Act 2 Scene 1 quotes

Question 1

‘The wind shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane’

Answer 1

Themes: instability, conflict
Pathetic fallacy - shows how the setting in Cyprus will be destructive for the characters.

Question 2

‘You rise to play and go to bed to work’/ ‘You shall not write my praise’

Answer 2

Themes: attitudes to women, female agency
Iago portrays women to be simple creatures with only domestic purposes to serve men - Emilia tries to combat this, but cannot fully show through her simple sentence replie.s

Question 3

‘If after every tempest comes such calms may the winds blow till they have wakened death’

Answer 3

Themes: pure love, equality
This demonstrates the purity of their love and the strength of it at the beginning of the play; however is some dramatic irony in this, as by the end of the play their love ends up destroyed by Iago’s poison.

Question 4

‘Doth like a poisonous miner gnaw my inwards and nothing can or shall content my soul/ till I am evened with him’

Answer 4

Themes: jealousy, manipulation
Similie - continued motif of poison and shows the pervasive nature of his hatred and jealousy - also adds to the idea of male honour and the anger that ensues if there is suspected infidelity from the wif.e

Question 5

‘Her eyes must be fed. And/ what delight shall she have to look on the devil’

Answer 5

This is the beginning of Iago’s portrayal of Desdemona as sexually explorative; he plays on Christian attitudes about female sexuality and hell to add fear and disgust to the action and portrays her similarly to the way he portrayed Othello: animalistic