The test (with vocabulary questions and passage identification) was designed to encourage students to pay attention to Shakespeare's words. Breaking the class into small groups for Act V (second assignment below) gave students an opportunity to discuss the different images of women projected by the three female characters of the tragedy--Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca--as well as how both Iago and Othello have reached "points of no return" in this act.

Test on Othello, Acts I-IV

(created for a 12^th grade English class)

Part I (14 points): Who said it? Identify the character who delivers each of these famous lines.

1. I am not what I am.

2. Is this the noble Moor whom our full Senate call all in all sufficient?

3. Reputation, reputation, reputation! I have lost my reputation.

4. The Moor's abused by some most villainous knave.

5. Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of Holy Writ.

6. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.

7. You rise to play, and go to bed to work.

Part II (36 points): Vocabulary. Be sure to demonstrate your understanding of the meaning of the words in your answers.

8. What do to cozen, to gull, and to insinuate have in common?

9. Which word doesn't belong? expostulation fustian prating rumination

10. Is Cassio's drunkenness a mortal or venial sin?

11. Being cashiered is an experience to be sought after. True or false?

Complete the following analogies with any appropriate words:

12. Dilatory : posthaste as voluble : __________.

13. Mountebank : unconscionable as strumpet : __________.

14. Affinity : aversion as perdition : __________.

15. Alacrity : speed as censure : __________.

16. Importune : request as forbear : __________.

Part III (48 points): Answer the questions following each passage fully, demonstrating your knowledge of the play as best you can within time constraints.

17. . . . Like to the Pontic Sea,

Whose icy current and compulsive course

Nev'r keeps retiring ebb, but keeps due on

To the Propontic and the Hellespont,

Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,

Shall nev'r look back, nev'r ebb to humble love,

Till that a capable and wide revenge

Swallow them up.

Who says this? What is being compared to what? How is the simile a fitting one? Relate the image to themes in the play as a whole.

18. When devils will the blackest sins put on,

They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,

As I do now. For whiles this honest fool

Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune,

And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,

I'll pour this pestilence into his ear:

That she repeals [pleads for] him for her body's lust;

And by how much she strives to do him good,

She shall undo her credit with the Moor.

Who says this? At approximately what point in the plot? Paraphrase the first 2 1/2 lines. How is this speech "true to character"?

19. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring [a kind of ring],

nor for measures of lawn [linen], nor for gowns, petticoats, nor

caps, nor any pretty exhibition, but for all the whole world? Why, who

would not make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I

should venture Purgatory for't.

Who says this? To whom? What do the lines indicate about the speaker's philosophy of life? Why might they be in prose as opposed to verse?

20. Am I the motive of these tears, my lord?

If haply [by chance] you my father do suspect

An instrument of this your calling back,

Lay not your blame on me. If you have lost him,

I have lost him too.

Who says this? To whom? Under what circumstances? What do these lines reveal about the speaker's character?

Small Group Discussion of Othello, Act V

(12^th grade English)

Procedure: In your groups read over and discuss all six topics. Toward the end of the period, focus on the topic that has been assigned to your group (Group one will take question one, etc.) Assign yourselves homework to find lines to support your points, look for background material (the Italian the source of the play, Aristotle’s theory of tragedy), make connections with your favorite tv programs and films as well as with other literature —whatever will help you present your topic to the class. Although your group has primary responsibility for your topic, everyone in class is encouraged to ask questions and contribute different points of view when each topic is discussed.

1. Iago comments at the end of Act V, scene 1: "This is the night/That either makes me or fordoes me quite." How have events reached a crisis for Iago? Why is he now interested in "removing" both Cassio and Roderigo? How does Iago manipulate the "gulled gentleman" one last time? What happens to Roderigo? What were your reactions to his fate?

2. Othello also reaches a "point of no return" in this act. What is the importance of his brief appearance on stage at the beginning of the act? What does he mean when he says, "Iago keeps his word"? What is ironic about that line? When else in the play was he the victim of deceiving appearances? What are Othello's feelings for Desdemona as he enters the chamber to murder her? Discuss the symbolism in Othello's soliloquy (light, rose, etc.).

3. Shakespeare's women: Why does Shakespeare bring back Bianca in Act V, scene 1? How does Desdemona react to Othello's open intention of murdering her? What was your response to her reaction? How does Emilia react to the murder of her mistress? to discovering Iago's villainy? Were you surprised by Emilia's behavior? What different images of women are conveyed through the three female characters of the play?

4. According to Aristotle, an important part of every tragedy is the tragic hero's recognition of his fatal flaw. Does Othello have a recognition scene? What does such a scene add to the tragedy?

5. What has happened to Brabantio, Desdemona's father, in the interim? On the basis of what has happened in Cyprus, do you think that Brabantio was right to oppose his daughter's marriage to the Moor?

6. In the story upon which Othello is based (in Cinthio's Hecatommithi ), Iago, after further villainy, is tortured to death. Why do you think Shakespeare ended the story the way he did—with Iago still alive? How else could he have ended the play? How would you have ended it?