4. We are all unwitting Shakespeare quoters, sometimes "without rhyme or
reason.” If you are "in a pickle" because you have been "eaten out of
house and home" and even your "salad days" have "vanished into thin
air," you are quoting Shakespeare. You've been "hoodwinked" and "more
sinned against than sinning." No wonder you're not "playing fast and
loose" and haven't "slept a wink" and are probably "breathing your
last." It's "cold comfort" that you are quoting Shakespeare. If you "point
your finger" at me, "bid me good riddance" when you "send me
packing" and call me a "laughing-stock," "the devil incarnate," a "sorry
sight," "eyesore," and a "stone-hearted," "bloody-minded" "blinking
idiot" and wish I were "dead as a door-nail”, then I would say that you
possess neither a "heart of gold" nor "the milk of human kindness,"
especially considering that we are "flesh and blood." Now that we have
gone "full circle" and you are still waiting with "bated breath" since I have
not been able to make you "budge an inch," it is "fair play" for me to quit
this sermon since Shakespeare himself taught me that "brevity is the soul
of wit." After all, it is a "foregone conclusion” that we all speak
Shakespeare's language!
adapted from Take My Words: A Wordaholic's Guide to the English Language by Howard Richler
6. Let me
ask you!
Compare a scene in the movie
O to the corresponding scene
in Shakespeare’s Othello. In
some cases, there will not be a
direct correlation. In that case,
you may refer to themes as
long as you use textual
evidence. How does the
director both stay true to
Shakespeare and make the
film more relevant? Which is
more successful? Why
7. THE SETTING
The film O attempts to recreate the story of Othello in a modern high school;
while remaining generally true to the storyline, the film isn’t as convincing as the
original play. The play takes place in Venice and Cyprus hundreds of years ago
when killing people for their misdeeds was much more common. Also, a
weathered war veteran/general (Othello) may turn to murder, while a high school
basketball player (Odin) probably wouldn’t. In the film, Roger actually kills Mike,
though Michael Cassio’s character should live, or many themes are lost in the
ending. Cassio’s character represents loyalty and truth because he never
actually betrays Othello throughout the play, so by keeping his character alive
Shakespere reminds the audience that jealousy leads to peril while honesty
keeps you alive.
8. MOTIVATIONS: HUGO VS. IAGO
By portraying Hugo as an insecure teen with a volatile, unloving father, he is
given a humanity that Shakespeare intentionally did not imbue Iago with. While
the film does a good job showing the jealousy Hugo feels when he sees his
teammate Odin succeeding so spectacularly, it’s impossible to watch the movie
and not feel some level of sympathy for Hugo. It’s a disservice to both the
amorality and the inscrutability that the character should have, to let the
audience see him in situations that humanize him.
With Iago, we get:
• Evil, brilliant antagonist sets out to destroy everyone he is jealous of. They are
all helpless in his web.
With Hugo:
• Sociopathic teen with unaware parents and school and easy access to guns
becomes addicted to steroids which drive him further into anger and paranoia.
9. HUGO AND RODERIGO CALL THE
DEAN
In the scene where Roger and Hugo plot to tell the Dean, Desi’s father, that
Odin James has violated his daughter, I find it falling short of Shakespeare’s
masterpiece. Going outside the home, and calling from a cell phone doesn’t
quite give the presence of waking Brabantio up in the middle of the night with
louds screams about how: “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is
tupping your white eve” (Othello 1.1.97-98). Instead we have Roger speaking
to the Dean on the phone while standing in his from bushes with Hugo saying,
“Um, I don’t know how to tell you this sir, but someone stole something from
you… Your daughter” (O 2001). The whole scene loses its power and reduces
it down to mere name-calling and accusations. I feel the original was more
successful because it embeds fear and terror within Brabantio’s heart and also
confirms that Desdemona was indeed stolen from his heart.
10. DESI, DADDY, THE DEAN, AND
ODIN
I found the scene where Desi’s father discovers her relationship with Othello to be
successful in translating the play’s racism while also becoming more relevant to a
contemporary audience. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Desdemona’s father, Brabantio,
accuses Othello of “corrupting” his daughter with “spells” — refusing to believe his
daughter would love someone outside her own race (1.3.73,74). Today, of course, we
don’t believe in magic or witchcraft but Desi’s father in O expresses a similar disbelief
when he claims that Odin raped his daughter. In both cases the father cannot accept
his daughter’s interracial relationship because of its taboo nature. He therefore has to
rationalize it by believing it is not consensual. Throughout history, there is the
unfortunate racial stereotype made by white oppressors that those with dark
complexion are evil or perform voodoo or “black” magic; this is what leads Brabantio to
claim Othello had performed witchcraft. A similar notion shows up when Desi’s father
tells Odin, “You mean you’ve never had any run-ins with the police?” Both fathers
project racial stereotypes that vilify the man or young man in love with his daughter. So
I thought this scene was effective in translating the racism in Shakespeare’s Othello to
a contemporary audience.
11. ODD EMILY
The character of Emily, who I love in the play, was really odd in this
adaptation. She’s a really interesting and somewhat contradictory character
in the play, but in the movie she was so strange. Emily is shown to be a
good friend to Desi, and yet she steals her handkerchief. When Odin comes
in and forcefully asks for it back, she essentially does nothing. She brought
forth her best friend’s death, not to mention her own, for some attention
from her boyfriend (Which, I had a really hard time watching, especially the
handkerchief scene, because I found it incredibly disturbing, and ruined any
hope I had of liking movie Emily). When she cries out with sadness to find
Desdemona dead, the only way I could justify it is if part of Emilia is crying
because of her involvement with the whole situation. Otherwise, I have a
hard time understanding their friendship.
12. The scene I am going to compare in the movie O is when Em brings Hugo the
“handkerchief” that Desi drops […] Odin gave Desi this handkerchief at the
beginning of the movie somewhat similarly to Othello. The director also stays true
to Shakespeare by having Desi drop the handkerchief whilst she is trying to calm
Odin after he accuses her of being to close to Michael (Cassio). The two step over
the handkerchief unknowingly and leave the room. Em is seen scheming on
bringing the handkerchief to Hugo.
In the next scene, Em goes to Hugo’s dorm […] After Hugo’s roommate leaves, Em
makes a remark about having something for him, to which Hugo replies that she
has a lot of things for a lot of guys, assuming that she is promiscuous. This remark
stays true to Shakespeare because Iago had suspected Emilia of being unfaithful in
the play. However, once Em hands Hugo the handkerchief, he beams and tells Em
that she is amazing. Then, unlike the play where Iago tells Emilia to leave him,
Hugo starts to flirt with Em and gets her to have sex with him. […] In the play, Iago
tells Emilia to leave him, seeming as if he wants to be alone with the handkerchief.
Similarly, in O, Hugo puts the handkerchief over Em’s face, making it apart of the
sexual counter which is a bit unsettlingly and reaffirms my suspicions of Hugo’s
love for Odin.
Odd Emily, Hugo, and the Hanky
13. ODIN’S SUSCEPTIBILITY
Bringing them even further from Shakespeare and closer to the
modern world is the age adjustments. Putting everyone in school
makes everything more believable. When you look at a rash,
drug-using young man with TONS of pressure on him, it is much
easier to see why he is susceptible to the wiles of Iago/Hugo. The
movie does stretch itself a little thin when trying to go the extra
mile and touch on topics of (lol, why not, let’s quote Janis Joplin,)
“great social and political import.” The icky rape scene is briefly
touched on, but never fully explored. As a springboard into Odin’s
descent into paranoia and insecurity it is pretty well done, but the
filmmakers missed a crucial opportunity to explore Desi’s
character. Showing greater feelings of conflict would give depth to
Desdemona’s devotion, and the film only half-heartedly delivers
that.
14. THE MURDERS
For me, O works very well in conveying a mood. It’s not necessarily the
mood I associate with Othello, however. I think part of it lies with the fact
that it has been thoroughly modernized. The Shakespearean language
barrier interferes with immersion, while it is much easier to lose yourself
in O.
The murders for instance, are much more believable in O. The tragedy
is more tangible because creative direction gave Odin drugs. The entire
thing seemed like a mess of intentions that spiraled out of control
(except for Iago… things seemed premeditated on that end,) and it all
felt very preventable.I think that the same feeling was actually there in
Othello as well, but peeling back the layers of sophistication and
Shakespearan fluff allows the reader to obtain a clearer glimpse of the
emotions written into the story.
15. THE STRANGULATION
I am going to compare the choking scene between both versions. In the play, Emilia
is present when Desdemona dies. Desdemona also blames herself for her fate.
Act 5 Scene 2 Lines 147-153
Emilia: Out, and alas, that was my lady’s voice!
Help! Help ho! Help! O lady, speak again!
Sweet Desdemona, O sweet mistress, speak!
Desdemona: A guiltless death I die.
Emilia: O, who hath done this deed?
Desdemona: Nobody. I myself. Farewell.
Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell.
In the film, Odin and Desi are alone when he kills her. Emily is on her way to their
room because she was suspicious of Desi’s whereabouts. She walks in right after
Odin kills Desi.
I was hoping Emily would barge right in time to save Desi, or that Odin would
realize what he was doing and not kill her. The director stayed true to the play by
having Odin choke Desi to death in a bed.
16. EMILY AND ODIN
I want to compare my favorite scene where Emily reveals Hugo’s plans. If I do
remember correctly, Emily was in deep shock and despair as Hugo entering the
room. I was hoping that Emily would be like Emilia where she stand up for
Desdesmona with rage about what Othello has done. One thing that did stay
true to Shakespeare’s plot is when Odin mentions the scarf and Emily finally
realizes what the purpose of the scarf, in which she tells the truth of Hugo’s
plans, resulting her to die because of this. What made me disappointed about
this scene is that Emily dies right after Hugo shoots her and originally in
Shakespeare’s work, Emilia told Othello about Desdemona’s unchanging love
and chastity for Othello as her last dying words. Then again, it is not quite
possible for Emily to say about protecting Desi’s chastity since she and Odin
have a lot of lovemaking in the movie. But at the very least, I wish she was able
to stay alive quite a bit longer enough (I’m not quite sure since I’ve see people
die immediately after getting shot in the stomach and some stay alive in a short
time before dying) to defend Desi’s loyal love to Odin.
I say the play’s scene of this is more successful than the movie’s scene and the
director did not quite exactly true to Shakespeare.
17. THE END
The only moment I felt O came alive was when it stripped away all the pretense
of its high school melodrama and did away with its own cinematic language for
a single beat. This occurred during Odin’s final monolog, in which he begs for
truth, both from the universe and for the telling of his own story. We cut back-
and-forth between the police cars outside, Hartnett’s terrifyingly empty stare,
and Phifer’s emotionally charged performance. This is all layered over a
soundscape of a crying girl and a police siren, as well as the best song in the
film’s admittedly excellent original score. Even Odin’s monolog, which still
sounds like an adult trying to write how he imagines teenagers sound like,
retains the content of Shakespeare’s original and gives the whole scene a
mythos sorely missing from the rest of the film. The emotional power of this
scene lifts the rest of the film up, and as Phifer’s voice, through broken sobs,
becomes more and more helpless, we feel the true pity that makes Othello such
a tragic figure. It’s a grounded, human moment of pure emotion, that stands out
in a film which never seems to settle on what it wants to be.
18. QHQS
1. Q: Would it be truer to the spirit of the original play, when
setting Othello in the modern day, to make the movie a horror
film rather than trying to make it a tragedy?
2. Question: How does O use societal’s own racism to further
along the plot of the movie in a more believable fashion?
3. Question: What other social issues does the play cover?
20. EXAM REVIEW
1. Passage identification by work
2. Character identification
3. Who said it? Name the Speaker
4. Matching:
5. Terms: Fill in the blank
21. EXAM REVIEW: Short essay/Long answer: two or
three paragraphs: These are merely sample
questions.
Explore the female characters in Richard III. Do they have agency,
or are they absolutely powerless? What affect do they have on the
play? The three queens clearly see Richard’s evil intentions. What
do their insights tell us about them? About women? What does their
grief tell us? What do their fates say?
Does Othello deserve Iago’s wrath? Is Iago just evil or can a
sensitive reader understand his hatred for Othello? What are
his motivations for destroying Othello?
