Setting Flashcards
‘What tell’st thou of robbing? This is Venice; my house is not a grange’
1.1 Brabantio
In the play, both Venice and Cyprus represent hugely different worlds and the shift in setting is reflected in the shifts in plot, action, and characterisation. Venice is generally depicted as social sophistication throughout the play. The construction of the metaphor to refer to his house as a barn reinforces Shakespeare’s attempts to solidify Venice an environment of social order.
‘The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds’
‘The wind-shaked surge with high monstrous mane seems to cast water on the burning bear’
2.1
Act two opens on the shore of Cyprus, in the midst of a fierce storm that has shipwrecked most of the Turkish fleet/ invasion. In this quote, Montano likens the storm to an assault by the sea upon the sky
Foul weather is often used to foreshadow tragic events.
By heaven, my blood begins my safer guide to rule’
influence of the isle of Venice
‘Have you forget all sense of place and duty?’
Links to themes of natural order
Iago condemns Montano and Cassio, who represent order and stability as a means of their ranks
The rhetorical question reminds the two of their role but reveals Iago’s influence in dismantling order, in which he can assume his position as an agent of chaos.
Through his refute, he is able to take on the role as an emblem of peace and stability to further deceive the characters.
He is able to tamper with the rigid Venetian hierarchy
‘This is the night that either makes me or fordoes me quite’
5.2
His final line in act 5 scene 1 reveals how he is an agent of chaos, the use of the full rhyme depicts Iago as an exultant. Cyprus has been controlled by chaos, his darkest actions conducted in the dark, a symbolic means to identify Iago with evilness and villainy. Links to deception.
