characters simplified ideas Flashcards
Is Othello’s love for Desdemona too much
“My life upon her faith.”
“perdition catch my soul/ but I do love thee! and when I love thee not/ Chaos is come again”
Othello’s preoccupation with honour and chastity are obsessions of a virtuous moral character
“Othello’s occupation’s gone!” when he feared that he has been betrayed by D
-view Desdemona’s trust as prize earned for military victories
pathos is created in final scene ( evoke strong feelings of pity are said to have this quality)
- calling himself as “honourable murderer” reminds us that he was a worthy man before being manipulated by Iago
disintegration of both hid psychological and moral side followed by change in speech style
-uses more oaths “zounds” (indicating moral corruption) disjointed by use of !!!! fractured sense of self conveyed
disjointed prose rather than measured verse
-Philips suggests that O is “ an impulsive and insecure man” vulnerable human being CA Bradbrook’s view of him as the descendant of medieval stage devil
Othello’s last speech in a negative perspective
Eliot “terrible exposure of human weakness”
O turns himself into “ a pathetic figure”
O “My parts, my title and my perfect soul..” VS with final scene where he compares himself with a “base Indian” and “circumcised dog”
Desdemona “My heart’s subdued/ Even to the very quality of my lord”
however she still lies about the handkerchief “I have not deserved this”
Desdemona as Iago’s victim
” Partly to diet mine own revenge” “wife for wife” “turn her virtue into pitch”
Desdemona assertiveness
“By heaven, you do me wrong”
-> reinforces her virtue
->irony and foreshadowing as O refers to heaven before he murders D
when she was accused by O as “cunning whore of Venice”
HOWEVER she declares her death as “wretched fortune” “men are not gods” defend Othello
-contradicts with her early assertiveness
Her submission towards Othello
“my love doth so approve him/ That even his stubbornness…”
“Commend me to my kind lord- O, farewell!”
Iago as the villain
He is part vice and part Machiavel
cynical, quick-witted and opportunistic qualities of typical Jacobean stage villains in revenge tragedies
the epitome of evil, but also an emotionally limited man, driven by pure jealousy and class consciousness
Linking Iago to Freud’s Psychoanalytical theory
driven by his Id (pleasure principle ignoring moral conventions)
Iago is presented as the triumphant villain -> on film productions his soliloquies are whispered ferociously “I hate the Moor” bitterly
directors also emphasise I’s brutality towards his wide by lying and hurting E when he receives the handkerchief
Iago’s abuse of Desdemona
” out of her own goodness make the net/ that shall enmesh them all”
-suggests I as the predator and D as the prey
-manoeuvre her out of the way
Iago’s clever utilisation of pauses and silence
deliberately stops to intrigue and infuriate O, poison O’s mind
-silence at end refusing to reveal his motive
asides- cunning destructive nature
“Oh, you are well tuned now, but I’ll set down the pegs that make this music”
soliloquies- reinforces on his power
