Iago quotes Flashcards
“I am not what I am”
•paradox- Iago defies comprehension
•biblical reference- against christian teaching- devil
•putting on an appearance
•adds dramatic irony- know he doesn’t mean what he says
•primacy effect- makes us empathise with Iago due to what has happened even though we know he is doing reprehensible things
“even now, very now, an old black ram is tipping your white ewe”
•juxtaposition of black + white
•black sheep is a rarity- represents an outcast who’s done something wrong
•way Iago used language- rep of ‘now’ suggests idea they are doing it at this very moment- technique Iago employs throughout the play + using present tense to put ideas into characters heads
“O beware my lord of jealousy! It is the green- eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”
•warning that jealousy can be an uncontrollable monster that is all consuming- also could be about Iago himself, could be seen as the monster who will eventually consume Othello
•links to myopia- encouraging Othello to be blind- as he becomes more jealous he turns into this beast that will consume him
• Othello is not aware it’s Iago’s doings
“Virtue! A fig! This in ourselves that we are thus or thus, Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners”
• expresses his contempt for morality- no such thing
•use of taboo lexis ‘fig’- commonly known as insult at the time
•morality is moot- man fashions his own reality outside social rules
•repetition of ‘thus’ shows his beliefs in man’s malleability + control
•carries on this notion with an analogy + polypoton- compares our bodies to gardens- sole controllers of our fate + behaviour- our actions are a direct result of values
