loyalty

• quotes

  ’I am not what i am’ - Iago

  ‘I saw Othello’s visage in his mind‘ - Desdemona

  ‘Why did I marry ?’ - Othello

  ‘O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil’ - Othello
• ’I saw Othello’s visage in his mind’ - Desdemona

  • highlights Desdemona‘s loyalty to Othello as her love transcends physical appearance, the hierarchy and societal prejudices.
  • her loyalty is an expression of true love portraying her as a devoted partner
  • Shakespeares intentions were to set the stage for the tragic dimensions of loyalty when her fidelity is later questioned
  • audience would think Desdemona is a open minded and kind character which would emphasise the tragedy further
• ‘I am not what I am’ - Iago

  • Although known as honest Iago he reveals his duplicitous nature while he pretends to be loyal to Othello, he actually harbours malicious motives to lead him to his tragic downfall
  • Shakespeares intentions were to create an atmosphere of mistrust, set a tragic tone and illustrate how loyalty can be weaponised when its manipulated
  • audience would automatically feel an eeriness towards Iago and dislike his malicious ways since he is plotting against a well respected man and is trying to climb the great chain of being
• ‘Why did I marry?’ - Othello

  • reveals his internal conflict regarding loyalty
  • he mistakenly places trust in Iago seeing him as honest even though Iago continues to feed him lies and further his insecurity of his marriage and wife’s fidelity
  • Othello believing Iago over his wife relates to the strong patriarchal beliefs of society
  • Shakespeares intentions were to illustrate how misplaced loyalty can undermine relationships and how Othello’s reliance on Iago leads to jealousy and chaos describing how loyalty can cloud judgement when given to the wrong person
• ‘Why did I marry?’ - Othello

  • audience feels sorry for Othello since he’s being exploited but also question why he is so easily convinced and may begin to believe there was already some doubt in their marriage and Iago just acted as a catalyst
• ‘O the more angel she and you the blacker devil’ - Othello

  • Othello‘s realisation
  • acknowledges the juxtaposition of Desdemona’s loyalty and innocence and Iago’s deceit
  • regrets his tragic costs of misplaced loyalty
  • Shakespeare’s intentions where to emphasise the tragic elements of Othello’s anagnorisis and depict how devastating Desdemona’s death was
• ‘O the more the angel she and you the blacker devil’ - Othello

  • the dichotomy ‘devil’ and ‘angel’ have a semantic field of religion which was very important to Elizabethan society which could mirror how important this loss is to Othello
  • the juxtaposition between the dichotomy ‘devil’ and ‘angel’ emphasises the difference in personality of innocent Desdemona and villainous Iago Shakespeare may have used this to emphasise the climax
• ‘I am not what I am’ - Iago

  • the adverb ’not’ shows certainty in Iago’s statement which highlight his duplicitous character as he is completely the opposite of what he pretends to be
• ‘O the more angel she and you the blacker devil’ - Othello

  • audience could either feel sympathetic for Othello as he’s been exploited into his actions or anger because contemporary societal prejudices and coloured characters were usually written as cruel, treacherous and barbaric and since Othello believed Iago’s false incriminations and acted on it he has ticked the criteria of these stereotypes