Shakespeare Othello

Length: 1400 words

The very best papers will offer a detailed close reading of the play (Othello) and/or your primary source, paying attention to the nuances of language in order to develop your own interpretations of the play, its characters, its plot, and/or its themes. Your paper should convey your own original thoughts.

Prompt:

Write an argumentative paper using textual evidence, and analyze the ways that Shakespeare constructs Othello’s blackness within the space of the play. What makes Othello black—whether according to other characters (e.g., Iago, Desdemona) or according to himself? Thinking more broadly, what does this construction of blackness suggest about the contours of race in early modern England?

Due:

Wednesday, March 13 at 3 pm

NO OUTSIDE SOURCES CAN BE USED OTHER THAN THE PLAY OF OTHELLO!