Journals for Othello

Journal #1

Act 3 Scene 3

Good my lord, pardon me,

Iago should bow down his head as to ask for something from Othello. This could not be interpreted as talking to the audience, because the dialogue is designed to address Othello.

Though I am bound to every act of duty

I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.

Iago should start speaking with a high defensive voice as a gesture of defending his thoughts so that he may speak further.

Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile and false,

Iago should raise his eyebrows and put up his hands in a questioning gesture to indicate to Othello, that he is asking a question.

As where’s that palace whereinto foul things

Sometimes intrude not? Who has that breast so pure

Wherein uncleanly apprehensions

Iago should point his finger at Othello so as to indicate that he is trying to make a point to Othello because Iago is trying to tell Othello something important.

Keep leets and law-days and in sessions sit

With meditations lawful?

This one should be directed to the audience where Iago should turn to the audience, face them and speak.

Journal #2

Roderigo is in love with Desdemona and will do anything to get her. he lusts after Desdemona and goes to sell his land to follow her. He ends up killing Cassio in a jealous rage when he thinks that Desdemona is cheating on Othello with Cassio. 

Rodrigo hears a lot from Iago, such as a lot of lies from Iago. He gets the idea to kill Cassio from Iago.

Rodrigos motivations are pretty clear. He is blindly in love with Desdemona and will do anything to get her and he ends up wounding Cassio in a jealous rage and gets killed at the hands of Iago after he wounded Cassio. 

Journal #3

Iago grew up in a lower middle class family. As a kid, he quickly figured out that he could use mental tricks to get his way. He did alright in school, he had a few friends who essentially followed him. He used lying and played mental tricks on other kids to get them to stop picking on him. When he got older, he joined the military as a soldier. He fought in many battles. He used his brain and tricks to slowly go up the chain of command to get to where he was at the beginning of Othello.

Journal #4

When I speak about Bianca, I should lower my voice when saying her name so as not to alert Othello that I am saying something different. It should be calm and not overanxious like I am expecting something.

I cannot really decide on a prop that Iago would have. I mean something like a knife or a weapon would make no sense. I'm guessing a cane might work. However I am not quite sure on this one. I cannot think of a prop that he would need. However for his costume I am thinking maybe a nice jacket would do because he is in the military.

I think that one thing that will make it stand out will be Bianca's monologue. If it is presented right will be entertaining.

Journal #5

“Now I will question Cassio of Bianca. It is a creature that dotes on Cassio.”

This quote is essentially describing part of Iago’s plan.

What this quote is, is that Iago has this plan to drive Othello nuts and he is going to use Bianca as a pawn to help make Cassio look more and more like he is the one whom Desdemona is cheating with. This line is important because Iago is explaining his plan and if he did not use this line to communicate with the audience, then we would not have a good idea of what is happening.

My groups performance did fine. I mean, it wasn’t a Tony award winning performance but it did well and it got the story through to the audience and everyone understood what was going on. I think that I was mostly proud of Reggie’s performance because he seemed to be the one person that was the most in character. I liked how Bianca’s monologue was done.

I have to say that doing the performance did not really change my understanding of it. I don’t actually get how acting it out would change my understanding of it. I understood the play of Othello and the meanings behind it. One of the meanings of them is sometimes if you talk things out openly you can solve so many problems. Any way, acting out the play did not really change my views on Othello.