Othello

In my Shakespeare class I have the assignment of reading Othello. When I saw this I was pretty excited about. A few years ago I was talking to one of my really good friends about Shakespeare and she told me that Othello is her favorite play. I...thought that was weird (everyone loves Hamlet or something else. Nobody says Othello) and so I read a synopsis and planned on reading the play....I never did.

I searched for a synopsis again and some information and found out that Othello is, yet again, a story Shakespeare took from someone else. The original story is "Un Capitano Moro" ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio. The play seems pretty complicated and dramatic from the short synopsis I read. Again it is full of deceit and trickery, secrets, and round about ways of discovering them.

I am really interested to read about Iago. First off, his name was used   for a parrot in Disney movie, Aladin, where he also plays a bad guy who has bad advice. Another reason is for what Elder Holland said about him in a talk "How do I love thee", he said, "Of all the villains in Shakespeare's writing, and perhaps in all of literature, there is no one I loathe so much as I loathe Iago. Even his name sounds evil to me, or at least it has become so." I'm really intersted to get into this characters head and figure out why he hates Othello to the point of destroying everything. That's intense.

There are a few film productions I am excited to see. I'm sad to say I don't think I will be viewing Kenneth Branaghs version(in which he plays Iago), but I am excited to view the version with Ian McKellen (who also plays Iago. Why is it that the big name actors play him? Is he going to be more important than the plays namesake?). Gandalf meets Shakespeare.

Also, there is a board game called Othello. I wonder why.

http://essaytips.org/othello-essays/

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=1618