OTHELLO ACT 1 SCENE 1 Flashcards
Summary
- Iago and Roderigo antagonise Brabantio and inform him of Desdemona and Othello’s marriage
- Enraged, Brabantio sets out in search of Othello
Themes
- Jealousy
- Race
- Hatred
Importance
- Beginning of play
- Intro to Iago and Othello (but through racist lens)
Links to tragedy
- tragic villian
- machiavellian + malcontent
What does the scene start in?
- In media res- in the middle of things
- Forces the audience to immediately pay attention and get engrossed in the action as they dont want to miss anything
The street outside Brabantio’s house. What is the significance of this stage direction?
setting conjures up idea of deceit and conspiracy
Iago and Roderigo don’t want to be caught
Iago’s first line
‘S’blood but you will not hear me’
- short for God’s blood: blasphemous and would’ve been shocking
- shows the audience what kind of character Iago will be
Iago as the malcontent
’ I know my price I am worth no worse a place’
- Arrogant, gross inflation of ego
- Trying to switch up Great Chain of Being
“But he, as loving his own pride and purposes”
Plosives- spits it out
anger at Othello’s hubris
‘Horribly stuffed with the epithets of war’
metaphor: his fury that Othello has been given a good reputation as a fighter and suggests that Othello doesnt deserve this
‘One Michael Cassio, a Florentine/A fellow almost damn’d in a fair wife’
- Florentine: foreigner, not to be trusted in Iago’s eyes
- Toxic masculinity: doesnt even deserve a wife
“Mere prattle without practice/Is his soldiership”
- Plosives: anger that he has been overlooked for someone who he views as not a proper soldier
- Emphasises Cassio’s intellect- he is a man of strategy, not necessarily action
“His Moorship’s ancient”
- Pun on Lordship
- Mocking his race- plays on audience’s ingrained racism to build mystery and distrust
“I follow him to serve my turn upon him”
Shows his intent and duplicitous nature
“Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago/In following him I follow but myself”
- Reduces Othello to his race/ethnicity- no respect for him
- Iago is entirely focused on himself and his malcontent- he knows his own evil
“I am not what I am”
- Deception
- Shakespeare makes Iago purposefully speak cryptically so that even we as the audience can never properly know Iago
“What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe”
- Horrific racism + ingrained stereotypes
- Roderigo is particularly cruel because he’s in love with Desdemona
“Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight”
- Triplet- emphasises Iago’s joy for evil
- Juxtaposition: he is committed to evil
“Plague him with flies”
BIBLICAL???
Examples of bestial imagery
- “An old black ram is tupping your white ewe”: juxtaposition between light and dark, horrific, racist
- “you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse”: mocking Othello’s continent of origin
“your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs”
Metaphor: crude, sexual imagery- deliberately upsetting Brabantio
Why does Iago sometimes speak in prose and sometimes in verse?
Iago speaks in prose when he is revealing what kind of character he is
What is the language of Shakespeare?
Iambic Pentameter: 10 syllables per line
Blank verse
“I must show out a flag and sign of love, which is indeed but sign”
DECEPTIONNNN
