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A Level English Literature > Othello Key Quotes: Desdemona > Flashcards

Othello Key Quotes: Desdemona Flashcards

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1
Q

‘Gentle Desdemona,’

About Desdemona

A
  • Highlights Desdemona’s good nature.
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2
Q

“I do perceive here a divided duty.”

A
  • Desdemona has chosen Othello as she loves him.
  • Unconventional for the time period as women were owned by their fathers who would chose their husbands for them.
  • Thus, Desdemona has directly disobeyed her father and the expectations of women in the Jacobean era.
  • Desdemona loves her father but she now serves and answers to the Moor. (Othello)
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3
Q

‘She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.’

About Desdemona

A
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4
Q

‘A maiden never bold,’

About Desdemona

A
  • Highlights expectations of women in the Jacobean period.
  • Desdemona has always been subserviant and quiet so Brabantio cannot believe that she has willingly married the moor.
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5
Q

‘To fall in love with what she feared to look on?’

About Desdemona

A
  • Racism.
  • According to Brabantio, Desdemona must inherently fear Othello because of his skin colour.
  • Brabantio believes that Othello’s and Desdemona’s marriage is unnatural as Desdemona is white and Othello is black.
  • Brabantio is blinded by prejudice.
  • Alludes to the inevitable collapse of D&O’s relationship as it ‘against all rules of nature,’ and cannot last.
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6
Q

‘Send for the lady to the Sagittary And let her speak of me before her father.’

About Desdemona

A
  • Progressive and unconventional, Othello gives Desdemona a voice.
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7
Q

‘She’d come again, with a greedy ear Devour up my discourse,’

About Desdemona

A
  • Uncharacteristic of women of the time, ‘greedy’ opposes ‘weak and submissive,’ Desdemona sought Othello out herself which would have been considered bold in accordance with the expectations of women in the Jacobean period.
  • Desdemona is impressed by Othello’s stories.
  • Deadly sin: Greed, foreshadows Desdemona will later suffer.
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8
Q

‘She gave me for my pains a world of sighs,’

About Desdemona

A
  • Portrays Desdemona as sympathetic and caring
  • Othello loves that Desdemona is in awe of him and pities him
  • Alludes to Desdemona’s youthfulness and lack of experience and thereby her innocence.
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9
Q

‘yet she wished That heaven had made her such a man.’

About Desdemona

A
  • Polysemic.
  • Could be interpretated as Desdemona wishing she were a man so she could experience the adventures Othello has or she wishes heaven would give her such a man to be her husband.
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10
Q

‘She loved me for the dangers i had passed, and i loved her that she did pity them.’

About Desdemona

A
  • Suggests the relationship between D&O is built on admiration rather than true love. Thus the realtionship could have been destined to fail regardless of Iago’s intervention.
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11
Q

‘For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child.

About Desdemona

A
  • Links to Jacobean ideology that Women were possesions to be owned.
  • Objectifies Desdemona. Microcosm for how Desdemona is used as an object throughout the play which Iago uses to destroy Othello, lack of control, display of innocence.
  • ‘Jewel’ connotations of wealth and prizes, Desdemona is valued only for a short time before she is later discarded.
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12
Q

‘Nor I; I would not there reside To put my father in impatient thoughts By being in his eye.’

A
  • Desdemona refuses to stay with her father as she does not want to anger him by being in his sight as she is aware she has dishonoured him.
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13
Q

‘That I did love the Moor to live with him.’

A
  • Asking to go with Othello to Cyprus.
  • Unconventional female voice.
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14
Q

‘Let me go with him.’

A
  • Imperative, Order
  • Uncharacteristic display of dominance, subverts expectations of women.
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15
Q

‘Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities in thy behalf.’

A
  • Desdemona will sing Cassio’s praises so that he returns to Othello’s good graces.
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16
Q

‘O, that’s an honest fellow.’

A
  • Dramatic irony
  • Blindness
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17
Q

‘I’ll perform it To the last article. My lord shall never rest,’

A
  • Irony, this is exactly what Iago wants.
  • Desdemona is kind, caring, loyal, innocent and determined.
  • This heightens the tragedy as she never strays from this and that is what kills her.
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18
Q

‘I’ll intermingle every thing he does With Cassio’s suit.’

A
  • Desdemona is a loyal friend.
19
Q

‘Thy solicitor shall rather die Than give thy cause away.’

A
  • Cataphoric reference.
  • Desdemona does die because Othello believes she and Cassio are having an affair.
20
Q

‘Sweet Desdemon;’

About Desdemona

A
  • Highlights Desdemona’s innocence.
21
Q

‘Whate’er you be, I am obedient.’

A
  • Desdemona loves Othello, and obeys his wishes as he is her husband and he “owns” her.
22
Q

‘If she be false, O then heaven mocks itself; I’ll not believe it.’

About Desdemona

A
  • Othello does not want to believe Desdemona is disloyal but, due to Iago’s manipulation, he is beginning to doubt her virtue.
23
Q

‘I had rather lose my purse Full of crusadoes;’

A
  • The handkerchief is important to Desdemona, demonstration of her love and loyalty to Othello.
24
Q

‘my noble Moor is true of mind and made no such baseness As jealous creatures are, it were enough To put him to ill thinking.’

A
  • Tragic awareness of how the handkerchief will look in the wrong hands.
  • Cataphoric reference, Othello sees Cassio with the handkerchief and it drives him further into jealously.
25
Q

‘Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio, My advocation is not now in tune: My lord is not my lord.’

A
  • ## anaphora, alludes to ‘I am not what I am,’ (Iago) and ‘O, you are well tuned now; But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music As honest as I am.’ Showcases Iago’s influence on Othello.
26
Q

‘Men’s natures wrangle with inferior things, Though great ones are their object.’

A
  • Desdemona believes something has gone wrong at work, and Othello was just taking it out on her, the “inferior thing.” She reasons that if we have a finger that aches, our whole body is filled with a sense of pain, and she concludes that she has been expecting too much of Othello.
  • Blames herself for her mistreatment by Othello.
27
Q

‘Nay, we must think men are not gods, Nor of the look for such observancy As fits the bridal.’

A
  • Desdemona states: if men are not gods, and if they can’t be expected to always act as if they are on their honeymoon, then she’s the one who is in the wrong.
28
Q

‘Heaven keep that monster from Othello’s mind.’

A
  • Desdemona hopes that the monster (Jealously) keeps away from Othello.
  • Ironic, Jealously has already begun to poison Othello’s mind.
29
Q

‘Prithee tonight Lay on my bed my wedding sheets’

A
  • Implication that Desdemona and Othello have not consumated thier marriage.
  • Symbol of the wedding sheets: would be hung out of the window the morning after to display the blood from the virgin woman. –> Blood, foreshadows Desdemona is killed in bed with her wedding sheets on the bed.
30
Q

‘He might have chid me so; for, in good faith, I am a child to chiding.’

A
  • Age gap
  • Desdemona feels Othello has told her off too cruely but she deserves it as she is alike to a child to him, therefore she must have angered him.
31
Q

‘And his unkindness may defeat my life, but never taint my love.’

A
  • Dramatic irony, Audience are aware Iago and Othello are plotting to kill her.
  • Cataphoric reference to her death.
  • ‘never taint my love’ evokes pathos from audience as Desdemona declares that even if Othello kills her, Desdemona will still love him. Demonstration of Desdemona’s unwaverig loyalty.
32
Q

‘If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me In one of those same sheets.’

A
  • Foreshadowing Desdemona’s location of death.
33
Q

‘She had a song of willow […] she died singing it. That song tonight Will not go from my mind.’

A
  • Foreshadows Desdemona’s fate, the song Desdemona’s mother died singing will not leave Desdemona’s head.
  • ‘willow’ song, willow trees were traditionally symbolic of forsaken lovers.
34
Q

‘God me such uses send Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!’

A
  • Rhyming couplets; suggests power, ironic as Desdemona will later die.
  • Desdemona wants God to give her good moral habits. If she has such habits she will never “pick” an excuse for bad from the bad of others. Instead, she will observe the bad of others in order to mend her own ways and become better.
35
Q

‘Yet I’ll not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow’

About Desdemona

A
  • Othello wants to preserve Desdemona’s beauty.
  • Purity displayed despite her alleged affair.
  • Othello references her skin colour which emphasises his insecurity surrounding his race. -> Desdemona’s skin should be preserved as it is superior to his.
36
Q

‘Nobody; I myself. Farewell.’

A
  • Desdemona risks her soul.
  • Belief in the Jacobean: lying would damn your soul and you would go to hell.
  • Demonstration of Desdemona’s unwavering loyalty and love for Othello.
37
Q

‘Have mercy on me!’

A
  • Tragic, Desdemona is begging for her life
  • Pathos, catharsis, mistreatment of women
38
Q

‘No, by my life and soul! Send for the man and ask him.’

A
  • anaphoric reference to Othello at the beginning of the play, ‘send for the lady,’
  • The civility and order has vanished in Cyprus and as a result Desdemona is killed unjustly by her husband who refuses to consider both sides of the story.
  • Emphasises Othello’s tragic downfall.
39
Q

‘He found it then; I never gave it him. Send for him hither; Let him confess a truth.’

A
  • The civility and order has vanished in Cyprus and as a result Desdemona is killed unjustly by her husband who refuses to consider both sides of the story.
  • Dramatic irony + pathos, the audience are aware of the truth however Othello refuses to listen to Desdemona.
40
Q

‘O, falsey, falsey murdered!’

A
  • Cathartic, Desdemona was killed for a crime she did not commit.
41
Q

‘I have not deserved this.’

A
  • Desdemona’s simple statement of innocence undeserving of such action strikes a powerfully poignant chord with the audience. She is completely innocent and cannot understand the shocking behaviour of her husband.
  • In addition, he is completely unrepentant when asked to make amends by those who witnessed the act, referring to her tears being false, and implying that her tears are not the only things that are false.
42
Q

‘My dear Othello!’

A
  • Declaration of love.
43
Q

‘The heavens forbid but that our loves and comforts should increase, Even as our days do grow.’

A
  • Desdemona truly believes that their love will continue to blossom and grow stronger.
  • Dramatic Irony, Iago is plotting their downfall mere paces away.

A Level English Literature (81 decks)

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