IN THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL I NEED TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING:

– Plan for inquiry: overview, introduction, context

– Thesis: driving research question and potential answers

– Identify four sources: one source will be the play itself, one source needs to be found on the Questia database (note this in your bibliography)

– Integrated quotations: selective information, accurately cited, from the experts

– Reflection: evaluate successes and challenges in the research process

– Annotated bibliography: evaluate the sources for content and reliability

RUBRIC:

– Accesses and retrieves information from multiple sources:

Effectively accesses and retrieves relevant information from at least 4 reliable sources representing diverse points of view.

– Academic Honesty and Works Cited:

Maintains a clear and complete record of sources.
Appropriately and judiciously cites and references all sources.

– Embedding Quotations:

Insightfully embedded at least 5 direct quotations from multiple sources.

– Content:

Insightful content precisely supports a controlling idea.

– Quality of Communication:

The selection and use of words and structures are effective. Writing demonstrates confident control of correct sentence construction

SOURCES I ALREADY HAVE (I NEED MORE):

– https://prezi.com/lu-ydrr7jcc3/othello-nature-motif/
(there are many quotes on this site)

– https://www.questia.com/read/15311161/othello-a-guide-to-the-play (MANDATORY TO USE THIS SITE) (the user and passcode for questia is- user -(percypage) password – (jpercy)

– https://study.com/academy/lesson/motifs-in-othello.html

QUESTIA SITE INFO (STRAIGHT FROM THE SITE):

aside his saving love for Desdemona means trading Christian virtue — “All seals and symbols of redeemèd sin” (2. 3. 344), as Iago puts it — for “chaos” (3. 3. 92).
Act 3, scene 3, where Iago first plants suspicion in Othello, is often called the “temptation scene.” The second half especially gains resonance as a battle between good and evil, salvation and damnation. Torn between doubt and faith, Othello takes Iago by the throat to impress on him the high stakes for both of them: by the “worth of [Othello’s] eternal soul,” Iago can “nothing. . . to damnation add / Greater” than slandering Desdemona and tormenting Othello (3. 3. 358, 369-70). Earlier, Iago explained to the audience that when “devils will the blackest sins put on, / They do suggest at first with heavenly shows” (2. 3. 351-52). Now, angling for Othello’s soul, he convinces his master that he is “honest” by allying himself with the forces of good: “O grace! O heaven forgive me!” (3. 3. 370). As soon as Iago eliminates Othello’s remaining doubts with flimsy circumstantial evidence,Othello is prepared to “damn” both Desdemona and himself. Othello’s vow of revenge, backed by Iago’s “Witness, you ever-burning lights above” (460), contains a terrible irony: while addressing “yond marble heaven” (457), Othello is actually consigning himself to hell, since that is where “black vengeance” (444) inevitably leads. 46
Othello’s choice of damnation over salvation here is an ironic twist on the morality play’s usual comic outcome. As René E. Fortin comments, the tragedy provides a “remarkable inversion” of the usual patten of moral allegory, so that instead of progressing from evil to repentance and contrition, Othello becomes “identified with the Tempter and . . . kills Desdemona, the Good Angel-Mercy figure who would redeem him.” 47 Throughout his “pilgrimage” (1. 3. 152), Othello continually foregrounds the morality play pattern by vividly dramatizing his own situation in terms of eternal realities. Not only does he address Emilia as the madam of a brothel when he visits her in Act 4, scene 2; he also envisages her as keeper of the gates of hell. Encouraging Desdemona to play the role of fair deceiver, so angelically beautiful that devils in hell may “fear to seize” her (36), he histrionically invites her to double damn herself by swearing that she is chaste. Othello’s reversal of perception in this brothel scenario is completed when he tells his wife, “Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell” (38).
In having adopted Christianity, Othello counteracts the stereotype of the Muhammadan Moor. Indeed, as a Christian, he seems particularly preoccupied with the afterlife. Because he is reluctant to “kill” Desdemona’s immortal soul, he at first urges her to pray before she dies (5. 2. 32) and later accepts that he will be “damned beneath all depth in hell” if he has murdered her without just cause (136). Realizing too late that she is innocent, he fears that when husband and wife meet at Judgment Day (“compt”), Desdemona’s chaste expression, her angelic look, “will hurl [his] soul from heaven, / And fiends will snatch at it” (270-72); he even begs the devils to “whip” him “From possession of this heavenly sight” to ensure his utter damnation (274-75). Other characters, too, contemplate the state of their souls. Cassio’s Calvinist musing that “there be souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved” (2. 3. 100-101). which culminates in his hope to be one

STRUCTURE:

Paragraph one:
“This proposal centers around the role _____________ plays in Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello.”
Overview, introduction, context – what did you know going into this? What did you expect to discover? Where did you look for information? What can you find on your topic from the play?
End with a guiding question/thesis.

Paragraph two:
If doing a close reading topic, what can you learn from the play on its own?
This is a great place to embed quotes from the play itself.
Where did you find information on your topic?
What do the experts have to say about this topic?

Paragraph three:
What have you learned through your reading? What can we learn from your work?
What were your successes and challenges?
Identify areas that are lacking in research, articles, websites, etc.
Reflect on your findings and your research process.

Annotated bibliography:
All four sources should be properly cited in MLA formatting.
Include 2-3 sentences providing a brief summary and reflection of the resource’s value to your proposal.
Organize entries alphabetically.

See student exemplar for further clarification.

EXEMPLAR:

Borrowed Characters and Overlapping Themes
in Cinthio’s Un Capitano Moro and Shakespeare’s Othello

This proposal centers around the role of Cinthio’s tale and its connections it has as a
source material for Shakespeare’s play Othello. The roots of the play, Othello, follow the same
plot of Un Capitano Moro, as they both follow a black man in Venice who struggles to control
his own emotions. After selecting this topic, I had no knowledge of Shakespeare basing his idea
of Othello from Cinthio’s tale of Un Capitano Moro. This connection interested me as I wanted to see the correlations between these two tragedies. From this research proposal, I expect find many similarities between the plot and characters of Un Capitano Moro and Othello and their motives that compels them into their actions. For information and resources, I went onto Questia School and Google Scholar to find sources that had some general information and an overview of Un Capitano Moro. I also looked within Othello in order to compare and contrast the characters and themes. My guiding question throughout this process has been to determine within the play Othello and Cinthio’s tale Un Capitano Moro, how do the plot, characters, and overall themes correlate between the two texts?
Within my proposal, my research will encompass the similarities and differences between
the two pieces and the effect it has on the overall theme of the text. A challenge I encountered
during my research was finding the original story of Un Capitano Moro as proclaimed in one of
my sources “no English translation seems to have been available.”(David Farley-Hills 104)
Although I was unable to find it, through my sources I was still able to find great detail about
both the plot and the characters, providing me with plenty of information. Another challenge in
my research was finding sources that were from different mediums as all my sources were books.
Some successes that occurred during my research was that all of my sources contained
descriptive information that answered my guiding question and the sources were all relatively
easy to find. When comparing the two texts, I found that the characters within both stories are generally very similar, as the Moor falls prey to jealousy and kills his fair wife, the character of Desdemona stays faithful and true throughout the plot, and the character of Iago is deceptive and deceitful to everyone around him.
Within the tale of Un Capitano Moro we see many specific similarities with Othello, as racism was a major issue occurring in both stories. As Cinthio’s tale starts with an opening phrase “‘There was in Venice a Moor.’” (Bartels 156) As a result of being a “cultural stranger,” it causes the Moor to become so susceptible towards the character of Iago, as he is both “literally and figuratively out of place.” (Bartels 156) Both authors also include the theme of racism when the character of Desdemona begins to feel hesitant of the Moor, as in both stories, she fears that she made an error in her spouse, that she must “Not to marry a man divided from us by Nature, Heaven and mode of life.” (Charlton 116) Jealousy presents itself firmly within the plot of both stories, as it is the central instigator for the tragedy itself. Othello and Un Capitano Moro have the Moor persuaded by “the green-eyed monster,”(3.3.196) of jealousy as he conceived that his fair wife has become unfaithful. All in all, I believe that my research was able to cover the scope of the research and answer the question of how the characters and plot correlate to one another in both stories, in how many themes recur in both stories and the characters have relatively the same characteristics.

Annotated Bibliography:

Bartels, Emily Carroll. Speaking of the Moor: From Alcazar to Othello. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

This source described an overall plot summary of Cinthio’s tale along with themes such as racism and love. Additionally, it provided some connections of the characters to Shakespeare play of Othello and the majority of my information and quotations.

Charlton, H. B. Shakespearean Tragedy. Cambridge: U, 1948. Print.

This source gave a very in-depth analysis of the main characters of the story by Cinthio and described how Shakespeare was able to use this effectively in his play. I found it difficult to read at times, but had some excellent lines for quotation.

Farley-Hills, David. Shakespeare and the Rival Playwrights, 1600-1606. London: Routledge, 1990. Print.

This source provided information on the origins of Cinthio’s tale along with some general information about the plot of the tale. Furthermore, there was some insight of the characters of Othello and Desdemona from both stories.

Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. New York: Washington Square, 1993. Print.

This source is the play Othello and this provided me with information that was used to compare and contrast the two tragedies. This gave me all the information about the characters and themes I required in order to find the correlation between Othello and Un Capitano Moro.