ECE- Writing Through Literature
Karma Vijay
Name ___________________________
Othello Act 4
Date ____________________________
Explain each of the following quotes
Scene 1
“Work on, my medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught” line 42
This brief soliloquy reveals his malevolent nature within as he describes his trickery
as poison. With Othello unconscious, he knows that every part of his plan is working
perfectly.
“She was here even now. She haunts me in every place.” (line 127)
Othello listens in when Cassio delivers this line, forming the icing on the cake for
Iago’s plans. Othello is under the impression that Cassio is speaking about
Desdemona, and how she is always around him. In truth, Cassio is talking about
Bianca and how she possesses a false love for Cassio.
“Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate/Call all-in-all sufficient? Is this the nature/
whom passion could not shake” (255-256)
Lodovico begins to question the authority of Othello as he witnesses the way he
treats Desdemona and lashes out at everyone. With the context blurred, Othello’s
reputation begins to smother.
Scene 2
“I will be hanged if some eternal villain,/Some busy and insinuating rogue,/ Some cogging..
have not devised this slander” (128-130)
Emilia swears that someone was evil and vile enough to create a plan to create the
issue, which is ironic considering Iago (her husband) was the one who did it.
“Give my thy hand, Roderigo. Thou has taken against me a most just exception; but yet I protest
I have dealt most directly in thy affair” (202-203)
Iago attempts to calm the anger within Roderigo by insisting that he did not cheat
him. He also attempts to delay Roderigo’s plan to confess his love to Desdemona to
avoid it getting in the way of his own plans.
scene 3
“But I do think it is their husbands’ faults/If wives do fall.” (81)
Emilia entertains the idea of cheating to Desdemona. She says that cheating is a small
sin and that even when wives do cheat, it is the husbands fault.
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