key quotes Flashcards
roderigo:
‘iago, who hast my purse as if the strings were thine’
stolen money - accused of dishonesty
continued imagery throughout - heart strings - of roderigo to desdemona and her love - rationale why he allows this to happen
accepts manipulation- satan’s manipulation of god’s word to deceive eve.
unrestricted access to his money and is in control
purses carry something valuable is inherent in this play – everyone that comes into contact with iago is, to some extent, a ‘purse’.
iago:
‘i am not what i am’
declarative tone
not as he appears
constantly referred to as ‘honest iago’ by the characters he deceives,
only the audience are ever allowed to hear his true thoughts, in his soliloquies
like a false god, iago views himself as the puppeteer and the other characters as puppets
biblical quote, in which moses asks god his name and god offers an enigmatic response. by transforming god’s words into a negative formulation, iago indicates his identity as a diabolical figure.
iago:
‘an old black ram is tupping with your white ewe’
symbolism of age and colour difference
animalising othello
rams symbolise penetration and achievement
ewes symbolise gentleness, purity and innocence/ innocent sacrifice
illustrates a corruption of a pure, chaste and innocent desdemona
ewe makes a pun on word ‘you’ that iago uses to victimise brabantio as a victim of social and natural disorder.
iago:
‘by janus, i think no’
roman god of two facedness transitions, beginnings, doorways etc. but, it can be believed that Iago has used this apostrophe because ‘janus’ is also known to have two faces.
traditionally assumed because janus looks into the future, and into the past, but iago could worship janus for the act of having two faces in moralistic terms: being immoral.
the fact that this god is pagan (and therefore false) highlights the hollow, false nature of iago’s promises
the image of a white venetian swearing to a Pagan god juxtaposes the stereotype of pagan africans associated with othello
whilst, othello appears very aligned with the christian doctrine
shakespeare disproves of stereotypes
othello:
‘keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them’
don’t use swords to fight, only defence
being reasonable - talk about it
presented differently as to how iago and roderigo spoke of him
natural imagery - othello as a positive force
iambic pentameter
senator:
‘valiant moor’
epithet
not heard of othello’s elopement with desdemona, nor his subsequent clash with brabantio. to them, he is still the prized general and the venetians’ best chance to repel the turks
race defines identity
gives him height to fall from
brabantio:
‘to fall in love with what she feared to look on?
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.
roderigo:
‘it is silliness to live, when to live is torment: and then we have a prescription to die, when death is our physician’
prose - roderigo is losing rationality
elizabethans believed in reason over passion
hyperbolic metaphor, being melodramatic could be relating to othello’s suicide at the end of the play. also ironic because they make themselves suffer, it isn’t a product of life as they allow this to happen to themselves
could be foreshadowing roderigo’s demise and a metaphor showing iago is the physician, prescribing roderigo’s actions - seemingly acting to people’s aid but corrupting them from the inside outward
iago:
’ tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. our bodies our gardens to which our wills are gardeners’
love is not virtue - we control who we are
we tend to our bodies like gardens
show something about his perception of desdemona and matters of love - impatient and quick to dispel roderigo’s negativity.
metaphor of the body as a garden that can be tended to, adapted and changed by one’s will and intent, is evocative here to explain iago’s actions and his ideas about emotions and control.
reason must dominate passions and ‘cool our raging motions’ in life - love is no different to any other emotion
iago is unromantic and considers one shouldn’t be spurred on by matters of the heart
cassio:
‘our great captain’s captain’
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
iago:
‘sir, would she give you so much of her lips as of her tongue bestows on me’
emilia talks to much - women expected to be submissive and obedient
speaks her heart and according to iago scolds people who do not agree with her feelings on impulse - at the end of the play, emilia has very progressive views about women for her time
iago:
‘you are pictures out of doors’
prose - rude
every aspect of emilia’s life is out of place
in a flurry of figurative language, iago offers a series of images that represent things out of place: ‘bells in your parlours, wildcats in your kitchens’
iago:
‘if she be fair and wise, fairness and wit, the one’s for use, the other useth it’
if she’s attractive, she’ll use it to get ahead
praise for desdemona comes down to her combination of ‘fairness and wit’ - her beauty and intelligence.
beauty is a resource meant to be used by one’s wit
rhyming couplets Iago uses to praise desdemona underscore the irreverence and frivolity of his words
iago:
‘to suckle fools and chronicle small beer’
iago claims that her ultimate goal is to raise children and do housework.
this poem within the play represents a parody of the courtly love poem
rather than praising a woman for her perfection, iago’s poem takes a turn into cheekiness and disrespect.
iago:
‘with as little a web as this will i ensnare as great a fly as cassio’
he can use tiny things to get people into trouble
spiders weave an inescapable web for flies, iago plans to construct a web of lies to similarly trap cassio, and frame him for adultery - wrong at the time
iago:
‘but men are men; the best sometimes forget’
boys will be boys - excuse for cassio
justifying a man’s cruel behaviour, in the way that he wouldn’t for a women
sums up othello well as not only does he seem to forget the love he has for desdemona but he also forgets he is the leader of an army by the end of the play
cassio:
‘reputation, reputation, reputation! o, i have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial’
upset that he’s lost his reputation
just an animal - chain of being
part of identity
iago:
‘reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving’
why are you so worried?
people get it without deserving and lose it without deserving
iago doesn’t care - he just needs a good reputation to get revenge
dramatic irony - iago adds insult to injury
not only did cassio lose his rank ‘without deserving’ as a result of Iago’s scheming, iago subtly indicates that cassio achieved his rank in the first place ‘without merit’.
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’
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
iago:
‘i’ll pour this pestilence into his ear, that she repeals him for her body’s lust’
plot enters its next phase.
cassio to plead to desdemona for his position as lieutenant.
going to tell othello that desdemona is in love with cassio
connotes disease and virus - the effect his lies have on othello
cassio:
‘i never knew a florentine more kind and honest’
cassio compares iago to his fellow florentines, finding the man just as kind and honest.
this reiterates one of the play’s central sources of irony: despite his intentions, iago is consistently praised for his upright moral character
devilish
desdemona:
‘thy solicitor shall rather die than give thy cause away’
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?
othello:
‘excellent wretch! perdition catches my soul, but I do love thee; and when i love thee not, chaos is come again’
refers to himself as an ‘excellent wretch’, an oxymoron that characterises his status as a foolish, out-of-control lover
acknowledges that his love for desdemona has the power to influence him negatively
iago knows this well and capitalises on it
prophetic
the moment they stop there will be chaos
elizabethans believed that before creation was a state of chaos, so would it be following the world had ended.
can be interpreted as othello’s fear of falling out of love with desdemona, that when the day comes it will be catastrophic. another way is that when their love ends, he will adopt some personal chaos, as proven with iago.
cannot see a natural world where he doesn’t love desdemona.
ironically, it is not for natural reasons that he hates her - it is all contrived by iago.
iago:
‘green eyed monster’
jealousy
renaissance men often suspected their wives of adultery because of the stigma around being a ‘cuckold’. a cuckold man faced both social humiliation and ruined credit. such harsh consequences led to frequent paranoia, also called horn-madness because of the metaphorical horns that supposedly sprout from the cuckold’s brow. othello’s anxiety, though unfair, is understandable.
green and yellow are both emblematic of jealousy, so jealousy is a ‘green-eyed monster’. iago argues that the fortunate man knows his wide is adulterous, while the unfortunate man is plagued by the anxiety of unconfirmed suspicion
ironic as iago wants othello to be jealous in order to ruin his marriage and as part of his revenge.
linking othello to a monster - racial connotations - jealousy as a disease - seven deadly sins. iago plays an innocent role from othello’s perspective - but not to everyone else.
can be consumed by jealousy as one can be consumed by any number of maladies such as typhus
