AT3 Othello Flashcards
“This crack…
This is exemplified in Iago, whereby the juxtaposition of ‘crack’ and ‘grow stronger’ in the metaphor ‘This crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before” underlines Iago’s false aid to Cassio as he pretends to mend Cassio’s relationship with Othello, revealing the power of masking one’s personal needs under the false pretence of goodwill.
“My friend…” “I am..”
Iago’s success in perpetuating this ductile identity is prominently exemplified towards the end of the play, where even after making him commit his heinous act, Othello is shown to still perceive him through the epithet of ‘honest’ in “My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago,” which ironically contrasts with Iago’s chiasmus in “I am not what I am”. (Binary opposites)
“the handkerchief…” “Rude as..”
Othello’s erratic tone and epizeuxis of “the handkerchief… the handkerchief…the handkerchief” contrasts with his earlier eloquent speech, such as “Rude am I in my speech”, reflecting his moral spiral and newfound jealousy that causes him to revert to the misogynistic attitudes of Elizabethan society.
‘Devil! O
Resultantly, when Othello and Desdemona meet their Venetian guests, Shakespeare’s dramatic stage direction of ‘publicly strikes’, followed by the biblical allusions ‘Devil! O devil, devil!’ is used to represent the physical manifestation of the chaos which has inflicted his mind and his loss of humanity and reason.
‘Your son-in-law…” “an old…”
Yet the audience is exposed, through dramatic techniques, to a salient contrast between his perceived novelty and the stereotypical depiction of Moors as inferior and even subhuman, shown in the insulting metaphor ‘Your son-in-law is more fair than black’ and the colour symbolism of “an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe”.
“I’ll tear
This culminates in Othello’s high modality and violent connotations in “I’ll tear her all to pieces”, highlighting his transformation to an image of violence, thus ironically fulfilling his racial stereotype and succumbing to the patriarchal values of Christian determinism.
“haply for
In trying to reconcile with the reason for Desdemona’s unfaithfulness, Othello exemplifies his racial insecurities, in the metaphor “haply for I am black…. She’s gone”, which demonstrates his burning desire to hate himself for his skin colour, ultimately causing him to strangle Desdemona.
“Must bring …
The motif of monstrosity is introduced by Iago in “Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light” where the interplay between light and dark showcases how evil can be masked in the connotations of good.
“Directly to…
Furthermore, in Iago’s soliloquy “Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!” Shakespeare utilises apostrophe to emphasise how the villain enjoys the divinity of causing spite, capturing the paradoxical nature of deceit as an expendable tool of harm for the benefit of the perpetrator.
“Is this…
Through differing character perspectives, Shakespeare forms a multifaceted stance of this vile act of misogyny, whereby the rhetorical question in “Is this the nature/ Whom passion could not shake?” said by Lodovico exposes responders to the paradox of Othello’s character as noble yet savage. The Elizabethan audience would have perceived this chaos as a racial fault, but through this stark contrast of Othello’s characterisation, Shakespeare questions and highlights the universal possibility of the monster within all characters.
“I took you…”
The dramatic irony of accusing deceit in ‘I took you for that cunning whore of Venice’ when it was Iago who conspired this act and not Desdemona, not only foreshadows Desdemona’s death caused by Othello’s sense of alienation, but also their relationship’s degradation due to Iago’s deception.
“My services…
Through the apostrophe in “My services which I have done the signiory”, Shakespeare portrays Othello as naively believing his merits serve as a social elevation that allows him to transcend his position as a Moor in the Great Chain of Being and provide him with a justification for loving Desdemona.
“Put out
The interplay of light and dark imagery in “Put out the light, and then put out the light” emphasises the juxtaposition of Desdemona’s external purity with her hidden sinfulness, and it is this inverse logic that forms Othello’s belief that he must save her soul by killing her body.
