othello quotes Flashcards
“she loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them”
•justify marriage
•his equanimity is on full display- delivers with measured, composed tone
•parallelism + chiasmus- emphasises reciprocity of their relationship
•alliterative parallelism + plosive suggest assertiveness
•chias mic placement of ‘she’ + ‘I’ visually reinforces tightness of their bond
“if after every tempest come such calms, may the winds blow till they have wakened death…Olympus-high and such again as hells from heaven. If it were now to die ‘Twere not to be most happy, for I fear my soul hath he content to absolute that not another comfort like to this succeed in unknown fate”
•metaphor of sea + storm- metaphorical storm greater than physical-dramatic irony- personification
•’death’- foreshadowing- emphasises-hyperbolic lang
•’Olympus’- links to megalopsychia- elevates him in society-true to tragic hero
•can die happily
•semantic field of death- contrasted by Des “heavens forbid”- hint of tragedy to come + contrasts Iago- sexual + physical imagery
•tragic blindness- naive
“yet she must die,else she’ll betray more men. Put out the light and then put out the light!… when I have plucked the rose I cannot give it vital growth again… justice to break her sword!”
•adopting some of Iago’s mindset
•light also links to Iago-takes advantage of the dark- recurring image- links to religion, God can’t see him
•at the prime of her life- will whither when she is killed
•’rose’- moment of realisation- Des often linked to nature
•’break sword’- almost like an honour killing- thinks he’s got not choice-adopted his own sense of justice
‘He smothers her’
“what noise is this? Not dead?”
“My wife, my wife! What wife? I have no wife… a huge eclipse of sun and moon”
•choice of death- purposeful + deliberate as it would take such a long time- wants to see her as pure still, still respects their marriage as he hasn’t damaged the sheets or her
•thinks she isn’t dead yet- smothers again
•disjointed speech- beginning of anagnorisis
•’my wife’- may be his reputation-throws weight that he not the conventional hero
•‘huge eclipse’- trying to shift blame- blaming natural causes- actions are of global importance
whole speech from “behold I have a weapon” until “liquid fire”
“soul from heaven…my girl”
•end of his journey
•imagery of the sea- reference to being in Cyprus- gone through physical storm now going through emotional storm
•’heaven’- pay for actions in hell
•innocent + pure- did they have time to cortinate their marriage?- make death even
“for here’s a young and sweating devil, here, that commonly rebels”
•telling Des her hand requires praying to stay clear of temptation- it is not like the devil and may wish to rebel
•his way of accusing her of doing sinful acts- which insinuates that he suspects her affair
•views it as a sign that she is rebelling against her marriage commitment
•ironic that he suspects her and acts jealousy straight after Desdemona vouch for him never acting in envy
“circumcised dog” ‘he stabs himself’ speaks again [kisses Desdemona and dies]
(Lodovico) [to Iago] “O spartan dog”
•animal imagery- internalised racist language used to describe himself- accepted fate as someone who must be killed in order to protect peace
•defending Venice in killing himself
•megalopsychia- distance between how he perceives himself vs how others see him
•importance of speaking before his death- last plea
•Lodovico is the last to speak- takes control- mirrors what Othello says + anaphoric to what Iago said at the start
•Cassio’s rep is restored- didn’t die which traditionally doesn’t place as victim- opposite arch to Othello- parallel to emphasise how far he fell
“how shall I murder him Iago?”
“I would have him nine years a- killing. A fine woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman”
(Iago) “do it with poison, strangle her in her bed- even the bed she hath contaminated”
•can’t even make his own decisions- made his judgement but needs to know how
•wants him to die as long as possible- switches language use
•Othello has other plans but Iago told him what to do- foreshadowing- exactly what Othello does
