Othello Flashcards
Desdemona
“Nobody. I, myself’
“I do perceive here a divided duty”
“your true and loyal wife”
“let nobody blame him; his scorn i approve” (willow song)
But I will have my lord and you again
As friendly as you were
His unkindness may defeat my life
But never taint my love
Othello
“Honest Iago”
“She’s like a liar gone to burning hell”
“I saw’t not, thought it not, it harmed not me”
“Your napkin is too little”
“she must die, else she’ll betray more men”
“have you pray’d”
“i would not kill thy unprepared spirit”
“strumpet” vs “sweet desdemon”
Therefore be double damned: Swear thou art honest
No, Iago, I’ll see before I doubt
“She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them”
“i think my wife be honest, and i think she is not”
“to die upon a kiss”
Iago
“I’ll make the moor thank me, love me”
“Thus do i ever make my fool my purse”
“I am not what I am”
“I follow him to serve my turn upon him”
“O’ beware, my lord, of jealosy” “doth mock the meat it feeds on”
“what you know, you know. from this time forward i will never speak word”
Roderigo
“It is silliness to live, when to live is torment”
“I will incontinently drown myself”
“inhuman dog”
“thick-lips”
“in simple and pure soul i come to you”
“nobody come? then i shall bleed to death”
Cassio
“reputation, reputation, reputation! O’ I have lost my reputation”
“sweet love” “most fair Bianca”
“I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking”
“i must leave her company”
“i marry her? what! a customer!”
“she is persuaded i will marry her out of her own love and flattery”
Brabantio
Duke “dead?”
Brabantio “Ay, to me, She is abus’d, stol’n from me and corrupted”
“I here do give thee that with all my heart” (referring to Desdemona)
“foul thief”
“she has deceived her father and may thee”
Emilia
“But I do think it is their husbands fault if wives do fall”
“They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they are jealous”
“more angel she, And you the blacker devil”
“what should such a fool do with so good wife”
“[Iago stabs emilia from behind]
context
jacobean
renaissance
-respect of achievement
-complex characters
-chauvinism and chivalry
women subordinate to men
backdrop of wars between venice and turkey
race- moor, plays part in treatment of othello
handkerchief
Renaissance- portraits of people holding handkerchiefs became popular among wealthy and considered valuable
‘this was her first remembrance from the moor” (Emilia)
“Give’t me again” “I will in Cassios lodging lose this napkin” (iago)
“have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief” (iago)
“twas my first gift” (Othello)
“token from a newer friend” (Bianca)
“Did you see the handkerchief” (iago)
Bianca
“this is some minxs token”
“my sweet cassio! o cassio. cassio, cassio”
willow song
“let nobody blame him: his scorn i approve”
cyprus
uncivilised, unknown, dangerous
venice
civilisation
willow song
sung by one of Desdemona’s mother’s servants who loved a crazy man, reflects her situation
willow at the edge of the water symbolises deserted women
candle
desdemonas fragile life
othello blows it out before strangling desdemona ‘put out the light, and then put out the light’
