William Shakespeare Chris Ofili Othello

Othello remains one of Shakespeare's most contemporary and moving plays, with its emphasis on race, revenge, murder, and lost love. Chris Ofili’s new edition highlight’s the tragedy of Othello’s plight in ways no other volume of this play has. In twelve etchings Ofili has produced to illustrate this play, Othello is depicted with tears in his eyes, which flow below various scenes visualized in his forehead. Ofili asks us to see in Othello the great injustices that still plague the world today. These images add feeling to Shakespeare’s words, and together they form their own hybrid object—something between a book and a visual retelling of the tragedy. With a foreword by the renowned critic Fred Moten, this edition is the first of its kind and puts Othello’s blackness and interiority front and center, forcing us to confront the complex world that ultimately dooms him. The first play in the Seeing Shakespeare Series, Othello is illustrated by English contemporary artist Chris Ofili. Future titles in the series include A Midsummer Night’s Dream illustrated by Marcel Dzama and The Merchant of Venice with images by Jordan Wolfson.

Believed to have been written in 1603, Shakespeare's Othello is a tragedy that puts the playwright's prodigious creative gifts on full display. Based loosely on a Renaissance-era Italian tale, Othello follows the stormy relationship of the Moorish general Othello and his lovely wife Desdemona. Addressing timeless themes of love and betrayal, as well as surprisingly contemporary concepts such as race-based stereotypes, Othello is a satisfying read for modern-day fans of the Bard.

In the board game 'Othello', players must turn double-sided counters to their advantage. This doubleness is shared by Shakespeare's play of 1604, marked from its outset by a dual and paradoxical title 'Othello, or the Moor of Venice'. This study teases out instances of doubleness, duplication and paradox to discuss the play's language and its themes. Chapters cover the issues of substitution, of racial polarity and its confusions, of the contested place of the domestic in the play, and the mixed generic signals this comedy-turned-tragedy gives out to its audiences. Throughout the emphasis is on the close readings of the play on the page and on stage, informed by the recent scholarship that has made Othello so pressing a play for the vexed cultural politics of the twenty-first century.

Beginning in the streets of Venice, Roderigo and Iago are introduced in the heart of an argument. Iago is frantic as he has been disregarded for promotion and plots to take revenge against his General, Othello. Thus, the manipulation commends as Iago makes Othello believe his wife, Desdemona is disloyal. Othello is a courageous fighter, but he is presented as an idealist when it comes to both his love of Desdemona and his friendship with Iago. This ultimately blinds him to Iago’s betrayal, stirring the themes of jealousy, justice and appearances vs reality. From this excellent play, there have been many differing views on the character of Othello over the years but this is your chance to pick up the book and decide for yourself, is Othello the greatest hero or the most egotistical? Othello is still widely performed and has inspired numerous adaptations. It has been reimagined in the film ‘O’ and the book ‘New Boy’ by Tracy Chevalier amongst others. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Regarded as the greatest playwright in the world and the greatestEnglish languagewriter, her wrote poems and sonnets, and also comedic, tragic and historical plays such as "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Much Ado About Nothing", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Macbeth". Incredibly influential and popular, he also invented numerous words and phrases.

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in the year approximately 1603, and based on the short story Un Capitano Moro ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. This tightly constructed work revolves around four central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his beloved wife, Desdemona; his loyal lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted but unfaithful ensign, Iago. Because of its varied and current themes of racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance, Othello is still often performed in professional and community theatre alike and has been the basis for numerous operatic, film, and literary adaptations.