Act 4, Scene 2 Flashcards
A4, S2: Emilia: “I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, / … If any wretch have put this in your head, / Let heaven requite it with the serpent’s curse”
First time Othello has heard something that contradicts what Iago has said and what he thinks, but he believes it is another woman working against him
A4, S2: Othello: “She says enough; yet she’s a simple bawd / That cannot say as much”
Sexist attitude, different to how he was earlier in the play - internalises more of Iago’s philosophy
A4, S2: Othello: “Had it pleased heaven / To try me with affliction”
Refers to the Book of Job in the old testament in which God tormented Job and he suffered it all with patience, so Othello says he would show the same patience
A4, S2: Othello: “Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads / To knot and gender in”
Grotesque imagery - has come around to Iago’s way of thinking which is cynical and unpleasant
A4, S2: Desdemona: “No, as I am a Christian.”
Uses religion as proof, but cannot convince Othello
A4, S2: Othello: “I took you for that cunning whore of Venice / That married with Othello”
Directly contradicts what she has just told him, as well as referring to himself in 3rd person - losing his sanity
A4, S2: Emilia: “I will be hanged if some eternal villain, / Some busy and insinuating rogue, / Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office / Have not devised this slander; I’ll be hanged else”
Emilia has begun to hit upon the truth, and she is the first character to identify that this situation has been engineered
A4, S2: Iago: “Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible”
Ironic - Iago is exactly the person Emilia discusses, but he denies that it is a possibility
A4, S2: Desdemona: “If any such there be, heaven pardon him”
Characteristically nice and forgiving - passive and religious in response to evil - shows her moral goodness
A4, S2: Emilia: “A halter pardon him, and hell gnaw his bones”
Directly contrasts with Desdemona suggesting the engineer of this plan should be pardoned - sense of irony since it is Iago?
A4, S2: Emilia: “That turned your wit the seamy side without / And made you to suspect me with the Moor”
Revealing about Iago
A4, S2: Iago: “You are a fool. Go to”
He speaks bluntly and emphatically - rattled by Emilia’s accusations
A4, S2: Desdemona: “Here I kneel”
Obedient and religious connotations to show her moral goodness
A4, S2: Desdemona: “Unkindness may do much, / And his unkindness may defeat my life, / But never taint my love. I cannot say ‘whore’; / It does abhor me now I speak the word”
Shows her moral goodness and morality, as well as her willingness to and passivity in laying down her life
A4, S2: Roderigo: “Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and performances are no kin together”
Ironic as he is meant to be the most gullible character but has explicitly realised Iago’s manipulation
