Act 5

• Act 5

  • Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago) + Bianca is blamed
  • Scene 2 - Othello’s internal conflict + Desdemona begging for her life + Emilia standing up and dying + Iago‘s reality + Othello’s speech
• Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago)

  “Every way makes my gain.” - Iago

  • Iago shows the depth of his depravity. He doesn’t just want to ruin O, he’s willing to trick people into attacking each other as long as it serves him.

  Critic:

  • Johnson
  • “The cool malignity of Iago“
• Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago)

  “If Cassio do remain / He hath a daily beauty in his life / that makes me ugly.” - Iago

  • Juxtaposition ‘beauty‘ and ‘ugly’ - Iago is a jealous person. It is imperative that Cassio dies.
• Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago)

  “(Iago from behind wonders Casssio in the / leg)” — Iago

  • An arguably cowardly act on Iago’s behalf when considering his boldness previously
• Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago)

  “Minion, your dear lies dead, / and your unblest fate hies. Strumpet, I come” - Othello

  • O believes Iago to be loyal as he thinks that Iago has killed Cassio. O’s professed admiration for Iago, with his new misogynistic and violent plan for Des, juxtaposes his declaration of love in 1.3
• Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago)

  “(Enter Iago with a light)” - Iago

  • Ironic - that he’s bringing the light when in reality he causes the confusion. Presents a false pretence.
• Scene 1 - Roderigo and Iago (Plan to kill Cassio and betrayal by Iago)

  “(Stabs Roderigo)” - Iago

  • Iago here revelas the full extent of his treachery, killing the person whom he has plotted with since the beginning in order to cover his tracks.
  • Iago has no honour to lose.
• Scene 1 - Bianca is blamed

  “Oh, my dear Cassio! / My sweet Cassio! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio!” - Bianca

  • Exclamatory sentence - she had genuine feelings for Cass
• Scene 1 - Bianca is blamed

  “O notable strumpet!” - Iago

  • Tonal shift - shows attitudes towards women
  • Presents him as an opportunist as he takes the focus off himself.
• Scene 1 - Bianca is blamed

  “Do you perceive the vastness of her eye?… / Look you pale, mistress?…/ Look upon her. / Do you see, gentlemen?” - Iago

  • Iago uses misogynistic stereotypes to implicate the innocent Bianca and further puts himself in the clear.
• Scene 1 - Bianca is blamed

  “Oh, fie upon thee, strumpet!” - Emilia

  • Exclamatory and noun - Em’s view of B as Em is higher than B in the social hierarchy. There seems to be limits to Em’s compassion.
  • Brief fight between B and Em shows that just as O might hold racist feelings about himself, so do the women entertain gender prejudices against each other.
  • Auidences - pitting women against each other in a society that already sees them as lesser beings
• Scene 1 - Bianca is blamed

  “Come, mistress, you must tell ’s another tale.” - Iago

  • B becomes a victim of her love for Cass.
  • Noun ‘tale’ - no one will believe her
• Scene 2 - Othello’s internal conflict

  “White…snow…alabaster“ - Othello

  • Connotations - to purity, juxtaposes what O actually seems to believe about Des
• Scene 2 - Othello’s internal conflict

  “If I quench thee” - Othello

  • Verb
  • Usually refers to a fulfilment of some kind
  • Seems as if killing Des will restore some sort of nature balance

  Critic:

  • Dolan
  • “Domestic tyrant who murders his wife on spurious grounds”
• Scene 2 - Othello’s internal conflict

  “Oh, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade / Justice to break her sword!” - Othello

  • Personification - justifies his actions, thinks that as a public man, he’ll be doing society a favour

  Critic:

  • Jardine
  • ”Acts with complete certainty of her guilt“
  • Othello believes she really cheated and so kills her
• Scene 2 - Othello’s internal conflict

  “I will kill thee / and love thee after.” - Othello

  • O loves her but his irrational anger and jealousy lead to his downfall
• Scene 2 - Desdemona begging for her life

  “I never did / offend you in my life, never loved Cassio / but with such general warranty of heaven / as i might love. I never gave him token.” - Desdemona

  • Des is pouring her heart out in defence but O doesn’t care anymore. He is unwilling to hear her truth as he has been corrupted by Iago’s lies.
• Scene 2 - Desdemona begging for her life

  “Kill me not!…/ let me live tonight!” - Desdemona

  • She is begging him as she believes that if she lives this night she won’t die.
  • However, just as time passes away, so her sentences become shorter
• Scene 2 - Desdemona begging for her life

  “Nobody, I myself. Farewell. / Commend me to my kind lord. Oh, farewell!” - Desdemona

  • Submissive nature and perhaps weak.
  • Des tries to spare O from the punishments he will receive, pouring her love and devotion to him for the very last time.

  Critic:

  • Honigmann
  • ”Desdemona’s last words are ’an act of forgiveness“
• Scene 2 - Emilia standing up for herself and dying

  “Oh, the more angel she. / And you the blacker devil!” - Emilia

  • Juxtaposition between the colours - suggests that they could have never been together. Shows her hidden bias.

  Critic:

  • Harker
  • ”It is a tragedy without meaning, and that is ultimate horror of it”
• Scene 2 - Emilia standing up for herself and dying

  “I will not charm my tongue, I am bound to speak,” - Emilia

  • Assertive tone
  • Challenges her husband which leads to her death, warns the dangers of women speaking up in a patriarchal society.

  Critic:

  • Honigmann
  • Emilia is “less complicated than her husband“
• Scene 2 - Emilia standing up for herself and dying

  “Nay, ley thee down and roar. / For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent / that e’er did lift up eye.” - Emilia

  • Juxtaposition - makes the audience horrified at O
• Scene 2 - Emilia standing up for herself and dying

  “(He runs at Iago / Iago stabs Emilia)” - Iago

  • Iago’s violence is more graphic and terrible than the smothering of Des bringing home his full villainy
  • O killed Des because he thought she betrayed him, Iago kills Em because she did betray him but for the greater good.
• Scene 2 - Emilia standing up for herself and dying

  “I will play the swan, / and die in music.” - Emilia

  • In Greek mythological belief, swans sang a a song before they died after staying silent fro most of their lives just like Em who stayed quite.
  • (Just like the audience who have not been able to put their thoughts into words while watching the play).

  Critic:

  • Simpson
  • ”She dies in service of the truth“
• Scene 2 - Iago’s reality

  “(Draws his sword)” - Iago

  • Never cared about Em
  • Misogynistic - killing her because she spoke back to him, she has challenged Jacobean society
  • Loss of control shows he is willing to do anything to get back on track
• Scene 2 - Iago’s reality

  “Demand me nothing. What you know, you know / from this time froth I never will speak word.’ - Iago

  • His last words - they will never know the full truth. A true villain.
  • By refusing to speak, Iago retáis some of the directorial control of the events that she has striven for. He never reveals his inner reality to the other characters.

  Critic

  • Rymer
  • ”Iago is inconsistent”
  • As he refuses to speak despite using his language skilfully throughout the play
• Scene 2 - Iago’s reality

  “O Spartan dog…/ This is thy work.” - Lodovico

  • Iago who has directed action throughout the play ends up as a spectator to his own misdeeds.
  • Iago’s ‘work’ - all the deaths are his doing OR all of the bodies on the bed, resemble a piece of artwork OR the play itself, without him, there would be no tragedy

  Critic:

  • Katsan
  • ”Uncompensated suffering“
  • Tragic ending and the needless suffering experienced
• Scene 2 - Othello’s speech

  “I have done the state some service, and they know ’t” - Othello

  • O regains his eloquence in his last speech
  • He still only seems to care about his reputation as it is believed to be immortal

  Critic:

  • Bradley
  • “Faultless hero“
  • He tries to separate his private acts and public image
• Scene 2 - Othello’s speech

  “Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuante.”

  • Asks for fairness
  • Declarative Sentence - attempts to regain his former pride and authority

  Critic:

  • Leavis
  • ”The nobel Othello is now seen as tragically pathetic, and he sees himself as pathetic too”
• Scene 2 - Othello’s speech

  “Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk / beat a Venetian and traduced the state / I took by the throat the circumcised dog / and smote him, thus.” - Othello

  • Anecdote - asserts his rightful place in Venetian society. He defines himself as an ‘insider’, a Christian against the outsider enemy, the Turk.
  • Yet at the same time, in stabbing the Turk, he stabs himself. So he’s defining himself as an insider and a outsider, someone who defended Venice but was seen as an animal and an enemy by other Venetians.

  Critic:

  • Eliot
  • ”Endeavouring to escape reality“
• Scene 2 - Othello’s speech

  ”(Stabs himself)” - Othello

  • Strong sense of justice

  Critic:

  • Coleridge
  • ”Othello had no life but in Desdemona”