How do the authors create the settings in 'The Book Thief' and 'Othello'?

In both of the texts I have studied; ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare and ‘The Book Thief’(TBT) by Markus Zusak,  there are three main traits that create the setting, which are: the status of women, how power is attained and tragedy.

Status of the female characters is very important in creating the setting in these two texts. As both text are set in two very different setting; ‘Othello’ set in seventeenth century Venice and TBT set in nineteen forties Nazi Germany. So the status of the women should be different as well. An example of this would be the treatment of Desdemona in ‘Othello’. Desdemona, from a rich Venetian family, after marrying Othello, went from being under her father's control to her husband's.  After Brabantio, her father, had found out that his daughter had eloped with Othello, he brings him in front of the Duke and the pair start debating over who Desdemona should be allowed be with. There is some hope of Othello being a better man than Brabantio, when he requests for the duke to hear Desdemona's side of the story but as the play progresses and as Othello’s love for Desdemona turns sour, he shows himself to be the most flawed character in the book. Even when Othello’s actions turn violent towards Desdemona, she respect for him never falters and nobody helps her. After  Othello slaps  her and tells her to leave, she responds with ‘I will not stay to offend you.’ And Lodovico comments with; ‘truly an obedient lady.’ This creates the setting of a world where women are only valued for their silence, this concept is continued, of women being powerless,voiceless, by the way Othello kills Desdemona, he chooses suffocation, physically silencing her as she is powerless to fight back. The exact opposite is the case in TBT, women have high status and are very powerful. A polar opposite of Desdemona would be Rosa Hubermann. The use of this headstrong, unorthodox maternal figure creates the setting of a world where women are respected. When we are first introduced to Rosa she is described as a ‘small wardrobe with a coat thrown over it’ and has a strong akin to calling those around her ‘saukerl’, ‘saumensch’ and bashing Liesel with ‘wooden spoons and words, at various intervals.’But beyond her resilient and tough exterior; complete opposite to soft spoken Desdemona, the extraordinary thing about Rosa is that she is the head of her household and also the main breadwinner. The use of Rosa creates a setting far off from the expectations women had imposed on them in the sixteen hundreds.

A way the authors created the setting was with the race for power, the two texts are separated greatly by the way power is perceived and how it is obtained.

In ‘Othello’ a person is in power when they have a high rank, as Venice is at war with Cyprus and Othello, Iago, and Cassio are in the army, therefore rank  important. But because how power is perceived people go about obtaining it in a very destructive manner. From the very beginning we know Iago hates the Moor and only wants to be his downfall, ‘I follow him to serve my turn upon him.’ Iago is power hungry and is willing to do anything to get it. To become Othello’s righthand man, Iago must get rid of Cassio first. With knowledge that Cassio has ‘poor brains for drinking’ he gets him drunk and with his accomplice, Roderigo, goads him into a brawl knowing ‘he’ll be full of quarrel and offence.’ After severely injuring Montano, when he tried to calm Cassio down, Othello is awoken and as Cassio is in no state to explain himself, Iago tells Othello a false truth of the events, which leads to Cassio’s demotion, ‘nevermore be an officer of mine,’and Iago’s promotion. This is the exact opposite of how power is perceived and obtained in TBT. I this text power lies in words and since words are easily obtained, they can be used for good and bad. In the short story ‘The Word Shaker’ Written by Max, as a gift to Liesel. The story is about how Hitler decided to use words to take over the world, he grew a forest of words and symbols and used them to brainwash people. ‘They were hypnotised.’ This would be an example as how words can be used for bad because as Hitler only used the to spread lies, fear and hate. Because of these words Max is ‘despised by her (Liesel’s) homeland.’ But as the story continues the best word shaker, the one that climbs the tree and collects the words, was Liesel as she ‘understood the true power of words,’ planted a seed made of her and Max’s friendship that grew to be the tallest of all the tree. And when the Fuhrer ordered it to be chopped down, the word shake climbed up to the top of it, and even the Fuhrer and ‘ a hundred and ninety-six soldiers’ couldn’t even make a dent in the tree with their axes. But when Max returns for Liesel, he climbs the tree and when both he and Liesel leave the tree it falls on top of the forest, carving a new path for them to walk. What the metaphor of the trees means is that words are powerful  and that they can overcome hate. This idea of almost a diplomatic approach to solving challenges through words creates a very different, more modern setting compared to the more barbaric and scheming ways of obtaining power in ‘Othello’.

  

The use of a tragic ending creates the setting in both the texts that the world is bleak. In ‘Othello’ the play ends with the annihilation of almost all the characters: first Othello suffocates his wife, Desdemona, after Iago convinced him that she was cheating. Then Iago kills his accomplice, Roderigo, and Iago stabs his wife, Emilia, when she confesses her part in  his lies. Then as the authorities find out about these crimes and are about to take Othello and Iago away, Othello slits his throat and dies. The entire play was full of lies, deception and mistrust, creating a bleak world where no one, innocent or not, is safe, very much alike the ending in TBT. There was no warning for the people in Himmel street, ironically,the one named after Heaven. First to be hit is Tommy Muller’s apartment killing him and his family in their sleep, then Frau Holtzapfel dies sitting in her kitchen, alone. The Steiners were next, Rudy lied asleep with his arm around his little sister, as Death carried them away. Then lastly Hans and Rosa Hubermann, but not Liesel, pulled from the rubble she had to witness the destruction of her life for a second, losing her home and her family for a second time and having to start her life over again for a second time. After growing such a strong attachment to each character, this makes this event a tragic loss for the reader and creates the setting of  bleak and disheartening world like in ‘Othello.’

The authors for the two texts i have studied used status of women, how power is obtained and tragedy to create the setting in ‘Othello’ and ‘The Book Thief.’

Very similar to TBT, the use of strong and dominant women in the text creates the setting. Even though , "The King's Speech" ( here after referred to as TKS)  is about Bertie: a king too be, its his wife who plays a detrimental part in this text, which separates this text greatly from the societal expectations in "Othello" that Desdemona experienced. Elizabeth is first seen in the text standing next to her nervous husband, comforting and supporting him just before he has to address an audience at Wembley. Just like Desdemona, who went with Othello to Cyprus, she loves her husband and does everything to support him. But shes also very different from Desdemona as she will ignore her husbands wishes, when she knows whats best for him, just like when she went on her own to find Lionel Logue, knowing that he can help her husband's stammer. Even though Bertie had given up on finding help for his stammer, Elizabeth wouldn't give up, her strength and initiative in the text creates the setting.