Theme: Jealousy

Question 1

‘O beware, my lord, of jealousy:/ It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The meat it feeds on’ (3.3) Iago

Answer 1

• sinful associations of jealousy and its corruptive nature

Question 2

‘O beware, my lord, of jealousy:/ It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The meat it feeds on’ (3.3) Iago

Answer 2

• sinful associations of jealousy and its corruptive nature

Question 3

Give quotes for race, religion and jealousy

Answer 3

• ‘I had rather be a toad/ And live upon the vapor of a dungeon/ Than keep a corner in the thing I love/ For others’ uses’ (3.3) Othello. Started to be manipulated by Iago.
• ‘Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip?/ Some bloody passion shakes your very frame’ (5.2) Desdemona
• ‘Who, he? I think the sun where he was born/ Drew all such humor’s from him’ 3.4) Desdemona responding to Emilia about Othello jealousy
• Othello says he is ‘one not easily jealous but being wrought,/ Perplexed in the extreme’ (5.2) Othello recognises it himself
• Othello thinks that his blackness presupposes him to rage ‘I am black/ And have not those soft parts of conversation’ (3.3)
• Iago takes advantage of Othello’s (supposedly racial) impulsivity: ‘Trifles light as air/ Are to the jealous confirmations strong/ As proofs of holy writ’ (3.3)

Question 4

Give quotes to show the link between femininity and jealousy

Answer 4

• Othello is reluctant to believe D is committing adultery ‘My life upon her faith’ (1.3)
• Othello begins to doubt her loyalty saying ‘her name, that was fresh/ As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black’ (3.3). Fears around sexual purity and correuption

Question 5

give quotes to show the handkerchief and jealousy

Answer 5

• shows the progress of love to jealousy
• Othello tells D the handkerchief posseses magical qualities ‘If she lost it/ Or made gift of it, my fathers eye’/ Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt/ After new fancies’ (3.4)
• Desdemona understands as she says to Emilia ‘it were enough// To put him to ill thinking’ (3/4)
• Iago able to use it against their marriage: ‘The Moor already changes with my poison’ (3.3) showing the corrosive effects of his words on Othello.
• Othello’s rage overflows at the end of the play: ‘I saw my handkerchief in’s hand./ O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart,/ And makest me call what I intend to do/ A murder’ (5.2)