Other random othello Quotes that might be useful

Question 1

Othello kills Desdemona

Answer 1

“Down, strumpet!” - insults her - implies physical action
the final four adjacency pairs use time to build tension as she goes from asking for banishment, to a delay of a day, to half an hour, to the minutes it takes to pray - then O’s response - ‘It is too late’ is final - her death is now inevitable
[he smothers her]

Question 2

Moment of realisation for Othello - long monologue

Answer 2

“oh, vain boast!” - recognises his hubris
“Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.” - metaphors for end of his life - the sea imagery is fitting and has been used before

Question 3

moment of realisation - O refers to himself in 3rd person

Answer 3

“Where should Othello go?—
Now, how dost thou look now?”
- He feels there is no way out or remedy. He is alone, isolated, without a home. He switches next to talking to Desdemona’s body, again referencing fate’ ill-starred’ meaning unlucky.

Question 4

Othello at the end reflects on his former deeds

Answer 4

• He now tells of his former brave deeds and heroism. ‘twenty times your stop’ - he was more than usually strong and brave thus heroic. he now accepts his fate though
• circular structure - no change

Question 5

Murdered out of honour

Answer 5

“An honorable murderer, if you will,
For naught I did in hate, but all in honor.”
- this is how he wants to be remembered though the oxymoronic ‘honorable murderer’ implies this will not be the case. His idea of honour could be seen as an outdated idea relating to the chivalric code of medieval societies
- still not accepting murder is wrong

Question 6

Othello’s final monologue - remember my service

Answer 6

“I have done the state some service, and they know ’t.” - wants to be remembered well
- is he upset that the state will now disregard all that he has done for them, as if it meant nothing? His pride still tries to assert itself

Question 7

Othello’s final monologue - rhyming

Answer 7

“When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,”
- the rhyme adds formality

Question 8

structure of O’s final monologue

Answer 8

4 clauses starting with ‘of one…’ are how he wants to define himself. Each is longer than the last to build effect.
He speaks of his intense and passionate love, his jealousy when provoked, compares himself to another minority ‘base indian’.
Letters will ‘set down’ his story.

Question 9

Othello’s internalised racism in final monologue

Answer 9

“in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state”
- Aleppo is a city in Syria once a centre of Muslim resistance against the Crusaders.
O sees his worse self as a Muslim resisting the Venetian state and his better self, as the Christian crusader killing ‘the circumcised dog’
post -colonial viewpoint? Internalised racism? He was culturally polyvalent in that he has both aspects in his character - his original and his adopted/ imposed cultural identities.

Question 10

kiss at end

Answer 10

“I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.”
Kisses DESDEMONA, dies
- compare to Romeo and Juliet
- the couplet begins with ‘kissed’ and ends in ‘kiss’, enclosing the deadly side of their love ‘killed thee’ and killing myself’ in the middle.
Interpret this as you wish - either the love was the pre-eminent part of their relationship or it was destroyed from within. The consonance of ‘k’ dominates the lines but they end with the soft and sibilant ‘s’