Critics and Context: Handkerchief

Question 1

Emilia’s … (3)

Answer 1

• act of stealing the Handkerchief

to please her “wayward husband”

inadvertently sets in motion the tragedy of the play.

Question 2

Due to his ‘outsider’ status, Othello _________________ for ___________ and ultimately _____________ with the ______________________.

Answer 2

• embarks on an obsessive search
• outward signs of fidelity
• becomes obsessed
• whereabouts of the Handkerchief

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Question 3

As a consequence of Othello _________________________, in a sense, each it is ‘________,’ Desdemona’s _________________ of Othello.

Answer 3

• viewing the Handkerchief as a symbol of Desdemona’s faithfulness
• ‘handled’
• purity diminishes in the eyes

Question 4

Othello’s speech ______________________ as he __________________ of the Handkerchief; his ______________ he lacks “_______________” becomes _______________ with Shakespeare’s use of _____________ and ___________ demonstrating the loss of his ____________________ as he splutters “___________________,” demonstrating Othello’s ________________________.

Answer 4

• degrades from fluent rhetoric to broken prose
• enquires about the whereabouts
• misplaced belief that
• “the soft parts of conversation”
• a self-fulfilling prophecy
• holophrastic speech / - aposiopesis
• previously dulcet poetic tones
• “—Handkerchief—confessions—handkerchief”
• unwavering preoccupation with the token

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Question 5

The Handkerchief… (3)

Answer 5

• Edward Snow
• As Edward Snow aptly explains, the Handkerchief
• “brings to the fore just those anxieties which such a recognisance and pledge of love is intended to dispel”