Option 2: Drama Total Marks: 100
This assignment relates to Unit 5 on Shakespeare’s Othello. The assignment is worth 15 percent of your final grade.
Please note that Assignment 4 also offers an opportunity to explore aspects of Shakespeare’s Othello. Choose one of the following topics and write an essay of 600 to 800 words:(Not more than 800 words please)
Discuss whether there is any justification for the idea that Emilia is not as innocent as she seems in regards to Iago’s schemes.
Overview
Unit 5 introduces the second part of the course, devoted to drama. It opens with a brief description of the nature and history of drama, considering it as a distinct art form—a performing art that shares certain structural elements with other types of literature but that also employs conventions and techniques unique to theatre.
The focus of the unit is tragedy, the first of the two main genres of drama we will examine in this half of the course. After reviewing the basic patterns and components of tragedy, we will turn to Shakespeare’s Othello to consider how these illuminate one of the most powerful plays in the English literary tradition. We will also explore the play’s central themes, paying particular attention to the literary and dramatic devices Shakespeare uses to bring these to life.
The unit has been written on the assumption that Othello is your introduction to Shakespeare. It prepares you for the play, tells you when to start reading it, and provides a Reading Guide with scene-by-scene commentary and study questions designed especially for first-time readers of a Shakespearean play.
Laurence Fishburne as Othello and Kenneth Branagh as Iago in the 1996 motion picture Othello. Photograph by Rolf Konow © 1995 Courtesy of Castle Rock Entertainment..
Objectives
The main goals listed in the Course Guide apply to Unit 5. By the end of this unit, you should also be able to do the following:
• Explain how drama differs from other literary forms and list its main elements.
• Describe and exemplify these dramatic terms: protagonist, antagonist, conflict, unity, and plot structure.
• Describe the features that make tragedy a distinct sub-genre.
• List and explain five or six theories accounting for the appeal of tragedy.
• Describe and illustrate with reference to Othello the Aristotelian terms hamartia (tragic flaw or error), reversal, and recognition.
• Discuss the function of image patterns in Othello.
• Analyse the dramatic purpose and significance of a particular scene or part of a scene in Othello.
• Discuss the dramatic purpose and significance of a minor character in Othello