Problem
Read William Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice
Answer the following questions with data and quotes from the play above:
A. What does the work reveal about the cultural behavior contemporary to it?
B. How does popular culture contemporary to the work reflect or challenge the values implicit or explicit in the work?
C. What kinds of cultural documents contemporary to the work add to your reading of it?
D. How do your own cultural assumptions affect your reading of the work and the culture contemporary to it?
E. How are class differences presented in the work? Are characters aware or unaware of the economic and social forces that affect their lives?
F. How do economic conditions determine the characters' lives?
G. What ideological values are explicit or implicit?
H. Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it describes?
I. How does the work reflect the period in which it is written?
J. What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the work?
K. How important is the historical context to interpreting the work?