Act 1 — Othello — Eduqas GCSE English Literature C720
Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720
Act 1
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Iago and Roderigo waking Brabantio with news of Desdemona's elopement, Othello's calm before the armed search party,
the senate's war council, Othello's account of his wooing, Desdemona's choice of her husband over her father, the order to Cyprus,
and Iago's plan to use Roderigo's money and Othello's trust.
What each scene establishes about character and theme, with key quotations.
Key quotations: 'Tush! never tell me; I take it much unkindly', 'I follow him to serve my turn upon him', 'But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at: I am not what I am', 'Thieves! thieves! thieves! / Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!', 'Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them', 'Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you / Against the general enemy Ottoman', 'Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors', 'Rude am I in my speech', 'This only is the witchcraft I have used', 'I think this tale would win my daughter too', 'That I did love the Moor to live with him', 'My life upon her faith!', 'Put money in thy purse', 'Hell and night / Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light'.
Structure: a night-time opening in which Othello is talked about before he appears, his calm verse before the search party and the senate, and Iago's prose with Roderigo and first soliloquy to end the act.
The racist insults Iago and Roderigo shout at Brabantio's window, read as signs of their hatred and of the prejudice Othello faces, which his first appearance then contradicts.
Context that helps a reading: Venice at war with the Ottoman Turks and in need of its general, and a senator's daughter marrying without her father's consent.
Eduqas's Shakespeare questions don't mark context: the extract question (15 marks) and the whole-play essay (20 marks, plus 5 for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures) both mark response and analysis of language, form and structure (AO1 and AO2). Use context only in a phrase that supports an interpretation, and say which question each worked paragraph practises.
