Iago - Character Quotes Flashcards
2:1 Iago kisses Emelia then insults her
“He kisses EMILIA”
“her tongue she oft bestows on me
You’d have enough.”
- Iago’s misogynistic, perhaps lewd (tongue for kissing and nagging) comments suggest his wife talks too much: a common complaint about women
- D challenges him
2:1 Iago gives a stereotypical view of women:
what does he say about housewives and other comments
“Players in your housewifery, and housewives in…
Your beds!” - implies women don’t take housework seriously but work hard in bed; ellipsis
2:1 What does Iago say women could do if they were both smart and pretty? later says women only capable of small things: what?
“If she be fair and wise … The one’s for use, the other useth it.”
- veiled misogyny: a wise and beautiful woman can use her wisdom to make use of her beauty; poetic yet claims he is not; later claims all women the same
“To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer” - insignificant things; objectifies; only look after children
2:1 Iago explains his plans to trap cassio
“With as little a web as this will I ensnare as
great a fly as Cassio.”tricks … strip you out of your lieutenantry”
- sees Cassio as his superior and inferior: fly = idiot
- speaks in prose: less noble
2:1 Iago’s aside uses musical metaphor to explain how he will trick D+O
“O, you are well tuned now: but I’ll set down
The pegs that make this music, as honest
As I am.”
- ironic; Iago twists musical metaphor
2:1: talking to roderigo says D will become bored of O and go for Cassio instead + criticises O
“what violence she first loved the Moor,
but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies”
“and what delight
shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport”
- passion, sex, desire will leave; criticises Othello’s boastful nature
2:1 talking to Rodrigo how does he describe Cassio
“a slipper and subtle knave, a finder out of occasions” “though
true advantage never present itself - a devilish knave”
- ironic because this describes himself
2:1 What does Iago tell Rodrigo to do?
“by the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires”
“impediment most profitably removed”
- Abstract concepts show how Iago hides his true intentions.
-it’s clear Iago is the puppeteer: he’s made sure Roderigo works up with Cassio so he can start a fight
2:1 Rodrigo leaves: Iago Soliloquy: How does he describe Othello and O+D’s love?
“of a constant, loving, noble nature” - there love is natural and believable: truth about O
2:1 Rodrigo leaves: Iago Soliloquy: Iago describes his motive
“diet my revenge”
“I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leaped into my seat” - another motive
2:1 Rodrigo leaves: Iago Soliloquy: Iago describes his desire for revenge and jealousy
Jealousy: “Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards…
And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife…”
or “I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgement cannot cure”
- rhyme; eerie
2:1 Rodrigo leaves: Iago Soliloquy: describes his plan for Rodirigo and Cassio (“poor trash of Venice” accuse Roderigo of immoral actions) - benefits for him/ rhyme - wickedness can’t be revealed yet
“Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me”
“yet confused
Knavery’s plain face is never seen, till used.” - rhyme; plan afoot but can’t yet be seen
2:3 Iago and Cassio drinking: Cassio exits: has a soliloquy about trying to get Cassio to drink more:
“If I can fasten but one cup upon him …
He’ll be as full of quarrel and offense”
- Iago has ensured that chaos will ensue as a result of drunkenness
- Machiavellian plotting
2:3 Iago compares his plans to a smooth passage + makes cassio drink
“If consequence do but approve my dream
My boat sails freely”
“Some wine, ho!” (sings) “And let me the cannikin clink, clink” “let a soldier drink!”
- further ref to smooth passage / lack of obstacles for Iago; contrast to storm for O
2:3 Iago tells montano Casso drinks most nights and he wants to help him
“’Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep”
“I do love Cassio well, and would do much
A cry within: ‘Help! help!”
To cure him of this evil” - ironic; easy at lying; the placement of the line creates further irony
2:3 Iago tells Rodrigo to go after cassio + later after the fight to tell everyone
aside “How now, Roderigo?
I pray you, after the lieutenant, go!”
- creating chaos; manipulating but keeping hands clean
“Away, I say, go out and cry a mutiny.” - manipulation
2:3 Iago says he doesn’t want to say bad things about a friend when Othello and Montano questioning him about cassio’s drunk incident: heavy irony
“I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio”
- irony
- iago has a massive speech + defends cassio
- “But men are men, the best sometimes forget”
2:3 Iago asking Cassio if he is alright; what does he say about reputation
“Reputation is an idle and
most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving.” - what he thinks about cassio
“there are ways to recover the general again”
later: “I think you think I love you” - “think” - duplicitous but cassio don’t notice
2:3 Iago manipulates Cassio into appealing to Desdemona to recover his postion
“Our general’s wife is now the general:”
- Desdemona has Othello’s ear / is in control.
“Confess yourself freely to her”
2:3 Iago manipulates Cassio into appealing to Desdemona to recover his postion: How does he describe Desdemona
“She is of so free, so kind, so apt” - shes too trusting + kind not to help
2:3 Iago said he helped cassio out of…
“of love and honest
kindness.”
2:3 even trys to manipulate the audience after he convinces Cassio to go to D to help him
“When this advice is free I give and honest”
“How am I then a villain”
“Divinity of hell!” - oxymoron; aware of his evil
- rhetorical qs: challenges audience to call him a villain; reference to hell
2:3 compares his advice to Cassio with poison + what will become of it for D + reference to entrapment
“I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear:” - plosives emphasise vitriol
“undo her credit with the Moor”, “turn her virtue into pitch” - blacken her reputation
“make the net That shall enmesh them all.” - again reference to entrapment
2:3 Roderigo enter’s again after Cassio drama: Roderigo isn’t happy with result Iago tells him to be patient
“Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, And wit depends on dilatory time.”
- manipulates him into staying; cassio dismissed; they will reap rewards
