Othello

• “an old black ram is tupping your white ewe”


  Iago speculates Othello has taken away Desdemona purity, the derogatory metaphor reflects both Iago and society’s racist outlook, built on elizabethan notions that black men are animal like
• “the beast with two backs”


  euphemistic metaphor, vivid and inflammatory sexual imagery, constant use of animal imagery to describe Othello
• "she loved me for the dangers I had passed,

  and I loved her that she did pity them" 


  Parallelism- places Desdemona and Othello on the same level, everything is reciprocated from one and other.

  Shows Othello's ability to display his emotions & the extent of their love.
• "Reputation, reputation, reputation"


  Tricolon- repeating the same word reflects how honour was the most important thing in Venice.

  Cassio shows the importance of upholding notable reputation, and shows the male obsession with it.
• "I am not what I am" 


  Appearance vs Reality, Iago is putting on an appearance, arguably when he is most honest- considering that throughout the play we know he doesn't mean what he says.
• "A man he is of honesty and trust"


  Shows the extent to which Othello is being deceived by Iago, also reflects Othello's own too trusting character- which brings his downfall.
• "She has deceived her father, and may thee"


  Brabantio bitterly is the 1st to show Desdemona's "unfaithful" person, which plays into Iago's plan. CONTEXT- fathers were supposed to pick their daughters suitor, she betrayed him.
• "Beware of jealousy,

  It is the green-eyed monster"


  Iago alludes that jealousy is a monster that will consume him, but can also reflect Iago's own state- as he could be the monster that consumes Othello, due to his manipulation.
• "Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags"


  Iago places Desdemona as an object, showing the expectations of the period that a father must chooses their daughters suitor. The repetition of your emphasises that she belongs to him.
• "My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty"


  Presents how she has resigned herself to being Othello's wife, showing a level of naivety as she gave everything up for him.
• “I am bound to you for life and education”


  Desdemona recognises that she is indebted to her father for raising her but also that she believes she should still be allowed to decide her own future, defiance of societal standards, she is equally as heroic as Othello.
• “virtue no delighted beauty lack, your son-in-law is far more fair than black”


  Duke claims that virtue (morally positive trait) is beauty so Othello is beautiful but not black. Society defines him by his appearance as well as his sacrifices, as ultimately in the play his race is lesser than Desdemona’s. Rhyming couplet. To praise him the Duke slanders his race.
• “Our general’s wife is now the general“


  Iago implies to Cassio that to get back into the good graces of Othello he should appeal to Desdemona, Iago implies that Othello is dictated by his love over rational thus emasculating him.
• “Merely a lust of the blood”


  Reductive on love, he sees it as just desire to have another sexually, he sees it as a weakness which is why he uses it to manipulate Othello, he cannot see it as wholly good because he is not a wholly good person.
• “I no nothing but to please his fantasy“


  Iago only cares for Emilia if she is of a use to him, and she recognises this, yet Emilia seems to associate her love with devotion thus reasoning why she hands Iago the handkerchief. Iago’s view on love doesn’t reduce Emilia’s view on love making her heroic.
• “A moth of peace”


  Her naivety is highlighted through the fact she doesn’t notice she is at the heart of conflict, she does not recognise Iago is going to use her for destruction. Moths are delicate and are attracted to light even though it kills them, showing how Desdemona is unaware that she is attracted to danger, teh danger being Othello.
• “My heart is subdued even to the very quality of my lord“


  Desdemona is devoted to Othello, Shakespeares use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’, although Desdemona subverts some societal boundaries she still conforms to Jacobean societal expectations that a woman must be subordinate to their husbands, which she does to the extent it is fatal.