Past paper questions Flashcards
‘It is Desdemona’s naivety about men that brings about her downfall.’
In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents Desdemona in this extract and elsewhere in the play. (2022)
P1) Agree - Desdemona’s loyalty to both Cassio and Iago as friend’s can be linked to her naievity as she is completely unaware of the implications of her interactions.
*1) “For thy solicitor shall rather die than give thy cause away” (3.3)
2) “O that’s an honest fellow” (3.3)
3) “But now I find I had suborned the witness, and he’s indicted fasley” (3.4) CONT - women were expected to take the blame for a failed marriage.
4) DOOMED INNOCENT
P2) Agree - She naively beleive’s that Othello can change as a person..
1) “I think the sun where he was born / Draw all such humors from him” (3.4)
2) “Valiant moor” (1.3) -> “My dear Othello” (2.1) [see’s him as more then racial stereotypes]
3) “Heaven keep that monster from Othello’s mind” (3.4)
4) “by this light of heaven, I know now how I lost him” (4.2)
5) “Kill me tomorrow: let me live tonight!” (5.2)
*6) “I wonder in my soul What you would ask me that I should deny” (3.3)
7) Othello’s the TRAGIC HERO
P3) Disagree - Hate plays a part in the fall of Desdemona and Othello’s relationship, she could not control her fate + feminists may argue that she’s in an oppressive patriarchy in which she was doomed anyway.
1) “She was as false as water / Thou rash as fire” (5.2)
2) “I know not where is that Promethean heat” (5.2) [AO3]
3) “When I have plucked thy rose, I cannot give it vital growth again” (5.2)
4) “It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul- “ (5.2)
*5) “Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time” (3.3)
‘By the end of the play, love and loyalty have been completely destroyed.’ In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents ideas about love and loyalty in this extract and elsewhere in the play’ (2021)
P1) Agree - Othello’s loyalty and love to nobel values and heroism becomes debased as he fufils the role of the tragic hero.
1) “With this little arm and this good sword, I have made my way through more impediments than twenty times your stop” (5.2)
2) “Is there a division ‘twixt my lord and Cassio?” (4.1)
3) “Valiant moor” (1.3) CONT - racial steryotypes.
*4) “and you the blacker devil!” (5.2)
*5) “Thou art a devil” (5.2)
6) “Exchange me for a goat” (3.3)
7) Typicality of tragedy
P2) Agree - Othello and Desdemona’s relationship changes from a symbol of love and loyalty to promiscuity and betrayal.
1) “Not only take away, but let your sentence even fall upon my life” (1.3)
2) “O my souls joy!” (2.1) > “A horned man’s a monster and a beast” (4.1) CONT - Cuckolds.
3) “For she had eyes and chose me” (3.3) > “I’ll tear her to pieces” (3.3)
*4) “She was false as water / Thou rash as fire” (5.2)
MOTIF, Handkercheif
5) “To kiss and talk to” (3.3)
6) “T’would make her amiable, and subdue my father entirely to her love” (3.4)
7) “I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin and let him find it” (3.3)
P3) Disagree - Desdemona is loyal and loves Othello till the end.
*1) “Nobody - I myself - farewell. Commend me to my kind lord” (5.2)
2) “And his unkindness may defeat my life / But never taint my love”. (4.2)
3) “Not the world’s mass of vanity could make me” (4.2)
*4) “A guiltless death I die” (5.2)
5) Typicality of the DOOMED INNOCENT
‘Iago does not understand love’. In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents Iago’s attitudes to love in this extract and elsewhere in the play. (2020)
P1) Agree - Iago’s perception of love is that of the physical body and he doesn’t understand the spiritual connection that can be made of love due to his extreme debasement.
1) “And nothing can or shall content my soul Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife” (2.1)
*2) “It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will”
3) “A thing for me?” (3.3)
4) “In Venice they do not let God see the pranks / They are not show their husbands. Their best conscience Is not to leav’t undone, but keep’t unknown” (2.1) CONT - Venetian women
BEDSHEET MOTIF
:(
6) “strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated” (2.3)
P2) Agree - Iago’s inability to make connections with other people, he is inherently selfish.
1) “I follow but myself, heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty” (1.1)
2) “I will wear my heart on my sleeve / For daws to peck at. I am not what I am” (1.1) [Metaphor for Iago’s pathological fear of honesty. ‘Daws’ connote death and bad omens, suggesting that he’d rather endure physical pain then be seen for who he truly is].
3) “What’s he then that says I play the villain, When this advice is free I give, and honest” (2.3)
4) “Divinity of hell! When devils will the blackest sins put on, they do suggest at first with heavenly shows” (2.3)
*5) “put money in thy purse” (1.3) -> “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse” (1.3)
P3) Disagree - Iago understands love very well, this is because he knows how to perfectly manipulate it for personal gain.
1) “His soul is so enfettered to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, Even as he appetite shall play the god” [soul motif] (2.3)
*2) “Virtue? A fig!” (1.3)
3) “A good wench; give it me” (3.3) - He uses his wife to get the handkerchief.
4) “The old black ram is tupping your white ewe” (1.1)
5) “With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio” (2.1)
‘Typically, texts about husbands and wives present marriage from a male point of view.’
In the light of this view, discuss how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Othello and Desdemona in this extract and elsewhere in the play. (Sample)
P1) Othello and Desdemona’s relationship go from being a symbol of love to a symbol of lust, due to Iago’s corruption of Othello’s mind.
1) “Our great captains captain” (2.1)
2) “ Perdition catch my soul But I do love thee! And when I love thee not Chaos is come again” (3.3)
3) “O my fair warrior” (1.3) + “my dear Othello” (1.3)
4) “His soul is so enfettered to her love, That she may make, unmake, do what she list, Even as her appetite shall play the god” (2.3)
*5) “That we can call these delicate creatures ours and not their appetites!” (3.3)
* 6) “If I do prove her haggard” (3.3)
7) “Sweating little devil” (4.3)
P2) From Othello’s point of view, Desdemona’s purity is something that needs to be ‘fixed’ in order to create balance again.
*1) “Even then this forkèd plague is fated to us” (3.3)
2) “promethean heat” (5.2)
3) “When I have plucked thy rose, I cannot give it vital growth again” (5.2)
4) “strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated. Good, good; the justice of it pleases; very good.” (4.1)
P3) However, it is clear that Emilia still has strong opinions about Desdemona and Othello’s relationship. Instead of it being from the men’s point of view, she argues that both have a part to play in the relationship.
1) “The ills we do, their ills instruct us so” (3.4)
2) “Their wives have sense like them: they see and smell, And have their palates both sweet and sour as husbands have” (4.3)
3) “I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak” (5.2)
4) “It is a great price for a small vice” (3.4).
