16th Century Venice questions

1.One of The main characters is called Iago. What would this have reminded the contemporary audience of ?

The name Iago would have made the contemporary audience think of Santiago Matamoros who was a Spanish saint known for slaying moors.

2. What type of people would have been seen in Venice at this time?

At the time Venice was home to people of many different ethnic backgrounds such as Turkish traders and people from Africa.

3. What impression of Venice did people from other countries get?

The mix of cultures in Venice created a global impression of the city as a a very wealthy place full of opportunity.

4. What kind of clothing did Thomas Coryat noticed people wore in Venice? 

The style of dress worn in Venice that was noted was the people dressed according to their financial status do to the tradition dressing to your social status. This was due to the new rich merchant class in the area. Typically foreigners would dress to the social norms of their culture.

5. The Play Is set in Venice but is written by an Englishman. What was the attitude of English people towards "otherness" in Shakespeare's era? 

The people of England who had a very ethnocentric attitude saw their culture as superior to other cultures. People in the Renaissance era saw these "others" as glamours and dangerous.

6.Why do you think Shakespeare chose to set some of the play in Venice?    

I think Shakespeare chose to set some of the play in Venice to test the limits of what was acceptable at the time. Venice was the perfect place to do this because of the different mixtures of culture and creeds of the people living there. Since there where different people their the idea of a mixed race couple was more likely to happen in Venice then it would in a mostly white Britain.