Othello Key Quotes A3 Flashcards
A3:1 (49) - Emilia to Cassio: ‘But he protests…
…he loves you.’
- Othello’s still maintains his love for Cassio, this will imminently change.
What is the function of A3:2?
- Shows Othello’s at work on his ‘duties’, undistracted by thoughts of Desdemona. Acts a source for later juxtaposition.
A3:3 (27-28) - Des: ‘For thy solicitor…
…shall rather die / Than give thy cause away.’
- Dramatic irony. She will fulfil this prophecy.
A3:3 (38) - Iago: ‘steal away…
…guilty-like’
- Iago sows the seeds of doubt in Iago’s mind, there have been no previous such insinuations of Cassio’s possible deviance.
A3:3 (99) - Des: ‘Whate’er you be, …
… I am obedient.’
A3:3 (76, 73) - Oth: ‘I will deny…
…thee nothing’
A3:3 (91-2) - Othello: ‘when I love thee not…
… / Chaos is come again.’
A3:3 (97-98) - Iago: ‘But for a satisfaction… -
… of my thought/ No further harm.’
- Not only is his statement deeply ironic, but we see him weaponise even the nature of human curiosity and insecurity.
A3:3 (110-1) - Othello: ‘some monster in thy…
… thought / Too hideous to be shown.’
- Does he recognise Iago’s villainy, yet choose to ignore it?
A3:3 (122) - Othello: ‘weigh’st thy words…
…before thou giv’st them breath’
- Iago’s power is often left in the unsaid, he lets his victims surmise the situation for themself. The deliverance of his words, the mere pauses and intonation, has persuaded Othello of some potential wrongs in Cassio’s character.
A3:3 (127) - Othello: ‘Passion…
… cannot rule.’
- Yet it will.
A3:3 (139) - Othello: ‘say they are…
…vile and false?’
- Othello has begun to consult Iago, it will be his downfall. Truly he conforms to Iago’s assessment that he ‘thinks men honest that but seem so’.
A3:3 (149-151) - Iago: ‘it is my nature’s plague…
… / To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not’
- Iago frames his flaw as something that Othello’s could use to his advantage. Linguistic trap.
A3:3 (163-4) - Iago: ‘Robs me of…
…that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed.’
- Does Iago inadvertently summarise the truth of his pursuit. Neither will be any richer, Iago will gain nothing except to see Othello suffer.
A3:3 (168-69) - Iago: ‘…jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster, …
… which doth mock the meat it feeds on.’
A3:3 (172) - Othello: ‘Who dotes yet doubts, …
… suspects yet strongly loves!’
- Iago seems to be reaffirming, for Othello’s sake, the truth that love cannot exist without jealousy.
- Othello follows this with ‘O misery’, reversal in the speech distribution.
A3:3 (195) - Othello: ‘Away at once…
…with love or jealousy’
- Othello defends his relationship and his wife’s fidelity, he has not yet fallen prey to Iago’s machinations.
- Despite this he still lets Iago tell him to ‘observe her (Desdemona) well with Cassio’.
A3:3 (204-208) - Iago :‘Their best conscience…
…/ Is not to leave’t undone, but to keep’t unknown.’
- Iago alienates Othello, he decrees he knows the moral fibre of the nation’s entire female population.
A3:3 (231) - Othello: ‘yet how nature, …
…erring from itself’
- Othello has upset his natural moral compass.
A3:3 (192) - Othello: ‘she had eyes…
…and chose me’
- Othello has some security in his marriage, though he feels it has been challenged.
A3:3 (234) - Iago: ‘of her own clime, …
… complexion and degree’
- Othering
A3:3 (239) - Iago: ‘I may fear / Her will…
… recoiling to her better judgement’
A3:3 (245) - Othello: ‘Why did I…
…marry?’
- Juxtaposition, earlier: ‘sweet Desdemona’
A3:3 (271) - Othello: ‘She’s gone, …
… I am abused, and my relief / Must be to loathe her.’
A3:3 (266) - Othello: ‘I’d whistle her off…
…and let her down the wind / To prey at fortune.
- The combination of this and ‘jesses’ is a use of falconry imagery.
A3:3 (23) - Des: ‘I’ll watch him tame…
…and talk him out patience.’
- Use of falconry imagery throughout the scene is contextual. Ladies of higher class could own smaller falcons, there is an implication that Othello is too dangerous/large a falcon to be controlled or tamed.
A3:3 (273-4) - Othello: ‘We can call these…
…delicate creatures ours / And not their appetites!’
A3:3 (301) - Emilia: ‘what he will do with it / Heaven knows, not I, …
… I nothing, but to please his fantasy.’
- Wishes her his validation.
A3:3 (321-2) - Emilia: ‘Poor lady, she’ll run mad…
… / When she lack it.’
- Emilia seems conflicted.