othello- characters Flashcards
othello- a victim of racist slurs and stereotypes
“an old, black ram”, “the barbary horse”, “the thick-lips”, “the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor” (Iago to Brabantio)
“thou hast enchanted her”, “practiced on her with foul charms”, the sooty bosom of such a thing as thou”, “she is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted” (Brabantio’s accusations in court)
“like the base Indian, threw a pearl away” (Othello’s dying speech)
Othello - brave, confident and honourable
“let him do his spite”, “my services which I have done the signiory shall out-tongue his complaints” (when Brabantio arrives angrily)
“my parts, my title and my perfect soul shall manifest me rightly” (defending himself in court)
“the valiant Moor” “brave Othello” (epithets used many times)
“I saw Othello’s visage in his mind”, “his honours and valiant parts” (Desdemona in court)
“the man commands like a full soldier” (Montano on his arrival in Cyprus)
“is this the noble Moor whom our full senate call all-in-all sufficient”, “whom passion could not shake”, “whose solid virtue the shot of accident nor dart of chance could neither graze nor pierce” (Montano after Othello’s outburst)
Othello- misguided and credulous (easily believing)
“Cassio I love thee, but never more be officer of mine” (nuptials evening)
“a man of honesty and trust is he”, “honest Iago”, “I know thou’rt full of love and honesty” (about Iago)
“the Moor is of a free and open nature, that thinks men honest that but seem to be so, and will tenderly be led by the nose as asses are” (Iago’s 1st soliloquy)
Othello- self doubting and insecure
“nor from my own weak merits will I draw”
“rude am I in my speech and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace” (in court)
“haply for I am black and I have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have, or for I am declined into the veil of years”, “her name that was as fresh as Dian’s visage is now begrim’d and black as mine own face” (to Iago)
Othello- divided between love and betrayal
“tis destiny unshunnable, like death” vs. “if she be false, O then heaven mocks itself”
“I think my wife is honest, and think she is not, I think thou art just and think thou art not”
“a fine woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman” vs. “ay let her rot and perish and be damned tonight”
“o she will sing the savageness out of a bear” vs. “I will chop her to messes”
Othello- a victim of manipulation who suffers from emotional turmoil
Othello- a victim of manipulation who suffers from emotional turmoil
Othello- consumed by jealousy, playing into racial stereotypes
“I’ll tear her to pieces”
“arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!”
“even so my bloody thoughts with violent page shall ne’er look back”
“within these three days let me hear thee say that Cassio’s not alive”
Othello- the tragic hero
I fetch my life and being from men of royal siege” (in court)
“she loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them”, “for she had eyes and chose me” (in court, to Iago)
“tis the plague of great ones”, “this plague is fated to us” (dying speech)
to
“for naught did I in hate, but all in honour”
“that demi-devil hath thus ensnared my soul”
“speak of me as I am, one that loved not wisely but too well”
“killing myself to die upon a kiss”
“he was great of heart”
Iago- motivated by hatred and jealousy
“mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership” (about Cassio)
“I follow him to serve my turn on him”, “I hate the Moor”, “it is thought abroad that twixt my sheets he’s done my office” (about Othello)
Iago- deceitful and duplicitous
“I am not what I am”, “I do not wear my heart on my sleeve for daws to peck at” (opening soliloquy)
“honest Iago” (epithet used throughout)
Iago- visceral, evil and psychopathic language
“hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to light” (first soliloquy)
“thus do I ever make my fool my purse”, kills Roderigo when he is done with him, “plume up my will in double knavery”, “would time expend with such a snipe is for my sport and profit” (animal and object language)
Iago- fundamental understanding of others, skilled at seeking out insecurities
“better judgement may fall to match you with her country forms”, “similar clime and complexion” (to Othello, playing on racial insecurity)
damaging Cassio’s reputation by getting him drunk and telling Montano that alcohol “tis evermore the prologue to his sleep” and that he fears that “his infirmity will shake this island” (playing on Cassio’s vanity)
Iago- misogynistic
“rise to play and go to bed for work” (laziness and promiscuity, contempt for women)
“he has done my office”, “foolish wife”, “would she give you as much of her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me you’d have enough” - “alas she has no speech”, kills her to shut her up (mistreatment and objectification of Emilia)
Emilia - subservient to Iago, contrast of Desdemona
“would she give you as much of her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me you’d have enough” (public humiliation by Iago, II, i), yet she silently takes it-“alas she has no speech (Desdemona)
desperation to win her husbands favour “I, nothing but to please his fantasy”, knowing that Desdemona “so loves the token” and she would “run mad” without it
“foolish wife”, “speak within door” repeated abusive language
Emilia - self-assured, astute (wise)
men “eat us hungerly and when they are full they belch us out”, showing her ability to see through Iago’s manipulation
men are “jealous foe they’re jealous. tis a monster begot upon itself, born on itself”- insight, almost word for word the “green-eyed monster”
“the Moor’s abused by some villainous knave”, shows her perceptive nature, although ironic as she too is abused by Iago
“its their husband’s faults if wives do fall”, “peevish jealousies”, the ills we do, their ills instruct us so”, understands that male sexual jealousy can manifest in affairs
