[dupin]

When the play was written is definately important - you should look more into it if anything, to try and make links between the contents of the play and the context in which it was written.

Although I haven't read Othello, I did write a Shakespeare essay just last week - here's how I covered the context in my introduction (there is more to the introduction than this, I then highlighted the essay question, which is all unrelated to your essay)

"1603. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, who never gave away into matrimony and who never bore her own children, James VI, the King Of Scotland now becomes James I, King Of England. In an action that many suppose was to celebrate such a coronation, William Shakespeare writes his latest play, entitled ‘Macbeth’, which not only covers the story of how a new king comes into power, but also is a play that also releases the ambiguous characters of three witches. At the time, thousands of women were being killed after being deemed as witches, and it was a subject that James I especially considered himself an expert in it was well-known that he had taken a special interest in several cases related to suspected witches in Scotland in the later sixteenth century. "

Also remember to use loads of quotations and explore alternate meanings. I think your introduction is good, but the problem with it is that you've taken the guide your teacher has given you and stuck to it too much, so it literally is just one point after another. Like Sia advised, break it up much more and expand on each point - you could spend a whole short paragraph discussing what a villain really is - you can cover the actual definition, as you did, and then look at other ways people can identify the meaning of the world 'villain'. You can even take this points and use them elsewhere in the essay so that the introduction doesn't drag on. If you expand each point and look into detail at everything, especially with alternate interpertations of things, then you'll be surprised how easy it can be to reach your 3 page target.