Act 2

• Act 2:

  • Scene 1 - Iago and Des on women + Iago on Des and Cassio (Aside comments)
  • Scene 3 - Cassio drunk and aftermath
• Scene 1 - Iago and Des on women

  “You rise to play and go to bed to work.“ - Iago

  • His misogyny is ironically written in iambic pentameter despite his supposed hatred for women
  • Calling all women prostitutes

  Critic:

  • Vaughn
  • ’If Venice was called a Virgin city by many, she was called a whore by others”
• Scene 1 - Iago and Des on women

  “She that was ever fair and proud…/loud…/gay…/may../nigh…/fly…” - Iago

  • Rhyming Couplets - gives the speech a lighthearted / comical air. Illustrates Iago is playing a fool to mask is true malicious character

  Critic:

  • Honigmann
  • ”His humour either intends to give pain or allows him to bask in his sense of his own superiority“
• Scene 1 - Iago on Des and Cassio and O (eg. Aside comments)

  “With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.” - Iago

  • Metaphor - his plan to entrap Cass. He became a small, slightly unnecessary spider when he became an ancient. He is a patient predator.
  • Imagery - dangerous spider who traps his prey in an invisible trap

  Critic

  • Hazlitt
  • ”Iago is an aesthete of evil”
• Scene 1 - Iago on Des and Cassio and O (eg. Aside comments)

  “Oh, you are well tuned now, / But I‘lol set down the pegs that make this music, / as honest as I am.” - Iago

  • Imagery - describes his plans to break the couple
  • He will upset the harmony within their relationship and will be interfering for his own purposes of revenge
• Scene 1 - Iago on Des and Cassio and O (eg. Aside comments)

  “The thought whereof /doth, like a poisonous material, gnaw my inwards, and noting can or shall content my soul / till I am evened with him, wife or wife.” - Iago

  • Simile - Iago is clearly jealous of O for many reasons and uses this rumour (O sleeping with Em) as a justification. He is an opportunist.
• Scene 1 - Iago on Des and Cassio and O (eg. Aside comments)

  ”Make the Moor thank me, and reward me / for making him egregiously an ass.” - Iago

  • Clear to Iago that if O thinks that he has been unable to control his wife, O will lose his sense of manhood and his mind.
• Scene 3 - Cassio drunk and aftermath

  “Do not think , gentleman, I am drunk. This is my ancient, this is my right hand, and this is my left. I am not drunk now. I an stand well enough and I speak well enough.” - Cassio

  • Cass feels to maintian his honour and dignity via an illusion about himself

  Critic:

  • Johnson
  • ”Cassio is brave, benevolent, and honest, ruined only by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invitation“
• Scene 3 - Cassio drunk and aftermath

  “Why, how now, ho! From whence arise the this? / Are we turned Turk? … / For Christian shame ,put but this barbarous brawl.” - Othello

  • Compares their brutality to the ‘other’
  • However, Othello himself is an ‘other’ in Ventian society and one who ultimaley upsets the order of that society says that external threats can become internal threats.
• Scene 3 - Cassio drunk and aftermath

  “Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation.” - Cassio

  • Cass sees his reputation, his honour, as what makes him human. His reputation is his lifeline.
  • Animalistic imagery - Without his honour, he sees himself as a beast and using the kind of language that other characters used for O.

  Critic:

  • Cox
  • ”Death was preferred to dishonour“
• Scene 3 - Cassio drunk and aftermath

  “You advise me well.” - Cassio

  • Dramatic Irony - the audience knows that Iago Is duplicitous