Hello everyone and welcome to a lesson on "Othello," and Shakespeare's conventions of tragedy.

I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to be able to explore Shakespeare's structural conventions of tragedy in the play.

So by the end of the lesson, you'll know what the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy are, and you'll know how they apply to the play "Othello." So let's get started.

We have four key terms today.

And let's go through them.

The Great Chain of Being.

The Great Chain of Being was a hierarchy that Elizabethans believed God ordained for the Earth.

Now remember, Shakespeare wrote "Othello" in the Elizabethan era.

So at the time, The Great Chain of Being was something that citizens believed in.

And a hierarchy is basically like a ordering.

So Elizabethan, at the time Shakespeare was writing, believed in an ordering for everything on Earth, and they believed that God decided that order.

The next key word for today is an Anagnorisis, which is a moment of insight where the tragic hero understands their circumstances.

Now, that's usually at the end of a tragedy, where the tragic hero understands why they are suffering in the way that they are.

Peripeteia is a pivotal action that changes the protagonist's fate from secure to vulnerable.

So in a tragedy, that might be the moment where a protagonist has their fate sealed and their vulnerability and suffering becomes inevitable.

The last key word for today is Disruption.

Disruption is a disturbance which interferes with the normal functioning of something.

And traditionally in tragedies, there is a lot of disruption.

I'll give you a moment to jot down any key words that you want to.

Excellent.

Let's get started then.

We have two learning cycles in today's lesson.

In the first learning cycle, we will learn all about Elizabethan social order.

So remember The Great Chain of Being that we were just talking about? We'll be learning about that in this first learning cycle.

And secondly, we'll be learning about Shakespeare's tragedy.

And Elizabethan social order is a huge part of Shakespeare's tragedy, because traditionally, Shakespeare's tragedies involve some sort of disruption of social order.

So let's get started with Elizabethan social order.

Now, The Great Chain of Being was basically an ordering of all beings on Earth.

And the Elizabethans believed that God created this order.

So the Elizabethans believed that the world was arranged in a hierarchy or an order, and the hierarchy was called The Great Chain of Being.

It's on the right there, and it's based on ideas from Genesis where God gave everything a position on Earth.

People and creatures were designated in the hierarchy based on how important or valuable they were thought to be.

And when people or things did not act in accordance with The Great Chain of Being, it was believed to create disruption and chaos in the world.

So we can see there in The Great Chain of Being that animals were considered less important than man.

Ordinary men were considered less important than nobles or the church.

And above the church we have the king.

Above the king, we have angels.

And at the very top we have God.

So God was considered the most important, valuable being and we go down the hierarchy from there.

Now I want you to turn to a partner or have a think in your head.

What does this tell us about Elizabethan society? So the fact that Elizabethans had such a rigid social order for every single being, what does that tell us about that society? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent discussions, everyone.

I heard some people say, "That it shows they wanted a lot of control over their society." I heard some people say, "It's to give those at the top more power." And I heard some people say that "This hierarchy could mean that Elizabethan society becomes very prejudiced," because they are saying that one group of people or type of person is more important than another.

Let's answer a question to check your understanding of The Great Chain of Being.

What is considered most superior according to The Great Chain of Being? Is it the church, man, animals or nobles? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said the church, out of that list there, is considered most superior according to The Great Chain of Being.

Now, one reason why the church was placed above man, animals, and nobles is because the church is a religious establishment closely connected to God.

And of course we know The Great Chain of Being was a religious concept and people believe that God ordained it.

Therefore, the church has given a lot of significance and importance.

Now let's get back to the play "Othello." Social order and status arguably drive a lot of the events in the play "Othello." There are four events from the play "Othello" on the screen there, I'll read them out to you.

Othello is a Moorish man with high rank who marries a White Venetian woman.

Othello passes over Iago for a promotion, angering Iago.

Iago, a soldier, manipulates his superior Othello.

And having killed his wife, Othello kills himself by the end, allowing for catharsis.

I want you to discuss with a partner or to think in your head, how does social order or status play a role in the following events? So in those four events, why is social order and status so important? Pause the video and have a think.

Let's go through some of the ideas that you may have had.

So for the first one, Othello being a Moorish man with high rank who marries a White Venetian woman.

Now, in Elizabethan society, Othello would've been considered an outsider due to his race.

So his high status and marriage angers Iago, who doesn't believe Othello is worthy of his rank and wife.

Next, Othello passes Iago over for a promotion, angering Iago.

Now this is very much centred on social status, because Iago is angered he's not been able to elevate his own social status, and this ultimately fuels his manipulation of Othello.

Iago, a soldier, successfully manipulates his general, Othello.

Iago is of a lower status than Othello, but manages to overpower him, disrupting social order.

Confusion and disorder ensues when Othello incorrectly believes his wife has been unfaithful.

So the fact that someone lower down in the ranks, such as Iago, can manipulate the person who's supposed to be in charge of him, Othello, could lead to a huge amount of chaos and disruption in this play.

And finally, Othello kills himself by the end, allowing for catharsis.

Now, the Elizabethan audience may believe at that moment the order is restored because at this point, Othello absolves his guilt for killing his wife.

So we see in the other three moments of the play that order is disrupted, but arguably by the end, order may have been restored.

And that is because you could say there is a sense of justice, or Othello can get rid of his negative emotions.

Let's move on to the second part of the lesson where we will explore Shakespeare's conventions of tragedy.

So here are some of the Shakespearean conventions of tragedy.

Shakespeare's tragedies typically disrupt the social order and that's something we've just discussed.

Key themes in Shakespeare's tragedies are disorder and chaos.

Shakespeare's tragedies follow the five-act structure, which I'm going to show you in a moment.

And this structure tracks the downfall of a tragic hero.

So let's look at the five-act structure.

You may have seen this before.

It starts with the exposition, then the rising action, then the climax, then the falling action, and then the resolution.

There are five acts there that are always present in Shakespeare's tragedies.

Let's recap exactly what happens during each part of the five-part structure.

So in the exposition, the audience learns the setting, characters, and the conflict is introduced.

In the rising action, complications arise as the play builds to its climax, so the problem might get worse here.

The climax is the turning point of the play.

You could say that is where the tragic hero's fate is sealed.

That is where there is no turning back for the tragic hero, they are on their way to their downfall at that point.

The falling action is where the story starts coming to an end with unknown plot details being wrapped up.

So the conflict might get worse here or the conflict might start to be resolved in some way.

And lastly, the denouement, or the resolution.

This is the unravelling or final outcome of the drama.

And there's sometimes a moral lesson in this last part of the story where the audience will go away having learned from the characters' mistakes perhaps.

So there we have our five-part structure that is present in all of Shakespeare's tragedies, and of course it is present in "Othello." Let's check your understanding of a Shakespearean tragedy.

How many acts are there in a Shakespearean tragedy? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said five.

In a Shakespearean tragedy we have the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.

Well done if you got that right.

Another question for you, what is the third act in a Shakespearean tragedy? Is it the climax, the falling action, or the rising action? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said the third act in a Shakespearean tragedy is the climax.

It's the middle of the play in which the most dramatic or conflicting situation occurs.

Now let's recap where the events of "Othello" fall in the five-part structure.

Plot an event for each of the five parts.

So what happens in the exposition of "Othello?" What happens in the rising action? What happens in the climax? What happens in the falling action? And finally, what is the resolution of the play? What happens at the end? Pause the video and have a go at that task.

Great thinking, everyone.

Let's go through.

In the exposition, we learn of Othello and Desdemona's marriage, we learn that they elope together, and we learn of Iago's anger at not being promoted.

In the rising action, Iago starts to scheme and manipulate Othello into thinking that his wife has been unfaithful.

And in the rising action, Othello becomes agitated by Iago's claims of Desdemona's infidelity.

That's how we see tension rise.

In the climax, Iago plants Desdemona's handkerchief in Cassio's room.

Othello takes this as proof of Desdemona's infidelity.

We see that that must be the highest point of conflict and drama in the play because it's the moment Othello thinks that his wife has definitely been unfaithful.

And it's the moment he begins to want to take his jealousy and his anger to the next level.

It's the moment he has complete trust in Iago, which will inevitably lead to his fatal end.

In the falling action, Othello hits and shouts at Desdemona, and people begin to doubt his honourable status.

So we can see here, how as a result of the climax, Othello is starting to ruin his own reputation, he starts to become more violent, he starts to become more irrational.

And that ultimately leads to Othello's tragic end where he smothers Desdemona and kills himself after finding out he has been manipulated by Iago.

And we can see how all of the events before it link and contribute to Othello's tragic end.

Well done on that task.

Now we have another task here to take your understanding even further.

Consider the five-part structure of "Othello" and discuss the following questions.

Which part of the play could be described as the peripeteia? So which part of the play is Othello's fate sealed? Which part of the play do you think marks his moment of no turning back? Which part of the play makes his fate go from secure to completely vulnerable? The second question is, which part of the play could be described as the anagnorisis? So the anagnorisis, remember, is the moment where the tragic hero realises their circumstances.

It's where they realise what has happened to them.

They realise the truth about their suffering.

So when does Othello have that light-bulb moment? Number three, in which parts of the play is Othello's hamartia particularly important? So remember we said Othello's hamartia might be his jealousy, his gullibility, his insecurity.

So what parts of the play really are affected by that fault of his or those actions of his? And finally, at what point in the play may an audience feel catharsis? Catharsis is a release of emotion.

So it's where the audience can let go of all their tension that they've been holding throughout the play.

It's where they can release emotions, and likely at the same time as characters also release their emotions.

Now, we're answering these questions because peripeteia and anagnorisis, hamartia and catharsis are all parts of tragedy.

They're all parts of Aristotle's idea of tragedy.

So what we're doing here is we're actually seeing how Shakespeare has combined his own version of tragedy and Aristotle's version of tragedy to create "Othello." So pause the video and answer those four questions there.

Remember, you need to be thinking about where each moment occurs in Freytag's Pyramid.

Pause a video and have a go at that task.

I heard some really insightful things there.

I'm really impressed how you managed to apply that really complex vocabulary to the five-part structure of "Othello," which is a new play to all of us, great job.

Let's share our ideas.

Which part of the play could be described as the peripeteia? The moment of peripeteia in "Othello" could be in the climax when Othello receives what he thinks is proof of Desdemona's infidelity.

Remember, that's where he sees the handkerchief in Cassio's possession.

He thinks that proves that Desdemona and Cassio have been having an affair, but of course they haven't.

This is the peripeteia because Othello then decides to punish her for her actions, leading to his own downfall.

Which part of the play could be described as the anagnorisis? The anagnorisis is arguably in the resolution of the play when Othello learns that he's been manipulated by Iago.

So in the resolution of "Othello," Emilia, who is Iago's wife, helps Othello see that he is manipulated by her husband and it is at that moment that Othello decides to kill himself because he realises how senselessly he's acted throughout the play.

In which parts of the play is Othello's hamartia particularly important? Othello's hamartia is important in the rising action, climax and falling action, because his gullibility causes him to believe Iago very easily.

He doesn't have to trust Iago when Iago tells him that Desdemona has been unfaithful, but he does.

And also, Othello's jealousy upon believing that she has been unfaithful causes him to lash out at Desdemona.

Both of these lead to his downfall.

And finally, at what point may an audience feel catharsis? An audience may feel catharsis in the resolution because when Othello kills himself, he absolves himself of the guilt he felt for his senseless killing of his wife.

This allows the audience to release pent-up tension too.

Well done on answering those questions.

That was a really complex task and I'm really impressed.

Let's go through what we've learned in today's lesson.

Shakespeare's tragedies, like many Jacobean tragedies, focus on the consequences of the disruption of social order.

Elizabethans social order was based on ideas about creation from Genesis, where God gave everything a place in the world.

Order, disorder, and chaos are key themes and motifs in a tragedy.

And the five-act structure tracks the downfall of a noble, tragic hero causing disorder, and finally, restoring order.

Thank you for joining and participating in today's lesson.

I hope to see you in another lesson very soon.