Othello

Question 1

What are the 8 key themes of Othello?

Answer 1

• Incompatibility of Military Heroism and Love
• Nature of things/ Order in Society
• Reputation
• Jealousy
• Trust and Betrayal
• Obsession
• Otherness
• Racism/Sexism

Question 2

Incompatibility of Miltary Heroism and Love

- Context

Answer 2

Elizabethan era, women had to be “assisted in matters that are not of ladies’ capacity”.
Desdemona being taking to Cyprus = outrageous, as it was a male-dominated + barbaric place
Othello mixing his love life + military needs together = disruption of ‘Harmony of Spheres’

Question 3

Incompatibility of Miltary Heroism and Love

- Quotes [4]

Answer 3

“My dear Othello”
“My fair warrior”
“She wish’d heaven had made her such a man.”
“O, you are well tun’d now! / But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music, / As honest as I am.”

Question 4

Incompatibility of Miltary Heroism and Love

- Critics

Answer 4

“It is the love of possession, she’s a prize of war”

Caryl Phillips

Question 5

Reputation

- Quotes [5]

Answer 5

“I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial!”
“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition oft got without merit and lost without deserving”
“Cassio I love thee, But never more be officer of mine”
“plague him with flies”
“Valiant Moor”

Question 6

Reputation

- Context

Answer 6

In Venice- Iago tries to blight Othello’s image to Brabantio = unsuccessful due to civilization
In Cyprus- Othello is no longer “valiant Moor”

Question 7

Nature of things/Order

- Quotes [3]

Answer 7

“Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them”
“warlike isle”
“She lov’d me for the dangers I had passed”

Question 8

Nature of things/Order

- Critics

Answer 8

“He is the black sheep… turning everyone else black rather than allowing them to feel superior in their whiteness” Marian Cox

Question 9

Jealousy

- Quotes [5]

Answer 9

"whore"
"strumpet"
"lust stain'd sheets"
"green-eyed monster"
"I'll chop her into messes!"

Question 10

Jealousy

- Critics

Answer 10

“Iago is the ‘stage manager’ controlling his victims effortlessly” Warren

Question 11

Trust and betrayal

- Quotes [6]

Answer 11

"honest Iago"
"I am not what I am"
"I follow him to serve my turn upon him"
"O, you are well tun'd now!"
"My lord, you know I love you"
"I hate the Moor"

Question 12

Trust and betrayal

- Critics

Answer 12

“He publishes doubt and calls it knowledge”

Blake

Question 13

Obsession

- Quotes [3]

Answer 13

“lust stain’d sheets”
“I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial”
“Think on thy sins”

Question 14

Obsession

- Critics

Answer 14

Othello’s obsession with Desdemona -> eruption of jealousy

Iago exploits this to question Desdemona’s infidelity

Question 15

Otherness

- Quotes [6]

Answer 15

"Haply, for I am black"
"barbary horse"
"an old black ram"
"Moorship's ancient"
"Your son in law is more fair than black"
"valiant Moor"

Question 16

Otherness

- Context

Answer 16

Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare play:
Aaron said his black face = representative of his dark, evil soul.
- Few black people in England in the late 16thC -> feelings of distrust and fascination
- Bible knowledge, black people descended from ‘Ham’, punished for sexual excess by blackness -> Promiscuous

Question 17

Otherness

- Critics

Answer 17

“Othello is a man of mystery, exoticism…”

A C Bradley

Question 18

Sexism

- Quotes [4]

Answer 18

“Tis proper I obey you, but not now”
“She wish’d heaven had made her such a man”
“My dear Othello”
“She lov’d me for the dangers I had passed”

Question 19

Sexism

- Context

Answer 19

“To promote a woman to rule is unnatural and insulting to God” - John Knox, 1558
The jacobean audience, expect men to have control over women

Question 20

Sexism

- Critics

Answer 20

“In spite of her masculine assertiveness in choosing her own husband, Desdemona accepts her culture’s dictum that she must be obedient to males and is self-denying to the extreme when she does.”

Marilyn French

Question 21

John Mcrae

Answer 21

Othello is “human”, so having no flaws in a humanist world is impossible.

Question 22

Handkerchief

Answer 22

Symbolic of Desdemona’s chastity & wedding sheets

Question 23

Define hubris

Answer 23

Excessive pride

Question 24

Define anagnorisis

Answer 24

When a character realises an error/mistake

Question 25

Define hamartia

Answer 25

Tragic flaw a character has

Question 26

Define catharsis

Answer 26

Purging of emotion for audience members through suffering of characters

Question 27

Define peripeteia

Answer 27

The moment in which something goes wrong

Question 28

Define epiphany

Answer 28

Feeling of sudden realisation

Question 29

Define malcontent

Answer 29

Dissatisfied or rebellious

Question 30

Define machiavellian

Answer 30

Do what they need to accomplish goals

Question 31

What does Iago establish a sense of with Cassio and Roderigo?

Answer 31

A sense of fraternal familiarity

Question 32

What does Iago do throughout Act 1?

Answer 32

Begin causing vexation - trying to worry Othello

Question 33

What is important about Othello’s portrayal in Act 1?

Answer 33

His portrayal - strong, capable and powerful is the antithesis of Iago’s description, which emphasises his fall into tragedy through Iago’s malign influence.

Question 34

What is Brabantio’s speech directed to Othello in Act 1 called?

Answer 34

A denunciation speech - public condemnation of Othello’s actions

Question 35

How does Othello believe all is subsumed in the power of love?

Answer 35

Othello’s love for Desdemona, and his belief in the power of love itself, has been percieved by critics to be one of the reasons for his downfall later

Question 36

Iago as a humanist [2]

Answer 36

We are responsible for our own lives, recognises the importance of willpower
Iago believes self-awareness -> you control your destiny -> machiavellian

Question 37

What does Iago believe love is?

Answer 37

A delusion: “a lust of the blood and a permission of the will”

Question 38

What is Iago? [4]

Answer 38

• Machiavellian
• Malcontent
• Opportunist
• Humanist