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"Othello on Stage and Screen"

In his essay, Sylvan Barnet compares how different actors have performed the role of Othello through the years. Review this list to see how well they captured the true essence of the character.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Right to Love, The Canonization, Othello, The Moor in English Renaissance Drama, Othello on Stage and Screen
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. venerable
    profoundly honored
    Although he was the leading Othello of the period and was much praised, the only informative contemporary account of his performance in the role tells us little more than that his "aspect was serious, venerable, and majestic...
  2. pathos
    a quality that arouses emotions, especially pity or sorrow
    Wearing a white wig and the white uniform (including white gloves) of a British officer, he was said to have presented an impressive appearance, but his acting was characterized as statuesque, even stiff, lacking in tenderness, pathos, fire, and any suggestion of inner pain.
  3. dignity
    formality in bearing and appearance
    Quin was eclipsed in 1745 by David Garrick, whose Othello was quite different: the complaint now was that this Othello lacked dignity.
  4. stately
    refined or imposing in manner or appearance
    Kemble, tall and stately, acted in what can be called a classic rather than romantic manner, a style suited more to, say, Brutus than to Othello.
  5. interpretation
    the act of expressing something in an artistic performance
    His interpretation of the role was criticized for its superabundance of dignity and for its lack of variety and fire, but not for its blackness.
  6. conspicuous
    obvious to the eye or mind
    Most of the Othellos of the rest of the century were tawny, their bronze skin suggesting that they were sons of the desert, but Henry Irving's Othello of 1881 was conspicuously dark (darker than his "bronze" Othello of 1876), and, as we shall see, in the twentieth century dark Othellos have been dominant, especially in our own generation, when American blacks have often played the part.
  7. spasmodic
    affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions
    If Kemble is the paradigm of classical acting, Kean--passionate, even spasmodic--is the paradigm of romantic acting.
  8. relentless
    not willing or able to stop or yield
    Mr. Kean is in general all passion, all energy, all relentless will...
  9. extravagance
    the quality of exceeding appropriate limits
    He is too often in the highest key of passion, too uniformly on the verge of extravagance, too constantly on the rack.
  10. restraint
    discipline in personal and social activities
    From time to time he changed his performance, sometimes working in the violent style associated with Tommaso Salvini, hurling his Iago to the ground, but sometimes he played with restraint--occasionally he even omitted striking Desdemona at IV.i.240--and he was especially praised for his tender passion.
  11. volcanic
    explosively unstable
    Some Victorians regarded Salvini as too savage, too volcanic, too terrifying to arouse pity--he seized Iago by the throat and hurled him to the floor, and put his foot on Iago's neck, and of course he did not hesitate to strike Desdemona--but most audiences were deeply moved as well as terrified by his performance.
  12. beneficent
    doing or producing good
    It is impossible to imagine anything more living, more tragic, more suggestive of a tortured soul and of generous, beneficent strength changed to a purpose of destruction.
  13. decorum
    propriety in manners and conduct
    Thus, when Robeson's Othello said "Silence that dreadful bell! It frights the isle from her propriety" (II.iii.174-75), he showed personal annoyance rather than the "passion for decorum"
  14. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    Agate found Robeson best in the third and fourth acts, where he captured the jealousy of the part, but weak (lacking in dignity) in the last act, where he failed to perform the murder with a solemn sense of sacrifice.
  15. aspect
    a characteristic to be considered
    Far from suggesting that Othello was some sort of desert chief, Olivier emphasized the Negroid aspects, or at least the white man's stock ideas of Negroid aspects.
  16. adorn
    make more attractive, as by adding ornament or color
    He rolled his eyes a good deal, and he walked (barefooted and adorned with ankle bracelets) with a sensuous sway.
  17. fatuous
    devoid of intelligence
    Othello is not so much a heroic figure--the noble Moor who gains our sympathy despite the terrible deed he performs--as a fatuous simpleton, a man given to egotistical self-dramatizing.
  18. pompous
    puffed up with vanity
    Othello is a pompous, word-spinning, arrogant black general.
  19. frenzy
    state of violent mental agitation
    Thus, Olivier delivered "Farewell the tranquil mind" (3.3.345)--a speech customarily delivered reflectively--in a frenzy.
  20. veneer
    coating consisting of a thin layer of wood
    It's probably fair to say that the gist of the idea underlying this production is fairly odd: Othello is a barbarian with a thin veneer of civilization.
  21. volatile
    liable to lead to sudden change or violence
    Thus, the early speeches were delivered with easy confidence because Othello had no understanding of how simple and how volatile he really was.
  22. distraction
    drawing someone's attention away from something
    Olivier said that the backgrounds in the film were minimal because he was concerned with "offering as little visual distraction as possible from the intentions of Shakespeare--or our performance of them."
  23. implication
    a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred
    During the course of this survey it has been easy to notice racist implications in the remarks of certain actors and critics.
  24. irrelevant
    having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    Others found that it was distracting for a black to play the part; it brought into the world of Othello irrelevant issues of twentieth-century America.
  25. conscious
    showing realization or recognition of something
    Many things can be said against this view, for instance that when the white actor Olivier played Othello he expended so much energy impersonating a black that a spectator was far more conscious of the performer's blackness than one is of, say, James Earl Jones's.
Created on Fri Mar 06 14:52:48 EST 2015 (updated Fri Mar 06 16:41:00 EST 2015)

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