Act 3

Question 1

What does Act 3 show?

Answer 1

how deception and duplicity dominate, whilst the destructive power of jealousy becomes clear

Question 2

act 3, scene 1
The one with the musciains

Answer 2

• Cassio sends musicians to play music beneath the general’s window
• Othello sends his servant to tell the musicians to go away
• Iago enters and tells Cassio that he will send for Emilia straightaway and figure out a way to take Othello aside
• Emilia enters and says that Othello and Desdemona have been discussing his case
• Emilia allows Cassio to come in and tells him to wait for Desdemona.

Question 3

act 3, scene 2
The one thats irrelevant

Answer 3

• Iago, Othello, and a gentleman walk together at the citadel
• Othello gives Iago some letters to deliver and decides to take a look at the town’s fortification

Question 4

act 3, scene 3

the one with the gay vow

Answer 4

• Desdemona, Cassio and Emilia enter mid-conversation
• Desdemona has just vowed to do everything she can on Cassio’s behalf
• when Othello and Iago enter, Cassio quickly departs
• Othello asks whether it was Cassio he saw leaving
• Iago responds that surely Cassio would not behave like a guilty man
• Desdemona entreats Othello to forgive Cassio
• Othello assures her that he will speak to him soon
• alone with Othello, Iago begins his insinuations of an affair between Cassio and Desdemona, he suggests that Othello should observe his wife
• Desdemona and Emilia enter to inform Othello that he is expected at dinner
• Othello complains of a pain in his forehead, and Desdemona offers to bind his head with her handkerchief
• Othello pushes her handkerchief away and it drops to the floor
• Emilia, staying behind, picks up the handkerchief, remarking that her husband has asked her to steal it at least a hundred times.
• Iago enters, and he is ecstatic when she gives it to him
• Iago gleefully plots to plant the handkerchief in Cassio’s room
• Othello enters and declares that his soul is in torment, he demands that Iago bring him ‘ocular proof’
• he tells Othello that Cassio called out Desdemona’s name in his sleep
• This story enrages Othello
• Iago claims to have witnessed Cassio with the handkerchief
• Furious, Othello cries out, he kneels and vows that he will take his revenge
• Iagi kneels with him, vowing to help execute his master’s vengeance
• Othello promotes Iago to lieutenant.