Othello

• IAGO (1.1):

  
  

  "Were I the Moor I would not be Iago/ In following him I follow but myself...I am not what I am."

  
  

  Themes: Villainy, Revenge, Manipulation, Hate, Deceit, Betrayal


  - Highlights play as a revenge tragedy

  - Iago's Machiavellian villain role established; a great trickster/ puppet master/ duper

  - From this confession onward, the play is dominated by a sense of dramatic irony

  - Exemplifies Iago's cryptic manner of speaking (speaks in doubles), continually plays games of deception, with Roderigo and audience (=duplicitous nature)

  - The paradox or riddle that the speech creates is emblematic of Iago's power throughout the play: his simple sentences open up whole worlds of interpretation
• Iago (1.1)

  
  

  "We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow'd"

  
  

  Themes: Revenge, Manipulation, Villainy


  - Points out Iago's self-serving duplicitous nature
• IAGO (1.1):

  
  

  "an old black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe...Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Villainy, Manipulation, Honour and status


  - Uses racist slurs to play on Elizabethan notions of black men as animal-like, hyper-sexuality; to disgust the audience

  - Racist metaphors and epithets also used as sparks to inflame Brab against O; geared at manipulating his fears of miscegenation, contaminated bloodline, loss of status

  - "the devil," even though O is Christian; 16th century idea of black men as evil; devil took form of a black man

  - Leads Brab to framing O of black magic in 1.3

  - Knowing nothing of O, audience would too be seduced by Iago's portrait of O; but several factors keep us from believing him (e.g. Iago openly admits his dishonesty 'I am not what I am')

  - Reoccurring motif of crass sexual, animalistic, bestial imagery
• RODERIGO (1.1)

  
  

  "What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Jealousy, Love

  - Roderigo expresses his jealousy by resorting to racial slurs/ jargon

  - Implication is not racist, but infuriated by his jealousy
• IAGO & RODERIGO (1.1)

  
  

  "Arise, arise!"

  
  

  Themes: Manipulation, Villainy


  - loud on purpose
• IAGO (1.1)

  
  

  "You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary/Horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have coursers for cousins and gennets for germans"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Villainy

  - Iago further sours Brab's view of Othello by playing on his fears of inter-racial marriage and contamination of bloodlines

  - Hints that Othello and Desdemona's future children will be half-breeds who will become the ridicule of society and bring shame upon Brab
• BRABANTIO (1.1)

  
  

  "What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice; My house is not a grange."

  
  

  Themes: Setting


  - Venice as a setting = civilised
• IAGO (1.1)

  
  

  "are making the beast with two backs"

  
  

  Themes: Villainy, Race, Manipulation


  dysphemism - sex= negative act - bestial imagery

  A bold way to speak to a senator
• BRABANTIO (1.1)

  
  

  "Thou art a villain"

  
  

  Themes: Villainy


  - Early establishment of what Iago; Brab is the only one to see Iago for what he really is
• BRABANTIO (1.2)

  
  

  "For if such actions may have passage free, / Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Honour, Society


  - Warning, beware, foreboding type tone

  - Brab perceives there's much more at stake in this interracial union than the violation of his honour

  - He suggests that in turning a blind eye to this outrage, they are treating inferiors as equals; there's nothing to stop subhuman underclasses or heathen outcasts of society taking power over whites; disrupting the social order of society

  - Shakespeare makes it clear that it's not just Iago the newly-weds are up against, but the status quo

  - Foreshadows the uncomfortable resolution at the end; both lovers die in order to restore balance and order in society

  - Deaths of Othello and Des used to instil pity and fear in audiences; encourages adherence to societal conventions or face calamitous consequence

  - Paves way for Iago as vehicle of the state
• OTHELLO (1.3)

  
  

  "Rude am I in my speech, And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace."

  
  

  Themes: Race, Honour
• BRABANTIO (1.3)

  
  

  "In love with what she feared to look on! It is a judgment maimed and most imperfect...Against all rules of nature"

  
  

  Themes: Race


  - Brab argues Desdemona can't love Othello, it is unnatural

  - Seems that Iago has played Brabantio perfectly; used Brabantio's fears of interracial-marriage (and sacrifice of social dignity in relation with this) in order to rile him up against Othello
• DESDEMONA (1.3)

  
  

  "My noble father,

  I do perceive here a divided duty.

  To you I am bound for life and education.

  My life and education both do learn me

  How to respect you... I am hitherto your daughter/ But here's my husband, And so much duty as my mother showed To you, preferring you before her father,

  So much I challenge that I may profess

  Due to the Moor my lord."

  
  

  Themes: Honour, Family, Female independence, Marriage

  - Shows her thoughtfulness: she doesn't insist on her loyalty to Othello at the expense of respecting her father, but acknowledges her duty is "divided." (appeases him while getting what she wants)

  - Shows her intelligence and shrewdness: calls upon traditional customs to legitimise her illicit marriage/betrayal of her father

  - Shows Des is brave enough to stand up for herself (sharp contrast to final scene); establish for the audience her courage, strength of conviction and independence
• DUKE OF VENICE (1.3)

  
  

  "Noble signior/ If virtue no delighted beauty lack/ Your son-in-law is far more fair than black"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Honour


  - Not everyone in Venice shares racist views of Othello; Duke defends Othello's honour against Brab's accusations

  - Duke tells Brab that he should not put importance on Othello's skin colour, but on his virtuous deeds and nature instead

  - Admire Othello; celebrated and honourable military leader

  - Duke implies Othello is "fair" despite his blackness

  - Interpreted as a compliment; BUT Duke's words hinge on idea that blackness has negative connotations

  - Othello = exception to rule/ norm that black is unsightly/ dishonourable

  - Contrasts Act 5.2 where no one but Othello defends his honour, highlights Othello's fall from grace and a terrible sense of waste
• IAGO (1.3)

  
  

  "Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners."

  
  

  Themes: Villainy


  - Symbolic and elaborate metaphor for how man exercises free will

  - Reminds us of Iago's great control over himself and others (Iago= puppet master); his ability to plant the seeds of doubt and jealousy in Othello's mind
• IAGO (1.3)

  
  

  "Put money in thy purse."

  
  

  Themes: Manipulation, Villainy
• CASSIO (2.1)

  
  

  "Tis my breeding..."

  
  

  Themes: Honour, Masculinity, Fidelity
• CASSIO (2.1)

  
  

  "Our great Captain's Captain"

  
  

  Themes: Female independence, Honour
• CASSIO (2.3)

  
  

  "Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial"

  
  

  Themes: Reputation, Honour, Masculinity


  - Relates to all male characters and their masculine pride in the play

  - Echoes Othello's reasoning for killing Des
• OTHELLO (3.1)

  
  

  "she had eyes and chose me"

  
  

  Themes: Love, Race, Female independence


  - Importantly we are reminded that the heroine made a very active and positive choice in uniquely choosing to marry Othello; she is therefore not an unwitting agent in tragedy but a set herself up for her untimely doom

  - He is more noble and impressive than any of the other male characters in the play; not a racist play

  - Desdemona looked past his race = true love
• DESDEMONA (3.2)

  
  

  "saw Othello's visage in his mind"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Love


  - Desdemona never regrets her marriage and refuses to accept that her love for valiant Othello can ever be tainted

  - This this quote she defends her marriage; she looks past his colour

  - Shakespeare suggests that Othello is the exception to the rule that black is usually bad, or urging us to see that racial differences do not matter in affairs of the heart?

  - Desdemona holds a radical POV; she is the only character who isn't anxious about miscegenation
• IAGO (3.3)

  
  

  "I'll pour this pestilence into his ear"

  
  

  Themes: Villainy, Manipulation, Deceit
• OTHELLO (3.3)

  
  

  "I do not think but Desdemona's honest"

  
  

  Themes: Love, Trust
• OTHELLO (3.3)

  
  

  "Her name, that was as fresh/As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black/ As mine own face"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Honour, Reputation, Love and Marriage


  - Interestingly O uses racist discourse = internalised racist ideologies of other characters (e.g. Venetians such as Iago)

  - "Dian's" "fresh" (white) face represents his former good rep

  - Des' supposed infidelity has soiled his good rep

  - Instinctively employs his blackness as a metaphor for his wife's alleged depravity; associates his own black skin with something dirty and stained

  - One the surface, blackness is to blame for loss of innocence/ purity in O and Des' relationship; but in reality, Des is innocent of crime

  - The blackness of O's jealousy doesn't come from his ethnicity; from black manipulations of a white character, Iago = his corruption blackens Othello's rep and marriage

  - Highlights O's sense of self-loathing

  - Motifs of black and white, light and darkness persistently reoccur
• OTHELLO (3.3)

  
  

  "Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell!"

  
  

  Themes: Revenge, Race, Manipulation, Villainy


  - Othello himself associates blackness with something negative - "vengeance."

  - Internalised racist discourse

  - Full succumbs to barbaric, irrational Moorish nature which others have drilled into his mind that he is = fall from grace

  - Biblical imagery; emphasis on destruction and moral punishment; Othello feels he did the right thing in killing Des (=views it as his part in restoring balance and order in society)

  - Iago's villainy is successful; Iago role as the devil incarnate causing destruction and sin
• IAGO (3.3)

  
  

  "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on."

  
  

  Themes: Jealousy, Honour, Manipulation


  - Iago understands the potency of the emotion of envy (understands human nature)

  - universal theme employed to engage audiences both past and present; jealousy as the inexplicable and inexorable emotion we all know it to be

  - personification identifies how the emotion of jealousy can extirpate, become and consume its beholder
• Othello (3.3)

  
  

  "O, now, for ever/ Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content."

  
  

  Themes: Insanity, Manipulation
• IAGO (3.3)

  
  

  "out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all"

  
  

  Theme: Villainy, Manipulation, Female Victims


  - Desdemona as unwitting agent of tragedy

  - Her kindness will make the plot
• IAGO (3.3)

  
  

  "See Cassio wipe his beard with"

  
  

  Theme: Villainy, Manipulation


  - Handkerchief
• DESDEMONA (3.4)

  
  

  " I think the sun where he was born/ Drew all such humours from him"

  
  

  Themes: Love, Race


  - Desdemona views Othello's origins positively; provide a clear contrast with the negative Renaissance racial stereotype of Othello as a cruel, savage black man as in Iago's speech.

  - When asked if Othello is jealous she praises his character

  Desdemona's positive view of Othello's race
• EMILIA (3.4)

  
  

  "'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:

  They are all but stomachs, and we all but food:

  They eat us hungerly, and when they are full

  They belch us."

  
  

  Themes: Female independence, Females as victims, Masculine pride
• IAGO (3.4)

  
  

  "Do not rise yet. [ Iago kneels....I am your own for ever."

  
  

  Themes: Villainy, Deceit, Love

  - stark contrast to previous declarations of hatred

  - as some scholars suggest; related to the fact Iago's jealousy lies in his latent homosexual feelings for his commander

  - Shakespeare's way of furthering the devise of dramatic irony; deeper understanding of the lengths that 'honest Iago' will go to in order to destroy his nemesis
• EMILIA (4.3)

  
  

  "Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know/Their wives have sense like them. They see, and smell, /And have their palates both for sweet and sour, /As husbands have"

  
  

  Themes: Feminism, Patriarchy, Marriage


  Emilia is explaining that women are equal to men
• DESDEMONA (5.2)

  
  

  "Nobody; I myself. Farewell"

  
  

  Themes: Patriarchy/Feminism, Female victims, Punishment, Death, Innocence, Marriage


  Desdemona in her final words blames her death on herself. Many critics argue that this highlights her submission to the patriarchy as she does not blame her death on her husband who has made her unhappy towards the end of the life.
• EMILIA (5.2)

  
  

  "O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Death, Manipulation, Female repression and independence; Victims


  - Othello kills Desdemona; enacts a racist stereotype that black men are violent, savage, and to be feared

  - Forces those who formerly respected him/ held him as equal to use his skin colour to condemn him or explain his misdeeds; further alienates Othello

  - Highlights Othello's fall from grace

  - Greatest moment of tragedy in play; highlights catastrophe

  - Tragedy of timing; Emilia is too late
• EMILIA (5.2)

  
  

  "Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,

  All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak."

  
  

  Themes: Female independence
• OTHELLO (5.2)

  
  

  "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. Put out the light, and then put out the light: If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore"

  
  

  Themes: Death, Honour, Love


  - Reflects his idolisation of Desdemona as perfect

  - Othello sees himself as agent of the State, doing the right thing - punishing her to restore order in society

  - Othello as possessive, controlling and mad
• IAGO (5.2)

  
  

  "Demand me nothing/From this time forth I never will speak a word"

  
  

  Themes: Punishment, Villainy


  - Refuses to incite his motives because he has none?

  - effective punishment (his weapon/ power e.g. his words are snatched from him)

  - ineffective punishment (still in control of his poisonous words) ?

  - Punishment in keeping the villain alive = torment?
• OTHELLO (5.2)

  
  

  "One whose hand, Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away/ Richer than all his tribe"

  
  

  Themes: Race, Victims, Pride


  - Othello has internalised the predominant racist ideals of Venetian/ Elizabethan society; his comparison highlights notions that blacks were "base," uncivilised or rash

  - O realises his ignorance terminated his prudence leading to him disregarding the "true" value of his relationship or "pearl' wife Des

  - Exotic imagery, eloquent language returns when O restores his old self, gains back his 'honourable' judgements and rationality; similar to speech in Act 1.3 about his experiences of war / 'stories' that made Des fall in love with him
• OTHELLO (5.2)

  
  

  "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/ Of one that loved not wisely but too well,

  Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,

  Perplexed in the extreme ...I took by th' throat the circumcised dog/ And smote him thus."

  
  

  Themes: Tragedy, Honour, Masculinity, Pride


  - Farewell speech: Othello reaffirms his position as a tragic figure who is simultaneously a part of and excluded from Venetian society

  - His language returns to its former majesty; smooth eloquence of the speech; Othello seems to have calmed himself and regained his heroic dignity and our respect

  - His suicide is a kind of martyrdom, a last act of service to the state, he kills the only foe he has left to conquer: himself (punishment to restore order)

  - May have lost sympathy/respect of audience; self-dramatising speech about his own legacy, not the suffering of his victims