Othello Act 2 Scene 1 Analysis

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TMA1: Close analysis of an extract from Othello Write an essay of 1,500 words on the passage, Othello, Act 2 Scene 1, lines 177-241. You should consider: 1. How the passage reflects the wider themes of the play 2. The distinctive features of the language of the passage 3. The performance possibilities suggested by the language. This extract is a pivotal moment in the play, in which the lovers are reunited in Cyprus and as Dennis Walder suggests we have moved ‘from a place symbolic of order and control, to a place of confusion and uncertainty’ (Walder, 2012, p40). In this analysis I will be looking at the language which Shakespeare uses to show this reunion in Cyprus as a turning point in the protagonists fortune and how the interaction between the characters here foreshadows the tragic end to the story and links in with the key themes of the play. The two major themes within ‘Othello’, love and death, become inextricably linked in Othello’s speech to Desdemona when they are first reunited. The love between Othello and Desdemona is shown here through his gushing declarations. Othello uses dramatic metaphors ‘If after every tempest come such calms/ May the winds blow till they have wakened death’(2.1.180-181), to emphasis the contrast between his life as a soldier and his life alongside Desdemona and to show how much he would be prepared to go through to be with her. The first three lines of this speech end in ‘content’, ‘joy’ and ‘calms’ (2.1.178-180), all words associated with his happiness in this moment, however, reflecting the contrast between the love in the early part of the play and the jealousy and betrayal the lovers are moving towards in this new setting, the following lines end in ‘death’, ‘low’, ‘die’, and ‘fear’ (2.1.181-185). These words used within the gushing speech Othello is giving to Desdemona, give us a hint at the
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