The New Cambridge edition of Othello contains a brilliant introduction by its editor, Norman Sanders. From it, I learned most of the following: In 1850, John Wilson wrote a piece for Blackwood's Magazine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwood's_Magazine), in which he gave his theory of the "double-time scheme" in Othello. He noted that the first two acts depict real time - that they portray events in a period of time very close to what they would take to occur. But then everything changes. "Short time" is then used to keep a continuous flow of events, and "longer time" is used, primarily through the use of reference, to create a much larger temporal background. For example, the length of the marriage of Othello and Desdemona is hard to accurately ascertain. At some points, we are led to believe that they are newly wed, but at others, that their marriage has been going on for quite some time. And there are several other examples as well, involving virtually every major character in the play. Some critics have forwarded the theory that these inconsistencies are the result of Shakespeare's method of working on this particular play: i.e. that he wrote the final three acts first, followed by the first two, and that this led to the incongruity. It's possible, certainly. Others, like Fintan O'Toole, have postulated that Shakespeare did it deliberately, for reasons related to the play's thematic content. I'll summarize that position, and give a few thoughts of my own, tomorrow.