10 I

Question 1

1

“With as little a web as this, will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio”

Answer 1

• Deception, Iago’s plan.
• Iago as spider, insectoid - a venoumous, frighful creature - self aware nature of Iago - links to “I am not what I am”
• Are his actions just instinctive?
• Web connotes a sense of chance and luck, he places the web there hoping someone will be caught

Question 2

2

“I am not what I am

Answer 2

• Antithesis to God - Iago plays this role in the play
• We are always watching the play through his eyes

Question 3

2

“I endure him not”

Answer 3

• Shows Iago’s hatred
• Endure is to tolerate - Iago cannot do this

Question 4

3

“Nothing can content [his] soul” until “[he is] evened with him, wife for wife”

Answer 4

• Idea that Iago’s evil motivations are rooted in human nature, in all of us, jealousy
• We must consider Iago’s rrational paranoid behaviour, is he jumping to conclusions so that he can perform his evil deeds

Question 5

4

“The lusty Moor hath leap’d into my seat”

Answer 5

• Iago is searching for justification
• Echoes of the OT eye for an eye.
• He doesn’t think of Othello’s adultery as anything more than leap[ing] in a seat. Does Iago love Emilia? This isn’t the most emotive language, just like his talk of Othello doing his ‘office’.
• Is this what Iago objects to, ultimately, Othello’s social ‘leap[ing]’?

Question 6

5

” Men should be what they seem” + “Or those that be not, would they might seem none”

Answer 6

• Irony - Iago is saying people should be what they seem to be and that if they are being deceptive, they shouldn’t look like they’re being honest (in other words, we should be able to see through them).

Question 7

6

“Her honour is an essence that’s not seen – but the handkerchief?”

Answer 7

• Honour for women, is reputation for men. This is the equivalence.
• Ironically, Iago says that honour is not viewable but then makes it viewable in the form of the handkerchief.
• That unseen ‘essence’ becomes symbolised, viewable, thereby readable

Question 8

“I’ll pour this pestilence into [Othello’s] ear”

Question 9

“he has a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly”

Question 10

“From this time forth I never will speak word”

Question 11

I follow him to serve my turn apon him

Question 12

An old black ram is tupping your white ewe

Question 13

“Beware my lord of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster, whcih doth mock the meat it feeds on”

Answer 13

• Dramatic irony
• Iago is mocking Othello

Question 14

“Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on they do suggest at first with heavenly shows as I do now.”

Question 14

“Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on they do suggest at first with heavenly shows as I do now.”

Question 15

“Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on they do suggest at first with heavenly shows as I do now.”