Act Two, Scene One Flashcards
First Gentleman: High-wrought flood
> tragic structure - rising tension
fear of supernatural; follows Iago’s line “hell and night…” Iago conjured?
storm - pathetic fallacy; chaos, unrest
elements at war - destruction of natural order
storm = familiar literary trope
symbolic of destructive conflicts Iago is releasing - foreshadowing
Third Gentleman: Our wars are done
> Turkish fleet destroyed
M: The man commands like a full soldier
M: Brave Othello
> Othello = great leader
‘brave Othello’ military identity commands repect
C: Achieved a maid that paragons description and wild fame
C: Excels the quirks of blazoning pens
C: Essential vesture of creation
> voice of a poet - status and class
highest praise
blazon - rhetorical power; sense of hyperbole about creating a muse; excessive flattery
Desdemona functions as a muse
Otherworldly/ ethereal
C: Tempests [..] do omit their mortal natures, letting go safely by the divine Desdemona
> Elizabethan love poetry - perfection of the lady enables the lover to see the divine
capable of affecting the workings of nature
suggests Cassio may love her - heartfelt praise
C: Great Jove
> Roman God
C: The riches of the ship is come on shore
> monetary worth - objectified masculine lens
He (Cassio) kisses Emilia
> critical moment - Iago twist Cassio Gentlemanly nature
I: So much of her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me, you would have enough
> misogyny
public humiliating wife
D: Alas, she has no speech!
> exclamatory
position of authority/ or speaks out regardless
assertive
I: saints in your injuries, [..] huswives in your bed
> written in prose
contra blazon; antithesis to Cassio’s speech
different men, different backgrounds
suspicious of all women
I: You rise to play and go to bed to work
> believes all women are promiscuous
sexual reductionism
cynicism towards love - marriage and sex as transactional
I: Fairness and wit, the one’s for use, the other useth it
> Iago intelligence - think up on the spot
rhyming couplets
I: To suckle fools and chronical small beer
> contra blazon
negates/ emphasises ugly points
course, obscene suggestions
ends in bathos and mockery
D: O, must lame and impotent conclusion
> thinks Iago disrespectful and immoral
C: You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar
> criticises Iago’s perspective
Cassio takes Desdemona’s hand
I: With as little a web as this I will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio
> cements Cassio as a foil character
‘ultimate Gentleman’
uses this small flirtation against Cassio
spider - emblem of deception and entrapment
audience accomplices
Enter Othello and Attendants
National theatre production - looks up to the heavens
> National Theatre stage directions: holding each other, mirrored body language, looking up to heavens
mutual, equity in love
stands out against war/ conflict backdrop
O: O my soul’s joy!
O: Sweet powers
> goes against trial speech - prioritises Desdemona
blank verse/ iambic pentameter
reference to soul and heavens - reverence and connection to divine order
O: Duck again as low as hell’s from heaven
> Othello thinks in absolute extremes - cosmic opposites imagery
unconsciously aligns himself with Calvinist Predestination (if he loses D, he is damned)
fatalistic way of thinking
Christian outsider - speaks overly of devotion to overcompensate
O: If it were now to die, ‘twere now to be most happy
O: My soul hath her content so absolute
O: It is too much joy
> prophetic irony; pinnacle of happiness, downhill hereafter
totality of their love
antithesis to Iago’s views on women
poetic
O: Succeeds in an unknown fate
> supernatural element
I: aside You are well tuned now, but I’ll set down the pegs that make this music, as honest as I am
> injects audience with tension
They kiss
> unity in public forum
O: New friends! Our wars are done.
> only now addresses soldiers - contradicts trial speech
I: Desdemona is directly in love with him
> doesn’t actually believe this
doesn’t say Cassio in love with her- subtly change that plays on Roderigo’s jealousy
I: Her eye must be fed
I: And give satiety a fresh appetite
> motif of consumption - greedy for men and sex
I: To look on the Devil
> Christian association with ‘blackness’ and moral blackness; the devil
I: Sympathy in years, manners, and beauties, all which the Moor is defective in
> Cassio does not have these attributes
Othello is ugly, lacks manners
I: Very nature will instruct her in it
> prejudices against interracial relationship
Desdemona will soon feel disgusted in him
I: A slipper and subtle knave
> Cassio’s conscience does not extend beyond a facade to hide his lecherous desires
R: I cannot believe that in her
> refuses to accept D as a sexual fiend
I: They met so near with their lips that their breaths embraced together
> excessive exaggeration
Roderigo rebuts Iago’s insinuations - “courtesy”
I: Cassio knows you not
> Roderigo as a tool
I: Shorter journey to your desires
> Roderigo will have his chance - manipulation
I: Constant, loving, noble nature
> triadic structure
Othello tragic hero
I: Prove [..] most dear husband
> juxtaposition
I: Now I do love her too
> self-contradictory
I: Lusty Moor
> sexual jealousy
Othello = better lover
reverts back to pejorative
I: I fear Cassio with my nightcap too
> contemporary reference - thinks Cassio also slept with his wife
extreme paranoia - no real evidence
sexual jealousy = strong motivator
I: I am evened with him, wife for wife
> Iago sexual insecurity
‘evened’ sees relationships as transactional, political affairs, in terms of power dynamics
mirrors Othello’s fear of being ‘cuckolded’ - reputation
I: Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used
> foreshadowing
biblical figures - Cain and Abel
I: My muse labours
> assumes voice of a poet writing of a lady - mocking
produces a lame couplet
sentiments are expressed in a bluff manner - intended to make hearers laugh
outwards pleasantry provides stark contrast to his inner malice
I: I am nothing if not critical
> Iago’s cynicism
unable to praise and lacking respect for women
R: Full of most blessed condition
> D associated with the divine by another male character
I: Like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards
> recurring association of jealousy as a metaphorical poison
wishes to inflict upon Othello that same torment
