Act 3

Question 1

What happens in Act 3 Scene 1?

Answer 1

• The morning after the fight, Cassio asks Emilia to help him speak to Desdemona and Iago offers further support.
• Emilia tells Cassio that Desdemona is already speaking up for him to Othello ‘and she speaks for you stoutly’.
• Cassio asks Emilia to help him speak ‘with Desdemon alone’.

Cassio and Emilia

Question 2

What happens in Act 3 Scene 2?

Answer 2

• Othello passes through, talking to Iago and others about affairs of state.

Question 3

What happens in Act 3 Scene 3?

Answer 3

• Desdemona reassures Cassio that she will continue to speak to Othello on his behalf. She says ‘Do not doubt, Cassio, but I will have my lord and you again as friendly as you were’.
• Iago makes sure Othello sees the end of their conversation and notices Cassio leaving Desdemona. He says to Othello that it can’t have been Cassio because ‘I cannot think it that he would steal away so guilty-like seeing you coming’.
• Desdemona then persuades Othello to talk to Cassio and he claims ‘I will deny thee nothing’. As she leaves he says ‘Perdition catch my soul / but I do love thee! And when I love thee not, / chaos is come again’.
• Iago immediately begins to sow seeds of suspicion in Othello’s mind, subtly at first and then more obviously, suggesting that something is going on between Cassio and Desdemona, advising him to ‘Look to your wife, observe her well with Cassio’.
• Iago leaves Othello convinced of his wife’s infidelity, saying ’She’s gone, I am abused, and my relief must be to loath her’.
• When Desdemona comes back with Emilia, Othello complains ‘I have a pain upon my forehead, here’. As Desdemona tries to help him she drops her handkerchief. Left alone, Emilia picks it up, telling the audience, ‘My wayward husband hath a hundred times wooed me to steal it’.
• Iago returns and takes it from her. He tells the audience that he will plant the handkerchief in Cassio’s room, hoping it will provide further ‘proof’ of Cassio’s affair with Desdemona.
• Othello returns to see Iago, furious at the idea of his wife with Cassio, saying ‘thou hast set me on the rack!’ He demands that Iago provide ‘ocular proof’.
• Iago winds him up more saying ‘Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys’ it would be hard to catch them in the act. He pretends he has heard Cassio talking in his sleep about the affair, then adds that he has seen Cassio using Desdemona’s handkerchief which ‘speaks against her with the other proofs’.
• Othello is convinced and vows a ‘wide revenge’. He asks Iago to kill Cassio and plans to kill Desdemona himself.

Question 4

What happens in Act 3 Scene 4?

Answer 4

• Desdemona is upset about losing her handkerchief but Emilia pretends she knows nothing about it. Othello comes in acting strangely and asks to borrow the handkerchief, telling her ‘there’s magic in the web of it’.
• She tries to make him talk about Cassio but he keeps talking about ‘The handkerchief’ until he walks off and she is left confused.
• Iago returns with Cassio and, hearing Othello was upset, Iago leaves to find him. Desdemona thinks affairs of state must have ‘puddled his clear spirits’.
• Emilia thinks he is jealous but Desdemona says ‘I never gave him cause’.
• They leave and Bianca, a woman who is in love with Cassio, arrives. Cassio gives her the handkerchief, saying ‘I found it in my chamber’, and asks her to copy the design.