SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND DRAMA: UNDERGRADUATE ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Your name must not appear anywhere on your work or on this form

ARE YOU DYSLEXIC? NO
DO YOU HAVE VISUAL IMPAIRMENT? NO

Your College ID number: (the 9 digit number on your student ID card) eg 101234567

140692891

Your College username: eg le01234

le14283

Your current year of study: (tick one)

year 1

YES

year 2 year F
Associate
Other

Module Code: eg ESH123/DRA456

ESH101

Module Title:

Shakespeare

Assignment number and element: eg assignment 1. essay 1,500 words 30% assignment 3. learning journal: 70%, etc

Assignment 3. Essay 2,500 words.

20%

Your Seminar Tutor:

Jemima Matthews

Word count:

2510
(exact word count, excluding bibliography, including footnotes, please note that over-length assignments will be penalised as described in the Student Handbook)

The date this assignment is due:

15/03/2015

The date I submitted this assignment:

17/03/2015

Your Personal Adviser:

Madeline Wood

I understand that plagiarism is the use or presentation of the work of another person, including another student, without acknowledging the source. I declare that the writing-up of this assignment is my own unaided work and that where I have quoted from or referred to the opinions or writings of others, these have been fully and clearly acknowledged. I give permission for the Department to run the e-copy of my assignment through plagiarism detection software. By the submission of this cover sheet, I acknowledge the above.

College ID number (9 digit number, eg 101234567): 140692891
College Username (eg le01234): le14283
Module Code: ESH101
Seminar Leader: Jemima Matthews
Assignment Number & Element (e.g. ‘1. Short Essay’): Assignment 3. Essay 2,500 words. 20%

Title: Compare and contrast Othello Act 1 Scene 2 – Act 1 Scene 3 line 121 with Hamlet Act 1 Scene 3 – Act 1 scene 5 line 113.

►IMPORTANT NOTICE: it is strongly recommended that you save this document as a ‘.doc’ or ‘.docx’ before commencing your assignment, so that all formatting options (e.g. those relating to footnotes and the embedding of images) are retained

Begin your assignment beneath this line

The tragedies of Othello and Hamlet Prince of Denmark are marked as such due to the progression of each play highlighting and exploiting a tragic flaw in each of these leading characters that causes the eventual demise of both themselves and of those characters tragically associated with them. In Othello Act 1 Scene 2 – Act 1 Scene 3 line 1211 and in Hamlet Act 1 Scene 3 – Act 1 scene 5 line 1132, we see the foreshadowing of forthcoming tragedy in these early stages of each play due to premonitions Shakespeare alludes to in the dramatic context of his language; dramatic context relating to the social, religious, economic and political constructs of the Elizabethan era in which each play was written. When placing each tragic hero into his dramatic context, the introduction of personae flaws that lead to their inevitable downfall are made more apparent. Each extract also places focus upon the arising of the theme of character loyalty, or the lack of it, to both kin and state and how this, combined with the further theme of misrepresentations of reality, the statement of how things appear as opposed to as they actually are, create tensions that begin to show character intent and thereby lead to the development of plot.

Othello, the lead protagonist of the play is initially depicted in the selected extract as a valiant military General, well regarded and a character who displays loyalty to the Venetian society in which the play is set. Being a man of African origin and thereby having black skin, it would have been considered unusual for Othello to be so well regarded; people of colour in Elizabethan England, though sometimes existing as free men, were usually associated with having menial jobs and generally being of a lower class in a predominantly