Summary and thorough analysis of the key quotes in 'Othello.'
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Course
Unit 1 - Drama
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
In this document you will find all the key, high utility quotes in 'Othello' all in one place, analysed and explored in great detail. As an A* student I found it most helpful to remember these certain quotes and their analysis, as they can be applied to a range of essay questions. As well as a deta...
Act 2- unusual power division between Desdemona and Othello’s, shown through his use of epithet
and shared lines. Describing her partner as “my dear Othello”, Desdemona not only employs a
possessive pronoun to establish her bond with Othello, but fluidly completes the missing syllables in
his previous line: “O my fair warrior!”. This smooth interchange between them stresses their
untouched bond and synchronous relationship, elevating Desdemona to the same position as her
husband. By describing her as a “warrior”, Shakespeare applies a typically masculine attribute to her
character, mirroring Othello’s strength. This greeting also alludes to love poetry- women were often
seen as warriors in love in poetry- eg Spenser’s poetry.
By act three it becomes clear that Othello cannot master his powerful romantic and erotic feelings. It
is possible that he is on the grip of emotions that he cannot control, even before Iago sets to work
on him. ‘Perdition catch my soul but I do love thee! And when I love thee not Chaos is come again.’
The two negative abstract nouns, ‘perdition’ and ‘chaos’ foreshadow tragedy. The sense of love and
war is hence being juxtaposed even within Othello’s speech.
Iago’s quote "I am not what I am," could be reminiscent of a quotation from the Bible which
Shakespeare would have known: In Exodus, God gives his laws to Moses, and Moses asks God his
name. God replies: "I am that I am". Iago seems to invert these words of God, suggesting that he is
the opposite of holy, and instead the devil. Iago also has the qualities of the Devil in medieval and
Renaissance morality plays: He is a liar, he makes promises he has no intention of keeping, he tells
stories in order to trap people and lead them to their destruction, and he sees other's greatest
vulnerabilities and uses these to destroy them.
‘Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the worlds light.’ Idea that he will begin his plan
with help from the devil. Here Shakespeare uses a soliloquy with hellish imagery to make Iago’s evil
clear to the audience. The ‘light’ perhaps symbolises God’s power and, like Lady Macbeth, he seems
to be calling on evil spirits to assist his deeds. The concluding rhyming couplet amplifies this notion,
presenting Iago’s lies as a corruptive force, but also one that is powerful enough to extinguish this
metaphorical light.
Ironically in Act 3.3 Iago warns Othello: ‘O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed
monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” In Renaissance England most emotions were
matched with colours- green was matched with envy and jealousy. In Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant
of Venice’, his character Portia refers directly to ‘green-eyed jealousy’ also. A03
‘Tis not a year or two shows us a man. They are all but stomachs, and we all but food, to eat us
hungerly, and when they are full, they belch us.’ Emilia clearly speaks from bitter experience about
men’s cruelty towards women. This reference to ‘belching’ connotes to vomiting and sickness,
metaphorically relating to how men will use women, then dispose or throw them back up when they
are no longer of value or interest. Men are also described as ‘hungerly’ here- reflecting greed and
carelessness as they can simply discard and feed off women as if they were food.
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