William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, is a Modern English work produced during the English Renaissance, otherwise known as Elizabethan England. You will write a three to five page, thesis-driven researched literary analysis on Othello. You will carefully evaluate the themes, literary devices, historical context, or other elements of Shakespeare’s text. You will support your analysis with textual evidence drawn from the play as well as TWO (2) PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES which relate to Othello and/or the topic you’re exploring.
You may develop your own topic for your essay or choose from the sample prompts below.
Sample Prompt #1: Describe the nature of jealousy and how it impacts people in Othello.
Sample Prompt #2: How is religious symbolism in Othello depicted?
Sample Prompt #3: “Noble Moor” or “Villain”: Which do you think is a more accurate description of Othello?
Sample Prompt #4: Does Othello truly love Desdemona?
Sample Prompt #5: Some have said that the focus of Othello is not the title character, as is the case with Shakespeare’s other great tragedies, Macbeth, King Lear, and Hamlet. Is Othello simply too one-dimensional to be considered a great tragic hero? Does his seemingly unrealistic gullibility lessen our interest in him and his suffering?
Word Count: 1,000 – 1,500 words
Format: MLA
•12-point Times New Roman Font
•Double-spaced
•1” margin
•Works Cited page (Three works cited total, the play and two peer-reviewed journal articles)
