SECTION C: OTHELLO ESSAY QUESTION
“The essential idea of Othello can be stated in a few words. Shakespeare has
depicted a battle between good and evil: the battlefield is Othello’s mind,
heart and soul; and evil wins.”
To what extent do you agree with this statement? Discuss in a well-reasoned
essay of between 400 and 450 words (2 to 2 ½ pages)
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SECTION C: OTHELLO CONTEXTUAL QUESTION
Read the extracts below and answer the questions that follow:
EXTRACT 1
IAGO
You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. I’ll
tell you what you shall do. Our general’s wife is now the
general. I may say so in this respect, for that he hath
devoted and given up himself to the contemplation ,
mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. Confess
yourself freely to her, importune her help to put you in
your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so
blest a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her
goodness not to do more than she is requested. This
broken joint between you and her husband entreat her
to splinter; and my fortunes against any lay worth
naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than
it was before.
CASSIO
You advise me well.
IAGO
I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.
CASSIO
I think it freely and betimes in the morning I will
beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I
am desperate of my fortunes if they check me here.
… Good night, honest Iago.
[Exit
IAGO
And what’s he then that says I play the villain
When this advice is free I give, and honest,
Probal to thinking, and indeed the course
To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy
Th’inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit….
How am I then a villain
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
[Act 2, scene 3]
5
10
15
20
25
1
Outline the circumstances surrounding this conversation between Iago
and Cassio.
(2)
2
What does Iago mean by ‘our general’s wife is now the general’ (lines 2-3)? (2)
3
Show how Iago intends to use Desdemona’s virtues against her at this point. (3)
4
Discuss how the imagery in lines 9 to 12 underlines the role Desdemona must
play.
(3)
5
How would you describe the tone of Iago’s words in the last few lines of the
extract? Justify your answer.
EXTRACT 2
OTHELLO
Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn.
Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
And turn again. And she can weep, sir, weep.
And she’s obedient, as you say, obedient,
Very obedient – proceed you in your tears Concerning this, sir, - O well painted passion! –
I am commanded home – get you away!
I’ll send for you anon. – Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice. – Hence, avaunt!
[Exit Desdemona
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight
I do entreat that we may sup together.
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus. Goats and monkeys!
[Exit
LODOVICO
Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call all-in-all sufficient? Is this the nature
Who passion could not shake? Whose solid virtue
The shot of accident nor dart of chance
Could neither graze nor prize?
IAGO
He is much chang’d.
LODOVICO
Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?
IAGO
He’s that he is; I may not breathe my censure
What he might be. If what he might be he is not,
I would to heaven he were.
LODOVICO
What! Strike his wife!
IAGO
5
10
15
20
(3)
Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst.
[Act 4, scene 1]
6
What does Othello imply about Desdemona’s behaviour when he repeats the
words, ‘she can turn’? (lines 2 – 3)
(2)
7
What does the diction in lines 5 – 9 suggest about Othello’s tone and his state
of mind?
(3)
8
‘He is much chang’d’ (line 17). What evidence is there in this extract of the
changes that have occurred in Othello? Refer closely to Lodovico’s words to
substantiate your answer.
(4)
9
In what way would Iago’s words in lines 22-23 (‘Yet would I… the worst’) have
sinister and ironic overtones?
(3)
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QUESTION 9: OTHELLO ESSAY
“The essential idea of Othello can be stated in a few words. Shakespeare has
depicted a battle between good and evil: the battlefield is Othello’s mind,
heart and soul; and evil wins.”
To what extent do you agree with this statement? Discuss.
-
Evil is obviously present in the play in the person of Iago who embodies
evil; he commits evil deeds and acknowledges his evil intentions openly to the
audience.
Good is portrayed in Desdemona who becomes almost saintly in the end.
Other characters also have elements of goodness or the potential for
goodness e.g. Cassio’s loyalty to Othello and Emilia’s loyalty to Desdemona;
even Othello himself has potential for goodness (devotion to serving the
Venetian state, selflessly; courage, the capacity to love deeply.)
-
There is clearly a conflict: Iago reveals to the audience his vicious
intentions of destroying Othello’s happiness, while using others as pawns
in his battle to achieve revenge. Ironically his victims are unaware of his evil
and view him as an ally (‘honest Iago’).
-
Othello is clearly the target: Iago sets out to turn him from goodness into evil;
Othello is torn between faith and doubt;
Iago tempts him, resulting in Othello’s fall when he believes the evil lies Iago
tells him and kills his own wife, damning himself.
Iago wishes to hurt Cassio too, but, as with Desdemona, he uses them as a way of
getting at Othello.
-
Iago is intent upon getting at the whole of Othello: his heart is broken because he
believes Desdemona has been unfaithful; his mind is corrupted by Iago’s lies and
Othello degenerates into a deranged monster who is intent on murdering his wife;
by doing this he damns his soul.
Nothing in Othello’s life has meaning anymore: ‘Othello’s occupation’s
gone’; he has vested everything he has believed in in Desdemona.
-
Does evil win? To an extent, yes: Othello is destroyed, Cassio is hurt, the innocent
Desdemona is killed; Emilia and Roderigo are killed in the process of Iago exacting
his revenge. But Iago is brought down by it all. He gains nothing. Cassio is restored
as governor and sanity prevails.
There is a kind of moral triumph in Desdemona’s unconditional love to the end;
Emilia bravely reveals the truth and dies heroically for doing so;
Othello, though utterly ruined, redeems himself in the end, and Cassio, though
injured, bears no grudges against Othello whom he has served.
This does represent the essential idea of Othello.
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QUESTION 10: OTHELLO CONTEXTUAL QUESTION MEMORANDUM
10.1
Outline the circumstances surrounding this conversation between Iago
and Cassio.
(2)
Cassio has been dismissed as Othello’s lieutenant for being drunk while on duty.
He is mortified and is bewailing his fate to Iago.
10.2
What does Iago mean by ‘our general’s wife is now the general’ (lines 2-3)?
(2)
Othello is so much under Desdemona’s spell/he is so much in love with her ,
that he will do anything she wishes.
10.3
Show how Iago intends to use Desdemona’s virtues against her in this extract.
(3)
Iago knows that Desdemona is kind-hearted and generous; the rift between
Othello and Cassio would distress her greatly. She would readily plead
Cassio’s case with Othello, even if it meant annoying her husband.
10.4
Discuss how the imagery in lines 9 to 12 underlines the role Desdemona must
play.
(3)
Iago uses the metaphor of a ‘broken joint’ to describe the rift between
Othello and Cassio. Desdemona will be the ‘splint’ to heal the break 
by pleading with Othello on Cassio’s behalf.
10.5
How would you describe the tone of Iago’s words in the last few lines of the
extract? Justify your answer.
(3)
Iago’s words are cynical / ironic ; he has brought about the downfall of
Cassio by persuading him to get drunk ; Now he is suggesting how Cassio
may regain his position (which might appear to be a kind gesture)  but it is in
fact part of Iago’s bigger plan of bringing about Othello’s downfall by making
him suspect Cassio with his wife 
10.6
What does Othello imply about Desdemona when he repeats the words,
‘she can turn’? (lines 2 – 3)
(2)
Othello refers to his belief that Desdemona has changed from being the
virtuous young woman whom he loved and married  to being a whore who
is free with her favours / is now being unfaithful to him with Cassio.
10.7
What does the diction in lines 5 – 9 suggest about Othello’s tone and his state
of mind?
(3)
Othello is very agitated and distracted by the thought that Desdemona is
being unfaithful to him. He frequently interrupts himself / changes topics;
uses exclamations, such as ‘avaunt’ to chase her away 
‘Goats and monkeys’ have connotations of sexual licence (1+2)
10.8
‘He is much chang’d’ (line 17). What evidence is there in this extract of the
changes that have occurred in Othello? Refer closely to Lodovico’s words to
substantiate your answer.
(4)
Othello was once the person whom the Venetian senate regarded as totally
competent and in whose care the safety of the state was entrusted.(‘all-in-all
sufficient’)
Othello was also regarded for his self-control (‘whom passion could not shake’);
known for his courage and strength
He has now been reduced to someone who has lost self-control, is given to
violent outbursts of temper (striking his wife in public)  and seeming to be
mad (‘are his wits safe?’) (2 + 2)
10.9
In what way would Iago’s words in lines 22-23 (‘Yet would I… the worst’)
have sinister, ironic overtones?
(3)
Iago is fully aware of what Othello is about to do next namely to kill his wife
by smothering her in her bed (Iago’s own suggestion) to get revenge on her
alleged infidelity, which is all part of Iago’s evil plan  to get his own revenge
on Othello.
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