Othello Analysis

• Iago - 'I am not what I am'


  First hint of deception, shows devious nature
• Iago - 'Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light'


  Oxymoron shows his plan coming to night, contrast of monster and life
• Othello - 'Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven'


  Hyperbole shows rough life before and the metaphor of Desdemona sees her as his saviour
• Othello - 'when I love thee not, Chaos is come again'

  Imagery suggests falling out of love with her would end his world
• Othello -.O thou weed, Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet'


  Juxtaposition reflects decaying love of Othello and Desdemona
• Desdemona - 'I saw Othello's visage in his mind'


  Metaphorically looked past his race
• Othello - 'I therefore beg it not To please the palate of my appetite...But to be free and bounteous to her mind.'


  Metaphor that his love for her isn't just sexual
• Cassio - 'Our great captain's captain.'


  Contrast to society at the time, she's in charge
• Iago - 'Our general's wife is now the general'


  Contrast to society at the time
• Emilia - 'They are all but stomachs'


  Metaphor for men's sexual appetites, imagery of men hiding their true selves
• Emilia - 'Nay, we must think men are not gods'


  Idea that men can't control women
• Emilia - 'The world's a huge thing; it is a great price For a small vice'


  Contrasts to Desdemona's moral ideas, would sacrifice her fidelity for the world
• Emilia - 'I do think it is their husband's faults if wives do fall...they slack their duties And pour our treasures into foreign laps'


  Idea that women were treated differently to men and were often to blame, for a man it was more acceptable to cheat
• Iago - 'I hate the moor...it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets'


  Thinks Othello has slept with Emilia, driven by jealousy
• Iago - 'For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too'


  Insane jealousy that Cassio has also slept with Emilia
• Iago - 'It is the green eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on'


  Metaphor shows neologism and relates jealousy with evil
• Desdemona - 'Unkindness may do much, And his unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love'


  Metaphor reflects her undying love for him and the dramatic irony is that he will actually murder her
• Desdemona - 'That death's unnatural that kills for loving'


  Metaphor shows her innocence and her willingness to die for Othello
• Othello - 'I kissed thee ere I killed thee: no way but this, killing myself, to die upon a kiss'


  Extended metaphor links love and death indicating that you can't live without love
• Desdemona - 'A guiltless death I die'


  Dramatic construct of women at the time, remains faithful on her death bed to protect Othello
• Othello - 'The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you'


  Metaphor suggests that their marriage was a transaction and sex is the exchange
• Iago - 'players in your housewifery and housewives in your bed'


  Litany emphasises stereotypical views at the time
• Iago - 'She is sport for Jove...And I'll warrant her full of game'


  Jove was a god known for his sexual prowess, makes her seem like prey being hunted.
• Cassio - 'She is a most fresh and delicate creature'


  More respectful than Iago but he still treats her as inhuman
• Iago - 'Whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out'


  Imagery makes unrequited love sound torturous
• Othello - 'Thou hast set me on the rack'


  Metaphor for his tortured mind thinking that Desdemona is unfaithful
• Bianca - 'Eight score eight hours? And lovers' absent hours More tedious'


  Repetition shows desire for attention for Cassio, who has been neglecting her
• Othello - 'O Desdemon! Dead Desdemon! Dead! O! O!'


  Repetition and exclamation mark emphasise mental anguish
• Othello - 'For in my sense 'tis happiness to die'


  Life without Desdemona isn't worth living
• Brabantio - 'O treason of the blood'


  Considered treason to go against their father's will
• Othello - 'I won his daughter'


  Possessive as if she is a prize or object
• Desdemona - 'You are lord of all my duty...I may profess due to the Moor'


  Diplomatically answers that she no longer serves her father but now her husband, can't escape control
• Othello - 'I crave fit disposition for my wife...As levels with her breeding'


  Despite everything, Othello still sees class as an important factor
• Othello - 'All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed'


  Infantilisation of Desdemona as she is protected from the violence and sent to bed almost as if she's too innocent
• Othello - 'I'd whistle her off and let her down the wind To prey at fortune'


  Hawking imagery portrays Desdemona as a wild hawk who he will set free which contrasts to the attitude at the time but he has still captured her like an animal
• Othello - 'He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen, Let him not know't and he's not robbed at all'


  Robbing metaphor sees women as possessions
• Othello - 'Thou art to die'...Desdemona - 'Then Lord have mercy on me'


  Religious imagery suggests he is her god
• Iago - 'I charge you get you home'...Emilia - 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now...I will ne'er go home'


  Challenge to Iago contrasts obedient women at the time
• Emilia - 'Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all, All, all cry shame against me'


  Litany groups them together suggesting that men control everything, the good and the evil, which is emphasised by the repetition
• Iago - 'old black ram is tupping your white ewe'


  Antithesis shows separation of races, colour images indicates that sex is ruining her purity