Othello Quotations Flashcards
To practice memorisation of quotes from Othello covering every act and every character
Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.
Act 1 scene 2
IAGO
Iago’s deceit and equally his honesty are shown
immoral
Look to her Moor if though hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee.
BRABANTIO
Act 1 scene 3
- foreshadowing
- plants a seed on doubt, perhaps unconsciously in Othello’s mind
- Brabantio does not trust his daughter and advises Othello to also
My life upon her faith!
OTHELLO
Act 1 scene 3 line
I’d bet my life she’d never lie to me! - shows conviction in his love for her
I follow him to serve my turn upon him
IAGO
Act 1 Scene 1
line 42
Iago’s deceit - sneaky
” Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time “
OTHELLO
Act 3 Scene 3
significance: highlighting falling away from love Desdemona is no longer as important as she used to be
” Zounds you are robbed! For shame…
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. “
IAGO
Act 1 Scene 2
Line
Desdemona’s purity is portrayed as a white lamb
black = evil
contrast in colours and their implications
Iago is stirring things up; causing mischief
” If I do vow a friendship I’ll perform it
To the last article “
DESDEMONA
Act Scene
Line
speaks of her own loyalty
” By Janus, I think no “
IAGO
Act 1 Scene 2
Line
Iago’s duplicity
Janus: god with two faces
I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee: no way but this; Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
Act 5 Scene Line OTHELLO - his dying words
… you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse
Act 1 Scene 1 Line IAGO - racial slur
” O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on “
IAGO
Act 3 Scene 3
Line 195 - 197
theme: jealousy
jealousy consumes those who take to it/entertain it
warning for Othello
Welcome to Cyprus goats and monkeys
Act Scene Line OTHELLO
Devil [striking her]
Act Scene Line OTHELLO
” Others there are
Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them “
IAGO
Act 1 scene 1
” Why, there’s no remedy. ‘Tis the curse of service.
Preferment goes by letter and affection… “
IAGO
Act 1 scene 1
If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son in law is far more fair than black
Act 1 Scene 3 Line DUKE
” I know, Iago,
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio “
Act 2 Scene 3
Line
OTHELLO
Iago, I know you are downplaying this for your love for Cassio
” Cassio, I love thee
But never more be officer of mine “
OTHELLO
Act 2 Scene 3
Line
” Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial “
CASSIO
Act 2 Scene 3
Line
theme: identity
Cassio’s
” In following him I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge not I for love and duty,
But seeming so for my peculiar end “
IAGO
Act 1 Scene 1
Line
highlights his real intentions; self-centred
” My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty “
DESDEMONA
Act 1 Scene 3
she ultimately professes her loyalty to her husband - she comes across as tactful, respectful, independent
shows she is truthful and thoughful
she is right that her priorities have changed and just as her mother showed her duty /loyalty to Brabaantio she has to do the same for her own husband
But jealous souls will not be answered so. They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they are jealous.
Act 3 Scene 4 Line EMILIA - shows an understanding of jealousy - she points out that jealous husbands like Othello never really need any cause to be jealous – they just are jealous - “monster / begot on itself, born on itself” - In other words, jealousy is generated out of nothing and multiplies or reproduces by feeding on itself
I have a pain upon my forehead, here.
ACT 3 Scene 3 Line 326 OTHELLO - context AO4: After Iago plants the seeds of jealousy in Othello’s mind, Othello complains of having a headache, which is a big, big clue that Othello thinks Desdemona’s been unfaithful. In sixteenth century literature (Shakespeare’s especially), any time a man has a headache or there’s some kind of reference to a man having horns growing out of his head, we can be pretty certain there’s a reference being made to cuckoldry. A “cuckold” is a man who has been cheated on by his wife, and “cuckolds” are frequently portrayed as having horns. This is why Othello says that married men are “fated” to suffer the “forked plague” (3.3.273) just a few lines earlier.
” She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her, that she did pity them “
OTHELLO
Act 1 Scene 3
Line 193 - 194
tells of the foundation of their love
his stories give him an exotic air significance: romantic tales/stories about travel, adventure, danger, and his enslavement lend him a romantic and exotic quality that appealed to Desdemona (and others who listened)
Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor
Act 1 Scene 3 Line FIRST SENATOR - highlights Othello’s status
No, Iago; I’ll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; And on the proof, there is no more but this: Away at once with love or jealousy
Act 3 Scene 2 Line OTHELLO
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely, but too well; Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme
Act 5 Scene 2 Line 402 - 406 OTHELLO - he doesn’t want to be remembered as a man who was easily jealous; perhaps to keep his good name and image untainted
Her father loved me, oft invited me, Still questioned me the story of my life From year to year
Act 1 Scene 3 Line OTHELLO - reveals that Brabantio once loved Othello, so long as Othello was a military hero defending Venice and not in a romantic relationship with his daughter.
I will not stay to offend you
Act 4 Scene 1 Line 277 DESDEMONA -
…It is a monster Begot upon itself, born on itself.
Act 3 Scene 4 Line EMILIA translation: jealousy is generated out of nothing and multiplies or reproduces by feeding on itself
Awake! What ho, Brabantio! Thieves, thieves! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!Thieves, thieves!
Act 1 Scene 1 Line 86 - 88 IAGO - points to idea that Desdemona is considered her father’s property - suggests that Othello has stolen her
” She is abused, stolen from me, and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks “
BRABANTIO
Act 1 Scene 3
She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished That heaven had made her such a man
Act Scene Line OTHELLO
But he, sir, had the election; And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof At Rhodes, at Cyprus and on other grounds Christian and heathen, must be beleed and calmed By debitor and creditor
Act 1 Scene 1 Line IAGO
I hate the Moor And it is thought abroad, that ‘twixt my sheets ‘Has done my office. I know not if’t be true, But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety
Act 1 Scene 3 Line IAGO - his reasoning for
the Moor; black Moor; his Moorship’s ancient
meaning of Moor:
The Moor is of a free and open nature, That thinks men honest that but seem to be so
Act 1 Scene 3 IAGO
Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ
Act 3 Scene 3 Line IAGO
Ha! I like not that
Act 3 Scene 3 Line 33 IAGO
Not to affect many proposèd matches Of her own clime, complexion, and degree, Whereto we see in all things nature tends— Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank, Foul disproportion thoughts unnatural— But pardon me—I do not in position Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear Her will, recoiling to her better judgment, May fall to match you with her country forms And happily repent
3.3.268-278 IAGO
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio
Act 3 Scene 3 Line IAGO
It is a creature That dotes on Cassio—as ‘tis the strumpet’s plague To beguile many and be beguiled by one.
Act 4 Scene 1 Line IAGO
He, when he hears of her, cannot restrain From the excess of laughter. Here he comes
Act 4 Scene 1 Line IAGO
For the love I bear for Cassio
DESDEMONA
Put money in thy purse
IAGO
I am glad to see thee mad
OTHELLO
I have not deserved this
DESDEMONA
…on her, with her
IAGO
- fellow almost damn’d - never set a squadron
IAGO A fellow almost damn’d in a fair wife, That never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knows More than a spinster
” I am not what I am. “
IAGO
Act 1 Scene 1
Whip me such honest knaves
Act 1 Scene 1 Line 49 IAGO
I saw Othello’s visage in his mind.
DESDEMONA
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.
CASSIO
Ay, past all surgery.
CASSIO
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.
OTHELLO
I understand a fury in your words, But not the words.
DESDEMONA
O thou weed, Who art so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne’er been born
OTHELLO
It makes us or it mars us
IAGO
Every way makes my gain
IAGO
Yet I’ll not shed her blood; Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster
OTHELLO
She is of so free, so apt, so kind, so blessed a spirit that she olds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested
IAGO
” I know my price, I am worth no worse a place “
IAGO
Act 1 Scene 1
” Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving “
IAGO
Act 2 scene 3
” Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds
By what you see them act “
BRABANTIO
Act 1 scene 2
” Call up my brother—Oh, would you had had her! “
BRABANTIO
Act 1 scene 2
expressing regret
Roderigo is now the preferred husband for his daughter, even though he expressed his dislike for him at the beginning
” Not I: I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. “
OTHELLO
Act 1 Scene 2
Shakespeare presents Othello as:
cool, calm and collected; eloquent, virtuous, in control; unruffled; confident
possibility of being arrogant or full of pride
Othello does not allow himself to be provoked by Iago
” There is no composition in these news
That gives them credit “
DUKE
Act 1 Scene 3
adds to the sense of confusion/uncertainty
conflict between the truth and lies/deceit
” To fall in love with what she feared to look on? “
BRABANTIO
Act 1 scene 3
” Her father loved me…”
OTHELLO
Act 1 scene 3
” Our General’s wife is now the General “
IAGO
Act 2 scene 3
” Was not that Cassio parted from my wife? “
OTHELLO
Act 3 scene 3
” And what’s he then that says I play the villain
When this advice is free I give, and honest “
IAGO
Act 2 scene 3
has just told Cassio to go ask for Desdemona’s help and Cassio has exited
beginning of his soliloquy
” So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all “
IAGO
Act 2 scene 3
” This fortification, gentlemen, shall we see’t? “
OTHELLO
Act 3 scene 2
Before Cassio meets Desdemona to plead with her Othello
” Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease,
Unfit for mine own purposes “
CASSIO
Act 3 scene 3
Othello has just arrived and Cassio feeling nervous leaves Desdemona
Iago is able to use this to his advantage with his cryptic reply of “Ha! I like not that.”
” I have no judgement in an honest face “
DESDEMONA
Act 3 scene 3
” Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think it
That he would sneak away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming “
IAGO
Act 3 scene 3
” I wonder in my soul
What you would ask me tha I should deny.
Or stand so mammering on? “
DESDEMONA
Act 3 scene 3
” I will deny thee nothing “
OTHELLO
Act 3 scene 3
repeated twice
” Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee! And when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again “
OTHELLO
Act 3 scene 3
foreshadowing
” Discern’st thou aught in that?
I he not honest? “
OTHELLO
Act 3 scene 3
growing suspicion/piqued interest
” By heaven, he echoes me,
As if there were some monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shown “
OTHELLO
Act 3 scene 3
” My Lord, you know I love you “
IAGO
Act 3 scene 3
