act 2

Question 1

maid that paragons description

Answer 1

Act 2 scene 1
- cassio says desdemona is so beautiful she can’t be described

Question 2

players in your housewivery

Answer 2

Act 2 scene 1
- iago describes his sexist thoughts
- use of derogatory names such as “housewives” is fairly paradoxical

Question 3

a web as this will ensnare as great as fly as Cassio

Answer 3

Act 2 scene 1
- iago admits to having a web in which he is going to entangle his victims and trap them
- shakespeare uses spider imagery

Question 4

o my fair warrior!

Answer 4

Act 2 scene 1
- othello greets desdemona after arriving safely at cyprus

Question 5

if it were now to die/twere now to be most happy

Answer 5

Act 2 Scene 1
- othello arrives at cyrprus
- he puts love on a very high pedastal
- what seems initially like positive love but implies a destructive nature

Question 6

all which the moor is defective in

Answer 6

Act 2 Scene 1
- iago pries on othello’s insecurities

Question 7

diet my revenge / wife for wife

Answer 7

Act 2 scene 1
- iago’s soliloquy
- iago explains his intentions behind his maliciousness to the audience
- he believed othello has slept with his wifie
- reference to the bible “eye for an eye” (an allusion)

Question 8

a jealousy so strong judgement cannot cure

Answer 8

Act 2 scene 1
- iago says this about othello, he knows from his own personal experience that jealousy will cause you to go insane (from believing his wife slept with Cassio and Othello)

Question 9

my blood begins my safer guide to rule

Answer 9

Act 2 scene 3
- othello has the potential to be taken over by anger

Question 10

reputation! x3 immortal part of myself, what remains is bestial

Answer 10

Act 2 scene 3
- cassio loses his job
- his reputation is ever-lasting
- repetition / rule of 3
- shows the importance that reputation holds in the centre of the tragedy

Question 11

reputation is an idle and most false imposition

Answer 11

Act 2 scene 3
- iago, referring to othello
- also ironic as we know one of his motivations from the start is not having a good name (leiutenant)

Question 12

divinity of hell

Answer 12

Act 2 scene 3
- demonstrates where iago’s worship lies
- phrase is an oxymoron, suggesting he sees the divine in the work of the devil
- demonstrates self-awareness of the evil he is perpetrating

Question 13

Pour this pestilence in his ear

Answer 13

Act 2 scene 3
- iago will poisen othello’s thoughts
- poisen imagery illustrates the negative effects words have on ones mind as it destorys rational thought resulting in death and destruction

Question 14

virtue into pitch

Answer 14

Act 2 scene 3
- sticky nature of pitch suggests iago will use desdemonas goodness to lead her into a trap
- extended metaphore of trapped imagery
- sentence structure foreshadows the destruction of Desdemona’s reputation as it transitions from ‘virtue’ to ‘pitch’ - black tar like substance with sinister connotations

Question 15

out of her goodness make the net to enmesh them all

Answer 15

Act 2 scene 3
- recurring imagery of entrapping them in his web
- extended metaphore
- trap for his prey
- again using Desdemona’s virtues to manipulate reality

Question 16

tis my breeding

Answer 16

Act 2 scene 1
- cassio says it is his upbringing that makes him curtious
- Iago uses his virtue to manipulate reality

Question 17

warlike moor Othello

Answer 17

Act 2 scene 1
- othello is described
- associated with his abilities as a soldier
- never described as a good husband to Desdemona

Question 18

were’t to renounce his baptism

Answer 18

Act 2, scene 3
- in iago’s soliloquy
- iago says that othello would renounce his baptism and give up his christianity for Desdemona which is a bold claim considering Othello’s christianity is an integral part of him
- links to when he tells Desdemona the origins of the handkerchief (magic) which goes against their christian beliefs but Desdemona is still open to it because she loves Othello so much

Question 19

When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows As I do now

Answer 19

Act 2, Scene 3
- iago’s soliloquy
- he is deceiving them all as they belief he is “honest” in nature

Question 20

Even to madness,
Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used

Answer 20

Act 2, scene 1 (soliloquy)
- foreshadows Othello’s descent into madness, loss of rationality
- evil plans never reveal themselves until used

Question 21

Warlike isle

Answer 21

Act 2, Scene 3
- tragedy is ordered as a story of chaos
- the settings of venice + cyprus set up the chaos
- cyprus is less civilised and less ordered
- venice represents civilisation
- when othello arrives in cyprus he says ‘when i love thee not chaos is come again’
- what happened in cyprus would never happen in the civilised city of venice

Question 22

What’s he, then, that says I play the vil-lain

Answer 22

Act 2, scene 3
- no one has ever called iago a villain
- talking to the audience who clearly perceive him as a tragic villain
- interplay
- element of self-awareness of the evil he is perpetrating
- this soliloquy shows the entertainment thay iago’s character brings to the tragedy