- ✔✔✔-significance of the ending
-'is the immediate jewel of their souls', belongs to lasting values, immortal part - SYMBOL jewels
- In Othello, Shakespeare uses reputation to demonstrate the role of masculinity in society. The
male characters are essentially trapped by their need to maintain their reputation and the
female characters are trapped by their duty to protect their husband's reputation. For a
Jacobean audience, it would be the standard to
see a wife like Desdemona exist to elevate her husband and his position in society, but
Shakespeare criticises this standard through the presentation of her suffering under Othello and
the passivity of her character in response to it. The true tragedy lies in her final defence of
Othello prior to her death and the lack of poetic justice in Othello's suicide, as Shakespeare's
message to his audience is
that reputation takes priority over all else.
Shakespeare presents reputation as being the tragic down - ✔✔✔-importance of reputation
-'loved' D for her 'pity' and how she listened to his adventures not anything sexual - For Othello
to have denied Desdemona her marriage bed in the holy union, is to go against Religion and
traditional marriage rites. The traditional (and deeply religious) act of consummation was
prevented by circumstance foreshadowed the eventual breakdown of the marriage at its
symbolic end, where instead of procreating, Desdemona dies on the marriage sheets.
In Othello, marriage is tantamount to death. Othello suggests that, as long as men view women
as being promiscuous and disloyal, the institution of marriage is doomed. The marriage
between Othello and Desdemona may act as a reflection of the societal values of both the
Venetian society within the play as well as the Elizabethan audience at the time it was written.
The concept of an interracial marriage was viewed as extremely scandalous as it was 'nature,
erring from itself', - ✔✔✔-presents marriage
-"a huswife that by selling her desires / Buys herself bread and cloth"
-Shakespeare expresses the societal roles and prejudice shown towards women like Bianca, who
hold a lower social role and status than others. The characterisation of Bianca to be in love with
Cassio, while his disregards her, presents the naivety of women in this play, yet the disregard
and blame the character receives from Emelia, the strong and supportive woman in the play,
causes the audience to reflect on their prejudice not only towards people of
, Othello Eassy Plans Exam with Questions and Answers – 100% Solved
different races, but also between women due to disreputable statuses, a societal trope of
Jacobean England, and also today.
-Bianca helps the audience decipher the play's action by creating a triptych of romantic couples,
providing a better picture of the main character by serving as his foil, and by providing catharsis
for the audience, cementing the interpretation of the drama as tragedy, brings h - ✔✔✔-Bianca
-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 audience.
-"Barbary horse" is a vulgarity particularly appropriate in the mouth of Iago, but even without
having seen Othello, the Jacobean audience would have known from Iago's metaphor that he
meant to connote a savage Moor.
-'Plague him [Brabantio] with flies', With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as
Cassio'
-Othello is infected by this imagery and begins to speak in the same terms. But the animal
imagery in Othello's speeches reveals the hero's misery, rather than sneering triumph.I had
rather be a toad, 'Or keep it as a cistern for foul toadsTo knot and gender in!', 'Were they as
prime as goats, as hot as m - ✔✔✔-animal
-Cyprus is suspended between civilised imperial Venice and southern barbarous exotic Africa,
home of Aphrodite, sexual references are constant, Venice and Africa mate and then meet in
Cyprus but the mating does not work and they are destroyed - Throughout Othello, the setting
acts as a mirror to the changing relationships between characters. From things such as the
political climate to the weather, the turbulent nature of the ever-changing setting serves to
incorporate the wider themes of the play by pinpointing particular moments of change and
representing the constant struggle between power and love.
-Venice, Fike: "Othello, a black man who has travelled through primitive lands, finds himself in
Venice where his psychic limitations prove to be stronger than Europe's civilizing influence",
Othello, because of his blackness, possesses such a powerful primitive nature that the more
"civilizing" European influence cann - ✔✔✔-use of setting and place