Othello

Question 1

Othello as a mediator

Answer 1

‘keep up your bright swords, for the few will rust them’

Othello doesn’t view violence as a solution.
Barbantio fails to provoke anger in Othello, in attempts to convince the senate that he is a worthy suitor for Desdemona, Othello speaks in a measured metre to assert himself.
He is immune to the shackles of brash masculinity that otherwise defines his own military culture.

Question 2

Othello kills Desdemona in fear of being made a cuckold

Answer 2

‘she must die, else she’ll betray more men’
the ‘smother(ing)’ of Desdemona is an act of self ‘sacrifice’, in reverence to patriarchal solidarity.

Question 3

jealousy A3S3 + A5S2

Answer 3

‘beware… of jealousy.. it is the green-eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on’

love is victim to the jealousy within the human condition

‘villiany hath doth made mocks with love’

Question 4

Marriage was important for Othello’s public image, any threat to such would be immediately dealt with

Question 5

‘a lascivious moor’

Answer 5

hypersexual representation of the black other

Question 6

‘I love the gentle DESDEMONA’

Answer 6

Othello elevates the virtues of his wife