OTHELLO Flashcards
‘the green eyed monster’
Jealousy, appearance vs reality
Othello’s jealousy impedes him from distinguishing appearance from reality
‘I have lost…
…‘the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial’
‘I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial’
Cassio’s implication that reputation is the only thing that makes one human
Theme of manhood and honour
‘A horned mans…
‘…a monster and a beast’
‘She deceived her father…’
‘… and will deceive thee’
‘My ____, my____ and my ______ ____ will _______ __ rightly’
‘My parts, my title and my perfect soul will manifest me rightly’
‘Tis a monster, begot upon itself, born on itself’
Emilia argues that events do not cause jealousy, jealousy causes events
‘I’ll ____ ____ __________ in his ___’
‘I’ll pour this pestilence in his ear’
‘I am not what I am’
Twists the words of the Bible to deceive
‘Corrupted by ______ and _________’
‘Corrupted by spells and medicines’
‘An ___ ____ ___ is ______ your _____ ___’
‘An old black ram is tupping your white ewe’
‘By _____’
‘By Janus’
A two faced God
‘My ____ upon ___ _____’
‘My life upon her faith’
Irony is painful here
‘Divine Desdemona’
Often associated with pure and heavenly imagery
‘With as ______ _ ___ __ ____ I will _______ __ _____ _ ___ __ ______’
‘With as great a web as this I will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio’
‘Thy ______ and ____ ____ _____ this ______’
‘Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter’
‘Your ____my ____; your ____ and _____ ____’
‘Your wife, my Lord; your true and loyal wife’
‘Dost thou __ _________ think- tell me, ______- that _____ __ _____ __ _____ _____ _______ in such _ _____ ____?’
‘Dost thou in conscience think- tell me, Emilia- that there be women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?’
‘Let husbands know, their wives have ____ like them; they ___ and _____, and have their _______ both for _____ and ____ as husbands have’
‘Let husbands know, their wives have sense like them; they see and smell, and have their palates for both sweet and sour as husbands have’
‘Put out the _____, and then put out the _____’
A5S2 ‘Put out the light, and then put out the light’
‘She’s like a ____ gone to _______ ____’
A5S2 ‘She’s like a liar gone to burning hell’
‘For thou hast ______ the ________ ________’
A5S2 ‘For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent’
‘I ____ the villain’
‘I play the villain’
‘but my noble Moor is ____ of mind and made of no such ________ as _______ _________ are’
‘but my noble Moor is true of mind and made of no such baseness as jealous creatures are’
‘_____ clasps of the _________ Moor’
‘gross clasps of the laviscious Moor’
‘______ of magic’
‘chains of magic’ (A1S2)
‘________ against the devil’ (about Desdemona’s ‘unauthorised kiss’
‘hypocrisy against the devil’
A5S2 ‘_____ Moor’
‘cruel Moor’
Renaissance view of Moors
Considered them heathens, like the Turks- provoked anxiety
Appearance vs reality
Iago’s ability to mislead, especially Roderigo and Othello, by encouraging them to misinterpret
References to dreams throughout highlights what seems real may be fake
The handkerchief (in European Renaissance poetry)
In European medieval and Renaissance love poetry, the handkerchief typically symbolises a woman’s romantic favour
Animals
Animal language closely connected to prejudice, by defining a person as less than human
The handkerchief
For Othello: Symbolises Desdemona’s fidelity
Resembles white wedding sheet, stained with virgins blood, thus when Desdemona loses it, she loses her ‘chastity’
Honesty
Can refer to both chastity and personal honesty
Iago uses dishonesty to convince Othello that his wife is sexually dishonest, whilst pretending to be a good friend
War
Could be interpreted that the war that didn’t happen in Act 3 due to weather, actually did happen, just in Othello’s mind
The willow song
Supposedly sung by one of Desdemona’s mothers’ servants who loved a crazy person- ironic
The candle
Symbolises Desdemona’s fragile life (‘put out the light, and then put out the light’)
He can put out the candle and relight it, but he can only kill Desdemona once
Structure of tragedies
- Exposition
- Rising action
- Climax
- Falling action
- Denouement
Aristotle’s ‘tragic hero’
‘A man who doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall’
Aristotlean Greek tragedy
There is a relatable good character who makes mistakes
Introduces Hamartia
Main characters’ error of judgement
We live in a flawed world and it is due to our own actions
Contemporary attitudes on race
1601 Elizabeth I passed a law allowing the deportation of black people
‘blackness’ was not just connected to a physical skin colour, but also a dark and evil nature
Shift in setting
Both Venice and Cyprus represent hugely different worlds, and the shift in the setting in play is reflected in the shift in plot, action and characterisation
Venice
Venetian society was generally orderly, civilised and formal
Cyprus
Unstable, violent setting
James I was very interested in Turkish history
Iago’s control of narrative
Creates scenes within scenes
Sets up encounters between characters, with a position as spectator; eg having Othello watch him speak with Cassio about Bianca
Desdemona and Bianca…
Are fantasies created by men, imposed by men, that men want THEM to fulfil
Emilia shows this complexity as she is not defined by either virtue or deceptive sexuality
The role of Othello
Shows how jealousy can change even the most noble of men
Shows Iago’s intelligence
Bad taints good
Shows how love can lead to violent jealouy
Domestic tragedy
Zooms in from court to bedroom
Demonstrative of how marriage breaks down
Creates catharsis at the end
Prose
Iago often speaks in prose
Was usually reserved for lowly characters
Othello gradually reverts to prose during his downfall
Magical imagery A1S2
‘foul charms’
‘thou hast enchanted her’
‘if she in chains of magic were not bound’
Language in Iago’s soliloquy A2S3
‘Divinity of hell’
'’Blackest sins’
‘I’ll pour this pestilence’
Othello shift in language A3S3 soliloquy
Strikingly reminiscent of Iago
‘O curse’, ‘creatures’, ‘vapour of a dungeon’, ‘plague’
Purpose of Bianca
Foil to Desdemona
‘whore’, ‘strumpet’
Juxtaposes how he referred to Desdemona at the beginning, however she continues to call him ‘my Lord’
A5S2 white imagery
Do the repeated references to Desdemona’s whiteness serve to highlight Othello’s blackness?
Would it make an Elizabethan audience uncomfortable to see a black man in bed with a white woman?
How does Shakespeare use setting to isolate Desdemona?
The Turkish War
The storm
Reflects the fear and violence awaiting, and a symbol of Othello’s love
Claustrophobia in Othello
Lack of subplot, intensifies dramatic tension
What could the time inconsistencies reflect?
The irrationality of jealousy
Othello’s speech
Dignified, measured blank verse
Shared by Desdemona- reflects their ‘well tuned’ harmony
Othello’s corrupted speech
‘Confess? Handkerchief! O devil!’
Disjointed prose- gives way to passion
Iago’s speech
Source of his power
Slips between prose and verse depending on who he’s manipulating
eg long, fast prose for Roderigo
Renaissance beliefs about the nature of evil
Believed in witches
Associated the black man with the devil
Iago is driven by ‘__________ ________’
‘motiveless malignity’
How is Othello’s transferral of love from Desdemona to Iago seen?
Othello begins to finish Iago’s lines for him
Staging in A1S1
Two levels- shows the disruption of what Iago and Roderigo are reporting
Reversal
Iago starts out as the underdog
How does Iago reveal his his insightful nature to the audience?
He reveals his insights about what he knows the other characters’ vulnerabilities to be (Othello’s credibility, Cassio’s good manners etc)
Handkerchief in Renaissance Europe
If a woman’s handkerchief was found in the possession of another man, it was seen as adultery
Machiavelli’s key tenets
‘to be a great pretender and dissembler’
Othello’s insecurity about his age
‘declined into the vale of years’
‘I’ll ____ ___ ___ __ pieces’
‘I’ll tear her all to pieces’
Use of soliloquays in Othello
Act as a way of revealing the speaker’s thoughts- most significantly Iago
How might soliloquays influence our view of Iago (as an audience)??
We may see Othello as stupid for failing to recognise Iago’s villany, but we probably would’t have seen it without his soliloquays
Use of action
Act 4 scene 1- Othello loses physical control of his body, juxtaposing the power he had, over both himself and others, at the beginning of the play
How does Shakespeare emphasise the illogicality of Othello’s jealousy?
Unity of time and place- by the time O, D and C get back from Cyprus (separately) every moment is accounted for- literally no time
How can love be seen to overpower evil? (2)
Desdemona’s final words can be seen as a final act of forgiveness (Honigmann)
Emilia’s love for Desdemona is Iago’s undoing
Iago displays many characteristics of a ….
Jacobean stage villain
A1S1 description of Cassio
‘arithmetician’
Belittling
Reputation in the Renaissance
Fundamental to a mans conception of his honour
Function of Cassio
Serve as a point of comparison to Othello
What can be said about those who hold power in Othello?
Undeserving and, to some extent, morally corrupt
Cassio’s tribute to Othello
‘he was great of heart’
How does Iago refer to Emilia?
‘foolish wife’
‘she has deceived her father…
… and may thee’
Primary role of Roderigo
To allow us as an audience to gain insight into Iago’s methods
Roderigo is described as ‘____ ______ __ _____’
‘poor trash of Venice’
What is Bianca’s vulnerability a result of?
Her social position
Bianca’s lack of power
Due to her social position
The only power she has is in her ability to attract customers
‘But that I love the gentle Desdemona’
Othello’s soft language contrasts with his image painted by the other characters- he juxtaposes love with war to highlight the two different parts of his life: battle and his wife
‘She loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved that she did pity them’
Relationship not based on love, but an illusion of admiration and pity respectively?
Irony of how Bianca’s reaction to the handkerchief is received
She is presented as irrational and obsessive for the same emotions that Othello has
How is the theme of deception seen in the character of Roderigo?
Roderigo is, throughout the play, seen as the ‘fool’. However, it is him who is the first character to see Iago for who he is
Wedding sheets
A03. Wives were sometimes buried in their wedding sheets when they died. Foreshadows Desdemona’s death
How does Shakespeare use repetition in Iago’s speech, and to what effect?
A3S3 Iago repeats Othello’s words back to him (‘Indeed?, ‘honest, my lord?’)
Presents him as almost foolish
Significance of blindness in Othello
The action of the play largely depends on characters not seeing things
Iago’s botanical imagery
Organic growth of his plots suggests that the other characters’ minds are fertile for his ‘pestilence’
Sight and Desdemona
Despite the other characters’ racial prejudices, Desdemona has the ability to see Othello for more than just his blackness
Irony of Othello’s demand for ‘ocular proof’
He continually believes things that he does not see- Cassio’s fight, the handkerchief, Cassio’s murder
How is war significant to the tragic trajectory?
Desdemona is wooed by stories of war
Reputation, honour and masculinity
Bond between Iago and Othello
Othello gains his status THROUGH war
Setting in the opening of A1S1
Darkness- much of the play takes place at night. Symbolic resonance with evil
Significance of speech opening of A1S1
Iago starts on the backfoot, but begins to dominate the conversation- this is typical of him
Significance of language opening of A1S1
Words associated with hate- this is arguably what the play is all about- hate destroying love
Opening of A1S1
Establishment of Othello’s hubris (through Iago’s speech)
Iago is a very shrewd character, and arguably Othello’s hubris that does set the tragic events in motion
Extended metaphor between sexual intercourse and conception
The ideas are ‘engender’d’ in Othello’s mind, and produce images of a graphic and sexual nature, of Cassio and Desdemona
‘monstrous birth’
Language of conception/ impregnation
‘engender’d’
‘monstrous birth’
How does Othello refer to himself A5S2?
‘honourable murderer’
Othello’s suffering at thinking about Desdemona’s infidelity
‘Thou hast set me on the rack’
‘that ___’
‘that viper’
Iago’s description of his own jealousy of Emilia and Othello
‘like a poisonous mineral- gnaw at my inwards’
‘Yield up….
O love, thy crown and hearted throne/ To tyrannous hate’
