Elizabethan Audience example essay topic

Othello, the Moor of Venice is one of Shakespeare greatest tragedies and one of the greatest examples of his genius as a writer and a thinker. It was first published in 1622; six years after Shakespeare!'s death, but it is believed that it have been written in 1604. Othello, like all of Shakespeare!'s plays, is renowned for the manipulation of the English language. In Othello, it is easily assumed that that major themes are jealousy, appearance and reality, but we will only reach a superficial stage if we do not explore further than this.

The play presents a situation that the central character becomes jealous, but it is not fundamentally about jealously. The emotional situations provide a wider scope of human life. It is true that the play is about appearance and reality but this is true in most of the other Shakespeare!'s plays, therefore it does not go very far. The main concern of the play is the clear interplay of opposition and it is through then can we gain a better and fuller understanding of the fundamental concerns of the play. Shakespeare takes his protagonist as a black man.

In the Elizabethan Era, the moor was someone who is brown-skinned and of Arab origin. In Othello, Shakespeare does not see his tragic hero as brown-skinned. Rodrigo!'s refers to him as! ^0 the thick lip! +/-. Iago describes him as a!

^0 black ram! +/- and Othello himself refers to himself! ^0 haply for I am black... ! +/- show a character with Negroid features and therefore is someone who is distinctly different from what the European thought of an Arab. The sharpness of contrast between black and white is emphasised in Iago!'s imagery of the! ^0 old black ram tupping the white ewe! +/-. By employing such strong images, Shakespeare wants to communicate a vivid and immediate effect to the audience.

By using the image of a! ^0 black ram! +/- tupping a! ^0 white ewe! +/-, Shakespeare has effectively conveyed the idea of the strong contrast between the black and the white-the extreme of two colours.

Through this powerful image, Shakespeare also wants the audience to feel the strong sense of Othello!'s blackness. During the Elizabethan period, the contemporary audience would have expected the black man to have been evil or at least lascivious and brutal. There was the connection of the black to black magic. Black was a colour associated with the devil in a commonly accepted system of colour symbolism. White on the other hand, represents purity and goddess. Mixing of the two colours through inter-racial marriage was frown upon by the society.

In creating a moor that is black in the face but white and noble in spirit, Shakespeare by doing so has astounded the Elizabethan audience. The audience will never associate purity in character to a black man and by doing so; Shakespeare is pulling the two extreme colour contrast together, something unseen in the society. But to the modern audience, they will not react so strongly to a black man. This is because the modern audience has much more interaction with black people and over time, the black community has proved that they are a not evil, lascivious and brutal. Intermarriage is accepted by the society. Colour in some society is in fact not a matter of concern to people.

The black and white contrasts are completed by contrasts between darkness and light. Three out of five acts take place at night or when a storm darkens the sky. The contrast between darkness and light is powerfully present at the opening of the final scene. The first visual impression is of the entry of Othello to the darkened room carry a flaming torch. Then Othello begins to speak. The complex and conflicts in the speech are convey with a level of significant and is given an image of light.

Life in Desdemona is presented as light, a light that cannot be relit once it is extinguished. The act of killing her is like putting out light forever. The inner conflict is revealed by connecting Desdemona with the blackness of sin which must be punish by Othello a moral torch bearer and next with light itself, Othello!'s action brings darkness. Darkness is often associated with evil. Therefore, by killing Desdemona, Othello is allowing evil to guide him in life, staining his upright character (presented in the previous scenes) with spots of black. The Elizabethan audience may react quite positively to this scene as the scene justified their claim that the black is evil.

Othello may be presented as black in the face yet white in character but the act of killing Desdemona in a fit of anger and jealousy shown the evil in Othello and thus reinforcing the point that the no matter how pure in character a black is, there is always a flaw in his character that will show that he is in fact evil and not as pure as he is presented as. The modern audience will not react to this scene with as much feeling as this contrast does not hit them strongly as it has hit the Elizabethan audience. This is because we, the modern audience do not go into the theatre believing that the black is dark and evil. Through our daily life, many have experience the generosity offered by the black and was touch by them. We enter the theatre with some respect for the black.

Therefore, we may not be able to link and evil and darkness to the black and purity and light to the white as effectively as the Elizabethan audience. By placing the personal story of Othello and Desdemona against a backdrop of public events and conflict with which Othello is closely connected. Shakespeare is in fact connecting it to wider issues- the conflict between the Christian Venice and the Turk. The Turk in the Elizabethan time was seen as an armed Muslim threat to Christian Europe and is associated in the play with deceptive appearance. For example they pretend to have designs of Rhodes where else their real target is Cyprus.

During the Elizabethan period, there is no racial tolerance in England. The Elizabethan viewed the Turk (outsider) with hatred. They believe that these outsiders do not conform to the European view of morality, family life, political and other institution such as the church. They believe that if they freed these black slaves, these people will return to the life of unstable family, wantonness and perversion (Greenblatt, 1990). Iago references to Othello as!

^0 a lascivious moor! +/- instantly reminds the Elizabethan audience of the popular belief of the sexuality of moors. Therefore, the Elizabethan audience will view this contrast in a rather negative manner as they were experiencing the situation presented in the play. To the modern audience, the contrast between the Christian and Turk will not has much impact to them, some may even not be able to see the connection between Muslim and the use of deceptive appearances. This is because majority of the modern people live in society that excises racial and religions tolerance. There was no threat to the different religion and thus the contrast does not hit them as hard as it has hit the Elizabethan audience.

Another reason for the change in interpretation is that the modern audience is not as devote as the Elizabethan audience. During the Elizabethan period, many found solace in religion; religion was the answer to difficulties. To the modern audience, many seen religion as a form of duty and tradition. When met with a problem, majority of them will rather turn to technologies rather than religion. The sharp contrast between the mindset of the Elizabethan audience and that of the modern audience and the situation which the two groups of people is in led to a contrast in how they look and react to the play. Shakespeare was a professional dramatist and his life resolve around much around the theater.

In order to understand how his plays work on the stage, we need to have certain degree of understanding of the kind of stage which it is originally written. The stage itself is covered with a canopy supported by two strong pillars and is usually refers as! ^0 the Heavens! +/-. On the other side of the heavens, the ceiling was probably painted with the sign or Zodiac and the entire layout of the universe as the Elizabethan understood it. The stage stood about four feet off the ground; there was a place opposite the heaven, hell, which was usually reached through a trap-door in the floor of the stage.

Thus, the decline of a character would take place on stage where both! ^0 heaven! +/- and! ^0 hell! +/- were already physically represented, thus adding a further dimension of the tragic action of the play. In the modern theatre, the performing area was not clearly divided. No specific areas are craved out to represent the! ^0 heaven!

^0 and! ^0 hell! +/-. The structure of the stage is not as elaborate as the one found in the globe theatre. Visual impact is not as clear and strong as the Elizabethan stage. Unlike the Elizabethan stage, a decline in character is not so clearly presented.

The Elizabethan theatre is an intimate theatre. For example, no audience was more than sixty feet from the stage, despite the fact that the Globe could hold up to two thousands to three thousands people. Where else in the modern theater, audience was seated far away from the stage and thus minimising interaction between the actors and the audience. Elizabethan drama has remained universally appealing. The English drama in the age of Elizabethan has been called universal and imaginative. Shakespeare!'s Othello has stood the test of the time because what present in Othello can still in seen in present time.

Shakespeare!'s dramas are able to withstand the test of time because directors have turn to more innovative ways in which to stage a play. For Othello, it includes a! ^0 black power! +/- version of the 1970's in which Iago and Othello and both black man seeking revenge on the white society. A more recent performance introduces the concept of Othello being the only white in a black society. Othello is able withstood the test of time as it provide people with a medium for exploring the racial issue of our time. Othello has started as a form of entertainment for the Elizabethan audience.

In the Elizabethan time, Iago was meant to make the audience laugh in several places in the play as the Elizabethan audience has not yet learned how to sit still and be serious through the play. Seeing a Moorish character on the stage was meant to be a thrilling and a moving spectacle for the audience. In the Modern day, Othello was seen as a play which provides people with a medium for exploring the racial issue of our time. Attending a play is often view with a serious attitude.

People seldom go to plays for entertainment. Many go to play with an intention or purpose. Because people are so focus in understanding the play, they usually are not able to enjoy the play as it is. The modern people do not find as much entertainment as the Elizabethan audience will in watching a play.

The York Guide of Othello Master Guide to Othello Elizabethan Drama 17th century stage interpretation. htm 20th century stage interpretation. htm.