Quotes

• Act 1 Scene 1: "An old black ram/ Is tupping your white ewe"

  • Animalistic and racist slurs
  • Highlights the Great Chain of Beings: 'God, angels, humans, animals' - both Desdemona and Othello are described as animals, meaning they are both mearly sufficient humans on Earth
  • Juxtaposition of light and dark, evil vs purtiy.
  • Othello is seen as bestial and uncontrollable brute force and Desdemona a victim. 'Your' reinforcing patriarchy
• Act 1 Scene I: "Were I the Moor ... I am not what I am"

  • Allusion to Exodus 3:14 - God says 'I am what I am". Desdemona contradicts God as portrays him as a diabolical character, hiding his devilish motives
  • Links to his duplicitous nature as he speaks very enigmatically and cryptically
• Act 1 Scene 2: "Dam'd as thou ... enchanted her"

  • Brabantio accuses Othello of witchcraft, and cannot understand why his daughter has married someone who e dislikes and not approved by him
  • This reinforces patriarchal society as daughters were expected to accept arranged marriages by their fathers, especially common in upper classes
  • Motif of witchcraft and exoticism, adding a sense of mystery and something Venetians would of been intrigued by when meeting Othello
• Act 1 Scene 3: "Her father loved me ... even my boyish days"

  • Shakespeare once again alludes to the travel writing genre, something popular during his life
  • Othello embellishes his experiences, including "cannibals" and "anthropophagi"
  • He piles on his experiences through the use of anaphora: "of moving accidents/of hair-breadth scapes/of being taken"
• Act 1 Scene 3: "With a greedy ear/Devour up my discourse"

  • It perhaps suggests Desdemona is not innocent or pure, as she is "greedy" on of the 7 deadly sins
  • However, Venetian society devour the information and stories that Othello tells them. It is indicative of 16th and 17th century, where after Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the world, in 1620, the Mayflower would transport English families to the "New World"
  • Therefore, Shakespeare's audience listen intently, with a "greedy ear" just as Othello's does
• Act 1 Scene 3: "I hate the Moor ... in that kind"

  • Iago's soliloquy in blank verse is a constant motif in the play
  • It allows Iago to express his innermost feelings, and it is through his revenge of the possible infidelity of his wife sleeping with Othello
  • Contrast as Othello needs ocular proof to believe, but Iago accuses only on "a mere suspicion"