venice better than you”, underlining the fact that Othello is a foreigner. He’s playing a double strategy: women from Venice act in two ways, so Desdemona does the same: “she did deceive her father…” : come ha tradito il padre può tradire te. Iago usa persino l’amore di Desdemona per convincere Otello che la moglie è infedele. P128: Othello keeps saying he believes in D. honestly, but he starts doubting. Iago sees that his strategy has been successful, he tortures psychologically Othello. Otherwise, he wants some proves about D’s infidelity. So now, Iago needs a prove to converge Othello’s doubts and confirm them. Pag 134: Around this passage Desdemona drops the handkerchief that Othello gave to her as a gift, but she doesn’t realise it. Iago’s wife, Emilia, takes it and she remember her husband’s desire of having it, even if she doesn’t understand why and in fact, she asks about it. The way in which Iago reacts shows the power relationship between husband and wife. Iago secretly decides to leave this handkerchief in Cassio’s room. Pag 142 Through Othello’s language we understand that he is suffering for Desdemona, losing both physically and psychologically control. He employs a negative connotation which involves also his ethnic belonging. This is the prove that Iago was able to convince him both of Desdemona faithfulness and his inferiority for his black color. Pag 144 Since Iago can’t give an evidence, he invents something that never happened, he makes up a story (line 416). According to this story Cassio reveals his duplicity by talking about Desdemona in his sleep. And this story is enough as Othello is desperate. Iago expressions are affecting Othello’s language as he employs images that are very close to his ones: “o monstrous, monstrous” (that’s a motif, monstrosity and bestiality are one of the motifs in Shakespeare plays). Iago and Othello both swear that they will kill Cassio and Desdemona together. 3.4 The following scene is mostly based on the dialogue between Othello and Desdemona, he keeps asking where the handkerchief is, but she says she has lost it. He gets furious and D. gets worried about her husband behavior. Othello in a way replicates that the handkerchief has magic origins. Othello is not the only jealous character of the play: Bianca, Cassio’s wife, get extremely jealous when he asks her to recreate the same décor of Desdemona’s handkerchief. Adultery, during the Elizabethan age, was considered one of the worst sins. Pag 160: Emilia becomes an involuntary accomplice (complice) of Iago’s plan. In the way she talks we can understand that she’s almost a feminist. For the moment she’s completely ignorant, as Desdemona, about Iago’s plan. There are several instances spoken by Emilia when she utters memorable lines like this one. ACT 4 Pag 172: Othello is becoming more and more obsessed about being completely certain of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness and that’s why he keeps insisting with Iago so he has to make up another story. Cassio said to Iago that he lied which means either not to be truthful and to sleep with someone. Iago decides to set up a play-within-the-play, a performance. Here he is going to speak about Cassio’s lover but without mentioning it. So, the whole dialogue is about her, but Othello thinks that’s about Desdemona. When Othello hears Cassio boasting (vantarsi) about his relationship (with Bianca) and laughing about her, he becomes even more vengeful against him and that’s why he’s even more decided to kill Cassio.