Othello

• Othello's modesty


  • Rude am I in my speech
  • And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace
• Iago's deceptions


  • I follow him to serve my turn upon him
  • In following him, I follow but myself
  • I must show out a flag and sign of love, which is indeed but sign
• (Othello): A man he is of honest and trust
• Othello's confidence


  • Let him do his spite: My services which I have done the signiory Shall out-tongue his complaints
  • I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege
  • Not I, I must be found: My parts, my title and my perfect soul Shall manifest me rightly
  • Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them
  • Where will you that I go To answer this your charge?
• Brabantio's manipulation


  • Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe
  • You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you
  • Thou hast practised on her with foul charms Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
  • She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted
• Othello's respect for Desdemona

  • Send for the lady to the Sagittary And let her speak of me before her father:
  • If you do find me foul in her report... but let your sentence Even fall upon my life
  • I therefore beg it not, to please the palate of my appetite
• Iago's soliloquies - Creating the plan

  • Cassio's a proper man: let me see now: To get his place and to plume up my will In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:
  • The Moor is of a free and open nature That thinks men honest that but seem to be so
  • I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.
• Othello and Desdemona's love

  • I love the gentle Desdemona
  • She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I loved her that she did pity them
  • That I did love the Moor to live with him
  • I saw Othello's visage in his mind And to his honour and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate
  • My life upon her faith!
• Iago's motivations

  • I know my price, I am worth no worse a place
  • a great arithmetician
  • a Florentine
  • That never set a squadron in the field
  • And I--God bless the mark!--his Moorship's ancient
  • I do hate him as I do hell-pains
  • I hate the Moor: And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets He has done my office:
• Desdemona's purity


  • My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty:
  • I would not there reside To put my father in impatient thoughts By being in his eye
• Iago's misogyny


  Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack
• Others' respect for Othello

  • the warlike Moor Othello
  • 'tis a worthy governor
  • The man commands like a full soldier
  • (Cassio)Let the heavens Give him defence against the elements,
  • Our noble and valiant general
• Iago's deceptions


  • I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
  • Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received From him that fled some strange indignity, Which patience could not pass.
  • Our general's wife is now the general … confess yourself freely to her; ...: she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested:
• Cassio's respect for Desdemona

  • He hath achieved a maid That paragons description and wild fame
  • The divine Desdemona.
  • our great captain's captain,
  • Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
  • Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven,
  • She's a most exquisite lady.
  • Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.
  • She is indeed perfection.
• Iago's manipulating of Roderigo


  • Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor,
  • very nature will instruct her in it and compel her to some second choice.
  • Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand?
• Othello and Desdemona's love

  • my fair warrior!
  • My dear Othello!
  • If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
  • If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy;
  • The heavens forbid But that our loves and comforts should increase Even as our days do grow!
• Iago's soliloquies / asides

  • with as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.
  • Oh, you are well-tun'd now! But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, As honest as I am
  • The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not, Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
  • I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards And nothing can or shall content my soul Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife,
  • Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me. For making him egregiously an ass
  • And what's he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest,
  • I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, And by how much she strives to do him good, She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all.
• Othello's confidence / leadership

  • Good Michael, look you to the guard to-night:
  • Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop, Not to outsport discretion.
• Iago's misogyny


  • Sir, would she give you so much of her lips As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, You'll have enough.
  • Players in your housewifery, and housewives' in your beds.
  • You rise to play and go to bed to work.
  • To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
  • she is sport for Jo
• Iago's deceptions and manipulations

  • For Michael Cassio, I dare be sworn I think that he is honest.
  • Ha! I like not that
  • No, sure, I cannot think it, That he would steal away so guilty-like, Seeing you coming.
  • Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile and false;
  • I know our country disposition well; In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks They dare not show their husbands;
  • She did deceive her father, marrying you;
  • It is impossible you should see this, Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
  • In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona, Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'
• Desdemona's loyalty


  • Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities in thy behalf.
  • I will have my lord and you again As friendly as you were.
  • If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it To the last article:
  • Why, then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn; On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn:
• Desdemona's love for Othello


  Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves, Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm
• Othello's growing suspicion


  • I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
  • I do not think but Desdemona's honest… And yet, how nature erring from itself,--
  • Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
  • O curse of marriage, That we can call these delicate creatures ours, And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad, And live upon the vapour of a dungeon, Than keep a corner in the thing I love For others' uses.
  • Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
  • I think my wife be honest and think she is not; I think that thou art just and think thou art not.
  • O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
• Emilia's loyalty to Iago


  My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo'd me to steal it; … I'll have the work ta'en out, And give't Iago: what he will do with it Heaven knows, not I; I nothing but to please his fantasy.
• Iago's power over Othello

  • I am bound to thee for ever.
  • Do not rise yet.
  • My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request: But let her live.
• Ominous signs


  • (Desdemona to Cassio) For thy solicitor shall rather die / Than give thy cause away.
  • But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.
• Othello's love for Desdemona


  • Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.
  • 'Tis not to make me jealous To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well;
  • If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!
• Othello: 'O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.'
• Iago's power over Othello

  I am bound to thee for ever.
• Do not rise yet.
• My friend is dead; 'tis done at your request: But let her live.
• (Desdemona to Cassio) For thy solicitor shall rather die / Than give thy cause away.
• But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.
• Othello: 'Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.'
• 'Tis not to make me jealous To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well;
• If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself! I'll not believe't.
• I'll tear her all to pieces.
• Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate!
• Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw, To furnish me with some swift means of death For the fair devil.
• but my noble Moor Is true of mind and made of no such baseness As jealous creatures are