Journal #26

For the final seen my character is Othello. In this last seen he has become a completely different man than from the noble man we first met. He is set on killing his wife based on the words of another man ans has had this same man kill his friend Cassio. His personality has become deranged and he is often mad at people, especially Desdemona. The jealousy created falsely in him by Iago has totally corrupted him.

Journal #25

One literary technique Shakespeare uses is assonance. All the guys names end with a while all the girls names end with o. This creates a divide between the genders, but at the same time it creates a connection between each character within the certain gender. Another is diction. His choice of words is based upon a completely different time period and is therefore foreign to us. While it may be hard to understand sometimes it seems much more noble and much less vulgar than todays language. A third would be sentence structure. His indented format and run-ons and short sentences are an important part of his works. To me they leave a lot of room for how his speech can be interpreted.
Comment:I aslo wrote about the name endings but I thought that they were more for the separation/connections of characters. I didn't think about the foreign side.

Journal #24

"My lord, this would not be believed in venice,
Though I should swear I saw 't. 'Tis very much.
Make her amends. She weeps."(4.1.270-272.Lodovico)
 Lodovico says this right after Othello strikes Desdemona for apparently no reason. He is saying that he would not have believed this could happen if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. Lodovico then bades Othello to apologize to Desdemona because he still thinks he is that sort of person, but Othello has changed.

Comment:I agree with you that this is a major turning point in the play. I think that the fact Othello has completely changed as a person and is ready to kill his wife is also a sign that Iago's plan has basically succeeded.

Journal #23

For Othello i would cast I would cast Samuel L Jackson (maybe a few years younger) because of his commanding presence and nobility.
"It gives me wonder great as my content
 To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!" (2.1.199-200)
"I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole course of love..." (1.3.106-107)
For Desdemona I would cast Anne Hathaway for her tranquility and also partly for the fact Shakespeare married a woman with the same name.
"Why do you speak so faintly? Are you not well?" (3.3.325)
"I am very sorry that you are not well" (3.3.333)
For Emilia I would cast Anjelina Jolie for her strength and scheming abilities.
"This was her first remembrance from the Moor.
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Wooed me to steal it." (3.3.335-338)
For Iago I would cast christian Bale for his darkness (connected to Batman) and his strength.
"Myself the while to draw the Moor apart
And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife." (2.3.407-409)
"I remember a mass of things, but nothing
distinctly" (2.2.307-308)

Journal #22

I've been focusing a lot on the character of Iago and I think I will continue with that. his intricate ways of behavior and his thought process is very interesting to me. He's using so many people at once and still finds a way to justify his actions to himself. Yet he is even willing to destroy his own marriage to do likewise to Othello's. I'm waiting for him to slip and make a rash decision under what appears to be over ruling jealousy, but the fact that this is atragedy discounts this theory. It would seem his plan is going to work.

Journal #21

Act Two Scene One really showed me what type of a character Iago is. He's a scheming liar who is constantly using people for his own gain. The thing is he is actually smart though playing on  multiple sides at once. I wonder how long he can keep it up without slipping. At this rate though, he seems to have everything worked out so well that he will eventually get what he wants to happen.

Journal #20

During the 16th century Venice became one of the most important musical centers of Europe. It was even called the "Republic of Music".In 1604 Othello was first performed in front of James I of England. the first edition of the Bible in Greek was also printed here. Sadly the sixteenth century was the beginning of a long decline for venice.

Comments:
Were the Greeks allies with the Venetians?
Is Moor a degrading term then?
I did not know that Julius Ceasar had epilepsy.
What do you mean by American?

Journal #19

Today's reading of Othello was actually a lot easier than I would have expected. I read the brief summary at the beginning of the scene and after that only had to glance at a few definitions to understand the meaning iof the scene.

Paragraph for report

“She ain’t got to sell it! I’m gonna sell it! Berniece ain’t got no more rights to that piano than I do.”
Act Two, Scene 4
Page 42 (Blake is working on this one)

In Act Two, Scene 4 of The Piano Lesson, August Wilson uses the conflict between Boy Willie and Berniece to highlight how greed can cause someone to forget about their family history and relations for the sake of self benefit. When Boy Willie and Doaker are arguing about Berniece not wanting to sell the piano, Boy Willie says, “She ain’t got to sell it! I’m gonna sell it! Berniece ain’t got no more rights to that piano than I do” (Act Two, Scene 4, Page 42). Boy Willie’s vision of self profit is keeping him from realizing what that piano means to his family and to Berniece. The piano has been in their family for multiple generations and even has their history physically carved into it. Boy Willie does not care about this though. He believes he has the right to sell it for money to a white man so he can buy Sutter’s land.