Othello

• Iago: 'I follow to serve my turn upon him:'
• Iago: 'We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly followed'
• Iago is bitter about being passed up for Cassio's post, and reveals he serves Othello only to serve himself
• Iago suggests that not all men are fit to lead and not all leaders should be followed
• Iago: 'For when my outward action doth demonstrate The native act and figure of my heart In compliment extern, 'tis not long after But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.'
• Iago will become duplicitous, never showing his true emotion to the outside world
• The Duke of Venice: 'If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.'
• The Duke says that if virtue can be beautiful, then Othello is indeed "fair", or beautiful, as he possesses goodness
• The Duke's statement can be interpreted as a backhanded compliment, as Othello is more fair (just, gentlemanly) than those of his race
• Desdemona: 'I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.'
• Desdemona pretends to be happy, but is really worried about Othello's safety
• Desdemona's conversation with Iago reveals how little he thinks of women, and that they use their beauty or wit to manipulate men
• Cassio: 'Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.'
• Cassio feels like he is nothing without his rank, as his reputation is so important to him
• Othello is motivated to kill Desdemona because her affair has besmirched the reputation that he has worked so hard to craft
• Iago: 'Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ.'
• Iago observes that things that may otherwise seem insignificant are given outsized importance when they confirm an already held belief
• Iago: 'O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.'
• Iago warns Othello about jealousy in order to incite his jealousy, while at the same time seeming to have his best interests at heart
• Iago: 'It makes us or it mars us.'
• Iago makes it clear to Roderigo that their plan will be chief to their success or lead to their demise
• Othello: 'Yet I'll not shed her blood; Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster. Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.'
• Othello acknowledges the finality of what he is about to do, but will not mar Desdemona's beauty in killing her, as her beauty/whiteness/light is a symbol of her goodness
• Othello: 'I have done the state some service, and they know't. No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then, must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well'
• Othello takes responsibility for his actions and wants Venice to remember him as honorable in spite of his final act of passion
• Iago: '"Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, / Is the immediate jewel of their souls"'
• Reputation


  Of paramount importance
• Iago: '"Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on"'
• Jealousy


  A monster that destroys its victims and taunts them
• Iago is the character stoking Othello's jealousy

  Throughout the play
• Othello: '"Yet I'll not shed her blood, / Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow / And smooth as monumental alabaster"'
• Desdemona's purity


  Othello compares her white skin to snow and alabaster
• The central irony in the play is Iago's secret plan to destroy Othello and his reputation
• Othello is completely oblivious to Iago's plot to make him question Desdemona's fidelity
• The audience is privy to Iago's plot from the beginning, creating dramatic irony
• Iago: '"the green-eyed monster," jealousy'
• Iago is stoking Othello's jealousy, while being envious of Othello's position himself
• Othello swiftly begins planning Desdemona's murder once he believes she has been unfaithful, despite her innocence
• Critics debate whether Othello's jealousy or Iago's manipulations lead to Othello's demise
• Iago's biased perceptions of Othello turn out to be true, and Othello plays directly into Iago's hand