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By William ShakespeareDirected by Joe DowlingNovember 1 - December 21, 2003 at the Guthrie Laband2004 National TourStudy Guides are made possible bySTUDY GUIDE
The Guthrie TheaterJoe DowlingArtistic DirectorThomas C. ProehlManaging DirectorThe Guthrie Theater receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This activity is made possiblein part by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature. The MinnesotaState Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from the National Endowment for the Arts. OthelloBy William ShakespeareDirected by Joe DowlingThe Guthrie Lab production of Othello is sponsored byAmerican Express, the National Endowment for the Arts and Target.The 2004 National Tour of Othello is sponsored by Shakespeare inAmerican Communities, a national theater touring initiative sponsored bythe National Endowment for the Arts and The Sallie Mae Fund incooperation with Arts Midwest. The Guthrie Theater tour is sponsored byTarget Corporation with support from RBC Dain Rauscher and Bankfirst. A Study Guide published by the Guthrie TheaterDramaturgy: Michael LupuEditing: Michael Lupu, Jeffrey R.H. Rogers, Belinda Westmaas-JonesResearch: Belinda Westmaas-Jones, Jo Holcomb, Michael Lupu,Jeffrey R.H. Rogers, Karen Sawyer, Ailsa StaubProduced with the support of:Beth Burns, Sheila Livingston, Catherine McGuire, Patricia VaillancourtThe present guide includes revised and re-edited materials from the previously publishedStudy Guide for the 1993 production of the Guthrie Theater. All quotes from the play includedin this study guide come from the full-length text of Othello by William Shakespeare and maynot be in the final Guthrie performance script.All rights reserved. No part of this Study Guide may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronicor mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, withoutpermission in writing from the publishers. Some materials published herein are written especially for our Guide.Others are reprinted by permission of their publishers.The text in this printed copy of the study guide was originally formatted for the Guthrie Theaterwebsite. Variations in layout resulting from the transfer from web to print format may be evidentin the document. Please visit the website for information on this and other recent productions.The study guides can be found in ACT III at www.guthrietheater.org.2
TABLE OF CONTENTSCHRONOLOGYA Selected Chronology of the Life and Times of William Shakespeare4THE PLAYWRIGHTCommentary on Shakespeare's Work9THE PLAYCharacters and SynopsisOthello, the Moor of Venice (1604) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)The Main Characters Seen by Themselves and OthersCommentaries on the PlayFrom "Shakespeare's Desdemona"Love, Trust & Destruction in a Murky World by Archibald I. Leyasmeyer121314242627GLOSSARYA Selected Glossary37CULTURAL CONTEXTFrancis Bacon (1561-1626) On Cunning, Suspicion, Honor, ReputationBallad of OthelloPerceptions of Blackness & The Moors:A Selection of Quotes from the Play and Documentary Sources69THE GUTHRIE PRODUCTIONNotes from the DirectorKeeping it Simple: Keeping it Moving - Notes from the Scenic and Costume DesignerCostumes and Set Design for OthelloVibrations in the Air: Comments on the LanguageSince you asked: Backstage information about Othello7678808284QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONSuggested Topics88ADDITIONAL SOURCESFor Further Information9263643
CHRONOLOGYA Selected Chronology of the Life and Times of William ShakespearePlaywright1564William Shakespeare is born to JohnShakespeare and Mary Arden ofStratford-upon-Avon, their third childand first son. (Traditionally,Shakespeare’s Day is celebrated onApril 23.)World HistoryGalileo Galilei is born.British playwright Christopher Marlowe isborn.Voyages of exploration, trade and colonizationare undertaken throughout the “New World,”primarily by England, Spain, Portugal, Franceand the Netherlands. Rivalries break outbetween European trading powers.1566The collection of novellas, Hecatommithi byGiovanbattista Giraldi Cinthio is published.Shakespeare’s Othello borrows some of theplot line and characters from the 7th novella,The Unfaithfulness of Husbands and Wives.1573Venice loses Cyprus to the Turkish forces ofSelim II, ending over 80 years of Venetian ruleon the island.1576James Burbage opens The Theatre, London’sfirst playhouse used by professional actors.The dining hall of Blackfriars monastery isconverted into a theater for privateperformances given by a company of boyactors. It remains open until 1584.1577Raphael Holinshed publishes the Chronicles ofEngland, Scotland, and Ireland, a primarysource for Shakespeare’s history plays.Francis Drake begins a three-year voyagearound the world.1578Shakespeare’s family finds itself inserious debt and mortgages MaryArden’s family house in Wilmcote toraise cash.Interest in Roman and Greek antiquities leadsto the discovery of the catacombs in Rome.4
1580John Shakespeare is involved inlawsuits regarding several mortgagedfamily properties.The English folksong “Greensleeves” ispopular.1582A marriage license is issued toWilliam Shakespeare and Agnes(Anne) Hathaway in November. Sheis eight years his senior, and pregnantat the time of their marriage. Thefollowing May their first daughter,Susanna, is born.The Gregorian calendar is adopted in Catholicstates, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlandsand Scandinavia. (England does not adopt theGregorian calendar until 1752.)1585Twins, Hamnet and Judith, are bornin February to William and AnneShakespeare.Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes writes thepastoral novel Galatea.158591No documents record Shakespeare’slife during these so-called “lostyears.” At some point, he must havemade his way to London, withouttaking his family along.1586Mary, Queen of Scots, is accused of plotting tomurder Queen Elizabeth. Mary’s coconspirators are tried and executed. Mary isexecuted the following year.1588An attempt by the Spanish Armada to invadefails due to the combination of bad weather inthe English Channel and the ability of smallerEnglish ships to out-maneuver the attackers.The event establishes England as a major navalpower. England enters a period of economic,political and cultural expansion.1592Shakespeare is listed as an actor withthe Lord Chamberlain’s Men inLondon.15,000 people die of the plague in London.Theaters close temporarily to prevent thespread of the epidemic.Writer and dramatist Robert Greenescathingly lashes out at “an upstartCrow, beautified with our feathers” atthe time when Shakespeare’s firstknown play, King Henry VI, PartOne, is successfully produced.1593-During the course of the plague, itChristopher Marlowe is killed in a tavern5
94appears that Shakespeare has writtenseveral plays (their dates ofcomposition have not beenestablished with certainty in allcases): King Henry VI, Parts Two andThree, Titus Andronicus, Richard III,and the comedies Love’s Labour’sLost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona,The Comedy of Errors, The Tamingof the Shrew, as well as the poems“Venus and Adonis” and “The Rapeof Lucrece.”brawl (1593). His tragedy Edward II ispublished the following year.London’s theaters reopen in 1594 when thethreat of the plague has abated.Italian astronomer Giordano Bruno is accusedand imprisoned by the Vatican for supportingthe Copernican theory of the universe. He iseventually burned to death in Rome for heresy(1600).The Comedy of Errors performed atthe Gray’s Inn on the night ofInnocent’s Day, December 28th, asrecorded in the Gesta Graymorum.1595Approximate year of composition forA Midsummer Night’s Dream, KingJohn, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II,and The Merchant of Venice.Sir Philip Sidney’s An Apology for Poetry ispublished posthumously.1596John Shakespeare, the dramatist’sfather, is granted a coat of arms.Another hall of London’s Blackfriarsmonastery opens as James Burbage’splayhouse. Later it will serve as the wintertheater space for Shakespeare’s company.Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, diesat the age of eleven.159798Shakespeare’s sonnets circulateunpublished.A second armada of Spanish ships en route toattack England is dispersed by storms.The two parts of King Henry IV, TheMerry Wives of Windsor, and MuchAdo About Nothing are written.Sir Francis Bacon’s Essays, Civil and Moral ispublished.He purchases the New Place, one ofthe largest estates in Stratford.An English Act of Parliament prescribessentences of deportation to British colonies forconvicted criminals.He is listed as a player in aproduction of Ben Jonson’s EveryMan in His Humor.1599The Globe Playhouse opens.Shakespeare is part owner by virtueof the shares divided between theBurbage family of actors (half) andfive others, including the dramatist.The Earl of Essex is sent to command Englishforces in Ireland. He fails to secure peace andreturns to England against the orders of QueenElizabeth.6
Approximate year of composition forKing Henry V, Julius Caesar, and AsYou Like It.1600021601Shakespeare’s poem, “The Phoenixand the Turtle” and his plays, TwelfthNight, All’s Well That Ends Well,Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida dateapproximately from this period.In 1600 comedian Will Kempe dances aMorris Dance from London to Norwich.Shakespeare’s father dies.The Earl of Essex attempts a rebellion againstthe crown and is executed.The international trading corporation, theEnglish East India Company, is founded. (TheDutch East India Company is founded in1602.)Ben Jonson, offended by a satirical portrayal ofhimself in a play, returns the insult, sparking aseries of plays known as the War of theTheaters in which playwrights ridicule eachother from the stage.1603Approximate year of composition forOthello and Measure for Measure.James I is crowned King of England,and the acting company long knownas the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, withwhich Shakespeare is affiliated,becomes The King’s Men. Thecompany will perform twelve playsper year for the court of James I.16051607Elizabeth I dies. She is succeeded by hercousin, James I. (The era of his reign is calledthe Jacobean period.)Sir Walter Raleigh, arrested for suspectedinvolvement in a plot to dethrone James I, isput on trial for treason and imprisoned.Plague breaks out again in London.Shakespeare’s name is includedamong England’s greatest writers inRemaines of a Greater WorkeConcerning Britaine, published bythe antiquarian William Camden.Guy Fawkes and others are arrested followingthe discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, a plan toblow up the House of Lords during an addressby James I (November 5). They are executedthe following year.King Lear and Macbeth appear.Ben Jonson writes Volpone.Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna,marries Dr. John Hill; they make theirhome in Stratford.English colonists in America, led by JohnSmith, establish the city of Jamestown,Virginia.Anthony and Cleopatra, Pericles andTimon of Athens are written.7
1608Shakespeare’s acting company signsa lease for the use of the BlackfriarsPlayhouse.Dutch scientist Johan Lippershey invents thetelescope. Galileo copies the design toconstruct one of his own.Coriolanus appears.Shakespeare’s mother dies.160910Shakespeare’s Sonnets are published.His late plays The Winter’s Tale,Cymbeline, and The Tempest belongto this period.1611The Dutch East India Company beginsshipping tea from China to Europe.The Moriscos, Spanish Moors who hadconverted to Christianity, are expelled fromSpain (through 1614).The King James version of the Bible ispublished.1612Records show that, by this time,Shakespeare “of Stratford-uponAvon, gentleman” has returned tolive in his birthplace.John Webster’s tragedy The White Devil isstaged and published.1613Two plays, King Henry VIII and TheTwo Noble Kinsmen, are attributed toboth Shakespeare and John Fletcher.The Globe Playhouse burns down during thefirst performance of King Henry VIII.1616Shakespeare’s daughter Judith ismarried.The Catholic Church prohibits Galileo fromfurther scientific work.Shakespeare dies on April 23 and isburied in Stratford’s Holy TrinityChurch.1620Led by Miles Standish, English Puritans settleat Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.Serious economic decline begins in England.1623Heminge and Condell of The King’sMen compile Shakespeare’s completedramatic works in the First Folio.Anne, William Shakespeare’s widow,dies.John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi ispublished.Dutch colonists settle in New Amsterdam(seized by the English and renamed New Yorkin 1664).8
THE PLAYWRIGHTCommentary on Shakespeare's WorkMy Shakespeare, rise. Thou art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,And we have wits to read, and praise to give. Ben Jonson, To the Memory of My Beloved the Author Mr. William Shakespeare: and What HeHath Left Us, commendatory poem printed in The First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s works,1623Thou in our wonder and astonishmentHast built thy self a live-long Monument.John Milton, On Shakespear, a compliment included in the Second Folio, 1632He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensivesoul. All the images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them, not laboriously, but luckily;when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too.John Dryden, Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 1668When he wrote sonnets, it seems as if he had considered himself as more a poet than when he wroteplays; he was the manager of a theatre, and he viewed drama as his business; on it he exerted all hisintellect and power, but when he had feelings intense and secret to express, he had recourse to a lessfamiliar form of writing. For the right understanding of his dramatic works, these lyrics are of thegreatest importance.A. W. Schlegel, Our Shakespeare
Study Guide for the 1993 production of the Guthrie Theater. All quotes from the play included in this study guide come from the full-length text of Othello by William Shakespeare and may not be in the final Guthrie performance script. All rights reserved. No part of this Study Guide may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic
