quotes othello Flashcards
(135 cards)
1
Q
quote depicting desdemona as an object to be stolen
A
“Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
Thieves, thieves!”
o Perpertrating racist stereotypes again and forcing audience against Othello o Reducing Desdemona to an object, something to be stolen In a feminist reading of the play it is important also to consider the metaphors comparing Desdemona to ‘bags’ and Othello to ‘thieves’. What does this imply about the patriarchal authority of Brabantio? Look out for this motif [a repeated pattern] as the play continues.
2
Q
- “Even now, very now, an old black ram
A
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise”
3
Q
“boarded a
A
land carrack”
4
Q
she is abus’d,
A
stol’n from me, and corrupted By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; For nature so preposterousl to err, Being not deficient, blind or lame of sense, Ssans witchcraft could not.”
5
Q
“I do beseech you, Send for
A
the lady to the Sagittary, And let her speak of me before her father”
6
Q
“if virtue no
A
delighted beauty lack, Your son in law is far more fair than black”
7
Q
“one that excels
A
the quirks of blazoning pens
8
Q
who is petrarch
A
Note also the Petrarchan language Cassio uses [that is, the language of the Italian poet, Petrarch, famous for his extravagant descriptions of a lady he loved, Laura, in his sonnets], describing the general’s wife in hyperbolic terms
9
Q
“O, behold, The riches
A
of the ship is come on shore!”
o Objectification despite Petrarchan language
o Language of courtly love AND misogyny
Hyperbolic extravagance in Petrarchan language
10
Q
- Iago and Desdemona banter back and forth in act 2 scene 1
“Come on, come on: you are pictures out of doors,
bells in your parlours,
wild cats in your kitchens,
saints in your injuries,
devils being offended,
players in your housewifery, and
housewives in your beds”
A
§ Women are like a bell (loud and screechy)
§ Misogynistic jokes and images
§ Femininity defined by beauty
§ Viciousness is a woman’s thing: kitchens are their territory
§ ‘angel in the house’
· Angelic motherly woman
Like 1950s ideal
11
Q
“You rise to play and go to bed to work”
A
§ Like prostitutes
§ Women’s job is childbirth. Sex centered around male pleasure
12
Q
With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. (Act 2.1.168)
A
The metaphor here is of Iago as a predatory spider anticipating Cassio’s downfall. It is also significant that in this soliloquy, Iago shifts into a prose that contrasts with the verse with which he conversed with Desdemona. This shift seems to give an apparent intimacy in his exchange with the audience as he moves out of the locus and into the plate.
There is something else that is interesting about this soliloquy: as Iago observes what happens on stage, he comments on the action to both us and in the second person to Cassio—although Cassio cannot, of course, hear him. The overall arc of the speech is thus a contrast between ‘I’ and you’. But this simple binary becomes a triad: the ‘I’ of Iago addresses the unhearing ‘you’ of Cassio, but when he talks about ‘he’ he is addressing a third party, us, the audience. What kind of relationship does this establish between Iago and the audience?
13
Q
Act 2 Scene 3 begins with Othello metaphorically comparing the consummation of his marriage with Desdemona with a financial transaction:
The purchase made, the
A
fruits are to ensue
That profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you. (2.3.10)
This rhyming couplet perhaps hints at the gender inequality so evident in the play with its figurative reduction of Desdemona to an object through the vehicle of the metaphor—a ripe fruit Othello has purchased, with its implication that she is defined by her fertility, her ability to bear children and thereby provide ‘profit’ both in terms of Othello’s sexual pleasure and in terms of her bringing ‘forth fruit’ by having children.
Note the shift from Othello’s verse to Iago’s bawdy prose which, again, maintains his pathological obsession with Othello and Desdemona’s sexual relationship. (2.3.15)
14
Q
o “well happiness to the sheets!”
A
o Metronym
o Pathological obsession
o Desdemona and Othello
o Othello and Desdemona’s bedsheets have an important symbolism in the latter stages of the play so it is, perhaps, significant that Iago uses the sheets here as a metonym for their sexual relationship. Yet there is also something voyeuristic about the idea of the sheets gaining satisfaction as witnesses their sexual union–a voyeurism which is, of course, also a key part of the theatrical experience. How does this align the audience?
15
Q
“If I do prove her haggard,
A
Though that her jesses were my dear heart strings, id whistle her off and let her down the wind To prey at fortune”
o Untrained young hawk. Captures prey.
If he cant tame her he will ‘let her go’
16
Q
They are all but stomachs
A
and we all but food: They eat us hungry, and when they are full, They belch us.
o Women are consumable
o Exist to sustain men
o Men defined by stomachs – hangry
o Synecdoche
§ Metaphor
§ Subset of metonymy
Part of something that stands for the whole
17
Q
“there, give it your hobby-horse, wheresoever you had it.”
A
bianca distiguishes herself from this.
all three women labelled strumpets
18
Q
- Act one set in Christian Europe
- Rest of play set in Cyprus
A
o Widely contested
o Being threatened by Ottoman Empire
o Conflicted liminal space
§ The play is largely about contested identities
o Muslim
§ Othello is likely from North Africa (muslim) but is a Christian.
§ Unusual at the time?
19
Q
“his moorship’s ancient”
A
o Defined by his race
o Portmanteau representing the mixed race relationship of Othello and Desdemona
o As you read the play, note how other characters—including Desdemona—refer to Othello as ‘Moor’. In line 33, for example, think about the mocking blend-word, ‘Moorship’—combining ‘Moor’ with ‘lordship. What does this imply about Iago’s conception of race?
o You may want to consider here also Iago’s name. (Remember, he was just referred to as the ‘ensign’ in Shakespeare’s source for the story.) Iago takes his name from Spain’s patron saint, famous for conquering the Moors. In 939 CE Santiago (Saint Iago or Saint James) delivered Castille from the Moors. He is traditionally depicted in paintings on a white charger trampling Moors underfoot (see right for an anonymous 18th Century painting).
o Whilst thinking about names, it may also be worth noting that the name Cinthio gives to his tragic heroine, Disdemona, which comes from a word meaning ‘unfortunate’ in Greek. What does this suggest about the tragic inevitability of her death? Interestingly, Shakespeare was perhaps influenced in choosing the name Othello, not from references to Moors, but from the name of the jealous husband in the work of the rival poet, Ben Jonson, entitles ‘Every Man in His Humor’. Thorello in Jonson’s play is a jealous husband—just like Shakespeare’s Othello; this could suggest that it is his jealousy and not his race that might define his character.
20
Q
- “thick lips”
o Racist language
o Reaffirms Othello is viewed primarily as his race
o Gets audience to oppose Othello before he has even entered the scene.
A
Technically, ‘thicklips’ is actually an example of synecdoche (a subset of metonymy!) where a part of something stands in for the whole. What is the effect of this synecdoche here? Think about the effect of defining him by stereotypes of sub Saharan African appearance.
21
Q
- “Thou hast enchanted her”
A
o Genuine accusation
§ Magic is not good in this scenario as he is associating Othello (and his race and religion) with racist stereotypes.
o “if she in chains of magic were not bound”
Brabantio refuses to accept that his daughter Desdemona can willingly have married Othello. He therefore wonders with what ‘foul charms’ he has ‘abused her delicate youth.’ His assumption here is that Othello must have used black magic to win the love of his daughter. This does not seem to be a metaphor for Brabantio. Look also at how he picks up on Iago and Roderigo’s metaphors of Desdemona as a possession here. (Act 1.2.73)
22
Q
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation, I have lost the immortal part of myself – and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation. (Act 2.3.245)
A
- Another important line emphasising the importance of masculine honour in Venetian society is when Cassio, in response to his dismissal by Othello shifts from the formal verse in which he has previously conversed into prose. He says:
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation, I have lost the immortal part of myself – and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation. (Act 2.3.245)
The repetition of ‘reputation’ here is significant as it is transformed into some intrinsic part of himself. Indeed, the figurative idea of his ‘reputation’ as the ‘immortal part’ of him, leaving only what is ‘bestial’ metaphorically aligns his reputation with his soul. This potentially transgressive [going against societal values] suggestion, making honour seem more important even than morality or religion, highlights the dysfunctional nature of the masculine world in which the play is set. Moreover, given how in Shakespeare’s performances actors were only given their own lines and the two or three cue words from the preceding speech, and given that plays were rehearsed only once or twice before performance, the repetition of ‘reputation’ would, as Iago’s cue, cause the actor playing the latter character to interrupt Cassio’s lament, adding to the disorder and confusion of the scene.
23
Q
generic confusion
A
o Affairs of state and war vs romance and daughter running away/undermining him
o History (Richard I etc) and domestic tragedy. (city comedy where they get married at the end and ordinary people get into affairs etc)
Agonosis is to see something again
24
Q
- Othello as Cyprus
A
§ Place of conflict/battleground/debate of racist ideas
- Cinthio’s action has little to do with Venice although his story begins and ends there. Shakespeare makes much of the contrast between Venice as a famous city-state, home of law and order, and Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite in Greek mythology located in a liminal [in between] position between Europe and the perceived threat posed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire. It is only Act 1 which takes place in Venice in the play. Note, however, how the Turkish threat is dismissed in Act 2.1 as it is destroyed by a storm—much like the Spanish Armada was in 1588. This shifts the focus of the tragedy from the affairs of the state to the domestic world of Othello and Desdemona and it moves the play generically [in terms of genre] from Shakespeare’s history plays of the 1590s concerned with affairs of state, towards something that seems to prefigure the domestic tragedies of the 20th Century.
- Othello is explatory in genre between historical, comical and tragical.
o Exploring race like exploring new literature??
25
o Song in scene 3, line 60.
o Email / Desdemona vs Iago
o English people drinking, playing with audience response
o Groundilings all join in and drink “is your englishman so equisite in his drinking”
§ Stagery
o Shifts between verse and prose or, indeed, rhyming couplets always signal moments of change in Shakespeare's plays. Look at the shift in tone here to the drinking games and songs.
26
Othello hits Desdemona in public
o Represents the wild mayhem of cyprus as compared to venice
Lodovico represents the law and order of venice. Cant believe what he’s seeing
27
- “I had thought to have yerk’d him here, under the ribs.”
“Tis better as it is”
Othello’s first line
o Othello’s first line
o First impressions is peaceful and defined by restraint, resistance, reluctance to fight (changes throughout play)
o Iago retains total linguistic control
Iago shows his capacity for dissembling when he feigns anger at the way in which Roderigo has spoken of Othello and stoked up trouble for him:
28
“Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them”
o Quick initial confidence
o One of Othello’s first lines
o Shows stability and security in himself
o Total power (dew not blood will rust the swords)
Othello again shows his calm dignity when he is confronted by Roderigo and Brabantio:
29
“I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magic, For such proceeding I am charg’d withal, I won his daughter”
She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d, And I lov’d her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have us’d: Here comes the lady; let her witness it.
o Turns the threat into embellishment about total control (of his language
o Metaphor
Despite Othello’s claim to be ‘rude’ in his speech, it can be seen that he exhibits both considerable lyricism and a calm dignity when he answers Brabantio’s charge by saying this
Note how Othello is speaking in blank verse [unrhymed iambic pentameter] also, unlike the coarse prose and profanity-filled verse of Iago and Roderigo earlier in the play. Structurally, what is the effect of this? Does Othello speak in verse throughout the play? Note where he shifts into prose and what this might signify later on.
30
“Men should be what thye seem: Or those that be not, woud they might seem none. Certain, men should be what they seem!”
o Slippage between copular verbs
o Copular – brings something into exidtence.
Represents. World slpis out from under Othello. Cant trust
31
hamartia
The most distinctive feature of the Aristotelian tragic hero is hamartia; his downfall must be brought about by a character flaw or flaw in judgment that leads to his destruction. In Othello’s case, this could be jealousy; his blindness to the inherent racism of his society (symbolised by Iago); impulsive behaviour; or his faith in the honesty of human nature.
Hamartia is more than a moral weakness; it is a crucial mistake on the part of the tragic hero that causes him to plunge from greatness to grief. Othello’s mistake as a tragic hero is believing Iago’s treacherous lies about Desdemona’s unfaithfulness. Instead of investigating the matter further, Othello rashly jumps to the worst conclusions about his wife and believes every lie that Iago whispers into his ear.
32
the tragic hero
For Aristotle, the ideal protagonist is a man who is highly renowned and prosperous, but one who is not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgment or frailty; a personage like Oedipus.
That is, the tragic hero should be like all of us – flawed and imperfect. This helps the audience sympathise with the protagonist’s downfall. The protagonist also had to be of high status so that his tragedy affected those around him and the fabric of society.
On one level, Othello fulfils all of Aristotle’s requirements for a tragic hero, as he is a character of noble status who falls from that position of power to one of shame because of his hamartia. Moreover the plot of Othello contains a powerful catharsis through its murderous climax and conclusion, and an anagnorisis when Othello realizes that he has been manipulated by Iago. However, Othello differs from the typical tragic hero because his family background would have been relatively unimportant in Europe – his race meant that he had to earn a noble position not by birth, but by merit (the social structure of the play can therefore be considered a meritocracy). Part of the play’s pathos derives from our awareness that Othello loses the status that he has worked and suffered for.
33
- “hot, hot and moist” “for here’s a young and sweating devil here”
o Sexual holding hand part page 80
Symbol of control. Not an affectionate or intimate moment
- 2 characters totally at odds
o Both talking about different things
“is hands, not hearts.” Gap hinting at infidelity
34
Gulling
iago to othello in act 4 scene 1
o When someone is tricked
o If in essay, explain meaning briefly
Represented differently in comedies and tragedies
35
othello's death
o Anagnoisis
o Spent his life defending venice, now realiases he is the enemy
o Kills himself as loyalty for venice and for Desdemona
o Final lines show othello’s duplicity
§ Martial
§ Love
§ Lover and fighter, merged in speech
o Rhyming couplet as he dies
o “look on the tragic loading of this bed”
§ To audience as well
§ Iago as audience to tragedy
Imperative
36
metaphor of desdemona's sheets
“I have laid
- those sheets you bade me on the bed.”
Should be a sign of sexual comfort but now Desdemona claiming the sheets for her death, her chasity/purity
37
act 4 scene 3
- There is an interesting contrast between how Act 4 appears in the 1622 Quarto and the 1623 Folio editions (both, of course, published posthumously as Shakespeare died in 1616). In Act 4 of the Quarto, the boy actor of Desdemona does not sing the haunting willow song and his/her dialogue with Emilia is reduced. Folio Emilia has much to say about wives who are prompted to adultery by their husbands’ neglect (18 lines not in the Quarto: 4.3.85-102). In the scene before this Folio Desdemona swears on her knees that she has never and will never love anyone except Othello (4.2.153-66): these 14 lines are not in the Quarto. In the play’s last scene, Folio Emilia is more vocal in helping to expose Iago. Her lines at 5.2.147-50 are not in the Quarto.
Whilst both texts probably represent versions from different performances of the play, it is interesting to note that Emilia’s role and her relationship with Desdemona is far more overt in the Folio, where the plangently [resonating but sad] musical Desdemona gives the scene a slower tempo than in the Quarto counterpart. It is unclear whether these differences represent a cut to the longer original, or an addition: in either case it says something about responses to female agency in the early modern theatre.
- “barbary”
o Barbary coast
- “and she died singing it. That song tonight Will not go from my mind.”
o Suggests she has suspicions of murder
- “no unpin me here”
o Vulnerability
- Desdemona singing
o Pathos
- “song interrupted”
o Her life is interrupted
- “nay that’s not next”
o Confused as actually thinking about how she’s going to die
o Paranoid
- Emilia acts a counterpoint
- “wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?”
o very naïve
- “no by this heavenly light; I might do’t as well i’th’dark”
o Christian imagery
o Idiom
o Grounds her imagery in reality
o Not in the day or light
o Pragmatic
- “the world’s a huge thing; it is a great price for a small vice”
o Idiom
o Sex is transactional for emilia
o If gives her agency etc.
- “but for all the whole world! Ud’s pity, who would not make her husband a cuckhold, to make him a monactarch? I should venture purgatory for ‘t”
o Recognition
o Has conditions wouldn’t do it for material things
o Can see a mutual benefit
o Cant imagine a world without a husband
- “and pour treasures into foreign laps”
o Metaphor for semen
o Socially acceptable for men to be disloyal
o Men fear humiliation whilst women fear dearh (for cheating)
o “
- “have their palates for sweet and sour As husbands have”
o Breaks down diad between men and women
o Challenges male hypocrisy
o SHYLCOK
- “Then let him use us well; else let them know the ills we do, their ills instruct us so.”
o Inserts justice
o Humorous
o Rhyming couplet
- 2 female characters (usually voiceless)
o Good points but Shakespeare doesn’t say he agrees. Plenty of points in the play that supports otherwise
o Tentatively encourages feminism? Outside of the male gaze
o Discusses men without them being there.
o About to both get murdered in this room.
- In the conversation which follows Desdemona’s and Emilia’s contrasting attitudes to men and to relationships are presented. Desdemona’s attitudes can be linked to an ideal of womanly virtue since she flatly rejects the idea of ever being unfaithful whereas Emilia claims only that she would not easily be unfaithful to a husband yet might do so for the whole world. Emilia comments that men and women are driven by the same desires and needs showing her rather worldly view of humanity whereas Desdemona’s innocence and virtue seems to transcend this. It seems that Shakespeare presents Desdemona in this way to lend greater poignancy to her situation when she is killed by Othello. Othello, Shakespeare seems to be saying, could not have been more wrong about his wife.
It is worth analysing this speech as it seems a proto-feminist [the prefix ‘proto’ as in ‘prototype’ implies something that is original or early so here a proto-feminist is someone expressing seemingly expressing feminist views before the rise of the New Woman in the 1890s and First Wave Feminism of the early 20th Century] polemic [a polemic is a strong verbal or written attack on something]. Desdemona asks Emilia whether she would cuckhold [cheat on] Iago for ‘all the world' (4.3.62) only for Emilia to clarify that whilst she would not do such a thing for a trifle, ‘The world’s a huge thing; it is a great price / For a small vice’. Yet more importantly, she then goes on to argue that ‘it is their husbands’ faults / If wives do fall’, noting that both men and women are defined by ‘frailty’ and that if men ‘err’ then women—having ‘affections, / Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have’—will natural ‘err’ as well. Note how Emilia shifts into verse for this speech. What might this imply?
Think about this speech in the context of how both married women in the play are ultimately killed by their husbands. What might this say about Shakespeare’s presentation of misogyny in early modern society?
- End of act 4 – getting ready for bed & Beginning of act 5 – in bedchamber
o Bedchamber of the claustrophobic tense atmosphere of cyprus at the time
- It is worth exploring Emilia as the voice of reason in the play and the irony that in 4.2 Othello just dismisses her, regarding her as a ‘simple bawd’ [a bawd was a female pimp, or brothel-keeper] with the obvious suggestion that she was Desdemona’s accomplice.
- Always consider the staging of play when writing your essays. Note here how Desdemona says she, ‘Upon my knees, what doth your speech impart?’ Think about the levels here and what they get across about masculine hegemonic [structural / societal] power.
“upon my knees,” stage direction
38
emilia in ending
Yet Emilia shows herself to be quite a forceful character when she speaks stridently in favour of her mistress’ honour:
He called her a whore. A beggar in his drink
Could not have laid such terms upon his callet. (Act 4.2.121; p161)
She shows that she is capable of being outraged and of showing the strength of her emotions when she says that a ‘halter’ or hangman’s noose should be all the ‘pardon’ that Othello should be shown for being so badly mistaken about Desdemona. Desdemona, for her own part, is arguably much weaker since she readily pardons Othello’s almost unforgivable excesses.
- Emilia feels a sense of outrage at the way in which Desdemona finds her virtue questioned:
Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
Her father, and her country, and her friends,
To be called a whore? (Act 4.2.124-6)
Again, is it worth comparing this with how Cassio and Iago speak of Bianca? And, indeed, how Iago speaks of Emilia? Note, for example, how in response to Emilia’s outburst he says ‘Speak within door’ annd dismisses her as a ‘fool’ who should ‘go to’. Think about how this ties in with his murder of her in the tragic denouement [conclusion] of the play
- Shakespeare also portrays Emilia to be quite perceptive when she concludes that some ‘villainous knave’ must have poisoned Othello’s mind. The irony of the situation, however, is that she does not realise that the man she is speaking of is her own husband, Iago. Equally ironically, Desdemona turns to Iago as the man who might be her salvation:
O good Iago
What shall I do to win my lord again?
The audience once again sees Iago’s mendacity [untruthfulness] when he expresses the view that is must be ‘the business of state’ which has thrown Othello into such a foul humour. The reality of the situation is that he knows that it is his own actions which have unleashed Othello’s jealousy.
From
- “yes – ‘tis Emilia – by and by – shes dead”
o mid line shifts
- page 130 caesuras
o mental state mirrored in the prosody
- It is the second part of this final scene, however, when Emilia arrives that sees Othello appreciating that jealousy has been his tragic flaw. Emilia vehemently refuses to believe Othello’s accusations against Desdemona and begins to confront him with the evidence that what he believes to be the case is not in fact true. Reckless of her own personal safety when Othello touches his sword, she summons Lodovico and Gratiano to the scene who bring Cassio and Iago with them. As Othello tries to tell her that Iago had led him to believe that Desdemona was unfaithful, Emilia confronts her husband whose lies are no longer tenable once the different parties are assembled together. Emilia pays with her life for exposing Iago for what he is, but Iago’s actions in murdering her make his guilt quite unambiguous.
- Note Emilia’s imagery here, calling Desdemona ‘the more angel’ and Othello ‘the blacker devil’ (5.2.131-2). Her language echoes that of her husband in 1.1, of course, and yet here it is in the context of what he has done. Where does Shakespeare suggest our sympathies should lie? Do you think this has changed over time? Remember, one of the first critics of Shakespeare’s plays, Thomas Rymer, drew the conclusion in 1693 that the play had a simple moral to be ‘a caution to all Maidens of Quality how, without their Parents consent, they run away with Blackamoors’.
From
- “o the more angel she, And you the blacker devil”
o Racist imagery of angels and devils, alludes to blackface
- “thou art rash as fire to say”
o She stops respecting Othello
- Emilia argues with Othello unlike Desdemona
o Repetition of my husband, strange realisation
- Emilia's shift in address here is telling: note her use of the informal pronoun 'thou' to Othello in line 134. What might be the significance of this?
- Note the parallel between Emilia's echoing of Othello's revelation about Iago and Iago's own manipulations of Othello in 3.3.
- “though I lost twenty lives. Help! Help! Ho, help!” repetition of villany
o More active than Desdemona
- “O monstrous act!” montano
o Monster idea
- emilia’s death page 137
o Swans meant to sing when they die
o Last lines are important
o Sings Desdemona song again
- What is the effect of Emilia echoing Desdemona's song with her dying words?
- “demand that demi-devil”
o Imagery again
39
- “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am”
o Heart is metonymic
§ Associations with love/emotions
· Sign of weakness or vulnerability
o Daws are like crows
o Rejecting our definitions or prepositions of what Iago is like.
o The theme of appearance and reality is presented early in the play when Iago states that he will not allow his ‘outward action’ to ‘demonstrate / The native act and figure of [his] heart’ because at such time he might as well:
…wear [his] heart upon his sleeve
For daws to peck at.
In making this admission, Iago seems to be pointing to the Janus-like [two-faced nature] of his personality which will rely on skilful dissembling to achieve his own ends. This metaphor of fearing jackdaws—that is, carrion birds—would peck at his heart were he to show any emotion is interesting. Why? What does it suggest? (Act 1.1.64)
o He then goes on to say ‘I am not what I am’. Copular verbs [special kinds of verb used to join an adjective or noun complement to a subject. Common examples are: be (is, am, are, was, were), appear, seem, look, sound, smell, taste, feel, become and get] are incredibly important in the play so take note when characters talk about what they ‘are’ or what they ‘seem’. Here this seems an inversion of God’s declaration in Exodus 3.14: ‘I am that I am’. What might this suggest about Iago? (Act 1.1.65)
40
“By Janus, I think no”
o Two faced god
o Referencing pagan and roman gods
o There is something revealing about Iago swearing on Janus, the Roman god of doorways, gates, and transitions, as he is usually depicted as having two faces.
Challenging religion
41
“Err, I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen I would change my humanity with a baboon”
o Zoomorphic
o Metaphor
o Guinea hens look like they are wearing loads of makeuo
§ Symbolising the makeup of a prostitute.
§ Iago characterises the marriage between Othello and Desdemona as:
A frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian. (Act 1.3.349)
Interestingly, the word ‘subtle’ that Iago uses here carried with it connotations of being sophisticated but in the rather negative way of having the capacity to deceive. It does, however, also draw upon stereotypical ideas about Venetian courtesans [high class prostitutes] whose appearance often made them indistinguishable from noble ladies of the court.
42
Lines 359 to end of Act 1 is the manipulation of Iago and Rodrigo. Parallels Iago and Othello.
o Power dynamic
o Rodrigo sends all his land to give money to Iago
o Soliloquay
§ Iago shows no scruples about exploiting Roderigo for his own financial gain when he says:
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse. (Act 1.3.386; p43)
Soliloquys were traditionally spoken at the front of the stage in an area known as the platea [the front of the stage by the audience] which was distinct from the locus [the middle and back of the stage] where the action of the play took place. What is the effect of the inevitable intimacy we have with Iago, understanding him more than other figures in the play?
43
- “it is engender’d”
Like a plan being born
44
iago is most honest
ironic epithet
45
rodrigo's death
- “O damn’d Iago! O inhuman dog!
o Zoomorphic metaphor
Roderigo’s dying comment—‘O damned Iago! O inhuman dog!’ (5.1.62)—sees him at last making an accurate appraisal of the man that has duped him all along and proved his nemesis. The all too convenient villainy of Iago’s actions here may remind audiences familiar with Macbeth, written a few years after Othello, of the devious and wicked nature of Macbeth’s actions in killing the two drunken guards outside King Duncan’s bed chamber as a means of simultaneously silencing them and making them appear responsible for King Duncan’s death.
- The foil of Rodrigo, who is manipulated and killed before Othello
- Stereotype as moors as gullible, I n an anti-racist viewing is reduced due to the idea of a white nobleman being duped before Othello.
All women called strumpets
46
what quote suggests desdemona has suspicions of murder
“and she died singing it. That song tonight Will not go from my mind.”
47
“and pour treasures into foreign laps”
o Metaphor for semen
o Socially acceptable for men to be disloyal
o Men fear humiliation whilst women fear dearh (for cheating)
48
“wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?”
o very naïve
“no by this heavenly light; I might do’t as well i’th’dark”
o Christian imagery
o Idiom
o Grounds her imagery in reality
o Not in the day or light
o Pragmatic
49
quote indicating emilia's pragmatics
“the world’s a huge thing; it is a great price for a small vice”
o Idiom
o Sex is transactional for emilia
o If gives her agency etc.
50
“but for all the whole world! Ud’s pity, who would not make her husband a cuckhold, to make him a monactarch? I should venture purgatory for ‘t”
o Recognition
o Has conditions wouldn’t do it for material things
o Can see a mutual benefit
o Cant imagine a world without a husband
51
pathos in desdemona and emilias scene
“no unpin me here”
o Vulnerability
Desdemona singing
o Pathos
“song interrupted”
o Her life is interrupted
“nay that’s not next”
o Confused as actually thinking about how she’s going to die
o Paranoid
52
give the quote in emilia and desdemonas scene that
o Breaks down diad between men and women
o Challenges male hypocrisy
o is reminiscent of shylocks speech in mov
“have their palates for sweet and sour As husbands have”
53
“Then let him use us well; else let them know the ills we do, their ills instruct us so.”
o Inserts justice
o Humorous
o Rhyming couplet
54
motifs in othello
sight and blindness
plants
animals
hell, demons, monsters
55
sight and blindness motif
When Desdemona asks to be allowed to accompany Othello to Cyprus, she says that she “saw Othello’s visage in his mind,"
desdemona doesn't see his race the same way the others do
Earlier in Act I, scene iii, a senator suggests that the Turkish retreat to Rhodes is “a pageant / To keep us in false gaze”
Othello, though he demands “ocular proof” of the arrival of ships
play also rests on not seeing things:
othello accuses his wife although he never sees her infidelity
emilia does not see what her husband has done
56
plants motif
(iago to rodrigo)
“Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme . . . the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills”
"Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe"
57
iago describes himself as...
Iago understands these natural forces particularly well: he is, according to his own metaphor, a good “gardener,” both of himself and of others.
58
how are the characters interlinked with 'natural forces'
Characters in this play seem to be the product of certain inevitable, natural forces, which, if left unchecked, will grow wild
59
describe the plant motif in realtion to iago
Iago cultivates his “conceits” so that they become lethal poisons and then plants their seeds in the minds of others. The organic way in which Iago’s plots consume the other characters and determine their behaviour makes his conniving, human evil seem like a force of nature. That organic growth also indicates that the minds of the other characters are fertile ground for Iago’s efforts.
60
animal motif
Iago calls Othello a “Barbary horse,” an “old black ram,” and also tells Brabanzio that his daughter and Othello are “making the beast with two backs”
In Act I, scene iii, Iago tells Roderigo, “Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon” (I.iii.312–313).
He then remarks that drowning is for “cats and blind puppies” (I.iii.330–331).
Cassio laments that, when drunk, he is “by and by a fool, and presently a beast!” (II.iii.284–285).
Othello tells Iago, “Exchange me for a goat / When I shall turn the business of my soul / To such exsufflicate and blowed surmises” (III.iii.184–186).
He later says that “[a] horned man’s a monster and a beast” (IV.i.59).
Even Emilia, in the final scene, says that she will “play the swan, / And die in music” (V.ii.254–255).
61
describe the animal motif
these references to animals convey a sense that the laws of nature, rather than those of society, are the primary forces governing the characters in this play. When animal references are used with regard to Othello, as they frequently are, they reflect the racism both of characters in the play and of Shakespeare’s contemporary audience.
62
hell, demons and monsters motif
Iago tells Othello to beware of jealousy, the “green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The meat it feeds on” (III.iii.170–171).
Likewise, Emilia describes jealousy as dangerously and uncannily self-generating, a “monster / Begot upon itself, born on itself” (III.iv.156–157).
After he has learned the truth about Iago, Othello calls Iago a devil and a demon several times in Act V, scene ii. Othello’s earlier allusion to “some monster in [his] thought” ironically refers to Iago (III.iii.111).
Likewise, his vision of Desdemona’s betrayal is “monstrous, monstrous!” (III.iii.431). Shortly before he kills himself, Othello wishes for eternal spiritual and physical torture in hell, crying out, “Whip me, ye devils, / . . . / . . . roast me in sulphur, / Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!” (V.ii.284–287)
63
describe the hell, demons, and monsters motif
The imagery of the monstrous and diabolical takes over where the imagery of animals can go no further, presenting the jealousy-crazed characters not simply as brutish, but as grotesque, deformed, and demonic.
64
debased value system
lacking integrity
65
sprezzatura
concealing ones skills
66
embittered
filled with resentment
67
dissipated/debauched
drunk, hedonistic
68
stage manager of chaos
iago seizes control
69
credulous
unquestioning
70
myopic
blind to the truth
71
conciliatory
attempting to end a disagreement
72
accident of birth
ones circumstances are determined by the class one is born into
73
moral commentary
lodovico explains the rights and wrongs of the situation
74
descent into irrationality
disintegration fo othellos psychological state
75
brutality
violence, callousness
76
callous
unfeelign
77
seeking retribution
lookign for revenge
78
automaton
robotic, following instructins
79
tormented by remorse
guilty
80
symbolism of venice
a bastion of cosmopolitan civilisation and commerce, protecting the boundaries of Europe from the Ottoman Empire. Also corrupted by debauchery. Animal imagery and failure to name Othello: racism and continual dehumanisation of Othello.
81
symbolism of disease
uncontrollabel spread of evil; one person's evil can infect another destruction
82
symbolism of council chamber
Othello is welcomed into a place of power at the heart of Venetian society. His elevated place in the social hierarchy is confirmed - and political imperatives (war) are judged to be more important in deciding this than personal conflict (his illicit marriage).
83
symbolism of marriage
in a world of war, Othello's marriage appears to be an oasis of calm. It offers a possible escape from conflict, and potential reconciliation between different groups.
84
symbolism of the storm
increasing chaos; the magnitude of natural forces that dominate mankind; foreshadows the murder of Des. Cyprus: this "warlike isle" on the edge of civilisation symbolises chaos and society's precarious balance. It was also Aphrodite's birthplace (she was accused in infidelity). The sea symbolises the vastness of Othello's love, and suggests that the marriage is natural (in contrast to racist beliefs). Yet mankind is at the mercy of the sea's currents. celebration of the marriage and the victory.
85
symbolism of the drunken brawl
The drunken brawl symbolises the shift from political and social order to chaos, just as the natural world has already had a moment of chaos in the storm at the start of Act 2. This shift from blank verse to prose signals increasing disorder. Previously, we have heard lago speaking in prose and so it is associated with his malevolence and destructive impulses. Later, Othello will also begin to speak in this way.
86
symbolism of the handkerchief
The handkerchief is a traditional love token and symbolises Othello and Desdemona's passion. It was also a family heirloom, suggesting Desdemona's acceptance of Othello's different background. It becomes a representation of Othello's jealousy and suspicions of his wife. In some ways, it could represent Desdemona's body, which Othello believes has been handled by Cassio.
87
symbolism of monstrous imagery
the concept of being monstrous refers to unnatural, deviant or immoral behaviour in the play. lago refers to his plot as a "monstrous birth" and Othello calls Desdemona's alleged infidelity "monstrous". This demonic imagery alludes to complete, unstoppable and almost unspeakable destruction.
88
symbolism of othello's epilectic fit
this "savage madness" emphasises the tragic hero's lack of power and agency, and his vulnerability to lago. Othello appears unfit to lead.
89
symbolism of hitting desdemona
shows the progression from passionate infatuation, to verbal violence, to physical violence. It is a key turning point in their relationship. Water symbolises purity and innocence, but is also connected to trade and therefore is a symbol of affluence and cosmopolitan culture. The free-flowing water at the start of the play has now become a foul trickle, showing how Othello and Desdemona's love has been corrupted. Othello's attitude to love had been debased and he is obsessed with obscene physicality.
90
symbolism of the wedding sheets
symbolise the failure of the marriage, and have become a shroud, foreshadowing Des's death. The willow song heightens pathos for Des.
91
symbolism of darkness
the play's circular structure indicates lago's role as stage-manager, and the inescapability of immorality and chaos. The characters are unable to see (the truth?).
92
symbolism of white objects
symbolise unchanging innocence - indicating that Othello desires a wife who can be controlled and will not alter with time or mood. The references to white also indicate how Othello has internalised racist ideas and is preoccupied with Desdemona's whiteness; he believes that she will not love him because of the ethnic differences.
93
light symbolism
hope, innocence, purity, heavenliness, life
94
context of othello (elizabethan time period)
queen had shown women could hold power (without men) and science was challenging belief in supernatural.
shakespeares characters are caught in the midst of the change, and whilst they often hope for a different, better world, they fid themselves entrapped by the expectations of traditional society.
95
how many references to lying are there in othello
27
they either elate to iago accusing people of lying
the clown
emilia accuses iago of lying
iago accuses her back
other refs relate to sleeping or euphemistically, sex or death
96
how many uses of the word honesty or honest
35.
8 are to do with iago and epithets (7 of which from othello himself)
97
john bayley on othello's character
othello is a tragedy of incomprehension.
no one inothello comes to understand himself or anyone else.
98
w.h. auden quote to disagree with
"we feel pity for othello but no respect; our aesthetic respect is reserved for Iago"
99
harold bloom quote on othello's character
"othello is incapable of seeing himself except in grandiose terms
100
FIND OUT WHO DLB IS quote
the phrase 'honest Iago' is a condenscaion to iago's lower social status, and it is his resentment and will to power that motivate iago to subjufatae his patronising superiors beneath him.
101
why is classing iago as evil reductive
. However, this view is somewhat reductive because it overlooks his very real motivations: he admits to being jealous of Cassio’s advancement, to being suspicious that Emilia might have slept with Othello, to loathing the very idea of mixed-race relationships. It is, therefore, perhaps ultimately better to identify Shakespeare’s characterisation of Iago as being that of a Machiavellian antagonist, defined by his recognisably human envy and duplicity—an interpretation which is actually more disturbing than simply dismissing him as a stage devil.
102
what shows iago's hatred of othello
o The play opens with his hatred of Othello à his profanities
o Act 2.1 ‘O, you are well tuned now! / But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music, / As honest as I am’ à the suggestion of his love of discord
o Act 2.1 ‘With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio’ à zoomorphic identification with a monstrous spider
o Even swears by Janus in Act 1—irony given that Janus was the two faced Godà implication he is defined by duplicity à no one notices as they believe he is honest à what Coleridge calls his ‘superhuman art’
o Act 1.3 ‘I hate the Moor / And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets / He’s done my office’
o Act 5.2 ‘Demand me nothing. What you know, you know / From this time forth I never will speak a word’ à question that it is implied even torture cannot reveal
o Contrast with the source text—Cinthio’s narrative where Iago is shown to be in love with ‘Disdemona’.
103
what shows iagos motives
o Attitude towards mixed-race relationships à examples of his zoomorphic metaphors!
o Racism towards Othello à tied in with sexual jealousy à fears of cuckoldry
o ‘I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leapt into my seat, the thought whereof / Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards’ à eating him up inside, consumed by jealousy, jealousy figured metaphorically as an acid or harmful drug, dissolving him. ‘Wife for wife’
o Marxist reading à resentment of Cassio 1.1 ‘A fellow […] that never set a squadron in a field / Nor the division of a battle knows / More than a spinster’ à compare the way Desdemona addresses Iago vs how she speaks with Cassio
o Context about class divisions in Venice (4 on notes on Iago)
o Misogyny and resentment of Desdemona
Martin Wangh’s exploration of ‘Othello’ as a study in repressed homosexuality. Ensign’s stifled erotic desire causing his hatred. à desire is sublimated into hatred à evidence is his fascination with Othello’ sexuality -à not sleeping with his wife
104
what shows iago's humanity as opposed to inherent evilness
o Roderigo and Othello's reactions to Iago on learning what he has done
o Duplicity à audience are complicit through the structure of the play. Act 2.3 as an example
○ The way in which he speaks differently in public and in private in Acts 1 and 2. The structure of his soliloquies--revealing his inner self
o He has the most lines of any character in the play à locus to the platea to give soliloquies
o How his language infects others.
105
what shows iagos jealousy of cassio
Iago's envious depiction of Cassio as 'handsome' and 'young', while assigning him his own character traits – 'a knave', 'the mere form of ... seeming' (2.1.227), 'a finder out of occasions' (2.1.229–30) – implies he has a jealous nature. Iago's rage against female sexuality may therefore be just one example of his spiteful attacks on ‘otherness’ to soothe his sense of social impotence. It has even been suggested that Iago is literally impotent, causing his embittered sexual jealously. It certainly makes Desdemona's retort to Iago earlier in the scene – 'Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion!' (2.1.158) – more telling.
106
denouement
the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved:
107
peripeteia
a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in reference to fictional narrative:
108
Machiavellian
cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics:
109
Great Chain of Being
hierarchy deemed by god dictates choices and opportunities
110
post colonial literary theory
literature produced in countries that were once, or are now, colonies of other countries.
111
aim of tragedy
is to bring about catharsis in the audience – that is, to create sensations of pity and fear, and to allow the audience to purge themselves of these feelings at the play’s denouement.
Tragedies should leave the audience with a greater understanding of the complexities and fragility of the human condition. Tragedies ask are there reasons for suffering? And are humans able to make choices in life, or are their lives determined by fate?
could say this is achieved ue to iago's gaps in motviatione tc
112
does othelo fill the role of tragic hero
For Aristotle, the ideal protagonist is a man who is highly renowned and prosperous, but one who is not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgment or frailty; a personage like Oedipus.
That is, the tragic hero should be like all of us – flawed and imperfect. This helps the audience sympathise with the protagonist’s downfall. The protagonist also had to be of high status so that his tragedy affected those around him and the fabric of society.
On one level, Othello fulfils all of Aristotle’s requirements for a tragic hero, as he is a character of noble status who falls from that position of power to one of shame because of his hamartia. Moreover the plot of Othello contains a powerful catharsis through its murderous climax and conclusion, and an anagnorisis when Othello realizes that he has been manipulated by Iago. However, Othello differs from the typical tragic hero because his family background would have been relatively unimportant in Europe – his race meant that he had to earn a noble position not by birth, but by merit (the social structure of the play can therefore be considered a meritocracy). Part of the play’s pathos derives from our awareness that Othello loses the status that he has worked and suffered for.
113
how did people view venice by aryanna thompson
Venice was also admired for its complex political and social structures. … Yet Venice also became a symbol of hedonistic excess in the early modern English imagination. … Associated with the goddess of love, Venus, Venice fascinated the early modern English because of the city’s more liberal treatment of sexual relations where prostitution was actually regulated by the state and involved thousands of women.
114
chiasmus
a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.
115
describe the pattern between blank verse and prose
When Othello and Desdemona leave the stage, Iago and Roderigo shift from speaking in blank verse to speaking in prose. We see both these modes of speech in Macbeth (most of the play is in blank verse; Lady Macbeth’s “out damned spot” speech is in prose).
Originating from Greek and Latin sources, blank verse is a metrical form which creates a sense of grandeur. It often conveys a sense of order and calmness. When used extensively, deviations from blank verse at times of heightened emotion or descent into chaos become obvious.
116
hwo to distinguish between blank verse and prose
In Shakespeare, a superficial way of identifying blank verse is that it “looks like poetry”, whereas prose “looks like” normal text. Blank verse has:
10 syllables per line
Syllables organised into 5 feet (pairs) of syllables
These pairs are unstressed, stressed
Blank verse doesn’t rhyme
117
Is Iago a Renaissance representation of the Medieval Vice?
A "Vice" figure is stock character from medieval morality plays .
Vice figures are typically personifications of immoral behaviour—they tend to be tempters and often agents of the devil.
Iago is more complex than most Vice figures, mainly because his motivations are ambiguous. However, as writer ST Coleridge argued, Iago is “a being next to devil, and only not quite devil”.
118
turning point is
act 2 scene 3
119
order in othello
The world of order
Society depends on right relationships of trust, respect, co-operation, shared goals and love in its widest sense. Like all civilised societies, Venice was a world of orderliness. It was ruled by a duke, who, together with his council of distinguished advisors, made wise and responsible decisions for the good of all. Order was upheld because everyone knew their place and did not question their place in that order. Although Othello could have been seen as an interloper due to his Moorish origin, he was accepted as a leader of authority because of his distinguished army record and upright character. […]
Order undermined
The tumult of the sea storm at the opening of Act 2 is an appropriate symbol of the upheaval that is about to affect Othello’s emotions and social contracts. The elements themselves appear to be turning on each other. Although Othello, his lieutenant and his wife all emerge unscathed from their dangerous sea voyages, soon the ‘foul and violent tempest’ really will damage or overwhelm them to the point of death.
It is Iago’s undermining of the accepted order of society which sets in train the sequence of events which ends in the chaos of destroyed lives and threatens the very fabric of society. Had he succeeded in killing Cassio, who had just been appointed the new governor of Cyprus, society would have been left without a leader. As it is, Roderigo’s life is ended, Othello’s legacy has been cut off (Desdemona’s uncle being the only family Othello has to succeed him), and his marriage (and his wife) destroyed and even Iago’s own wife is caught in the crossfire. A once ordered and peaceful world becomes a world of three murders, two attempted murders and one suicide.
120
interpetations of desdemona
Desdemona’s death symbolises the consequences of women seizing too much power for themselves. Shakespeare presents her in this way in order to confirm the need to maintain the status quo.
The transformation of Desdemona from a vibrant, likeable woman enjoying her first taste of freedom, to a submissive wife creates great pathos for her character. Shakespeare presents her in this way in order to show the detrimental impact of the patriarchy on the individual.
121
There is no evidence for adultery except that Cassio is
'a slipper and a subtle knave' (2.1.229),
122
how does the storm function in othello
- Pathetic fallacy of the storma t the beginning.
o In production they would use heavy balls to roll stones around the upper stage
o The storm, like those in King Lear, Macbeth and The Tempest can also be seen to function on a symbolic level. On one hand, it can be seen as a cosmic representation of external threat which is resolved when Othello confirms that ‘the Turks are drowned’ and on the other hand it foreshadows the discord and fragmentation that are to come since the ships carrying the various parties were separated by a ‘foul and violent tempest.’
Function symbolically
123
differences between the 1622 quarto and the 1623 folio edition (both, of course, published posthumously as Shakespeare died in 1616).
In Act 4 of the Quarto, the boy actor of Desdemona does not sing the haunting willow song and his/her dialogue with Emilia is reduced. Folio Emilia has much to say about wives who are prompted to adultery by their husbands’ neglect (18 lines not in the Quarto: 4.3.85-102). In the scene before this Folio Desdemona swears on her knees that she has never and will never love anyone except Othello (4.2.153-66): these 14 lines are not in the Quarto. In the play’s last scene, Folio Emilia is more vocal in helping to expose Iago. Her lines at 5.2.147-50 are not in the Quarto.
Whilst both texts probably represent versions from different performances of the play, it is interesting to note that Emilia’s role and her relationship with Desdemona is far more overt in the Folio, where the plangently [resonating but sad] musical Desdemona gives the scene a slower tempo than in the Quarto counterpart. It is unclear whether these differences represent a cut to the longer original, or an addition: in either case it says something about responses to female agency in the early modern theatre.
124
how is pathos exemplified in act 4 scene 3
“no unpin me here”
o Vulnerability
- Desdemona singing
o Pathos
- “song interrupted”
o Her life is interrupted
- “nay that’s not next”
o Confused as actually thinking about how she’s going to die
o Paranoid
125
does desdemona suscpet murder
“and she died singing it. That song tonight Will not go from my mind.”
o Suggests she has suspicions of murder
126
how does emilia contrast to desdemona
-- - Emilia acts a counterpoint
- “wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world?”
o very naïve
- “no by this heavenly light; I might do’t as well i’th’dark”
o Christian imagery
o Idiom
o Grounds her imagery in reality
o Not in the day or light
o Pragmatic
- “the world’s a huge thing; it is a great price for a small vice”
o Idiom
o Sex is transactional for emilia
o If gives her agency etc.
- “but for all the whole world! Ud’s pity, who would not make her husband a cuckhold, to make him a monactarch? I should venture purgatory for ‘t”
o Recognition
o Has conditions wouldn’t do it for material things
o Can see a mutual benefit
o Cant imagine a world without a husband
- “and pour treasures into foreign laps”
o Metaphor for semen
o Socially acceptable for men to be disloyal
o Men fear humiliation whilst women fear dearh (for cheating)
o “
127
male female diad in act 4 scene 3
“have their palates for sweet and sour As husbands have”
o Breaks down diad between men and women
o Challenges male hypocrisy
o SHYLCOK
- “Then let him use us well; else let them know the ills we do, their ills instruct us so.”
o Inserts justice
o Humorous
o Rhyming couplet
128
is shakespeare feminist in act 4 scene 3
2 female characters (usually voiceless)
o Good points but Shakespeare doesn’t say he agrees. Plenty of points in the play that supports otherwise
o Tentatively encourages feminism? Outside of the male gaze
o Discusses men without them being there.
o About to both get murdered in this room.
It is worth analysing this speech as it seems a proto-feminist [the prefix ‘proto’ as in ‘prototype’ implies something that is original or early so here a proto-feminist is someone expressing seemingly expressing feminist views before the rise of the New Woman in the 1890s and First Wave Feminism of the early 20th Century] polemic [a polemic is a strong verbal or written attack on something]. Desdemona asks Emilia whether she would cuckhold [cheat on] Iago for ‘all the world' (4.3.62) only for Emilia to clarify that whilst she would not do such a thing for a trifle, ‘The world’s a huge thing; it is a great price / For a small vice’. Yet more importantly, she then goes on to argue that ‘it is their husbands’ faults / If wives do fall’, noting that both men and women are defined by ‘frailty’ and that if men ‘err’ then women—having ‘affections, / Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have’—will natural ‘err’ as well. Note how Emilia shifts into verse for this speech. What might this imply?
129
why does shakespeare present desdemona and emilia differently in act 4 scene 3
In the conversation which follows Desdemona’s and Emilia’s contrasting attitudes to men and to relationships are presented. Desdemona’s attitudes can be linked to an ideal of womanly virtue since she flatly rejects the idea of ever being unfaithful whereas Emilia claims only that she would not easily be unfaithful to a husband yet might do so for the whole world. Emilia comments that men and women are driven by the same desires and needs showing her rather worldly view of humanity whereas Desdemona’s innocence and virtue seems to transcend this. It seems that Shakespeare presents Desdemona in this way to lend greater poignancy to her situation when she is killed by Othello. Othello, Shakespeare seems to be saying, could not have been more wrong about his wife.
Think about this speech in the context of how both married women in the play are ultimately killed by their husbands. What might this say about Shakespeare’s presentation of misogyny in early modern society?
130
the setting of the bedchamber in act 4 scene 3
- End of act 4 – getting ready for bed & Beginning of act 5 – in bedchamber
o Bedchamber of the claustrophobic tense atmosphere of cyprus at the time
- It is worth exploring Emilia as the voice of reason in the play and the irony that in 4.2 Othello just dismisses her, regarding her as a ‘simple bawd’ [a bawd was a female pimp, or brothel-keeper] with the obvious suggestion that she was Desdemona’s accomplice.
- Always consider the staging of play when writing your essays. Note here how Desdemona says she, ‘Upon my knees, what doth your speech impart?’ Think about the levels here and what they get across about masculine hegemonic [structural / societal] power.
“upon my knees,” stage direction
131
how is emilia confident in act 4 scene 3
Yet Emilia shows herself to be quite a forceful character when she speaks stridently in favour of her mistress’ honour:
He called her a whore. A beggar in his drink
Could not have laid such terms upon his callet. (Act 4.2.121; p161)
She shows that she is capable of being outraged and of showing the strength of her emotions when she says that a ‘halter’ or hangman’s noose should be all the ‘pardon’ that Othello should be shown for being so badly mistaken about Desdemona. Desdemona, for her own part, is arguably much weaker since she readily pardons Othello’s almost unforgivable excesses.
Emilia feels a sense of outrage at the way in which Desdemona finds her virtue questioned:
Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
Her father, and her country, and her friends,
To be called a whore? (Act 4.2.124-6)
Again, is it worth comparing this with how Cassio and Iago speak of Bianca? And, indeed, how Iago speaks of Emilia? Note, for example, how in response to Emilia’s outburst he says ‘Speak within door’ annd dismisses her as a ‘fool’ who should ‘go to’. Think about how this ties in with his murder of her in the tragic denouement [conclusion] of the play
- “yes – ‘tis Emilia – by and by – shes dead”
o mid line shifts
- page 130 caesuras
o mental state mirrored in the prosody
- It is the second part of this final scene, however, when Emilia arrives that sees Othello appreciating that jealousy has been his tragic flaw. Emilia vehemently refuses to believe Othello’s accusations against Desdemona and begins to confront him with the evidence that what he believes to be the case is not in fact true. Reckless of her own personal safety when Othello touches his sword, she summons Lodovico and Gratiano to the scene who bring Cassio and Iago with them. As Othello tries to tell her that Iago had led him to believe that Desdemona was unfaithful, Emilia confronts her husband whose lies are no longer tenable once the different parties are assembled together. Emilia pays with her life for exposing Iago for what he is, but Iago’s actions in murdering her make his guilt quite unambiguous.
132
irony in act 4 scene 3
Shakespeare also portrays Emilia to be quite perceptive when she concludes that some ‘villainous knave’ must have poisoned Othello’s mind. The irony of the situation, however, is that she does not realise that the man she is speaking of is her own husband, Iago. Equally ironically, Desdemona turns to Iago as the man who might be her salvation:
O good Iago
What shall I do to win my lord again?
The audience once again sees Iago’s mendacity [untruthfulness] when he expresses the view that is must be ‘the business of state’ which has thrown Othello into such a foul humour. The reality of the situation is that he knows that it is his own actions which have unleashed Othello’s jealousy.
133
emilia racism
Note Emilia’s imagery here, calling Desdemona ‘the more angel’ and Othello ‘the blacker devil’ (5.2.131-2). Her language echoes that of her husband in 1.1, of course, and yet here it is in the context of what he has done. Where does Shakespeare suggest our sympathies should lie? Do you think this has changed over time? Remember, one of the first critics of Shakespeare’s plays, Thomas Rymer, drew the conclusion in 1693 that the play had a simple moral to be ‘a caution to all Maidens of Quality how, without their Parents consent, they run away with Blackamoors’.
134
emilias death
- emilia’s death page 137
o Swans meant to sing when they die
o Last lines are important
o Sings Desdemona song again
- What is the effect of Emilia echoing Desdemona's song with her dying words?
- “demand that demi-devil”
o Imagery again
135
emailas defence
- “o the more angel she, And you the blacker devil”
o Racist imagery of angels and devils, alludes to blackface
- “thou art rash as fire to say”
o She stops respecting Othello
- Emilia argues with Othello unlike Desdemona
o Repetition of my husband, strange realisation
- Emilia's shift in address here is telling: note her use of the informal pronoun 'thou' to Othello in line 134. What might be the significance of this?
- Note the parallel between Emilia's echoing of Othello's revelation about Iago and Iago's own manipulations of Othello in 3.3.
- “though I lost twenty lives. Help! Help! Ho, help!” repetition of villany
o More active than Desdemona
- “O monstrous act!” montano
o Monster idea
