Act 3, Scene 3 Flashcards
A3, S3: Emilia: “I warrant it grieves my husband / As if the cause were his”
Image of Iago being upset by what has happened to Cassio - link to how he uses this to manipulate Othello
A3, S3: Cassio: “Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio”
Cassio speaks about himself in 3rd person - sense of arrogance?
A3, S3: Desdemona: “If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it / To the last article”
Desdemona pledges her allegiance to Cassio in a way that is almost over the top - could be read the wrong way?
A3, S3: Iago: “Ha! I like not that”
Othello: “What dost thou say?”
Iago: “Nothing, my lord; or if - I know not what”
- Iago is deliberately vague to force Othello to come up with his own ideas - he says something then refuses to elaborate
- Othello completes Iago’s line - shows his urgency/stress
A3, S3: Iago: “That he would sneak away so guilty-like, / Seeing you coming”
Iago allows Othello to speculate about what is happening to bait him into a response
A3, S3: Desdemona: “I have been talking with a suitor here, / A man that languishes in your displeasure”
Referring to Cassio with a double meaning - Othello will infer the meaning of lover, not someone who pleads
A3, S3: Desdemona: “Good my lord, / If I have any grace or power to move you”
Shows her subservience and weakness
A3, S3: Othello: “Not now, sweet Desdemon, some other time”
- “Sweet” shows affection - implies he is still relatively calm
- He is still fairly cold to her - this is the first time they interact while Othello is jealous/worried - they complete each others’ lines through this section with Desdemona asking a question but Othello dismisses her quickly
A3, S3: Desdemona: “But let it not / Exceed three days”
Desdemona gives Othello a limit - she is in control because of her feminist power
A3, S3: Desdemona: “When I have spoke of you dispraisingly - / Hath ta’en your part; to have so much to do / To bring him in?”
Double meaning which suggests Cassio took his part in Othello’s relationship - leads Othello to take Desdemona’s words more suspiciously, especially since this would ‘explain’ why she spoke negatively
A3, S3: Othello: “Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this / To leave me but a little to myself”
Othello wants to be left alone - surprising since they were recently married
A3, S3: Othello: “But I do love thee; and when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again”
He was self assured and confident in act 1 but now he is less convinced as he sees himself in chaos and turmoil internally
A3, S3: Iago: “But for a satisfaction of my thought; / No further harm”
Ironic that this comes from Iago, it also shows his manipulation
A3, S3: Othello: “Is he not honest?”
Iago: “Honest, my lord?”
Othello: “Honest? Ay, honest.”
Ironic tripling of honest, as well as them completing each other’s lines
A3, S3: Othello: “Alas, thou echoest me, / As if there were some monster in thy thought / Too hideous to be shown”
This could be a reference to the “green eyed monster”, Iago being a monster, or Othello himself being a monster - this implies Iago is a manifestation of Othello’s worry and inner problems
A3, S3: Iago: “My lord, you know I love you”
Direct contradiction and explicit lie - manipulation is clear
A3, S3: Iago: “Men should be what they seem; / Or those that be not, would they might seem none.”
Immediately tries to persuade Othello to stop believing Cassio, but subtly
A3, S3: Iago: “Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, / Is the immediate jewel of their souls. / Who steals my purse, steals trash; ‘tis something, / nothing”
Iago discusses the importance of reputation, directly contradicting what he said to Cassio, and this idea is one he has actually taken from what Cassio says. He also references how he takes money from Roderigo
A3, S3: Iago: “O beware my lord of jealousy; / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on”
Metaphor for jealousy that gives a sense he is speaking from personal experience - implies that Iago wants Othello to suffer the way he does/has - Othello isn’t innately jealous, but Iago is?
A3, S3: Iago: “But O, what damned minutes tells o’er / Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet fondly loves”
Alternates positive and negative verbs, juxtaposing them. Perhaps indicates Iago’s own internal conflict/disorder, but also what he intends to impose on Othello
A3, S3: Iago: “Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio; / Wear your eyes thus, not jealous nor secure”
Acts as though he is giving Othello advice, rather than the one causing his doubt
A3, S3: Iago: “In Venice they do let God see the pranks / They dare not show their husbands”
Reinforces the idea of Venice being two faced, as well as referencing Iago once more. Perhaps another way that it is implied that Othello doesn’t really understand the way that Venetian society operates because of how they exclude him from the inner circle of their society
A3, S3: Iago: “She did deceive her father, marrying you; And when she seemed to shake, and fear your looks, / She loved them most”
Implies Desdemona could easily lie to Othello, and this is what Brabantio said to Iago, which is something Iago wants to remind us of
A3, S3: Iago: “I am to pray you not to strain my speech / To grosser issues, nor to larger reach / Than to suspicion”
Trying to act as though he doesn’t want Othello to look too deeply into what he has said - ironic
A3, S3: Iago: “My speech should fall into such vile success / Which my thoughts aimed not”
Oxymoron indicates his duplicity
A3, S3: Iago: “Not to affect many proposed matches / Of her own clime, complexion and degree”
Iago explicitly says Desdemona married outside of her social circle, and makes it clear that they can’t be expected to stay together because she as married outside her race
A3, S3: Othello: “Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless / Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds”
Shows that Iago’s persuasion is successful
A3, S3: Othello: “This fellows of exceeding honesty”
Ironic
A3, S3: Othello: “If I do prove her haggard… I’d whistle her off, and let her down the wind / To prey at fortune”
- Reference to an untamed bird - semantic field of falconry. A hawk would’ve been an accessory to a knight at the time, so Othello is trying to put the situation in terms familiar to him that he can understand
- He also says he is happy to let her go, something that is contradicted later in the play
A3, S3: Othello: “Haply, for I am black / And have not those soft parts of conversation / That chamberers have; or, for I am declined / Into the vale of years”
Direct reference to Cassio and his way with words, as well as an acknowledgement that his language is ‘lesser’ than that of those around him
A3, S3: Othello: “O curse of marriage! / That we can call these delicate creatures ours, / And not their appetites”
Use of an apostrophe, and he speaks possessively. Use of “appetites” as well indicates he is beginning to speak and think (Heidegger) more like Iago in dehumanising women and being more controlling
A3, S3: Emilia: “My wayward husband hath a hundred times / Wooed me to steal it.”
Indicates she is aware he is not a good person, and it shows Iago’s persistency and therefore dedication to his plan
A3, S3: Iago: “A thing for me? It is a common thing -“
Emilia: “Ha?”
Iago: “To have a foolish wife”
Iago twists her meaning as well as showing his misogyny and implying he is not attracted to her
A3, S3: Emilia: “Why, that the Moor first gave Desdemona, / That which so often you did bid me steal”
Emilia also dehumanises Othello, and this line shows that Emilia has stolen the handkerchief to please Iago
A3, S3: Iago: [Snatching it] “Why, what is that to you?”
Forceful verb to show his control over her which becomes more significant as there are few stage directions throughout ‘Othello’. It also shows how he treats her badly and takes advantage of her
A3, S3: Iago: “Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmations strong / As proofs of holy writ”
Ironic that Iago references the bible
A3, S3: Iago: “The Moor already changes with my poison / Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons, / Which at the first are scarce found to distaste / But, with a little, act upon the blood, / Burn like mines of sulphur”
References to hell and images with negative connotations. Iago references the way in which tragedy works; the catalysis of a harmartia. This implies that he may not be the antagonist, but instead is there to guide the audience through the workings of the play - post-modern idea of deconstruction
A3, S3: Othello: “Thou hast set me on the rack”
Reference to torture equipment - shows the extent of Othello’s love for Desdemona in the level of emotional torment Iago is causing him
A3, S3: Othello: “Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content; / Farewell the plumed troops”
Tripling of farewell emphasises his emotional torment. Farewell is also repeated twice more in the same speech
A3, S3: Othello: “Othello’s occupation’s gone”
He feels he has lost his purpose in life, which has even more significance since being a soldier is shown to be one of the most (if not the most) integral part of his character, in that it precedes all others
A3, S3: Othello: “If thou dost slander her and torture me, / Never pray more; abandon all remorse; / On horror’s head horrors accumulate”
Uses informal second person mode of address. Othello believes no crime is worse than making him believe Desdemona is unfaithful - shows how important Desdemona is to Othello, but also shows his insecurity
A3, S3: Othello: “I think my wife be honest, and think she is not. / I think that thou art just, and think thou art not.”
Parallel structure of the 2 lines - the second half of the sentence is a negation of the first, and it is ironic because Iago is almost entirely dishonest to Othello, but he still doubts his honesty to the same degree as Desdemona’s, despite her being honest to him
A3, S3: “Her name that was as fresh / As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black / As mine own face”
Negative view of himself, shows his own insecurity from his treatment that comes as a result of his race. He almost pits himself against the purity associated initially with Desdemona (Diana was a virgin goddess) to further shows the negative connotations he has been forced to associate with his race
A3, S3: Othello: “Arise black vengeance, from the hollow hell. / Yield up, o love, thy crown and hearted throne to tyrannous hate”
Racist part of play - Othello is allowing his ‘blackness’ to take over - his id
A3, S3: Othello: “Pontic sea”
Part of Black Sea, and it is also in Turkey who they are at war with
A3, S3: Othello: “Now art thou my lieutenant”
Iago has finally got what he wanted right at the end of the scene
