desdemona

Question 1

brabantio:

‘to fall in love with what she feared to look on?’

Answer 1

despite ethnicity, desdemona falls in love with othello - breaking racial stereotypes

did she fear to look on him because of his skin colour, his class or his upbringing?

not venetian

pseudo-rhetorical question, because brabantio honestly thinks that desdemona wouldn’t fall in love with othello.

Question 2

othello:

‘send for the lady to the sagittary’

Answer 2

giving desdemona freedom of speech

imperative verb - asserting power - black race was inferior

subverting stereotypes

Question 3

‘i am hitherto your daughter. but here’s my husband’

Answer 3

caesura - made her decision

frowned upon in elizabethan society

assertive and confident - women usually hysterical

prevalence of deep patriarchal power structures that women interlise, seeing themselves as products of ownership

still respectful of her father

Question 4

‘nor i; i would not there reside, to put my father in impatient thoughts ‘by being in his eye’

Answer 4

challenging stereotypes - not supposed to have a voice

bold

‘impatient’ suggests brabantio rushes too quickly into judging othello based off the stereotypes in society of inter-racial marriage and native africans as oppose to looking at their powerful natural love for one another.

desdemona is criticising her father for doing so and not giving othello a chance without basing his views and opinions off society

seems to love her father and care for his wellbeing or she’s very good at being politically correct and politely saying she doesn’t want to be around him.

Question 5

othello:

‘to please the palate of my appetite, nor to comply with heat the young affects in my distinct and proper satisfaction, but to be free and bounteous to her mind’

Answer 5

he doesn’t want her for his own personal reasons, rather he wants to enrich her experience because that’s what she wants

progressive relationship

let her go - its what she wants

Question 6

brabantio:

‘look to her moor if thou hast eyes to see: she has deceived her father and may thee’

Answer 6

once a cheater always a cheater

foreshadowing the eventual (alleged) deception

reminds othello that he is a moor

reminding othello that in terms of his colour and his religion, he is unworthy of desdemona

a persistent idea that iago also later manipulates to convince othello that desdemona’s love for him is only a fleeting fancy.

Question 7

cassio:

‘our great captain’s captain’

Answer 7

desdemona is the boss in the relationship

subverts stereotypes

alludes to queen elizabeth’s role as queen - women were not supposed to rule

shakespeare cleverly places her in a militaristic hierarchy above othello.

though othello is used to a position of command, his love for desdemona puts him in a position of servitude

Question 8

‘i am not merry’

Answer 8

banter with iago

worried about othello

desdemona subtly admits to putting on a lively facade

claims that she is not truly merry, but that she appears so in order to amuse herself - adds depth to desdemona and parallels iago’s infamous utterance: ‘i am not what i am’

Question 9

‘one that in the authority of her merit did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?’

Answer 9

tell me about your perfect women

intelligent with no power

‘she could think and ne’er disclose her mind’

Question 10

iago:

‘she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested’

Answer 10

desdemona is such a good person

iago exploits people’s strengths

complimenting desdemona to cassio in order to give him more courage to see her, and also for those words to stick in cassio’s head so that he starts to (hopefully for iago) get feelings for desdemona - which doesn’t happen

christian morals

Question 11

‘thy solicitor shall rather die than give thy cause away’

Answer 11

foreshadows her death

desdemona is loyal and noble

a.c bradley - ‘eternal womanly’

fatal choice, as the audience is very much aware. iago’s long term plan is starting to play out as he intended. irony that she does have to die for his cause eventually, as told by iago.

solicitor is an unnatural role for a woman in patriarchal society - objection to female liberation?

Question 12

‘shall’t be tonight at supper?’

Answer 12

desperate

women not supposed to boss men around

Question 13

‘the would to god that i have never seen’t!’

Answer 13

feels guilty - wish it was never mentioned

othelllo thinks desdemona has admitted to having an affair with cassio

Question 14

‘this hand is moist, my lady’

Answer 14

four humours - too much passion = too much blood

convinced she’s having an affair with cassio

Question 15

‘i pray, talk me of cassio’

Answer 15

not reading the room

talks about cassio

anna jameson - desdemona’s weakness is her gentleness

Question 16

‘either from venice or some unhatched practice made demonstrable here in cyprus to him, hath puddled his clear spirit’

Answer 16

desdemona is making excuses for othello - shows how loyal women were to their husbands

something has interfered - iago has

Question 17

‘my lord is not my lord’

Answer 17

othello has changed

‘i am not what i am’

shakespeare is leading the audience to extinguish the true nature of characters in the play, mainly iago and othello.

Question 18

‘for the love i bear to cassio’

Answer 18

talks about cassio - looks like she cares more about cassio

completely oblivious

Question 19

‘i understand a fury in your words, but not the words’

Answer 19

i know you’re angry but i don’t know why

a.c bradley - innocent child

anna jameson - excess gentleness

extremely oblivious

Question 20

‘lay on my bed my wedding sheets’

Answer 20

accepts her fate

the thing she wished for traps her

elizabethan tradition was to hang the bed sheets that a newly married couple have slept on out in public to show off the blood on it.

this blood would suggest their wife was a virgin and therefore pure.

desdemona is trying to repair her and othello’s marriage by proving that she isn’t a ‘whore’ but we get the feel that it is too little, too late

yet to consummate their marriage - patriarchal society

Question 21

‘we must not now displease him’

Answer 21

very obedient of othello

women scared and trapped by men’s power

Question 22

‘my love doth so approve him, that even his stubbornness, his cheeks, his frowns - prithee, unpin me - have grace and favour in them.’

Answer 22

her love for othello is incredibly pure

loves everything about him

power of iago - juxtaposition. desdemona’s love, purity and innocence.

Question 23

‘i call’d my love false love; but what said he then? sing willow, willow, willow’

Answer 23

foreboding as to what happens - singing about being forsaken

last time she has a voice - shakespeare wanted to show an emotional truth

a symbol behind weeping willows is that they represent death and grief - associated with oracles predicting alexander the great as the willows brushed his crown off of his head.

people whose lovers had forsaken them wore crowns made from willow leaves and twigs. willows appeared on gravestones and cemeteries, and when it rained, their drooping branches appeared as if they were bereaved and in tears.

not only foreshadows the death of desdemona as she is singing this song but also presents othello’s abandonment towards her yet she still loves him with her whole heart and perhaps grieves for his lost affection. the name of the tree itself–weeping willows–has already spoken so much about the symbolism.

used as a painkiller

Question 24

‘o these men, these men! dost thou in conscience think,- tell me, emilia - that there be women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?’

Answer 24

true reality of what women think about men

pathos

trapped

innocent in every sense of the word, desdemona asks emilia if she believes any women ever really cheat on their husbands.

william hazlitt observed -

‘this dialogue takes place just before the last fatal scene. if othello had overheard it, it would have prevented the whole catastrophe; but then it would have spoiled the play’

Question 25

‘that death’s unnatural that kills for loving’

Answer 25

you can’t kill someone you love

strong christian morals

tragic waste

Question 26

‘and you have mercy too!’

Answer 26

already too late

didn’t communicate

shakespeare shows the dangers of relationships

innocence - her allegiance to othello is sworn and her conscience is free. her love is pure and equal amongst mankind - she loves him as she does everyone else. kind and caring nature. she confesses she never gave him the token of love which is used as evidence against her

Question 27

othello:

‘what i intend to do a murder, which i thought a sacrifice. i saw the handkerchief’

Answer 27

desdemona can’t say anything

trapped by the patriarchy - pathos

man’s raw intentions

significance of calling desdemona a “perjured woman” implies that by denying the allegations against her, she has lied under oath.

desdemona’s supposed false testimony has dire consequences for othello’s interpretation of her death. whereas he sees her execution as necessary and therefore “a sacrifice,” if she is actually speaking the truth it would make him a murderer. the uncertainty she causes in him turns his heart to stone.

further evidence of the critic a.c bradley’s view who believed othello was no longer wanting to kill her out of vengeance

Question 28

‘nobody; i myself. farewell’

Answer 28

trapped by the patriarchy

tries to save othello

creates even more pathos from the audience through desdemona’s undying love that she continues to feel for othello highlighting her devotion towards him, it could also convey many character tragic flaws that desdemona truly has.

her subversive nature is highlighted here and the fact that desdemona blames herself could actually show that she has come to the realization that going against societies conventions and desiring a marriage that would have been portrayed as negatively towards the contemporary audience is her downfall.

tragedy lies in shakespeare conforming to these racist social conventions

Question 29

othello:

‘she’s like a liar gone burning to hell: ‘twas i that killed her!’

Answer 29

proudly declares that he has killed his wife moments after denying having any knowledge of her death

further evidence of the tumultuous state of his mind but also that in denying having done any wrong, his strong conviction and belief that he is in fact merely and agent of justice

structure of the sentence, with the admission of guilt at the end, suggests that othello sees this as the least important piece of imformation; that desdemona’s lie is a greater evil than his killing her.

Question 30

othello:

‘cold, cold, my girl’

Answer 30

women were possessions

pathos