4. Discuss the role that race plays in Shakespeare’s portrayal of Othello. How do the other characters react to Othello’s skin color. How does Othello see himself?

Please select one of the following writing prompts for your final essay. This essay will be 2-3 pages and must include some direct quotes from the play (these quotes must be short). Remember to use MLA format.

Othello Essay Prompts:

1.According to Aristotle the protagonist (tragic hero) is a person of “high estate”. This person must fall from power and from happiness. His high estate gives him a place of dignity to fall from and perhaps makes his fall seem all the more a calamity in that it involves an entire nation or people. The tragic hero is fallible (capable of mistakes). The hero’s downfall is the result of his flaw or weakness of character. In a Greek tragedy, the hero is a character capable of making choices-capable, too, of accepting the consequences. How does Othello embody the role of tragic hero?

2.What motivates Iago to carry out his schemes? Do you find him a devil incarnate, a madman, or a rational human being?

3.Does the downfall of Othello proceed from any flaw in his nature or his downfall entirely the work of Iago?

4.Discuss the role that race plays in Shakespeare’s portrayal of Othello. How do the other characters react to Othello’s skin color. How does Othello see himself?