Key Theme - Manhood And Honour Flashcards
“Rude am i ___ ___ ______ and little blessed with ____ ______ ___ peace…. i will round an unvarnished tale deliver of my _______ _______ of love”
in my speech
soft phrase of
whole course
•there are multiple levels of irony in othellos speech here as he claims to be a bad speaker. in this speech and in others he uses evocative, lyrical and persuasive language in order to elicit empathy from characters - the exact idea of rhetorical skill. Furthermore, after this speech he goes on to tell how desdemona “loved him for the dangers he had passed” while being a guest at brabantios house. thus if there is any truth behind brabantio stating othello “enchanted” desdemona then the enchantment was achieved through the decidedly civil and articulated language of rhetorical skill rather than the sinister magic as proposed.
It is possible that othello misrepresents his own rhetorical skill because he has internalised the racist idea that being a “moor” makes him “rude in speech” in comparison to other white venetians.
“if it were now to _____ twere now be most happy, for i ______…. succeeds in ________ ______”
die
fear
unknown fate
• othello arrives and declares that he could not be any happier than in this moment and thus wouldn’t mind if he died then and there. this is ironic as this is the point where iago is inspired to trick othello into thinking desdemona is having an affair with cassio. othellos innocent joy in this scene could be said to tempt fate. indeed without realising it, in this speech othello directly foreshadows that he will never be this happy again and will die soon as well. the added tragedy underlying is that othello wishes to die a happy, noble man. however, both of these wishes go unfilled as he succumbs into iagos clever yet chaotic manipulation of othellos mind; both his bliss and good reputation will be ruined before he dies.
“Reputation! Reputation! O’ _________! i have the lost the _________ part of myself and what remains is _________”
reputation
immortal
bestial
• this passage is taken from when othello charges cassio to keep an eye on the victory celebration, instructing him to make sure the men on guard do not get too drunk; iago, meanwhile, manipulated the situation and got cassio drunk and ended up fighting and injuring montano. having discovered this, othello demands to know the truth, which iago steps in and explains the fight and making it seem like he was reluctant to implicate cassio - another example of iagos reverse psychology. shocked othello dismisses cassio as his officer.
cassius statement confirms the huge value placed on reputation at the time and exclaims he is “bestial” without implying a beast. his exclamatives highlights the danger of mistaken appearances and foreshadows othellos fall from grace later in the play. his comment on what “remains of him is bestial” emphasises the importance of honour as the characteristic that seperates them between men and animals, connecting it to the racist distrust of othello as animalistic.
“ I took by the ______ the circumcised ____, and smote him - thus”
throat
dog
• othellos final words about killing the turk indicate that he wishes to be remembered as a loyal and venetian soldier - emphasising on the importance of reputation and the effect it leaves. he compares this turk killing to killing himself, almost implying that his suicide is almost a kind of service to the state of venice. This truly makes audiences reflect as we see othello as how we did during the exposition of the play as he has become rational and realised he has lost something more precious. paralleling to the act of killing the turk and stabbing himself aligns with the narrative of aristotles classic tragedy arc, which dictates that once the tragic hero has died, a proper stable hierarchy of power can be restored. in which we see cassio be reinstated as captain.
