Lit Paper 2 notes:
Othello – William Shakespeare
Summary:
African general in the Venetian army who is tricked into suspecting his wife of adultery
Leading to the deaths of many people in the play
Story of jealousy
important quotes:
“Were I the Moor I would not be Iago explains his tactics to
Iago. Roderigo.
In following him I follow but myself; He follows Othello not out of “love”
Heaven is my judge, not I for love or “duty,” but because he feels he
and duty, can exploit and dupe his master,
But seeming so for my peculiar end. Iago finds that people who are
For when my outward action doth what they seem are foolish.
demonstrate The day he decides to demonstrate
The native act and figure of my outwardly what he feels inwardly,
heart will be the day he makes himself
In compliment extern, ’tis not long most vulnerable: “I will wear my
after heart upon my sleeve / For daws to
But I will wear my heart upon my peck at.”
sleeve His implication, of course, is that
For daws to peck at. I am not what I such a day will never come.
am.”
“My noble father, Desdemona 1st time speaking to
I do perceive here a divided duty. her father before the Venetian senate in
To you I am bound for life and education. the play
My life and education both do learn me Her speech shows her
How to respect you. You are the lord of my thoughtfulness, as she does not insist on
duty, her loyalty to Othello at the expense of
I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my respect for her father, but rather
husband, acknowledges that her duty is “divided.”
And so much duty as my mother showed Because Desdemona is brave
To you, preferring you before her father, enough to stand up to her father and even
So much I challenge that I may profess partially rejects him in public, these words
Due to the Moor my lord.” also establish for the audience her courage
and her strength of conviction.
“She’s gone. I am abused, and my the first time that Othello himself,
relief and not Iago, calls negative attention to
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, either his race or his age.
That we can call these delicate creatures His conclusion that Desdemona is
ours “gone” shows how far Iago’s insinuations
And not their appetites! I had rather be a about Cassio and Desdemona have taken
toad Othello
And live upon the vapor of a dungeon He attempts to consider his wife’s
Than keep a corner in the thing I love purported infidelity as an inevitable part of
For others’ uses. Yet ’tis the plague of great his being a great man, but his comfort is
ones; halfhearted and unconvincing, and he
Prerogatived are they less than the base. concludes by resigning himself to cuckoldry
, ’Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. “ as though it were “death.”
“I am glad I have found this napkin. Emilia announces the beginning
This was her first remembrance from the of Othello’s “handkerchief plot,” a
Moor, seemingly insignificant event—the
My wayward husband hath a hundred dropping of a handkerchief—that becomes
times the means by which everyone is completely
Wooed me to steal it, but she so loves the undone.
token— The primary function of Emilia’s
For he conjured her she should ever keep it speech is to explain the prop’s importance:
— as the first gift Othello gave Desdemona, it
That she reserves it evermore about her represents their oldest and purest feelings
To kiss and talk to. I’ll ha’ the work ta’en for one another.
out, Many critics have found Emilia’s
And give’t Iago. What he will do with it, silence about the handkerchief a great
Heaven knows, not I. implausibility.
I nothing, but to please his fantasy.” it serves as another instance in
which Iago has the extraordinary power to
make those around him see only what they
want to see, and thereby not suspect what
is obviously suspicious.
“Then must you speak Othello stabs himself in the chest.
Of one that loved not wisely but too well, In this farewell speech, Othello
Of one not easily jealous but, being reaffirms his position as a figure who is
wrought, simultaneously a part of and excluded from
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose Venetian society.
hand, No longer inarticulate with grief as
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away he was when he cried, “O fool! fool! fool!,”
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose Othello seems to have calmed himself and
subdued eyes, regained his dignity and, consequently, our
Albeit unused to the melting mood, respect (V.ii.332).
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees He reminds us once again of his
Their medicinable gum. Set you down this, martial prowess, the quality that made him
And say besides that in Aleppo once, famous in Venice.
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’ throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus. ”
Characters:
Othello – William Shakespeare
Summary:
African general in the Venetian army who is tricked into suspecting his wife of adultery
Leading to the deaths of many people in the play
Story of jealousy
important quotes:
“Were I the Moor I would not be Iago explains his tactics to
Iago. Roderigo.
In following him I follow but myself; He follows Othello not out of “love”
Heaven is my judge, not I for love or “duty,” but because he feels he
and duty, can exploit and dupe his master,
But seeming so for my peculiar end. Iago finds that people who are
For when my outward action doth what they seem are foolish.
demonstrate The day he decides to demonstrate
The native act and figure of my outwardly what he feels inwardly,
heart will be the day he makes himself
In compliment extern, ’tis not long most vulnerable: “I will wear my
after heart upon my sleeve / For daws to
But I will wear my heart upon my peck at.”
sleeve His implication, of course, is that
For daws to peck at. I am not what I such a day will never come.
am.”
“My noble father, Desdemona 1st time speaking to
I do perceive here a divided duty. her father before the Venetian senate in
To you I am bound for life and education. the play
My life and education both do learn me Her speech shows her
How to respect you. You are the lord of my thoughtfulness, as she does not insist on
duty, her loyalty to Othello at the expense of
I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my respect for her father, but rather
husband, acknowledges that her duty is “divided.”
And so much duty as my mother showed Because Desdemona is brave
To you, preferring you before her father, enough to stand up to her father and even
So much I challenge that I may profess partially rejects him in public, these words
Due to the Moor my lord.” also establish for the audience her courage
and her strength of conviction.
“She’s gone. I am abused, and my the first time that Othello himself,
relief and not Iago, calls negative attention to
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, either his race or his age.
That we can call these delicate creatures His conclusion that Desdemona is
ours “gone” shows how far Iago’s insinuations
And not their appetites! I had rather be a about Cassio and Desdemona have taken
toad Othello
And live upon the vapor of a dungeon He attempts to consider his wife’s
Than keep a corner in the thing I love purported infidelity as an inevitable part of
For others’ uses. Yet ’tis the plague of great his being a great man, but his comfort is
ones; halfhearted and unconvincing, and he
Prerogatived are they less than the base. concludes by resigning himself to cuckoldry
, ’Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. “ as though it were “death.”
“I am glad I have found this napkin. Emilia announces the beginning
This was her first remembrance from the of Othello’s “handkerchief plot,” a
Moor, seemingly insignificant event—the
My wayward husband hath a hundred dropping of a handkerchief—that becomes
times the means by which everyone is completely
Wooed me to steal it, but she so loves the undone.
token— The primary function of Emilia’s
For he conjured her she should ever keep it speech is to explain the prop’s importance:
— as the first gift Othello gave Desdemona, it
That she reserves it evermore about her represents their oldest and purest feelings
To kiss and talk to. I’ll ha’ the work ta’en for one another.
out, Many critics have found Emilia’s
And give’t Iago. What he will do with it, silence about the handkerchief a great
Heaven knows, not I. implausibility.
I nothing, but to please his fantasy.” it serves as another instance in
which Iago has the extraordinary power to
make those around him see only what they
want to see, and thereby not suspect what
is obviously suspicious.
“Then must you speak Othello stabs himself in the chest.
Of one that loved not wisely but too well, In this farewell speech, Othello
Of one not easily jealous but, being reaffirms his position as a figure who is
wrought, simultaneously a part of and excluded from
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose Venetian society.
hand, No longer inarticulate with grief as
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away he was when he cried, “O fool! fool! fool!,”
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose Othello seems to have calmed himself and
subdued eyes, regained his dignity and, consequently, our
Albeit unused to the melting mood, respect (V.ii.332).
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees He reminds us once again of his
Their medicinable gum. Set you down this, martial prowess, the quality that made him
And say besides that in Aleppo once, famous in Venice.
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’ throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus. ”
Characters:
