Othello: Context, Themes and Questions
- AQA A AS and A Level
- AQA B AS and A Level
- OCR AS and A Level from 2025
- Edexcel A Level
Advanced Learner Pack for AS / A Level
Othello is a deeply rewarding play on a critical level, especially when considering its powerful themes of femininity, race, gender and jealousy. But for your advanced students, its meanings are both broadened and deepened by reading it as a product of the socio-historical moment in which it was written. Uncover the secret of Othello’s endurance and continuing relevance with this challenging pack.
Excellent, very informative and interesting... Helps to increase depth of knowledge
Comprehensive notes, questions/ and exam-preparation material investigating the influential contexts and themes of Othello for a fuller, more sophisticated understanding. Pitched to the 2015 AS and A Level specifications, this pack will inspire your strongest students to go the extra mile in their journey towards exam success.
Pushing high achievers…- Informative notes encourage students to think independently about the core aspects of the play, including characters, form, genre and themes
- Packed with questions to promote intelligent discussion – the perfect springboard for higher-level analysis
- Suggestions for wider reading empower students to foster an individual critical stance towards the play
- Exam-style questions provide extensive practice for creative, unique responses
- Higher-level sample answers with examiner commentary help students recognise what makes a good answer
- Revision and exam tips help students focus answers to gain top marks
- A carefully constructed historical timeline
- Key term boxes will prompt students to use sophisticated language to express their sophisticated ideas!
- Indicative content for all questions
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What do teachers say about this resource? (8578)
Excellent, very informative and interesting... It is accessible, clearly laid out and goes into quite a lot of detail... It is value for money... Helps to increase depth of knowledge for this play.
A useful resource... I liked the summaries about the different aspects of the genre of tragedy and the questions in this section as it gave me some ideas for teaching... The detailed background information and questions would certainly help students to develop their understanding of the play and become more confident about offering AO1 interpretations and linking these to aspects of AO3 and AO5... I feel like I’ve developed my knowledge of the genre of tragedy and Othello reviewing this resource!
I liked the points on tragedy and Othello's role in the play. The Aristotle definitions as applied to Othello are useful, and the role of the female characters is very applicable to the A Level course... The resource enhances learning as it explains the context of the play in detail and the way in which characters are motivated by emotions... The way in which dramatic methods influence the play's themes and audience's reaction is very useful and explained well... The sample question for Literature B is useful and the model answer excellent. Students do find these particularly helpful.
Keywords
- A level English Literature
- A Level AQA B English Literature (7717)
- Paper 1: Literary Genres
- Aspects of Tragedy
- A Level AQA A English Literature (7712)
- Paper 1: Love through the Ages
- A Level Edexcel English Literature (9ET0)
- Component 1: Drama
- Tragedy
- Advanced Learner
- Gifted and Talented
- A Level English Literature Advanced Learner Pack
- William Shakespeare
- Shakespeare
- Drama
- Othello resources