Cassio and Bianca

Question 1

A.C. Bradley on Cassio’s character

Answer 1

‘there is something very lovable about Cassio’

‘moral beauty’

Question 2

A.C. Bradley on the audience’s trust towards Cassio

Answer 2

‘we trust him never to pervert the truth for the sake of some doctrine or purpose of his own’

Question 3

How would a Jacobean audience have felt about Cassio?

Answer 3

Many of the audience members would have disliked Cassio as a ‘new type of officer’

Question 4

William Empson on Iago’s feelings towards Cassio

Answer 4

Iago ‘regards the virtues of Cassio as part of his superficial and over-rewarded charm of manner’

Question 5

Elizabeth Mazzola on Bianca (2)

Answer 5

‘an emblem of the larger world; her movements aligned with integrity, the ability to reason, and mastery of her’

‘picture of female freedom’

Question 6

Matt Simpson on Bianca’s name

Answer 6

‘an Italian name that translates as white’

Question 7

Matt Simpson on Bianca’s role

Answer 7

‘underscores the theme of jealousy’

Question 8

John McRae on Bianca

Answer 8

Bianca is the ‘most realistic’ of the three women in Othello