Othello's 'otherness' Flashcards
Act 1, Scene 1
IAGO: ‘Now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe!’
-EPIZEUXIS of repeating now emphasis that it is happening right now prompting immediate action, continuing to repeat it reinforce how grotesque, awful and constant the situation is
-ZOOMORPHISM adding layers of vulgarity suggesting the relations are animalistic, making it a crude and immoral act
-DIACOPE of repeating now with very in the middle is emphatic, intensifies the urgency of the situation
Act 1, Scene 2
BRABANTIO: ‘Enchanted, chains of magic, foul charms, drugs and minerals’
-Shakespeare uses a SEMANTIC FIELD of sorcery to portray how the only conceivable way in Brabantio’s mind that Othello, a black man could be with Desdemona is through devilish enchantments to entice his daughter
Act 1, Scene 2
SENATOR: ‘We must not think that the Turk is so unskillful to leave that latest which concerns him first’
-DRAMATIC IRONY saying that we should not underestimate the Turks parallels how the characters underestimate Iago and his deceptiveness despite being acutely aware of this other issues
-start of the EXTENDED METAPHOR of an ‘other’/enemy being active
Act 1, Scene 3
BRABANTIO: ‘She is abused, stolen from me and corrupted by spells and medicines’
POLYPTOTON (using the same root word)of Othello as an abuser
Act 1, Scene 3
BRABANTIO:‘To fall in love with what she feared to look upon’
-Perpetuating racial stereotypes
-Brabantio passing these views onto Desdemona, or so he thinks
Act 1, Scene 3
BRABANTIO: ‘So we let the Turk of Cyprus as beguile we lost it not so long as we can smile’
-HYPERBOLE of the personal and the political, rejects this solution, comparing Othello to the Turks to highlight the impact of him entering Brabantio’s family to be of the same impact as a foreign invasion, using his personal circumstances likening it to the political to highlight the severity.
-Indicates that Othello’s ‘OTHERNESS’ and blackness will haunt him and taint the way others perceive him and his family, shows Brabantio’s concern with social status over the happiness of his daughter
Act 4, Scene 1
[HE STRIKES HER]
-Othello’s violent and savage behaviour feeds into RACIAL STEREOTYPES and is seen as FATED by the audience as they expect a black man to have violence intrinsically embedded in his nature
Act 3, Scene 4
OTHELLO: ‘His spirits should hunt’
-reinforces RACIST STEREOTYPES that black men are intrinsically linked to witchcraft which is a stark contrast to CHRISTIAN VALUES
Act 3, Scene 4
‘There’s magic in the web of it’
-handkerchief has MAGICAL CONNOTATIONS and a sense of power that can alter relationships, contrasts Othello’s earlier aversion towards witchcraft, Iago’s manipulation has revealed his ‘true’ nature a black man
Act 5, Scene 2
MONTANO: ‘O monstrous act!’
-exemplifies Iago’s role as a TRAGIC VILLAIN
-ANIMALISTIC LANGUAGE used to describe Othello’s doings → shows how Iago has orchestrated the whole plan to alter the other character’s views to align with his prejudiced views of Othello as some beast
