Othello Key Scene Act 3 Scene iii Flashcards
How does Othello begin to decline from this scene forward?
Slides from verse to prose
Falls into an epliectic fit
Insults and strikes Desdemona publicity and becomes incoherent in public
Treats Desdemona as a prositute
Quotes in Act Three Scene Three to show Othello clearly loves Desdemona
“When I love thee not
Chaos is come again”
Quotes to show Iago makes Othello question Cassio
“Did Michael Cassio, when you wooed my lady, know of your love?”
“Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio”
Quotes to show Iago sows the seeds of jealousy
“O beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on”
- Ironic as Iago is the monster who feeds off of Othello’s weakness.
Quotes to show Othello is manipulated by Iago’s ways
“What dost thou say…What dost thou ask…Why of thy thought…What dost thou think?
Quote to show Othello remains noble and trusts Desdemona
he has not “the smallest fear or doubt of her revolt,
For she had eyes, and chose me”
What is the importance of Othello’s soliloquy in Act Three Scene Three
Up until this point soliloquy was only used for Iago, yet now we see inside Othello’s mind. The seed has been planted in Othello’s mind and he begins to question Desdemona’s loyalty. Soliloquy is associated with evil thoughts and now Othello is associated with evil.
The soliloquy physically isolates them on stage which shows how is now isolated through Iago’s manipulation.
Fatal flaw of jealousy is revealed
Poisonous quote
“The Moor already changes with my poison”
Handkerchief significance/quotes
The handkerchief drops on the floor because Desdemona was comforting Othello who has a “pain upon his forehead” - represents the inner turmoil/conflict created by Iago and the effect this has had on him.
Emilia takes the handkerchief and says “My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Wooed me to steal it”
Suggests Iago has been asking for it for a long time - even before Othello married Desdemona - his movies for why he wants revenge on Othello are unclear.
Quote to show Othello already believes Iago when asking for proof
“Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore!”
Quote for inner conflict
“I think my wife honest, and I think she is not; I think thou art just and I think thou art not”
Briefly describe what happens in Act Three Scene Three/Why it is important.
This is the crucial scene of the play. The sinister plan which has so far been only in Iago’s mind is here released to do its deadly work. The scene begins with deceptive lightness, in which Desdemona pleasantly and most merrily reassures anxious Cassio after he ruined his reputation due to the wicked intrigues of Iago. But even at the very beginning the ominous word ‘honest’ applied to Iago, this time by Desdemona herself, is a warning signal. And it is not long before we see Iago, in his guise as Othello’s true-hearted defender, begin his sinister work poisoning the Moor’s mind with doubts of his wife’s faithfulness to him. After Emilia picks up the symbolic handkerchief Iago plans to put it in Cassio’s possession to make it appear as though Desdemona is having an affair with him. The whole scene is a king of horrifying mixture of both wit and witchcraft, for we are not only made aware of Iago’s nature, but also of the diabolical cunning spell he casts over Othello. By the time Iago leaves him for the fist time, Othello is more than half-prepared to think Desdemona unfaithful; when he and Iago meet again, he is entirely in Iago’s fatal power, a noble character almost literally possessed with evil.
What is the quote from Iago which sows the first seed of doubt in Othello’s mind??
“I like not that” in response to Cassio leaving Desdemona’s company.
Desdemona’s misjudgment of Iago
“O, that’s an honest fellow”
Quote to show how Cassio hints at Iago’s d parasitic ways
Disturbing personification, Cassio fears that the enforced distance between himself and Othello may “feed upon such nice and waterish diet, /Or breed itself…out of circumstances.” Here he completely describes how Othello will feed of the diet of lies Iago gives him.
