Act 1

Cards (5)

  • Summary
    ● As the play opens, Iago is telling Roderigo that hehatesOthello because OthellopromotedCassio instead of him. Iago’s hatred for Othello is obvious.● Iago and Roderigo travel to Brabantio’s house, the father of Othello’s newly-wed, to tell him of his daughter’s marriage to ‘the Moor’. Brabantio isangeredand ordersOthello’s arrest.● Brabantio and Othello appear before the governing Duke of Venice, and Othello explains that Desdemona fell inlovewith him after hearingstoriesabout his life. She is called to witness and confirms her genuine love for him.● Othello is called toCyprusto command a force against theTurks, and Desdemona accompanies him.● In a moment alone with Roderigo again, Iago convinces him to follow them to Cyprus and tells the audience of his plan to convince Othello that Desdemona is having anaffairwith Cassio.
  • Key Quotes & Analysis
    Act I Scene I:“an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe”This is the first of manyanimalisticandracistdescriptions. ThisdehumanisesOthello, describing him withbestial lusts. Thisvulgardescription puts Desdemona in a position of virginal innocence, but as a woman who is dominated by her animalistic husband: she is“white”and is thegrammatical objectof the sentence (Othello is thesubject).
  • Key Quotes & Analysis
    Act I Scene I:“Were I the Moor I would not be Iago. / In following him I follow but myself; / Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, / But seeming so for my peculiar end… I am not what I am”We often need to break down Iago’s language in order to understand it fully, and this fits with hisdeceptiveandwily nature. Hespeaks cryptically, andacts cryptically. He also denies his own self by saying“I am not what I am”, and we never truly know Iago or his motives throughout the play.
  • Key Quotes & Analysis
    Act I Scene II:“Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her”Brabantio cannot fathom why Desdemona would have married a ‘Moor’ unless she wereenchantedby him. This introduces themotifofwitchcraftinto the play: Othello is constantly associated with witchcraft, and this gives him an air ofotherworldlinessandexoticism.
  • Key Quotes & Analysis
    Act I Scene III:“Her father loved me; oft invited me; / Still question'd me the story of my life, / From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, / That I have passed. / I ran it through, even from my boyish days…”This is a long but important speech as we are given an insight intoOthello’s past. In this passage, Shakespeare draws ontravel writing, a popular contemporary genre in which European travellers would explore previously unvisited territory and write down their experiences in a fanciful and exoticised way. The difference here is that Othello, an African, is describing his own story but using thestyleof anexoticised travel narrativeto please his European listeners.