Act 1, Scene 1 Flashcards
A1, S1: Roderigo: “Tush, never tell me, I take it much unkindly / That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse / As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this”
- Starts in media res
- “This” refers to marriage of Othello and Desdemona
- > Audience has to infer what has already happened which engages them more and makes them work harder
A1, S1: Iago: “‘Sblood, but you will not hear me. If I ever did dream of such a matter, / Abhor me.”
- “‘Sblood” is an expletive to feign offence at Roderigo’s accusation - denies it to cover up his lies
- Shows early manipulation
A1, S1: Roderigo: “Thou told’st me thou didst hold him in thy hate”
- Exophoric reference to Othello
A1, S1: Iago: “a great arithmetician, / One Michael Cassio, a Florentine”
- Shows Cassio only know theory, not practice
- Also shows us he is from Florence - only one in the play, so we see his status as an outsider
A1, S1: Iago: “A fellow almost damned in a fair wife”
- Shows Cassio is overly flirtatious - indicator of how Iago will use him later on
A1, S1: Iago: “Nor the division of battle knows / More than a spinster, unless the bookish theoric, / Wherein the toged consuls can propose / As masterly as he”
- Negative connotations of “spinster”
- “toged consuls” as a reference to Ancient Rome (perhaps a comment on antiquated, outdated ideals?)
A1, S1: Roderigo: “What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe”
- Racist synecdoche - abuse of Othello and shows Roderigo to be unsympathetic
A1, S1: Iago: “Call up her father, / Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight…”
- List of imperatives -> manipulating Roderigo
- Also completes Roderigo’s previous line of iambic pentameter
A1, S1: Iago “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe.”
- Contrasting connotations of black and white
- Preys on Brabantio’s racist sensibilities
- Deliberately vulgar image
A1, S1: Iago: “Zounds sir, you are one of those that will not serve God / if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service and you think we are ruffians, you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you’ll have your nephews / neigh to you; you’ll have coursers for cousins, and jennets for Germans”
- “Barbary” - coast of North Africa - racial abuse
- Racist comparison of horses to people of mixed-race
- Speak in prose and unleashes his desire to use profane language to be rude to Brabantio as Brabantio does not know him
- Tells the ‘truth’ in a crude and over the top way to incite a reaction from Brabantio
A1, S1: Iago: “To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor”
- “Lascivious” used as deliberately sexual language which Iago knows will upset Brabantio
A1, S1: Brabantio: “This accident is not unlike my dream; / Belief of it oppresses me already”
- Shows Iago is catalysing his internal worry
- Begins to believe Iago almost immediately - foreshadows his deception of Othello and Desdemona
- Foregrounds deception - key theme of play
A1, S1: Iago: “Though I do hate him as I do hell pains, / Yet for necessity of present life / I must show out a flag and sign of love / Which is indeed but sign.”
- Idea of false behaviour and dishonesty
- “Must” shows Iago believes this is a necessity
A1, S1: Brabantio: “It is too true an evil. Gone she is, / And what’s to come of my despised time / Is naught but bitterness”
- Expresses his misery
- Assumes everything he has been told is true because he knows the fact she has left is a truth
- Use of hyperbole - overdramatic
A1, S1: Brabantio: “Where didst thou see her? - O unhappy girl! - With the Moor, say’st thou? - Who would be a father?…”
- Fragmented speech with rhetorical questions to show desperation, upset and panic
