Othello Assessment Options
To demonstrate your understanding of Othello, you may choose
either a test or timed writing. Both are worth 75 points.
Test
Character identification (10 items)
Given a description of a character, provide the name of the character – no name bank.
Sequence of Events (10 items)
Using 1-10, put events from the play in the order in which they occurred.
Quotation Identification/Significance (11 items)
Given a line(s) from the play, identify the name of the speaker and explain the significance of the line in the context of the
play. The significance may relate to characterization, plot development/structure, theme, and/or a literary technique, such as
irony.
Timed Writing
For the topic you choose, you will be asked to write a well-organized, well-supported, mechanically and grammatically correct essay. Be sure to have a title, focused topic sentence (no introductory paragraph needed), substantial support from the play to support your analysis, and a concluding sentence (no concluding paragraph needed).
You may use your notes and book. Use parenthetical documentation for direct quotations [example – (III.iii.44-46).
- Discuss the character of Othello as a tragic hero: a person of high rank and personal quality, who, because of a fatal weakness, becomes involved in a series of events that lead to his moment of realization and eventual downfall and destruction. Include the qualities that show his greatness as well as his weakness.
- Of Othello, Iago says, “The Moor is of a free and open nature / That thinks men honest that but seem to be so” (I. iii. 391-392). One of the major themes of Othello is the difficulty of distinguishing appearance from reality, or seeming from being. What characters have such difficulties? What is Shakespeare trying to say about judgments based on appearances?
- Some critics call Iago, “the most ingenious arch villain in literature.” Respond to this assessment of Iago’s character. What motivates Iago? What does he hope to gain? Does he succeed?
- This is a play about love, and according to the critic Rosalie L. Colie, “the lovers are not star-crossed but crossed by their own personalities,” Consider the three couples: Othello and Desdemona, Iago and Emilia, and Cassio and Bianca. How would you describe their love relationships? How is each relationship “crossed by [its] own personality”?
- Each character experiences a moment of truth, or realization, as the play develops. What is the moment of truth for Emilia, Roderigo, Desdemona, and Othello? Does Iago have one? If not, why not?