Theatre & Spectacle

“Theatre seems to rely on spectacle.” With reference to ONE Shakespearean tragedy or romance and ONE work of modern drama, discuss the extent to which spectacle is significant in EACH play.

The spectacle in theatre involves all of the aspects of visual elements of the production of a play; the scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production which are utilized by the playwright to create the world and atmosphere of the play for the audience`s eye. It also refers to the shaping of dramatic material, setting, or costumes in a specific manner. Each play will have its own unique and distinctive behaviors, dress, and language of the characters. In William Shakespeare’s Othello and Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, spectacle was relied upon to a lesser and greater extent respectively. This is because while Othello, was built around its complicated plot and the twisted machinations of one character, Iago; the other, Long Day’s Journey… was mainly dependent on its dysfunctional cast of characters for its audience appeal.

The spectacle of race is one of the main visual elements that can be found in Othello as there is the continuous emphasis on the otherness of its protagonist. According to the critic James R. Aubrey “when Shakespeare was writing Othello, his attraction to Cinthio 's narrative about a black Moor in Venice may have [stemmed] from his playwright 's recognition that Othello 's skin color would give him a "marketable," spectacular charge on the stage.” Shakespeare knew that this character whose appearance marked him as Other, as having originated somewhere beyond the boundaries of the familiar would have attracted a curious audience. Although blacks had appeared on stage in earlier English plays, such roles were still extraordinary in 1604, when Othello was probably first performed.

From the opening scene of the play therefore references to Othello show him to be an exotic character. He is not once mentioned by name, but instead as "the Moor," and as an "extravagant and wheeling stranger" (1.1.58 and 1.1.37). Furthermore, in the seventeenth century, blacks were outsiders in a more profound sense for they were associated in the popular imagination with monsters. Thus, the play 's numerous references to monstrosity would have resonated with Othello 's racial characteristics to establish his extreme difference from typical Europeans.

Shakespeare’s exploitation of his audience’s Anglo-centrism allowed him to prepare them for Othello 's entrance in the following manner: - In Scene One, Iago awakened Brabantio with the cry that "an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe" (1.1.89-90). Such imagery of Othello and Desdemona’s mating was intended to horrify her father. Iago next represented their sexual union as "your daughter cover 'd with a Barbary horse" (1.1.112). Desdemona 's imagined mating with an African animal is the kind of act which Paré describes among the causes of monsters, a "copulation with beasts" that leads to "the confusion of seed of diverse kinds" (25.982). Reminding her father that Othello and Desdemona may be generating monsters, Iago further baits Brabantio, "you 'll have your nephews neigh to you," then reinforces the idea with a final image of Othello and Desdemona during sexual intercourse with the conventional figure of "the beast with two backs" (1.1.112-18). The first scene of the play thus prepares an audience verbally for the entrance of some "thing" that is not-human; that this "Barbary horse" will turn out to be more human than Iago--who initially seems to be the audience 's kinsman--is an irony that could have proven quite unsettling.

The symbolic handkerchief which was the source of so much drama in the play was another important visual element. This prop was used by Iago in a multiple number of ways-it damned both Cassio and Desdemona in Othello’s mind and heart and pushed Othello closer to the point where he became determined to end the life of his wife because of her unfaithfulness. That small but significant piece of lace with its strawberry print in the hands of Othello’s enemy, Iago became a deadly weapon that killed a number of relationships- Othello’s with his once trusted lieutenant, Cassio; Othello’s with Desdemona, Othello’s with his fellow statesmen and Iago’s with Emilia, his wife. Othello had demanded “corpulent” evidence and the handkerchief provided it in spades. The play’s ultimate spectacle however was appropriately placed at the play’s climax, the murder scene. During that scene there are a number of visual elements in the form of props which create the tense atmosphere, the despair and tragedy that occurs at the end. In her chamber, Desdemona was dressed by Emilia in her white gown as befitted a bride going to her marriage bed. Her bed was also covered with the beddings that had been especially selected for her wedding night. It is highly ironic that instead of bliss and ecstasy however, that Desdemona was murdered by Othello; her light was “put out” even as he put out the candles in the room. In the scene, Othello used a pillow to smother her. This was symbolic of the fact that Desdemona was made helpless to defend herself by speaking out the truth. Othello refused to listen, did not want to hear what he considered to be lies and so he silenced her in a most effective manner.

The audience looking at this spectacle would have been horrified especially since they unlike Othello would have been aware of Desdemona’s innocence. It would have aroused great sympathy for Desdemona and anger and pity towards Othello who had been duped into performing such a horrific act.

Bibliography

Race and the Spectacle of the Monstrous in Othello" Critic: James R. Aubrey

Source: CLIO 22, no. 3 (spring 1993): 221-38.

Criticism about: Othello

Bibliography: Race and the Spectacle of the Monstrous in Othello" Critic: James R. Aubrey Source: CLIO 22, no. 3 (spring 1993): 221-38. Criticism about: Othello