Othello Key Quotes A2 Flashcards
A2:1 (6) - Montano: ‘A fuller blast…
…ne’er shook our battlements’
- It is as if the even the weather, such a superior being to man, decries the depravity of Iago’s arrival, and warns against (and even tries to prevent) the chaos that will ensue.
A2:1 (21) - 3 Gentleman: ‘The desperate tempest…
…hath so banged the Turks / That their designment halts.’
- It seems to be an unrealistic coincidence in Iago’s favour, implication of his omnipotence - he has removed all extraneous variables.
A2:1 (33-4) - 3 Gentleman: ‘they were parted…
… with foul and violent tempest.’
- Shakespeare certainly employs parallelism here, likening the storm to Iago’s effect on the two later on.
- Wrought with irony.
A2:1 (61-3) - Cassio: ‘a maid / That paragons description…
…and wild fame; / One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.’
- Cassio’s ability to wax lyrical about Desdemona shall come in useful for Iago.
- Despite saying she ‘excels the quirks of blazoning pens’, Iago employs a blazon to describe her multiple times; despite his outwardly gentlemanly appearance and excessive flattery, Cassio is little more than another piece of the patriarchy.
A2:1 (67) - Montano: ‘He’s had most…
…favourable and happy speed.’
- Again it seems Iago has the ability to manipulate nature in his own favour.
A2:1 (83) - Cassio: ‘The riches of…
…the ship is come on shore’
- Cassio cannot refrain from expressing his reverence for Desdemona.
A2:1 (100) - Iago: ‘Sir, would she give you so much of her lips…
…As of her tongue she often bestows on me / You’d have enough.’
- Iago is not only a racist, but a misogynist.
- He criticises Emilia for being talkative, it seems that he expects her to be completely subservient to him, to only speak when spoken to.
A2:1 - Desdemona: ‘I do beguile…
…the thing I am by seeming otherwise.’
- Ominous echo of Iago.
A2:1 (156-7) - Iago: ‘She that could think…
…and ne’er disclose her mind, / See suitors following’
- Iago seems to think the perfect wife is one who can control her mind, one who can think without openly expressing it. We can see why this appeals to him, it would provide him with an accomplice.
A2:1 - Iago: ‘He takes her by the palm;…
…ay, well said, whisper.’
- Iago in the previous lines presents himself as an antagonist, allowing Cassio to swoop in and defend Desdemona and Emilia, inflating his role as a threat and someone ‘framed to make women false’. By a calculated move of self-depreciation he in turn increases Desdemona’s regard for Cassio, allowing him to more easily hyperbolise their intimacy.
A2:1 - Iago: ‘With as little a web…
…as this I will ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.’
- Iago is conniving, his ability to inflate the trivial relationships and discourses of people is an ability is highly aware of.
A2:1 - Othello (190-91): ‘Not another comfort like to this…
…Succeeds in unknown fate.’
- Othello, upon being reunited with Desdemona, seems to believe his happiness has peaked, and that no greater contentment will follow in their uncertain future. It seems an oddly pessimistic outlook for the newly wedded pair.
A2:1 (198-99) - Iago: ‘I’ll set down / The pegs…
…that make this music.’
- Iago is resolute in his attempt to dismantle their marriage. His current scheme is not yet aimed at incurring any fatalities.
- The image of music implies that there will be some kind of resolution, aligning Othello’s fate with the archetypal trappings of tragedy.
A2:1 (219) - Iago: ‘Lay thy finger thus…
…and let thy soul be instructed.’
- Roderigo is entirely submissive to Iago’s demands. The word ‘soul’ implies that Iago believes he is bestowing upon Roderigo some divine guidance, or at least he wishes Roderigo to believe as much.
A2:1 (221) - Iago: ‘but for bragging…
…and telling fantastical lies.’
- Iago too has picked up on Desdemona’s infatuation ‘for the dangers [he] had passed’, and insinuates that she is merely captivated by his exotic tales and dangerous passings rather than his true character. Maybe he believes their union to be little more than an act of rebellion.
A2:1 (223-4) - Iago: ‘Her eye must be fed…
…and what delight / shall she have to look on the devil?’
- Iago suggests Desdemona is a deeply superficial character and, whether he believes it or not, he is careful to make sure Roderigo does. Again he presents Othello as anti-religious symbol, an abomination whose appearance will not satisfy Desdemona, for he is ‘defective in’ these areas.
A2:1 (231) - Iago: ‘gorge, disrelish…
…and abhor the Moor.’
- Iago believes Desdemona will come to hate her husband, to be revolted by him.
- The opposite will happen, she will remain his staunchest defender and her love and loyalty will not falter even in her dying breaths. Othello alternatively will come harbour significant distaste for his wife.
A2:1 (257-8) - Iago: ‘They met so near with their lips…
…that their breaths embraced together.’
- Iago uses Roderigo as a means of rehearsing his persuasion of Othello. By convincing Roderigo of Desdemona’s infidelity with Cassio, he better prepares himself for his psychological assault of Othello.