Act 4, Scene 1 Flashcards
A4, S1: Iago: “With her? On her. What you will.”
Baits Othello in order to make him more panicked and upset
A4, S1: Othello: “Handkerchief - confessions - handkerchief”
Othello’s speech is fractured and in prose to show his loss in sanity, punctuation foregrounds this as he cannt speak coherently
A4, S1: Othello: [Falls in a trance]
Plot device to allow Iago to talk to Cassio, and it shows Iago’s manipulation is working, and the extent at which it affects Othello
A4, S1: Iago: “Work on, / My medicine work!”
Unusual he refers to medicine - contrasts with earlier reference to poison. Throughout this speech he uses lots of exclamation marks to show he is excited his plan has worked
A4, S1: Othello: “A horned man’s a monster and a beast”
Believes he has been cuckolded, and refers to himself as a beast
A4, S1: Iago: “There’s many a beast in a populous city, / And many a civil monster”
Cynical attitude, but it is a reference to people suppressing their id, reminding us of the idea of the falsities of Venetian society
A4, S1: Iago: “Now I will question Cassio of Bianca, / A housewife that by selling her desires / Buys herself bread and clothes”
We don’t know if these are meant to be luxuries or essentials - she may be impoverished
A4, S1: Cassio: “Alas, poor rogue! I think i’faith she loves me”
Cassio sees Bianca’s love as a joke
A4, S1: Cassio: “Faith I must, she’ll rail in the street else.”
Shakespeare may be presenting a criticism of women here or a criticism of Cassio’s chauvinism, especially since Cassio is worried people will then know about their relationship
A4, S1: Iago: “Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated”
Iago wants the experience to be more horrible for Othello and Desdemona
A4, S1: Desdemona: “I would do much / T’atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio”
Fuels Othello’s anger, even though Desdemona isn’t talking about the love he imagines she is
A4, S1: Othello: [Strikes her]
Dramatic moment. Happens in front of Lodovico, and this is the first person from the outside world who has seen Othello since Iago began to manipulate him - clear marker of the change in his character
A4, S1: Othello: “Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn”
Accuses Lodovico of wanting to have sex with Desdemona (even though they are related), which is a ridiculous allegation intended to show Othello’s madness
