Act 5 Flashcards
Two or three groan. It is a heavy night.
The escalating murder suggests the growing chaos and disorder leading towards Desdemona’s climactic murder. Iago’s victims are growing in number.
Yet I’ll not shed her blood, nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow.
Othello’s obsession with Desdemona’s ‘whiteness’ – given to him by Iago’s manipulations – is emphasised here, as is his warped love for her. Shakespeare emphasises his personal weaknesses right before the climax.
I would not kill thy unprepared spirit. I would not kill thy soul.
Othello claims Christian sensitivities as a way of offering Desdemona ‘mercy’. This attempt at hanging onto his sensibilities even at the point of violence allows Shakespeare to present his suffering and confusion.
Why I should fear I know not, since guiltiness I know not but yet I feel fear.
The repetition of ‘fear’ here creates feelings of fear and pity for Desdemona and allows Shakespeare to build tension and foreboding. Again, Desdemona’s innocence as a tragic victim is emphasised.
Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip? Some bloody passion shakes your very frame.
Indirect stage directions emphasise Othello’s transformation into madness. His weakness or flaw (his extreme passion) is presented as dangerous rather than romantic through the adjective choice and he is presented again as savage and animalistic.
Thou art to die.
This simple declaration is emphatic and chilling. The use of the future tense increases the horror and inevitability.
O, the more angel she and you the blacker devil!
The use of contrast here emphasises the horror of Desdemona’s innocent death and presents the dichotomy of the roles of tragic villain and victim.
Emilia: My husband?
Othello: Thy husband.
The repetition of ‘thy husband’ throughout this section emphasises Emilia’s disbelief and growing understanding of her husband’s role in the tragedy. The denouement is approaching.
You told a lie, an odious damned lie: upon my soul a lie, a wicked lie.
The extreme repetition emphasises Emilia’s outrage and verbalises Iago’s great sin for the first time on stage.
I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak.
The irony that Iago’s wife is the first person on stage who is not ‘charmed by him’ is emphasised here by her furious declaration. She is presented in complete contrast to Desdemona who dies passive and forgiving. Here Emilia is active and literally refuses to be silenced.
O thou dull moor, that handkerchief thou speakest of I found by fortune and did give my husband.
Emilia’s insult here emphasises Othello’s stupidity and overreaction. His flaw in believing in Iago over his wife is highlighted.
Othello runs at Iago; Montano disarms him; Iago stabs Emilia from behind and exits.
Stage directions emphasise the chaos and the typical ending to a Shakespearian tragedy which involves mass deaths. Iago’s stabbing Emilia ‘from behind’ is a physical representation of his treachery.
Blow me about in the winds! Roast me in Sulphur! Wash me in steep down gulfs of liquid fire!
The series of hyperbolic exclamations emphasises Othello’s suffering and the horror of his moment of realisation or anagnorisis.
Will you I pray, demand that demi devil why he hath thus ensnare my soul and body.
Here it is Iago who is presented as colluding in black magic – the crime initially associated with Othello has been used to destroy him.
From this time forth I never will speak a word.
Iago’s final revenge is his silence. This is what Coleridge refers to as his motiveless malignancy and what others have described as his psychopathic behaviour.
