Literary Form (Grade 12 NSC Matric English HL): Revision Notes
Literary Form
What is literary form?
Understanding literary form is essential for your literature examination, as it falls under Assessment Objective 2 (AO2). This assessment objective requires you to examine the methods writers use to create meaning in their texts. Rather than simply describing what happens in Othello, you need to explore how and why Shakespeare writes the play in particular ways.
AO2 success depends on integrating your analysis throughout your essay. Instead of merely identifying what characters do, you should constantly examine how Shakespeare creates meaning through his literary choices and what effect these techniques have on the audience.
When studying literary form, you should focus on analysing:
- Language techniques and imagery that Shakespeare employs
- The type of writing (such as drama, poetry, or prose)
- The structure of the play
- The genre and its conventions
The key to success in AO2 is integrating your analysis throughout your essay. Instead of merely identifying what characters do, you should constantly examine how Shakespeare creates meaning through his literary choices and what effect these techniques have on the audience.
Genres
Shakespeare draws upon several different genres when crafting Othello, each contributing to the play's overall impact and meaning.
Tragedy
Othello follows the conventions of Ancient Greek tragedy, a genre that flourished during the Renaissance when Shakespeare was writing. Greek and Roman tragic traditions had become popular again throughout Europe, and Shakespeare incorporates many of their key features.
The play follows the typical pattern of tragedy: a striking and noble hero experiences a reversal of fortune due to a crucial flaw or misjudgement, leading to widespread suffering and ultimately death.
A tragic hero possesses a hamartia - a primary character flaw that causes his downfall. Othello's hamartia is widely considered to be jealousy, which allows Iago to manipulate him into doubting Desdemona's faithfulness.
At the end of classical tragedies, the hero experiences anagnorisis - a moment of recognition where he becomes aware of his mistakes and poor judgement. This is often followed by catharsis, an emotional release where the protagonist realises his downfall resulted from his own actions and errors. This creates a moment of cleansing that clears the soul of wrongdoing. When watching the play, the audience experiences similar cleansing and feels a powerful emotional release. This moment of realisation always arrives too late, contributing to the tragedy: the hero is ready to change, but his own actions have made this impossible.
Example: Tragic Structure in Action
- Hamartia: Othello's jealousy makes him vulnerable to manipulation
- Reversal: Iago successfully plants doubts about Desdemona's faithfulness
- Anagnorisis: Othello realises his mistake only after killing Desdemona
- Catharsis: The audience experiences emotional release through Othello's tragic recognition
Shakespeare's use of tragic genre creates a sense of inevitability and hopelessness. We know Othello is doomed from the beginning, which allows Shakespeare to employ dramatic irony. The audience understands things the characters do not - for example, when Desdemona innocently defends Cassio, we know she is actually sealing her fate and strengthening Othello's suspicions. The audience's foreknowledge of the tragic outcome increases the sense of tragedy as we watch Othello make wrong decisions and fall victim to Iago's manipulation.
Travel writing
Another genre that heavily influences Othello is travel writing. This was a popular contemporary genre created by European travellers exploring previously unknown lands and islands, particularly the 'New World' of America. These travellers would often write detailed accounts of their experiences, frequently embellishing their stories and exoticising the people and creatures they encountered. Their exciting narratives often blurred the line between imagination and reality.
Travel writing was based on exoticising the unknown, and this speech therefore emphasises that Othello is still a performance that he has recounted many times. He tells the story in a fantastical way designed to captivate his white Venetian audience.
Shakespeare explicitly uses this genre in Othello's speech about his background (Act I Scene III). A key feature of travel writing is its presentation as a first-person eye-witness account, though it often draws on previous writing and blends myth with fact. Although Othello describes his own past, Shakespeare's use of the travel writing genre makes us question how much he embellishes his story. Othello describes wondrous and fictional-sounding encounters, including references to "Cannibals" and "Anthropophagi", as well as "most disastrous chances" and dangerous adventures.
Shakespeare's inclusion of this genre heightens the sense of mystery and exoticism surrounding Othello. Even after hearing his backstory, Othello remains unknown to us - we know very little about his true origins because we cannot fully trust his story.
Morality play
Elements of the morality play genre also appear in Othello. This genre originated in the mediaeval period and taught Christian morals through its plot. It typically told the story of a sinner's journey from damnation through to repentance and redemption. Along the way, the protagonist would be tempted by personifications of Good and Evil - for example, angels and demons.
Othello's story follows a different path because it does not have a happy ending of redemption, but instead concludes with tragic death. However, Shakespeare still draws upon elements of the morality play genre to create moral conflict.
Several characters can be seen as symbolising Goodness. Desdemona is associated with whiteness and purity, and when she pleads with Othello to forgive Cassio, she encourages him to show Christian mercy. In contrast, Iago represents an embodiment of Evil. Throughout the play, he has orchestrated Cassio's dismissal and manipulates Othello, drawing out his jealousy and aggression.
In Act III Scene III, when Othello becomes convinced of Desdemona's infidelity, Iago again represents the forces of Evil competing for Othello's soul, while Othello's conscience represents the forces of Good attempting to convince him to remain faithful to his wife. Othello is ultimately tempted by evil and loses any chance of repentance.
While the forces of Good and Evil in the play are not direct representatives of God or the Devil as they would be in a mediaeval morality play, we can certainly see the influences of this genre in Shakespeare's writing. He uses Desdemona, Othello, and Iago to externalise the moral struggle occurring in Othello's mind.
Structure
Othello consists of five acts, which is typical of Shakespearean tragedy. Across these five acts, we follow the tragic hero's rise, followed by a reversal of his fortunes (usually in Act III), leading to his fall throughout Acts IV and V, and culminating in his death at the play's end.
Several key repetitions create dramatic parallels and highlight how rapidly relationships and characters have deteriorated:
- In Act I, Othello is on trial and defends himself and his marriage to the Venetian senators, but by Act IV he becomes the one who judges and cross-examines his wife
- During Act II, Othello and Desdemona run away together to consummate their marriage. The next time we see Desdemona in bed, she sleeps in the same wedding sheets, but Othello kills her
- The word "honest" is repeated 52 times throughout the play. It is most frequently used by Othello as an epithet to describe Iago: "honest Iago". There is sad dramatic irony when Othello repeatedly calls Iago honest, as he is utterly convinced of Iago's honesty and cannot see the deception that the audience witnesses
Example: Structural Narrowing
The play's setting becomes increasingly confined:
- Act I: Opens in the broad political world of Venice
- Acts II-III: Moves to the island of Cyprus
- Acts IV-V: Focuses intensely on private domestic spaces
- Final scene: Culminates in the intimate setting of a single bedroom
This narrowing mirrors Othello's psychological state as he becomes increasingly obsessed and isolated.
The play narrows as it progresses: it opens in Venice, then moves to Cyprus. However, the external plot of the Venetian-Ottoman War is removed and the play's focus ultimately centres on a single bedroom. As Othello becomes increasingly obsessed with his relationship and with Desdemona's behaviour, all outside forces become insignificant. The setting becomes claustrophobic for both the audience and the characters.
Frequently, Shakespeare's plays feature a subplot which widens the scope and relieves some of the intensity of the main plot. However, there is no subplot in Othello and the action focuses intensely on Iago's manipulations and Othello's reactions. This heightens the sense of claustrophobia, because there are no outside forces or interactions to reduce some of the dramatic tension and intensity.
We can also consider structure in terms of how much characters speak. If one character is particularly prominent in a scene, it gives us an impression of their dominance. Iago is structurally dominant throughout the play. Of all the characters, he has the most on-stage time. Although Othello and Iago both have soliloquies, Iago has notably several more. As a result, Shakespeare creates an impression of his power. His on-stage time corresponds to his importance and authority in the plot.
Exam Tip: The soliloquy is a dramatic convention in which a character addresses the audience directly, used in Shakespeare's plays to externalise a character's motives and thoughts. Both Othello and Iago are given soliloquies, offering us insight into the minds of both the victim and the perpetrator. This adds dramatic intensity, as we can observe how Othello reacts to Iago's manipulations. Furthermore, revealing Iago's plans to the audience creates dramatic irony and heightens our impression of the tragedy of the play, as we watch the inevitable events unfold.
Language
In your examination answer, it is crucial to always analyse language and techniques that Shakespeare employs, for example the imagery and metaphors he uses. There are also several general key points to remember about the type of language used in Othello.
Words are particularly significant in this play because it is Iago's manipulation of language and his use of false words which lead to Othello's downfall. Othello accepts Iago's words literally and succumbs to his deception.
Shakespeare constructs his characters through language, so we can examine what the characters' language and ways of speaking reveal about them.
Much of Othello's speech in the first half of the play is in blank verse. This refers to unrhymed lines of poetry written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains 10 syllables (5 sets of 2) and the stress as we read these lines follows a 'dee-DUM dee-DUM' pattern.
Example: Othello's Blank Verse
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
(Act I Scene III)
Each line consists of 10 syllables. Count them: "And-lit-tle-of-this-great-world-can-I-speak" = 10 syllables with the 'dee-DUM' stress pattern.
Othello's use of this measured and poetical form creates an impression of a character who is stately and dignified. His speech is elevated and authoritative, as each line is evenly measured and the pattern of 'dee-DUM' stresses across the line steadies the pace. This impressive and powerful speech is appropriate for a tragic hero at the beginning of the play; he is powerful and dominating.
The breakdown of the poetic blank verse as the play progresses mirrors Othello's own mental breakdown. His sense of self is fractured when he believes his wife has betrayed him, and so his language also becomes fractured.
Example: Language Breakdown
Compare Othello's early dignified speech with his later fractured language:
--Handkerchief--confessions--handkerchief!--To
confess, and be hanged for his labour;--first, to be
hanged, and then to confess.--I tremble at it.
(Act IV Scene I)
Notice the broken syntax, repetitive fragments, and loss of poetic structure that mirrors his mental state.
The relationship between Desdemona and Othello deteriorates when they can no longer trust or understand the language that the other speaks. For example, Desdemona asks her husband "what doth your speech import? / I understand a fury in your words, / But not the words" (Act IV Scene II). The breakdown of understanding and trust between them is what leads to Desdemona's death. She is smothered: Othello covers her mouth and nose and she is no longer able to speak. This death is symbolic of how she is silenced because her husband no longer believes the words that she speaks.
Language is also very important to Iago's character. He frequently slips between prose and verse, easily adapting his linguistic style to suit different audiences and purposes. We never fully understand Iago because his language is constantly shifting throughout the play. He easily manipulates his language and style of speaking, just as he easily manipulates several characters. He is a slippery and untrustworthy character, and Shakespeare portrays this through the way that he speaks.
Example: Iago's Linguistic Manipulation
With Roderigo (prosaic, blunt): "If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou silly gentleman!" (Act I Scene III)
With Othello (poetic, elevated): "Though I perchance am vicious in my guess, / As, I confess, it is my nature's plague..." (Act III Scene III)
Notice how Iago adapts his speaking style to manipulate different characters effectively.
Iago is also manipulative in his use of silence and reluctance to speak as well. By feigning reluctance to speak the truth, he catches Othello's intrigue, for example saying "You cannot [...] Nor shall not" know his thoughts (Act III Scene III).
Key Points to Remember:
- Literary form focuses on how and why Shakespeare writes, not just what happens in the story
- Othello combines three main genres: tragedy (with hamartia, anagnorisis, and catharsis), travel writing (exotic, embellished accounts), and morality play (Good vs Evil struggle)
- The five-act structure shows the tragic hero's rise and fall, with key repetitions creating dramatic parallels
- Language analysis is crucial - examine Othello's blank verse breakdown and Iago's manipulative linguistic shifts
- Dramatic techniques like soliloquies and dramatic irony heighten the sense of inevitable tragedy and audience engagement