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Othello > key quotations > Flashcards

key quotations Flashcards

1
Q

Act 5Sc2, Othello: “But why should honour…

A

“… outlive honesty?”

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2
Q

Act 1sc3, Iago: ‘I hate the Moor:/

A

‘…And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets/ He has done my office’

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3
Q

Act1Sc3, Iago: ‘Put money…

A

‘… in thy purse’

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4
Q

Act5Sc2, Othello: ‘smooth as…’
“Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow”

A

‘… monumental alabaster’

Besides the beauty of alabaster—yet another precious substance—its coldness and stillness are the keynotes, and the same with snow. Earlier he had been troubled to feel her hand, “Hot, hot, and moist,” and sense there “a young and sweating devil . . . That commonly rebels” (3.4.45–49). What he wants, it seems, is a beautiful form with no wayward life at all.

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5
Q

Act5Sc2, Othello: ‘I will kill thee/…’

A

‘… And love thee after.’
(Desdemona as ‘love’s martyr’ - Gardener)

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6
Q

Act2Scene1, Cassio: ‘The …. Desdemona’, ‘our captain’s captain’

A

‘divine’

overly obsequious language

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7
Q

Act2sc1, Iago: ‘you are pictures out of doors,…

A

‘…bells in your parlours…’

long list emphasises Iago’s unwavering view of women as elusive, deceitful and duplicitous.

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8
Q

Act2sc1, Desdemona: ‘These are old fond paradoxes to…’

A

‘make fools laugh i’th’ ale-house’

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9
Q

Act2Sc3, Cassio and Iago:
‘she is sport for Jove’ vs

A

‘fresh and delicate creature’

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10
Q

Othello repetition (losing control of words and language) Act3sc3 and Act4sc1

A

Act3sc3: ‘Oh, blood, blood, blood!’
‘So, so, so, so…’
Act4sc1: ‘But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!’

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11
Q

Othello switching to prose like Iago in Act4sc1after this poetic line:

A

‘As doth the raven o’er the infectious house’

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12
Q

Act2sc3, Cassio: ‘Reputation, reputation, reputation!…’

A

‘I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.’
(lapses from blank verse into prose)

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13
Q

Act3sc4, Emilia: ‘They are all but stomachs, and we but food;…’

A

‘…when they are full, they belch us.’

proto-feminist

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14
Q

Act4sc1, Lodovico: ‘My lord, this would…’

A

‘… not be believed in Venice.’

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15
Q

Act4sc1, Iago: ‘Or to be naked…’

A

‘… with her friend in bed’

prurience and painting elaborate sexual scenarios

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16
Q

What happens to Othello during Act4sc1?

A

He falls into a trance

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17
Q

How does Cassio refer to himself in relation to Bianca?

A

as her ‘customer’

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18
Q

Act1sc1, Iago about Cassio: “A great arithmetician… a Florentine”

A

Cassio also distinguished as non-Venetian but, unlike Othello, is respected as a cultural insider. He is also, notably, the only character that survives besides Iago and the other minor characters and becomes the governor at the end.

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19
Q

Act3sc4, Othello and Desdemona: ‘talk me of Cassio’ vs ‘The handkerchief!’

A

their speech is contrapuntal, no longer ‘well tuned’ as at the start of the play

20
Q

“I am not what I am”, Iago

A

diacope emphasises Iago’s duplicity/ that duplicity will become an important idea in the play
blunt monosyllables and simplistic language in contrast to complexity of imagery and grammatical structures in the preceeding speech

21
Q

“ensnare as great a fly as Cassio”

A

grotesque animal imagery to demean. Iago as a ‘diabolical stage manager’ (Kott)

22
Q

“So will I turn her virtue into pitch,/And out of her goodness…”

A

“…make the net/That shall enmesh them all.”
- imagery suggests Iago is setting a trap for his prey
- suggests Iago has an innate contempt for innocence and goodness

23
Q

“… beware, my lord, of jealousy;/ It is the green-eyed monster…”

A

“…that doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

(also appears in ‘The Merchant of Venice’, another play set in Venice. Perhaps this suggests that in open societies like Venice where women ‘let heaven see the pranks they dare not show their husbands’, men are more prone to jealousy?)

24
Q

“In Venice, they do let God see the pranks…”

A

“…they dare not show their husbands.”

25
Q

“Cassio’s a proper man…”

A

“… Let me see now”

26
Q

“She loved me for the dangers I had passed,/…”

A

“…And I loved her that she did pity them”

(iambic pentameter: everything is right, romantic, balanced, equilibrium)

27
Q

“haggard”, “whistle her off” (Othello to Desdemona)

A

starts to use animal imagery to describe and dehumanise his wife who he now only sees as a whore, echoing Iago’s use of animal imagery to, ironically enough, dehumanise him.

28
Q

“The world’s a huge thing:..”, Emilia

A

“… it is a great price / For a small vice.”

29
Q

“sweet mistress”

A

girlpower bond between Emilia and Desdemona (most affection shown in the whole damn play by the end)

30
Q

“country disposition”

A

Iago reminds Othello that he is a naive outsider who does not understand the “country disposition” of Venetians

31
Q

“Good name in man and woman…”

A

“… Is the immediate jewel of their souls.”

(honour, reputation and good name)

32
Q

“What you know, you know. / …”

A

“… From this time forth I never will speak word.”

Whilst Iago’s earlier explanations have been full of richly evocative imagery and sensuous syntaxt (he gives us an overload of reasons (none of which seem genuinely convincing)), Shakespeare crafts these final laconic lines to be stark and bare.

33
Q

Act5Sc2, Othello: “An honourable murderer, if you will; / …”

A

“… For nought I did in hate, but all in honour.”

34
Q

Act5Sc2, Othello referring to Desdemona as an “ill-starr’d wench”

A

a phrase that seems out of place as Othello is meant to be atoning for his mistakes… he still does not seem to blame himself entirely but fate as she is “ill-starred”, and still refers to her in a potentially derogatory manner when he calls her a “wench”.

35
Q

Bianca and Desdemona

A
  • links between these characters: Desdemona as ‘fresh and delicate’ and Bianca’s name, meaning ‘white’, both women are also utterly devoted to their lovers
  • Is Shakespeare, therefore, using Bianca to highlight how the language of men can be used to transform the identity of a woman? - there is no explicit textual evidence that supports the idea that Bianca is a prostitute besides the names that she is called by Cassio when she is not around.
  • Hopkins posits that Bianca and Desdemona never appear onstage simultaneously; they may well have been played by the same actor
  • doubles/foils: where Desdemona retreats into submissiveness, no longer her “captain’s captain”, Bianca boldly asserts that she is “no strumpet, but of life as honest / As you that thus abuse me.”
  • yet Bianca uses the same sexist language of the men that surround her, ironically referring to the original owner of the handkerchief as a “minx”.
36
Q

Words used to describe Bianca

A

“caitiff”, “bauble”, “fitchew” (derogatory and animalistic use of slang)

37
Q

The word “soul” in the play

A
  • mentioned 40 times within the play
  • can symbolise pure love (“O my soul’s joy”
  • souls persisting after death
  • attributes of integrity and honesty (“perfect soul/ Shall manifest rightly”)
38
Q

the colour of the handkerchief

A

“dyed in mummy” - a black substance. does the handkerchief, an object with “magic in the web” (associating it with otherness, witchcraft?), actually resemble Othello himself?
Has the generally accepted idea of the white handkerchief spotted with red strawberries come to impose what is in Shakespeare’s original script?

39
Q

The word “whore” in the play

A
  • used more in Othello than in any other Shakespeare play
  • used 13 times
40
Q

Act3sc4, Emilia: “Nay, we must think men…”

A

“… are not gods”

41
Q

The two versions of Desdemona

A

‘soul’s joy’ vs ‘that cunning whore of Venice’

42
Q

Act5sc2 Emilia: “So speaking as I think, …”

A

“… alas, I die”

43
Q

references to dogs

A
44
Q

“These Moors are changeable…”

A

“… in their wills” (Iago)

45
Q

Act2sc3 Iago about Cassio: “For whiles this…”

A

“… honest fool”

46
Q

Act3sc3 Emilia: “My wayward husband hath one hundred times/ …”

A

“… Wooed me to steal it”

47
Q

Act3sc3 Iago: “It is a common thing –”

A

“To have a foolish wife”
demonstrating his misogynistic views in private as well as in public!!

Othello (10 decks)

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