Othello Scene Summaries + Quotes

Question 1

1.1 summary

Answer 1

Roderigo distressed that Desdemona is w/ Othello
Iago… assures he hates Othello, denied of promotion, only continues to serve for revenge
Iago and Roderigo awaken Brabantio

Question 2

1.1 quotes

Answer 2

‘I know my price’
‘Nor all masters/ cannot be truly followed.’
‘But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve’ ‘I am not what I am.’
‘Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/ Is tipping your white ewe!’
‘Fathers from hence trust not your daughters’ minds/ By what you see them act’

Question 3

1.2 summary

Answer 3

Iago tells Othello of Brabantio’s anger, Cassio arrives w/ word that the general has been summoned by the Duke
Brabantio informs the Duke’s council of Othello

Question 4

1.2 quotes

Answer 4

‘My parts, my title and my perfect soul/ Shall manifest me rightly.’
‘O thou foul thief’
‘For an abuser of the world, a practiser/ Of arts inhibited and out of warrant’
‘Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.’

Question 5

1.3 summary

Answer 5

Othello and Brabantio arrives, B makes accusation, O says Des married out of own free-will, Des supports
On to business of going to Cyprus
Iago thinks Othello has cuckholded him, will make O believe Cassio is his wife’s lover

Question 6

1.3 quotes

Answer 6

‘She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted/ By spells and medicines’
‘She has deceived her father, and may thee.’
‘reverened signiors/ My very noble and approved good masters’
‘If you find me foul of this report…/ let your sentence/ Even fall upon my life.’
‘Yet she wished/ That heaven had made her such a man.’
‘Tis in ourselves that we are thus or/ thus.’
‘Will tenderly be lead by th’nose/ As asses are.’

Question 7

2.1 summary

Answer 7

In Cyprus, discussion of storm which has wrecked the Turkish fleet… Othello’s ship has also disappeared
Iago arrives w/ Desdemona, Emilia, and Roderigo.
Iago misogyny scene
Othello arrives, greets Des w/ affection
Iago proposes plot that des is in love w/ cas
Tells Roderigo to engage in a fight w/ Cassio
Iago wants to make O sick w/ jealousy + gain points

Question 8

2.1 quotes

Answer 8

‘Players in your housewifery, and housewives in/ Your bed.’
‘You rise to lay, and go to bed to work.’
‘As ‘honest’ as I am.’
‘I do suspect the lusty Moor/ Hath leaped into my seat’
‘Make the moor thank me, love me, and reward me’
‘O my fair warrior!’
‘I cannot speak enough of this content:/ It stops me here; it is too much of joy.’

Question 9

2.2 summary

Answer 9

Reading of proclamation of O’s of a public holiday. All the soldiers are at liberty until eleven at night, when they must return to duty.

Question 10

2.3 summary

Answer 10

Cassio insists wine will make him drunk, Iago tell him to drink for the sake of the holiday.
When Iago goes to take his guard post he is drunk.
Cassio + Montano fight
Iago sends Roderigo to sound the alarm, Othello dismisses Cassio
Iago says the only way to regain his position is to convince Des to make his case

Question 11

2.3 quotes

Answer 11

‘Reputation, reputation, reputation!’
‘I have lost the immortal part of myself’
‘Iago is most honest’
‘As I am an honest man’
‘Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit’
‘Too severe a moraller’
‘Our general’s wife is now the general’
‘That says I play the villain’
‘I’ll pour the pestilence into his ear’

Question 12

3.1 summary

Answer 12

Iago sends Emilia to Cassio; she assures him that Desdemona favours his cause and agrees to help

Question 13

3.1 quote

Answer 13

‘I never knew/ A florentine more kind and honest.’

Question 14

3.3 summary

Answer 14

Des agrees to plead case w/ O
Cassio withdraws as I+O approach… I says suspicious
Des begins to ask about Cassio
I begins to fuel suspicion
Des drops handkerchief, Emilia gives to Iago
Iago says Cas has Des handkerchief
O swears vengeance… I + O swear loyalty to each other

Question 15

3.3 quotes

Answer 15

‘I’ll intermingle everything he does/ With Cassio’s suit.’ ‘I prithee name the time; but let it not/ Exceed three days.’
‘I will deny thee nothing.’
‘But I do love thee; and when I love thee not,/ Chaos is come again’
‘For she had eyes and chose me’
‘O, blood, blood, blood!’ ‘O, damn her, damn her!’
‘I think Cassio’s an honest man.’
‘O, beware, my lord, of jealousy./ It is a green-eyed monster, which doth mock’
‘I am your own forever’

Question 16

3.4 summary

Answer 16

D speaks of Cassio, O demands the handkerchief
Tries to change subject, O leaves in rage
I + C appear, D says O’s behaviour is odd… I volunteers to see the general
E believes O may be jealous of his wife, even though he has no reason to be.
Bianca + Cassio scene, C asks B to make a copy of the handkerchief he has found

Question 17

3.4 quotes

Answer 17

‘Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind misgives’
‘They are all stomachs, and we all but food’
‘They’re jealous: ‘tis a monster/ Begot upon itself, born on itself.’
‘Heaven keep that monster from Othello’s mind!’
‘Take it, and do’t’
‘To have him see me womaned’

Question 18

4.1 summary

Answer 18

Iago says Cassio has admitted to sleeping with/ Desdemona
Othello speaks incoherently, faints
I plan… Cassio speaks of Bianca, O believes he is speaking of Des
O thinks Cassio has given the handkerchief to a harlot.
O says he will kill Des
Lodovico brings news that O is wanted back in Venice, Cassio in charge of Cyprus
When D is pleased, he hits her
L = suprised

Question 19

4.1 quotes

Answer 19

‘With her, on her, what you will.’
‘He is much changed.’
‘It is not honesty in me to speak/ What I have seen and known.’
‘I am sorry that I am deceived in him.’
‘A horned man’s a monster and a best.’
‘My heart is turned to stone;’ ‘O, the world hath not a sweeter creature.’
‘I will chop her into messes- cuckhold me!’
‘Devil [He strikes her]’

Question 20

4.2 summary

Answer 20

O quizzes Emilia who says no reason to suspect D + C.
Ignores Des denials, leaves in rage as Emilia reappears.
When Des tells Em of O’s states she fetches Iago, attempt at reassurance.
Roderigo complains Iago has done nothing for him, he says he will kill Cassio to keep O + Des in reach

Question 21

4.2 quote

Answer 21

‘For if she be not honest, chaste and true,/ There’s no man happy: the purest of their wives/ Is foul as slander.’
‘And hell gnaw his bones!/ Why should he call her whore?’
‘I understand a fury in your words,/ But not the words.’
‘Lay on my bed my wedding sheets.’
‘Unkindness may do much;/ And his unkindness may defeat my life,/ But never taint my love.’
‘O thou weed,/ Who art so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet’
‘The fountain from the which my current runs,/ Or else dries up’
‘I pray you, be content; ‘Tis but his humour’

Question 22

4.3 summary

Answer 22

Willow scene
O tells Des to get ready for bed and to dismiss Emilia
E + D chat

Question 23

4.3 quotes

Answer 23

‘Get you to bed on th’instant’
‘My love doth so approve him,/ That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns-/…. Have grace and favour in them.’
‘If i do die before thee, prithee shroud me/ In one of those same sheets.’
‘Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong for the whole world.’
‘Who would not make her husband a cuckhold to make him a monarch?’
‘But I do think it is their husbands faults/ If wives do fall.’
‘And have we not affections,/ Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?/ Then let them use us well; else let them know,/ The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.’

Question 24

5.1 summary

Answer 24

Iago sets Roderigo to ambush Cassio; hopes that Roderigo and Cassio will kill each other, for Roderigo may claim repayment from him and Cassio might disprove his story
Roderigo is wounded by Cassio. Iago wounds Cassio from behind
Iago returns, pretends to be enraged at the assault of Cassio, kills Roderigo.

Question 25

5.1 quotes

Answer 25

‘If Cassio do remain,/ He hath a daily beauty in his life/ That makes me ugly’
‘O brave Iago, honest and just,/ That has such noble sense of my friend’s wrong,/ Thou teachest me.’
‘O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!’

Question 26

5.2 summary

Answer 26

O overcome w/ love for Des… will kill her bloodlessly
D continues to decline the affair
O kills her, denies he kills her and then admits
Emilia denies Des = unfaithful, O says Iago proved it
Handkerchief story comes out
Iago kills Emilia and flees
O attacks I and wounds him
O kills himself, I never speaks again

Question 27

5.2 quotes

Answer 27

‘Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men./ Put out the light,/ and then put out the light’
‘But thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee/ And love thee after.’
‘I would not kill thy unprepared spirit’
‘She’s like a liar gone to burning hell:/ ‘Twas I that killed her.’
‘My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.’
‘Of one that loved not wisely but too well;/ Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,/ Perplexed in the extreme;’
‘A guiltless death I die’
‘Nobody; I myself. Farewell’
‘You told a lie, an odious, damned lie’
‘No, I will speak as liberal as the north; Let heaven and men and devils, let them all/ All, all, cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak.’