Reflection on _Othello_ Passage

       When first reading through the passage from Othello, I read it relatively quickly and took a bunch of notes in the margins about the first impression I was getting from this supposedly heroic guy noting the high level language and figurative language that was easy to see like alliteration and repetition. I also underlined what I thought to be important words or phrases I knew were probably important, but that I didn't quite understand. Upon reading this passage a second time and meticulously filling out the TPCASTT, my understanding of the passage slightly deepened as I paraphrased and broke down the passage based on the different categories of literary devices in the connotation section of the reading. I was able to identify devices and also think about the importance of why it was there. For example, I recognized that the word "witchcraft" was a significant word choice and I interpreted that the author used it in order to convey how Othello may very well have fabricated all the dangerous events he supposedly recalled in order to receive Desdemona's pity (which is a word that was repeatedly several times in the passage) and manipulate her into loving him. Plus, an alliteration like how Desdemona "Devour[ed] up [his] discourse" helps to reinforce Othello's control over Desdemona's feelings for him because he created stories that made him sound like the stereotypical dreamy, heroic man every girl swoons over.

       Answering the questions for this passage was a mix between difficult and not as difficult, but still hard (if that makes any sense). Questions regarding the overall passage or paraphrasing little lines that had to do with just straight interpretation of what's on the page were relatively easier questions to answer. I had trouble with questions that asked me to choose an answer that could best replace or mean a specific word chosen in a line of a passage. I also had trouble with a question that made me compare two lines to each other and one that asked about the overall tone of the passage. The tone question I could have been difficult because it was hard to choose between two answers and also because some of the language and words used in the question and answers I were unfamiliar with.