Othello

Benchmark Journals

Briana Bailey

Gold Stream

Journal 1: (Lines from quote in bold and italicized)

(aside) He takes her by the palm. Cassio is taking Desdemona by her hand while talking to her.

Ay, well said, whisper! They should keep on whispering. Although they don’t know (Desdemona and Cassio) it, but they are feed into my little evil plan! Because you guys are whispering things together, I can easily turned what your saying into something its not. In other words I will be able to make that action look innocent to Othello.

With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. He is talking directly about Cassio and I saying that he is trapping himself. In order to get you in on my plan (with you knowing) your kindness to Desdemona is exactly what a man like me with a plan to break peoples heart needs.

Ay, smile upon her, do, I will give thee in thine own courtship. Go ahead smile at her, make her fall in love with your gentleman like behaviors. That will make my job of framing you guys a lot easier. 

You say true, 'Tis so, indeed I’m sure you’re right, keep talking. Fill her and my ears up with charm.

Journal 2:

Act 3 Sc. 4. Bianca

"O Cassio, whence came this. This is some token from a newer friend. to the felt absence now I feel a cause isn’t come to this? well well."

"But that you don’t’ love me"

Bianca sees that her "lover," Cassio, has a handkerchief, which obviously belongs to someone else. She began to question if it came from some other woman he "loves/sleeps with." She wonders if he is giving her other lovers’ handkerchief, which would be insulting towards her.  

Cassio tells Bianca that he found the handkerchief himself in his chamber. Also she gets told that she must leave he is in Cyprus on duty as the Generals help. She gets told that Cassio loves her and will maybe see her soon. 

A way to understand this scene by looking at her key words "a newer friend." This indicates that she thought Cassio was seeing someone else. Also the handkerchief belonged to that someone else.

Journal 3:

Raised by her father, mother died during birth, Desdemona was a daddy's girl. She grew up taking care of her father the same way he took care of her, with love, patience and grief. As a child she learned to be a gentle female. She always did as told up until the point when Desdemona disobeyed her father for the love of her life. Desdemona understood why her father didn’t want her to marry a "Moor," but she didn’t want anyone to stop her from her heart being completed. This shows when she wants something she goes for it. She is determined. Although her husband is planning on murdering her because of lies he was told about her committing adultery she died loyal, and confused as to who she was as a wife to Othello. Even though Othello thinks she is cheating on him, she never did say to her “I might as well do it”. She stayed faithful. As the soft-spoken woman she is she tried to understand her husband without arguing. 

Journal 4:

The only prop I had for Desdemona was the handkerchief. What makes my group stand out is Haneef’s reenacting of Iago and Doneshas acting of Emilia. They had the connection of frustration and the painful love that they share. Also our scene is relatively short, and I think it’s the shortest scene, There wasn’t really much action we could put into our scene a lot of it was straight dialogue. 

Journal 5:

Desdemona: “How now, my dear Othello! Your dinner, and the generous islanders by you invited do attend your presence.” This line is highly important to the middle of the book. It’s the first time Desdemona is noticing that her husband is coming through something. Although she thinks he just is “not well” I sense that she knows its something else as well. I think this because I imagined her speaking to him in a worried soft voice. This line is also important because its addresses to Othello (main general) how important it is for him to be at the dinner that he set up with the people of Cyprus.

            My group’s performance sort of went the way I envisioned it. I definitely agree with the statement that was said in class “the scenes went by faster than I thought they would.” At the same time for my group (more specifically) there were only 4 characters and each character had about 3-4 lines. As a performance my group should have put a deeper thought into finding more actions to put with our words.