Act 1

• Act 1

  • Scene 1: Iago and Roderigo at the start + Iago on Othello and Desdemona‘s marriage to Barbantio
  • Scene 2 - O vs Barb
  • Scene 3 - O’s comments on the marriage/their love + Des’ comments on the marriage/their love + Iago’s comments on his hate
• Scene 1: Iago and Rod at the start

  “I follow him to serve my turn upon his.” - Iago

  • A means to an end
  • Iago’s duplicity

  Critic:

  • Scragg
  • “Personifies self-interest, hypocrisy and cunning
• Scene 1: Iago and Rod at the start

  “Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago. / In following him, I follow but myself.” - Iago

  • First Person
  • He is aware of his evil identity
• Scene 1: Iago and Rod at the start

  “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / for daws to peck at.” - Iago

  • Open with his emotions
  • Able to manipluate them so others do his will
• Scene 1: Iago and Rod at the start

  “I am not what I am.” - Iago

  • Metaphor - his dishonesty causes O’s harmatia
  • Biblical Allusion - inversion of God’s line in Exodus
  • Irony - Warning Rod that he’s evil and can deceive him

  Critic:

  • Coleridge
  • “Being next to the devil”
• Scene 1: Iago on O‘s and Des’ marriage

  “Theives! Theives!”

  • Excalmatory sentences/ Repetition
  • Feeds on Barb‘s fears which consequently objectify Des
  • Jacobean audience - reputation of a man depends on the actions of his daughter
• Scene 1: Iago and Rod at the start

  ”I am worth no worse place.” - Iago

  • Alliteration of ‘w’
  • Gives a mellow tone and the effect is to make us dazed
  • He often uses this when talking about himself suggests his self-infatuation
• Scene 1: Iago on O’s and Des’ marriage

  “An old black ram / is tupping your white ewe.” - Iago

  • Zoomorphism - O’s ruining Des, views on racial superiority / Des’ comparison to an animal is supposed to evoke purity however suggests that women are lower than men
  • Juxtaposition - of colour (white = innocence and black = evil), they are opposites, not meant to belong together
  • Possesive Pronuoun ‘your’ - women are possessions

  Critic:

  • Loomba
  • ”Black-skinned people were usually typed as godless, bestial and hideous”
• Scene 1: Iago on O’s and Des’ marriage

  “You’ll have your daughter / covered with a Barbary horse.” - Iago

  • Zoomorphine - black people were lower than animals on the great chain of being / Barbarnism has negative connotations
  • Crude language - Iago says this as he knows that Barb will feel his manly honour challenged by the fact that his daughter is having sex

  Critic:

  • Loomba
  • ”London was increasingly hostile to foreigners“
• Scene 1: Iago on O’s and Des’ marriage

  “To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor>” - Iago

  • Imagery of entrapment - they believe that she has no choice, links to the Jacobean belief that black people were engaged in magic, something Barb references later
  • Irony and Foreshadowing - as O strangles Des to death

  Critic:

  • Newman
  • ”The marriage is ‘contrary to nature’
• Scene 2 - O vs Barb

  “But that I love the gentle Desdemona .” - Othello

  • First of the men to speak of women as something to love and not possess
  • Challenges Jacobean/ Iago’s views on black people

  Critic:

  • Rymer
  • “A woman without sense because she married a blackamoor”
• Scene 2: O vs Barb

  “I must be found.” - Othello

  • First person pronoun - his character is bold, brave and responsible. He is in control of himself

  Critic:

  • Johnson
  • “Fiery openness of Othello”
• Scene 2: O vs Barb

  “My parts, my title, and my perfect soul / shall manifest me rightly.” - Othello

  • Possessive Pronoun - he has made himself In this society. Allows the audience to dismiss the persona that Iago attempted to create.
  • His words exudes self-confidence. Ultimately, this shows a flaw in O’s character , an arrogance and belief that men are judged and can be judged on their actions.

  Critics:

  • Leavis
  • “Othello is...egotistical“
• Scene 2: O vs Barb

  “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.” - Othello

  • Peaceful, Nobel
  • He averts imminent violence and chooses to solve the issue calmly
• Scene 2: O vs Barb

  “Run from her guardage to the spotty bosom of such a thing as thou.” - Barbantio

  • Due to his injured manhood, he combines his racial prejudice with the horror of interracial sexuality

  Critic:

  • Loomba
  • “The racism of a white patriarchy and the threat posed to it by both a black man and a white woman.”
• Scene 3: Othello’s speech in front of the senators

  “Rude am I in my speech” - Othello

  • He isn’t, but has self-doubt / an insecurity due to his race

  Critic:

  • Loomba
  • “Iago’s machination are effective because Othello is predisposed to believing…the necessary fragility of an unnatural relationship between” him and Desdemona.
• Scene 3: Othello’s speech in front of the senators

  “She’d come again, and with a greedy ear / devour up my discourse.” - Othello

  • Des is presented as the active one, she was looking for love and knew what she wanted and went for it

  Critic:

  • Loomba
  • ”Desdemona‘s desire is especially transgressive because its object is black“
• Scene 3: Othello’s speech in front of the senators

  “She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished / that heaven had made her such a man.” - Othello

  • Verb - menas that O believes that Desdemona wanted a man like O who was a man of good virtues
• Scene 3: Othello’s speech in front of the senators

  “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / and I loved her that she did pity them.” - Othello

  • Suggests his version of love isn’t very genuine as he only loves her because of her love for him, not really loving her for herself
• Scene 3: Othello’s speech in front of the senators

  “Here comes the lady. Let her witness it.” - Othello

  • Values Des’ opinion and threats her an equal which juxtaposes Iago’s view on women
• Scene 3: Desdemona’s speech in front of the senators

  “I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband.” - Desdemona

  • Conjunction - choosing her husband over her father
  • Women were always obedient to some man, or were supposed to be

  Critic:

  • Newman
  • “Desdemona forfeits that status and protection it (affiliations with man) affords when she marries outside that categories her culture allows”
• Scene 3: Desdemon‘s speech in front of the senators

  “A moth of peace” - Desdemona

  • Irony - says she is vulnerable without him but she is vulnerable with him

  Critic;

  • Tennenhouse
  • ”The embodiment of power”
• Scene 3: Desdemona’s speech in front of the senators

  “She has deceived her father, and may thee.” - Barbantio

  • Declarative sent e - plays on O’s mind and even Iago repeats it later. O will be a victim to decite, ironically not Des’

  Critic:

  • Rymer
  • ”There is nothing in the nobel Desdemona that is not below any Country Chamber-maid”
• Scene 3: Iago’s soliloquy on his hate for Othello

  “Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are / gardeners.”

  • Extended metaphor of natural imagery
  • Suggests Iago’s control over his emotions, shows that it’s his strength as opposed to O, who allows his emotions to overwhelm him
• Scene 3: Iago’s soliloquy on his hate for Othello

  “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse.” - Iago

  • Metaphor - articulate Iago’s deception of Rod, compares him to purse ( a way of getting money).
  • Objectifies him, outlining his manipulation
• Scene 3: Iago’s soliloquy on his hate for Othello

  “It is thought abroad that ‘ twixt my sheets/… for mere suspicion in that kind, / will do as if for surety.”

  • Suggests there’s an inherent evil nature to his character as the motives he gives are purely incidental

  Critic:

  • Coleridge
  • “The motive hunting of motiveless malignity“
• Scene 3: Iago’s soliloquy on his hate for Othello

  “The Moor is of free and open nature / that thinks of men honest that but seem to be so” - Iago

  • Iago pictures O as weak due to his naivety.
  • He sees people’s good qualities against them and sees it as a chance to exploit them
  • (Machiavellian)

  Critic:

  • Vaughn
  • ”Shakespeare undercuts simple categories by making most deceitful character not a Turk but a Venetian“
• Scene 3: Iago’s soliloquy on his hate for Othello

  “Hell and night / must being this monstrous birth to the world’s light.” - Iago

  • Sinister tone and language of birth used as a metaphor for Iago‘s destructive plans. He manipulates the innocence of birth and blends it with ideas of death and destruction in a similar way in which he does to O’s and Des’ love
  • Rhyming Couplet ‘night’ and ‘light’ - foreboding, frightening, sounds like a spell
  • ‘Hell and night’ has connotations to darkness, sin and ultimately concealment
• Scene 4 - Bianca and Cassio

  “ ‘Tis very good. I must be circumstanced.” - Bianca

  • Second-class citizenship of women in this society, she has to follow what Cass says