English 339 Fall 2011 Suggestions for Paper #4

Paper #4, on Othello, is due on Monday December 5, the first day of exam week. The assignment guidelines are the same as for the first two papers, as listed on the course syllabus.

Each paper should fill only one page using any font size and spacing, appear attractive, be free of spelling and grammatical errors, and develop a single major point. Papers can refer to but not repeat material raised in class. The paper should be emailed to the instructor as a Microsoft Word attachment no later than the beginning of class on the date due. The attachment must be titled with your last name, section, and the number of the paper, for example, "Marx04paper1.doc". The paper will be returned with comments and edits in "Track Changes."

Papers should take a variety of approaches, for example: explication of the rhetorical effects of a single passage, exploration of a strand of images or recurrent theme, discussion of a character or a change in character or a relationship, study of an intense dramatic moment, argument in attack or defense of a character or a moral judgement by a character, study of the relation between text and subtext, discussion of genre, comparison of an element in two or more plays, research on a relevant historical item.

In addition to these prompts, here are some additional approaches you might choose from:

1. Shakespeare's depiction of the origins and progress of jealousy as paralleled by incidents in your own experience

2. Contrasting portraits of Desdemona in Parker's Othello and Zeffirelli's Otello

3. Iago's view of sexual desire contrasted with Othello's

4. The theme of dreams in Othello

5. The contrast between the "trial" of Othello in Venice and that of Desdemona in Cyprus

6. The role of Bianca in the script and the Parker film

7. The symbolic significances of bed and bedclothes