ENG 2DP: Othello
Act 1 Review
Instructions: Below are some key quotes from Act one. Search for the quotes and analyze the dramatic
significance of the quote. For each of the quotes, analyze the significance by examining the following:
(1)Character(s) – Speaker(s) and Listener(s); (2) Context (what is happening in the play
at the time) (3)Language: Literary Devices, Diction and Tone (4) Theme(s) (5) Social, Cultural, Political Context(s)
Quote
“Three great ones of the city, / In personal suit
to make me his lieutenant, / Off-capp’d to
him; and by the faith of man, / I know my
price; I am worth no worse a place. / But he,
as loving his own pride and purposes, / Evades
them, with a bombast circumstance / Horribly
stuff’d with the epithets of war; And in
conclusion, / Nonsuits my mediators /. . .”
(1.1.8-16)
“’tis the curse of service. / Preferment goes by
the letter and affection, / And not by old
gradation, where each second / Stood heir to
the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself, Whether
I in any just term an affined / To love the
Moor” (1.1.35-39)
“For, sir, / It is as sure as you are Roderigo, /
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago. / In
following him, I must but follow myself; /
Heaven is my judge, not for love and duty, /
but seeming so, for my peculiar end; / For
when is my outward actions doth demonstrate
/ The native act and figure of my heart / In
compliment extern, ‘tis not long after / But I
will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws
to peck at; I am not what I am.” (1.1.55-65)
“Let him do his spite. / My services which I
have done the signiory/ Shall out-tongue his
complaints” (1.2.17-19)
“My noble father, / I do perceive here a
divided duty. / To you I am bound for life and
education; / My life and education both do
learn me / How to respect you: you are the
lord of duty; / I am hitherto your daughter.
But here’s my husband, / And so much duty as
my mother show’d / To you by preferring you
before her father, / So much I challenge that I
may profess / Due to the Moor my Lord.” (1.3.
180 – 187)
If I can fasten but one cup upon him, /With
that which he hath drunk tonight
already,/He’ll be as full of quarrel and
offence/As my young mistress’ dog.
“When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
/ By seeing the worst, which late on hopes
depended . . . spends a bootless grief”
(1.3.202-209).
“Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see: /
She has deceived her father, and may thee”
(1.3.292-293)
Scene/
Lines
Significance (note the speaker / listener)
ENG 2DP: Othello
Act 2 Quote Review