What amount of time is covered in the action? How much of the action is presented as a report rather than dramatized on stage? Is there a meaning behind the selection of events to be dramatized and those to be reported?
For being such a lengthy play, it actually doesn't cover nearly as much time as the reader may otherwise presume. After Othello's departure for Cyprus, only a few days pass by before the tragic ending takes place. Nearly everything in the play is dramatized rather than reported, with the exception of the tempest at sea and the failed invasion of the Turks along with the bedroom scenes between Othello and Desdemona. These were all reported instead for obvious reasons. During the Shakespearean time period, it would have been difficult to simulate a storm or battle at sea with such limited props and resources. As for the bedroom scenes, it was probably considered inappropriate to elaborate on these events at the time. Unlike today, Shakespeare didn't feel the need to give his audience every single detail in a story. It was left up to the audience to use their imagination and simultaneously follow along with what else was being revealed in the plot. Therefore, I don't think that there was so much of a meaning behind the selection of the events that were dramatized and reported as there was a convenience to make them that way. Shakespeare did was most logical at the time.
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