Othello act 4 Flashcards
A D T R O T I H
“As doth the raven o’er the infected house,” - Othello (S1)
- “raven”: omen of death foreshadows Desdemona’s and creates a sense of inevitability to it as well
- “infected”: illness, echoes Iago’s “Pour this pestilence into his ear” - marker of his influence on Othello
F I A T
“Falls in a trance” - Stage directions (S1)
- “trance”: has a seizure - physical manifestation of his jealousy, anger and internal conflict - helps us to pity him because its such a sign of weakness and because Iago’s emotional and mental manipulation is now having a physical effect
W O / M M W
“Work on / My medicine, work!” - Iago (S1)
- “medicine”: swapped from “poison” as a theme to “medicine” - maybe feels that in destroying Othello he’s bringing about the natural order because all those he targets are deviant from the norm of upper-class society - a Black man in charge, a scholar whose “soldiership” is “mere prattle without practice” who has been appointed as lieutenant, a respectable but outspoken white woman who has married a Black man, a prostitute etc
A G M R
“All guiltless, meet reproach.” - Iago (S1)
- “all”: he recognises that no one here deserves what is coming to them, not even Othello or Cassio - all the reasons he gave before were nonsense and he knows it -completely cruel and inexplicable in his villainy
B Y F L A M! […] B A M […] A P M U S A M […] Y […] N O A M
Bear your fortune like a man! […] be a man […] a passion most unsuiting such a man […] you’re […] nothing of a man.” - Iago (S1)
- “man”: repeated references to masculinity undermine Othello’s - Iago exacerbates his insecurity and therefore his anger and desire to lash out = 1) Iago is a very skilled manipulator 2) one of Othello’s fatal flaws is his pride - this tirade deeply contrasts what Othello deems to be his “perfect soul”
W Y W
“Will you withdraw?” - Iago (S1)
- has gone from using lots of imperatives to now merely suggesting, and asking Othello to do something and he immediately does so = control and devotion is now absolute
[A] L H H L A
“[Aside] Look how he laughs already!” - Othello (S1)
- use of asides allows us to see Othello’s thought process and misunderstandings in real time - platforms his deterioration and tortures the audience by forcing us to watch as he gets things wrong repeatedly
- Staging: the fact that Othello is hidden but they’re on stage at the same time 1) shows how skilled Iago is at manipulating reality 2) also shows how easily things can be misconstrued if you look at them from a place of bias - the audience sees Iago and Cassio from an objective point of view but Othello cannot: both literally and figuratively
H S I M H I
“How shall I murder him Iago?” - Othello (S1)
- “how”: the question now is not whether - completely resolute and committed to violence = character shift - has received his “ocular proof” - “[Aside] By heaven, that should be my handkerchief!”
A F W A F W A S W […] L H R A P A B D T F S S N L
“a fine woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman! […] let her rot and perish and be damned tonight for she shall not live.” - Othello (S1)
- changes his mind about her 8 times in the space of 16 lines = intense internal conflict - even now he doesn’t want to believe it - he is conflicted up until the very moment of his death - we villainise Iago not Othello
- “rot” and “perish”: wants her to be ghastly and suffer on the earthly plane
- “damned”: also wants her to suffer on the heavenly one as well
- “shall”: certainty and inevitability - Desy is doomed
G M S P I
“Get me some poison, Iago” - Othello (S1)
- “poison”: 1) Iago’s weapon of choice / how his villainy is described - extent of his influence on Othello in infiltrating his very psyche 2) MAYBE first instinct is to do it as impersonally as possible - his heart still isn’t in it
S H I H B
“strangle her in her bed” - Iago (S1)
- “strangle”: he has to physically murder her = 1) brutal as possible and will torture Othello more after the fact 2) poison could be anyone, if he strangles her it could be no one but him - make sure to ruin him
- “bed”: act of violence juxtaposes the symbol of their love
T J O I P
“The justice of it pleases” - Othello (S1)
- “justice”: introduces us to Othello’s belief that he is doing the right thing and only giving her what she deserves and therefore it’s not actually a true murder
- “pleases”: although his first instinct was to do it impersonally that is quickly and easily overriden
G S Y W G
“God save you, worthy general!” - Lodovico (S1)
- “worthy general”: 1) dramatic irony - we know he no longer is this 2) Lodovico, as an outside perspective, reminds us of what Othello was like at the start of the play so we can see how far he’s fallen
W S W? D! [H S H]
“Why sweet Othello?” “Devil!” “[He strikes her.]” - Desdemona and Othello (S1)
- “Why”: still has no clue why he’s so angry
- “Sweet”: still loves him - she gives him no reason, in that moment to hit her
“[He strikes her]”: 1) no longer the progressive husband he was in act 1, in fact, he has regressed to the opposite end of the scale as it was actively frowned upon for Jacobean men to hit their wives - fallen so completely
T W N B B I V
“This would not be believed in Venice.” - Lodovico (S1)
- “believed”: Othello’s complete shift - so far removed from who he was in act 1 - extent to which he has fallen
“Venice”: 1) as a symbol of order, morality etc it gives a marker for how far Othello has strayed 2) gurl we don’t do this in Venice - ‘Other’s him, makes him seem like an outsider
I T T N / W P C N S? […] A H W S? I H N L O B? […] I A S T I A D I H
“Is this the nature / Whom passion could not shake?” […] Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain? […] I am sorry that I am deceived in him.” - Lodovico (S1)
- “Is this…shake?”: exemplifies Othello’s fall
- “Are his…brain?”: attempts to justify and understand his outburst with illness - completely unfathomable that Othello could do something like this - quite sad because n many ways it is an illness - Iago’s illness “I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear” - Lodovico knows this is not in Othello’s nature, and he is right
- “I am…him”: 1) Othello is completely passed tipping point 2) ironic because he is talking to the real deceiver - Iago 3) the disappointment in his tone helps to cultivate sympathy for Othello because without Iago’s influence, he wouldn’t have been deserving of it
T B D-D: S T A H
“Therefore be double-damned: Swear thou art honest.” - Othello (S2)
- “double-damned”: so convinced that he is no longer after the truth and simply wants a confession - if she tells the truth as swears she is “honest” she will damn herself for cheating and damn herself for lying - DRAMATIC IRONY + TRAGIC INEVITABILITY because the audience know from this point, there is nothing Desy can do to prove her innocence and her death is inevitable
- “swear”: he tells her to do so, tells her to damn herself - there is such hatred there now
W I S H I C?
“What ignorant sin have I committed?” - Desdemona (S2)
- “ignorant sin”: STILL hasn’t told her what she’s supposed to have done, so how can she defend herself? - EXTREME pity and sympathy for Desy and frustration and HATRED for Othello
- “I committed”: 1) she’s just admitting to something to appease Othello somewhat 2) he really has her convinced that she’s done something - Othello can’t just be crazy so blames herself - intense love and devotion still after everything
W […] P C! […] I S!
“Whore […] public commoner! […] Impudent strumpet!” - Othello (S2)
- calls her a whore 3 separate times to her face - complete hatred, no respect
- completely contrasts “my fair warrior” (A2) and “the gentle Desdemona” (A1) - how far he, ad his opinion of her have fallen
I W B H I S E V […] S C C S T G S O / H N D T S […] S S F
“I will be hanged if some eternal villain […] some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, / Have not devised this slander […] some scurvy fellow” - Emilia (S2)
- INCREDIBLY OBSERVANT - she is the one who comes the closest to discovering Iago’s villainy
- VERY FRUSTRATING 1) not for one second does she think that it’s Iago - tragic myopia 2) she is probably one of the most powerless people in this entire play so why couldn’t someone with more influence have figured it out
- “villain”, “slave”: villainises Iago and makes us feel more pity for Othello because Emilia has such disdain for him and even she can see someone has done this
- “scurvy”: means miserable - demeans Iago, makes him seem pathetic and sad 1) no patience for men 2) ridicules him and takes away his prowess as a villain
N I S T M I T
“Now I see there’s mettle in thee” - Iago to Roderigo (S2)
“now”: as if Roderigo has proven something by standing up to something
“mettle”: compliments him - panders to his masculinity to get him back onside
H G I M A T A W H T F D
“he goes into Mauritania and takes away with him the fair Desdemona.” - Iago (S2)
- has gone from twisting truth to blatant lies - doesn’t have to be as careful anymore 1) has manipulated Roderigo so entirely 2) everything is coming together - scary for audience
- makes Roderigo think that Desy’s going away together - sense of urgency to make him want to kill Cassio
“Mauritania”: where the name “Moor” came from - Othello will take her to his ‘land of barbarians’ - activates Roderigo’s ‘white-knight’ complex and makes him want to ‘save’ Desdemona = skilled manipulator
M L D S A H / T E H S H S H F […] H G A F I T
“my love doth so approve him / That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns […] have grace and favour in them.” - Desdemona (S3)
- “stubbornness”, “checks”, “frowns”: loves him so entirely - his virtues and his faults - inevitability because how could she ever recognise something is so truly wrong that she is in danger, if she is so determined to love everything about him?
- proves she is kind and underserving of her fate (tragic victim) - elevates tragedy
S H A S O W […] S D S I […] T S T / W N G F M M
“She had a song of willow […] she died singing it […] That song tonight / Will not go from my mind.” - Desdemona (S3)
- “willow”: traditionally symbolic of forsaken lovers
- “died”: 1) the song becomes a symbol of demise 2) Desy is preoccupied with thoughts of death - “if I do die before thee, prithee shroud me in one of those same sheets” - knows, whether consciously or not that she will die tonight
- “will not go from my mind”: she too sings it - will suffer the same fate as Barbary
- inevitability, pity etc
