othello Flashcards
‘thick lips’
racist stereotypes
black people were still looked down upon in society
implies that othello is an animal/ inhuman
‘an old black ram is tupping with your white ewe’
symbolism of age and colour difference
animalising othello
rams symbolise penetration and achievement
ewes symbolise gentleness, purity and innocence/ innocent sacrifice
illustrates a corruption of a pure, chaste and innocent desdemona
ewe makes a pun on word ‘you’ that iago uses to victimise brabantio as a victim of social and natural disorder.
‘keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them’
don’t use swords to fight, only defence
being reasonable - talk about it
presented differently as to how iago and roderigo spoke of him
natural imagery - othello as a positive force
iambic pentameter
’ o thou foul thief! where hast thou stowed my daughter?’
pirate language
demonstrates the sense of possession and ownership that an elizabethan man had.
constant objectification of desdemona throughout othello highlights the social hierarchy present at the time.
accuses othello of an unlawful act - shakespeare conveys to the audience the elizabethan social belief that women were not able to make their own choices or have an opinion
only purpose was to provide a male heir
‘thou hast enchanted her, for i’ll refer me to all things of sense, if she in chains of magic were not bound’
semantic field of supernatural
implies othello is involved in sorcery
would have upset the contemporary audience who deeply feared the supernatural
the correlation between othello’s race and his supposed supernatural abilities highlights the society’s desire to hate those of a different racial background in order to maintain their own superiority
brabantio and othello’s professional relationship is seemingly untainted by racism, however, the elizabethan views regarding inter-race marriage and social hierarchy become apparent, as brabantio does not want a ‘moor’ marrying his daughter.
the association that shakespeare makes between a ‘moor’ and witchcraft is significant as it evokes negative connotations between the two, forcing the audience to question their affiliation and created empathy with othello’s character.
‘valiant moor’
epithet
not heard of othello’s elopement with desdemona, nor his subsequent clash with brabantio. to them, he is still the prized general and the venetians’ best chance to repel the turks
race defines identity
gives him height to fall from
‘her father loved me, oft invited me, still questioned me the story of my life’
brabantio invited othello into his home to tell stories about the war
fascinated and repelled - dual way in which moors were seen
’to please the palate of my appetite, nor to comply with heat the young affects in my distinct and proper satisfaction, but to be free and bounteous to her mind’
he doesn’t want her for his own personal reasons, rather he wants to enrich her experience because that’s what she wants
progressive relationship
let her go - its what she wants
‘he hath achieved a maid’
is othello married?
positive - means no harm but can be easily flipped
description of desdemona alludes to the poetic tradition of the blazon while drawing attention to that tradition in a teasing manner.
a blazon is a style of poem in which the poet lists the favourable attributes of a lovely woman.
cassio performs a short blazon of desdemona while admitting that she ‘excels the quirks of blazoning pens.’
‘o, my soul’s joy, if after every tempest come such calms, may the winds blow till they have wakened death’
in love - not rational
chain of being - losing reason
links to iago’s garden
‘the purchase made, the fruits are to ensue’
haven’t consummated their marriage
stop being a virgin - innocent
harold bloom, among other critics, has argued that the two honeymooners never do have time to make love, and that othello’s murder of desdemona in act v enacts a symbolic, tragically ironic ‘consummation’
‘my blood begins my safer guides to rule, and passion, having my best judgement collided, assays to lead the way. if i once stir, or do but lift this arm, the best of you shall sink in my rebuke’
first time in the play we witness othello subject to his own temper
uncharacteristic of him to leverage his authority in such a tyrannical way
interplay between emotion and reason; in this case, othello’s passions collie - or control - his ‘best judgement’.
‘look if my gentle love be not raised up!’
never be an officer again
ruined cassio’s status
othello:
‘what dost thou say?’
iago:
‘nothing my lord’
makes you want to know more - removes responsibility from iago
rhetorical devices
layers of manipulation
temptation - snake in garden of eden
‘excellent wretch! perdition catches my soul, but I do love thee; and when i love thee not, chaos is come again’
refers to himself as an ‘excellent wretch’, an oxymoron that characterises his status as a foolish, out-of-control lover
acknowledges that his love for desdemona has the power to influence him negatively
iago knows this well and capitalises on it
prophetic
the moment they stop there will be chaos
elizabethans believed that before creation was a state of chaos, so would it be following the world had ended.
can be interpreted as othello’s fear of falling out of love with desdemona, that when the day comes it will be catastrophic. another way is that when their love ends, he will adopt some personal chaos, as proven with iago.
cannot see a natural world where he doesn’t love desdemona.
ironically, it is not for natural reasons that he hates her - it is all contrived by iago.
‘as if there were some monster in thy thought too hideous to be shown.’
gaslighting is working
suspects that iago is hiding something from him and it is too horrible to say, this is of course the perfect opportunity for iago to reveal how he feels about cassio and begin convincing othello of cassio and desdemona’s relationship
iago is the monster
’ tis not to make me jealous to say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well; where virtue is, these are more virtuous’
not the jealous type - reasonable
othello is naive
military thinking - black and white - simple
‘o curse of marriage, that we can call these delicate creatures ours and not their appetites! i had rather be a toad and live upon the vapour of a dungeon’
links to chain of being - expected to be introspective
cuckoldry
dialogue grows darker.
throughout the entire play iago’s dialogue has been laced with mentions of demons, beastly animals, and semi- biblical atrocities such as plagues. othello’s dialogue has been much lighter and more noble, with imagery highlighting his love, civility, and nobility. iago’s psychological poison goes to work on his victims, they start to talk like him - iago’s mentality is itself an infectious disease.
public perception of black people as violent and savage , and how even the noble and loving othello can have a monster brought out from inside him. It is interesting to note that othello’s emerging monstrosity sounds like the white man who’s manipulating him, implying that this same savagery resides in all races, and in fact might be easier to bring out in ourselves than in people different from us.
‘i have a pain upon my forehead here’
manifesting cheating
physically affecting him
medieval folklore - a man who was cuckolded grew horns
‘farewel! othello’s occupation gone’
saying goodbye to his old self
hubristic
‘prove it that the probation bear no hinge nor loop to hang doubt on’
burden of proof law - beyond reasonable doubt
proof or death
‘i think my wife be honest, and think she is not’
military background - yes or no answers
destructive grey of the world
jonathan burton - on line 265, othello tries to counter the psychological effects - ‘i am black, and have not those soft parts of conversation’
‘dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black as my own face’
othello’s insecurities - internalising them
goddess of chastity and the moon
desdemona, who othello says resembled diana, has now seemingly had her purity stained and blackened
used to be proud of his race
madonna whore complex - women are either perfect or a whore, shows misogyny
‘poison or fire or suffocating streams, i’ll not endure it’
is it realistic that someone so calm and collected could go so violent so quick?
to a contemporary jacobean audience, this reads as confirmation of their racist beliefs that black people are inherently violent. however, to a modern audience this may read as less realistic, or outright racist.
[he kneels]
giving into desire
falling down the chain of being
everyone has darkness
iago is above him in control
‘like to the pontic sea, whose icy current and compulsive course ne’er feels retiring ebb but keeps due on to the propontic and the hellespont’
compares othello’s rage with the immense power of the sea
reference to ‘hellespont’ alludes the story of hero and leander in greek mythology. leander drowned as he swam across the sea to his lover hero, who then drowned herself to be with him.
suggests that othello sees himself as the young lover wedded to desdemona, but she is across a sea of betrayal and infidelity
translates to the ‘black sea’ - could relate to othello’s status as a moor as, contextually, moors were thought to be uncivilised and unruly – the sea is both of these things so shakespeare referring to the black sea could show othello is returning to (what people in the renaissance era thought was a black person’s) ‘natural state’ of anger and savagery
the currents of this sea flow strongly and unceasingly toward “the propontic and the hellespont” – the former being the small inland sea connecting the black sea and the mediterranean, and the latter being the final narrow strait that joins the two.
in response to iago’s suggestion that his mind may change, othello answers that his “bloody thoughts” are propelled toward an inevitable end, as the waters of the pontic sea are propelled toward the narrow rush of the hellespont.
‘o hardness to dissemble!’
aside - being secret
duplicitous
act 1 scene 2 - ‘i must be found’
‘hardness’ he means to set aside is his ‘hardness of heart’, a common shakespearean phrase for ill intent
marks the visible fracturing in the relationship between othello and desdemona.
when othello must turn to the audience for solidarity, it is clear his intimacy with his wife is shattered
‘this hand is moist, my lady’
four humours - too much passion = too much blood
convinced she’s having an affair with cassio
‘a liberal hand. the hearts of old gave hands; but our new heraldry is hands, not hearts’
sex before love - not faithful anymore
shakespeare develops a metaphorical duality: the heart and the hand
heart is the source of truth, whereas the hand is a tool which can either reveal the truth or deceive.
othello refers to the tradition of giving one’s hand as a promise of marriage. he then accuses desdemona of having given her hand without involving her heart
‘the devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven’
othello feels he knows what cassio and desdemona were doing, and they cannot possibly be innocent.
contrast of devil and heaven - repercussions of sins in heaven - heavy emphasis on religion - heavenly judgement
‘is’t possible? - confess? handkerchief? o devil!’
lost reason and control - chain of being
can’t take emotional trauma
‘a horned man’s a monster and a beast’
devil - horns when jealous
folklore - cuckolds grew horns
wife’s infidelity at the time brought great shame to the husband.
paralleling this idea and himself suggesting that he has internalised iago’s misleading deceptions and he is showing that he believes his wife is cheating on him/ being unfaithful.
‘how shall i murder him, iago?
tipped over the edge
not the othello we know
iago has complete control over him
thou shalt not kill
irrefutable evidence that othello is jealous
hang her, i do but say what she is: so delicate with her needle, an admirable musician - o, she will sing the savageness out of a bear’
metaphor
conflicted
duality of his view - can’t cope
tragic waste - pathos - key element of a shakespearean tragedy
intelligence is negative - fear of women - witchcraft
[he strikes her]
stereotypes he’s not associated with - emphasises how much he’s changed
happened quickly - symbolism of how love can change
‘woman’s tears each drop she falls would prove a crocodile’
fake tears
internalising misogyny which iago shows throughout the play
‘well painted passion’
desdemona can change quickly
4 humours
fake love
internalising his passion
‘goats and monkeys!’
internalising animal imagery
mind infected
shows tragic fall
goats are often symbolically associated with evil and judgement and atonement and the transfer of sins from the people to the animal
monkeys represent base instincts such as lust, greed and malice, and can even represent the devil
‘to fetch her fan, her gloves her mask, nor nothing?’
questioning emilia - knows her answer
wants more fuel for his anger
‘a closet lock and key of villainous secrets’
entrapment desdemona is in
emilia is stupid
internalised misogyny
‘let me see your eyes’
windows to the soul
‘double damned’
she will go to hell when she dies
trapped by male power
‘i must live or bear no life’
polarised view of the world
can’t live like this
‘summer flies are in the shambles’
flies around poo/ meat in summer
iago’s jealousy mocks the meat it docks upon
as flies aren’t loyal to one piece of meat, she isn’t loyal to one man
you are no more honourable than those disgusting flies which are associated with rapid procreation
‘i took you for that cunning whore of venice that married with othello’
not changing his mind
entrapment of women in marriage
sarcastically begs desdemona’s pardon after she protests her innocence of betrayal of their marriage
shows his cruelty by contemptuously saying that he confused her with the “cunning whore” from venice who married othello.
‘oh brave iago, honest and just, that hast such a noble sense of thy friend’s wrong! though teachest me’
dramatic irony
height of which othello has fallen is extremely evident here - mighty war general who should not be taught how to slay and kill
audience continue to view the extent that othello is completely blind to iago’s villainy which is where the absurd and comic nature lies
‘it is the cause, it is the cause, my soul’
remember what she did - convincing himself
still loves her
‘i’ll not shed her blood, nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow and smooth as monumental alabaster. yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men’
white and snow connote purity and chastity.
shakespeare appears to depict othello as the victim of a trap through his reluctance to murder her yet his belief that he must as a sacrifice/duty to humanity.
perceives himself almost as jesus.
links to patriarchal control, characters as victims of societal attitudes which force them to behave in a certain way. however is this an attempt to conceal his own interest as the cause of his tragic fall is ultimately his own pride and jealousy. shame in this? monumental connotes funerals.
what was he actually in love with?
he can’t bring himself to ruin desdemona’s image
‘put out the light, and then put out the light’
his desire for certainty reinforced. her death will be absolute.
sacrifice must be set in stone and recognised, links to the idea of a sacrifice for society or alternatively a way of him salvaging his tarnished status in being supposedly cuckolded
life, truth
i know not where is that promethean heat that can thy light relume’
prometheus stole fire from heaven in order to bring life to a piece of clay.
othello uses this analogy to show that desdemona’s life cannot be so easily restored
‘what i intend to do a murder, which i thought a sacrifice. i saw the handkerchief’
desdemona can’t say anything
trapped by the patriarchy - pathos
man’s raw intentions
significance of calling desdemona a “perjured woman” implies that by denying the allegations against her, she has lied under oath.
desdemona’s supposed false testimony has dire consequences for othello’s interpretation of her death. whereas he sees her execution as necessary and therefore “a sacrifice,” if she is actually speaking the truth it would make him a murderer. the uncertainty she causes in him turns his heart to stone.
further evidence of the critic a.c bradley’s view who believed othello was no longer wanting to kill her out of vengeance
‘o balmy breath, that dost almost persuade justice to break her sword.’
convinced that what he is doing is ‘justice’. (the sword and scales were emblems of justice (trad. female) scales weigh evidence; sword punishes)
othello puts off what he feels he must do - ‘one more’ kiss. He still loves her. but could the kiss also be a sign of his betrayal, reminiscent of judas’ “kiss of death” in the bible?
balm is a medicine or soothing ointment, which suggests that kissing her may cure him of his desire to kill her, or cure their relationship
once again, it is her beauty that ‘dost almost persuade him’ not her fear and pleading for her life (which only makes him angrier). it shows that he doesn’t value her as a person, only as entertainment.
legal language links to the social significance of her death, the murder as a performance for othello to recover his masculinity. Ironic as there has been no fair trial, desdemona has had no voice.
‘my wife, my wife! what wife? i have no wife. o insupportable! o heavy hour!’
regrets killing her - consequences of jealousy and manipulation
lost rationality - chain of being
no longer has the validation and affirmation she brings him as an outsider
no remorse or guilt
‘but every puny whipster gets my sword. but why should outlive honesty. let it go all’
lost his nobility
why should i keep my position if desdemona was honest and i didn’t believe her?
why is reputation more important than honesty?
‘cold, cold, my girl’
women were possessions
pathos
‘an honourable murderer’
coleridge - ‘wounded honour’
attempts to justify his actions by saying he murdered desdemona as some kind of sacrificial honour killing.
ironic because othello may be commenting ironically on his own mistake about what he thought was honourable. this demonstrates othello’s anagnorisis because he discovers that he has misunderstood the idea of honour.
‘speak of me as i am; nothing extenuate’
concerned about reputation
black not venetian
t.s elliot said, “othello is endeavouring to escape reality, he had ceased to think about desdemona and is thinking about himself.”
very egotistical due to him still trying to protect his reputation and status even though he is in the wrong
tragic hero would undergo some sort of rehabilitation/redemption towards the end of the play, expressing hope that their true, authentic story will be told. on approaching his death, othello expresses this sentiment; that he dies as a known man of nobility and courage as opposed to the inferior of this
‘perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand, like the base indian, threw a pearl away’
neglect of the wonderful thing he had in desdemona - didn’t fully realise her value
base indian refers to indians who didn’t know they had objects of precious value, such as the pearl. in other versions of shakespeare’s work, the word here is “judean” in place of “indian”
judean refers to judas he betrayer of jesus, and this too correlates with othello (judas) and desdemona (jesus). othello kisses desdemona just as judas kisses jesus pretending they love the individual, but knowing that they will die.
‘and say besides, that in aleppo once, where a malignant and a turban’d turk beat a venetian and traduced the state, i took by the throat the circumcised dog, and smote him, thus’
did his duty as general - killed a turkish man who had “traduced” (slandered, damaged) the state of venice and broken its laws.
reinforces the importance of reputation in this society. othello, knowing his death is imminent, wishes to be remembered for his admirable service to the state as much as his murder, and hopes that the former may dilute the shame of the latter. however, in comparing himself to the “malignant” foreigner he also casts himself as a treacherous criminal and, tragically, the outsider he had spent his career trying not to be
kills himself - suicide has no forgiveness
greeks - suicide is honourable
where shakespeare’s sympathy lies
