Othello
Oliver Parker (director): Othello (1997)
The film version of William Shakespeare’s Othello is (fairly) true to Shakespeare’s text. It does, however, graphically focus on the sexual relationship between Othello and Desdemona and on Othello’s fantasies about his wife’s adulterous relationship with Cassio.
- Who is Othello? What is a Moor? And why is it significant that Othello is one?
- Why does Iago refer to Othello as his Moorship and the thicklips?
- Analyse Iago’s use of imagery from the animal kingdom, when he talks about the relationship between Desdemona and Othello, and tells her father that an old black ram is topping your white ewe and you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse.
- The play is set in times of war. Cyprus is under attack from the Turks. What could be the dramatic function of that?
- According to the Holy Bible evil deeds are deeds of darkness. Find examples of the use of light and darkness as dramatic effects.
- Comment on the use of props. Iago’s knife and the chessboard in the beginning of the play for instance.
- Iago and Othello are both wife abusers and killers. What separates one from the other?
