Othello
Character
Othello
Act 2 scene 1
Othello seems happy.
 Choose a quote from II.i.176-186
 He thinks that “our wars are done”.
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Act 2 Scene 3
Iago has incited a fight between Cassio and
Roderigo
 In Act 1 he calmly denounces violence:
“Keep up your bright swords”
 Here he reacts angrily
 He compares them to ‘Turks’ and
‘Ottomites’
 And feels ‘Christian shame’ at their
behaviour
 The move to Cyprus has changed Othello
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He demands explanation: “Give me
answer to it” (180)
 But the explanation makes him furious
 “My blood begins my safer guides to rule”
(189)
 He thinks he may “but lift this arm” – a
threat of possible violence
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Othello
Character Development
First Act
What is Othello like?
 Does he have any faults or weaknesses?
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Act 2 Scene 1
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Show how in love he is with Desdemona
when he is reunited with her
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“My fair warrior!”
Comment on this
 He feels extremely happy, ironically saying
“If it were now to die, ‘Twere to be most
happy”
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Act 2 Scene 3
Othello again shows his trust of Iago:
“Iago is most honest”
 He wants to protect Desdemona from the
ugly, violent brawl: “All’s well now,
sweeting; come away to bed” (2.3.236)
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Act 3 Scene 3 – Key Scene
Iago says when Cassio leaves Desdemona:
“Ha! I like not that.”
 (3.3.35) Here he starts putting his plan into
action.
 Othello is still kind and gentle with Desdemona
(3.3.56). When he agrees to speak to Cassio
“The sooner, sweet, for you”
 Desdemona shows her compassion and
kindness in trying to get Cassio reinstated:
“Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul.”
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He seems busy and preoccupied with his
responsibilities: “leave me but a little to myself”.
Calls Desdemona “Excellent wretch!”
affectionately.
“…when I love thee not
Chaos is come again”
This shows that without Desdemona he is
unhappy. D seems to have saved him from a life
of trauma and turmoil.
Iago withholds enough to intrigue and frustrate
Othello: “Why of thy thought, Iago?…Is he not
honest?”
(3.3.107-116)
“…a monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shown”
 Jealousy – a monster
 There is painful dramatic irony in Othello
saying “I know thou’rt full of love and
honesty”.
 Iago avoiding a direct answer is compared
to how “a false disloyal knave” would avoid
telling the truth.

He gathers himself and says that he will
not be plagued by jealousy as it is against
his character: “I’ll see before I doubt;
when I doubt, prove…Away at once with
love or jealousy!” (192-194)
 Iago tells him to keep an eye on
Desdemona
 But Othello says that he will stay calm and
this will bother him “Not a jot”
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Othello’s soliloquy (260-279)
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He compares Desdemona to a “haggard” - a wild
hawk. If he cannot train her or control her he will
let her go.
He wonders if a problem is “Happly for I am
black”
This is the first time he has doubted himself
because of his race
Or age: “I am declin’d into the vale of years”
He simply states: “She’s gone, I am abus’d , and
my relief Must be to loathe her”
His imagery is ugly and crude saying he would
“rather be a toad and live upon the vapour of a
dungeon” than a married man.
He repeats the idea of a “plague”
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He is disregarding his public duties as his guests
wait for him
He is snappy and abrupt with D.
Next time we see him his language has
deteriorated: “ha, ha, false to me!”
He says that Iago’s information “hast set me on
the rack” - a torture instrument
Now he speaks of her in a crude way, saying he
would rather all of the soldiers had slept with
her as long as he did not know: “I had been
happy if the general camp…had tasted her
sweet body So nothing I had known”
Shakespeare uses repetition of “Farewell” to
show that he is saying goodbye to happiness
and contentment. (346-357)
 But he focuses on losing his “occupation” and
talks in military image. It seems that he does
not have the vocabulary to express his
emotions.
 “Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore” he threatens Iago.
“I think my wife be honest, and think she is not;
I think that thou art just, and think thou art not”
 Paradox expresses the chaos in his mind
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Othello’s’ rage makes him violent: “I’ll
tear her all to pieces!”
 When Iago says that he has seen Cassio
with the handkerchief Othello swears
“revenge”
 He wants all his love to disappear “to
heaven” (441-451)
 And in its place calls “Arise, black
vengeance, from thy hollow cell!”
 Analyse this image
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Noticeably ‘He kneels’. The power
relationship has changed between Iago
and Othello.
 He promotes Iago and tells him he wants
him to kill Cassio.
 Othello exclaims “O blood, blood, blood!”
 O compares his mind to the Black Sea and
his “bloody thoughts” to an “icy current”
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Act 3 Scene 4
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Desdemona: “my noble Moor is true of
mind and made of no such baseness as
jealous creatures are”
 Accusations: “This hand is moist” (32)
 “here’s a young and sweating devil”
Othello’s language is full of double
meanings:
 “liberal heart” - generous and free,
immoral
 Contrast with the first Act
 Her hand is “frank” - honest, revealing
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Othello talks of how precious the
handkerchief is. It was a gift from his
mother. He seems to be slipping into
superstition, talking of a “charmer“
,“spirits” and “magic” (52-64)
 Look at the exchange in lines 71-81. How
does Shakespeare convey the conflict
between Desdemona and Othello?
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Act 4 Scene 1
Iago plays another role. He tries to dissuade
Othello from overreacting
 Othello : “O it comes o’er my memory, as doth
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the raven o’er the infected house”
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The raven is a symbol of death and disease
Foreshadowing
Look at Othello’s speech in lines 35-43. How
does Shakespeare use language to portray his
state of mind?
Stage direction: “He falls in a trance”
Othello is physically affected by his emotions
Iago plays another role. He tries to dissuade
Othello from overreacting
 Othello : “O it comes o’er my memory, as doth
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the raven o’er the infected house”
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The raven is a symbol of death and disease
Foreshadowing
Look at Othello’s speech in lines 35-43. How
does Shakespeare use language to portray his
state of mind?
Stage direction: “He falls in a trance”
Othello is physically affected by his emotions
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Iago fools Othello by talking to Cassio about a
prostitute he visits called Bianca
Look at Othello’s speeches in lines 168-210
(p96-8) How does he talk about Desdemona?
Othello is now completely in Iago’s hands agreeing to suffocate her in her “contaminated”
bed
Othello is completely unreasonable with
Desdemona, striking her and shouting at her
Notably Desdemona responds without anger:
“sweet Othello”, “I have not deserv’d this”
Lodovico says that “this would not be
believed in Venice”
 Look at Othello’s speech in lines 250-261.
 The word “turn” has a double meaning
 His sentences are broken up with pauses
 Repetition is now used to show the
obsessions in his mind and to allow him to
explore words’ double meanings:
“obedient”, “weep”
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Act 4 Scene 2
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Othello refuses to believe what Emilia tells him.
“This is a subtle whore”
Desdemona seems concerned about Othello
when she would be justified in being angry:
“Why do you weep?”
Othello confronts Desdemona, using a series of
images to describe how he feels his love has
been ruined.
Desdemona is as honest “as summer flies in the
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O wishes “thou hadst ne’er been born”
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shambles [slaughterhouse]”
Act 5 Scene 2
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Othello’s soliloquy:
“It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul”
He uses ‘it’ as if he cannot even name adultery.
His speech reminds the audience that she looks
white but is also innocent: “that whiter skin of
hers than snow and smooth as monumental
alabaster”
Othello is calling on darkness - “Put out the light”
- again, literally and metaphorically
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Desdemona repeatedly begs for her life
But Othello smothers her, angrily calling her
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Emilia still cannot persuade him of D’s innocence
When Iago is accuse of lying all Othello can say is
“strumpet”
“O! O! O!”
When Othello finally realises what Iago
has done he tries to attack him and
wishes Iago could be punished by God:
“Are there no stones in heaven but what
serves for the thunder?”
 He feels hopeless and no longer trusts
human justice
 He is restrained and then seems too weak
to attack Iago; “I am not valiant either.”
 He is completely broken and says “Let it
go all.” Nothing matters to him any more:
bravery, honesty, honour, respect…
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He goes to Desdemona’s dead body.
 He now accepts her “chastity”. Notice this
line is much shorter than the standard
iambic pentameter (274)
 He calls her a “cursed, cursed slave”.
 Othello imagines his punishment in hell:
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“Whip me, ye devils…Blow me about in
winds! Roast me in sulphur!”
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Again he descends into a series of painful
howls: “O Desdemon! Dead Desdemon!
Dead! O! O!”
He recovers slightly to justify his actions:
 “For naught did I in hate, but all in
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honour”
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He says of Iago: “that demi-devil…hath
ensnared my soul and body”
Then returns to pained exclamations “O
villain!”, “O fool, fool, fool!”
 In his final speech he reminds people that
“I have done the state some service”
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He recovers slightly to justify his actions:
 “For naught did I in hate, but all in
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honour”
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He says of Iago: “that demi-devil…hath
ensnared my soul and body”
Then returns to pained exclamations “O
villain!”, “O fool, fool, fool!”
 In his final speech he reminds people that
“I have done the state some service”

He recovers slightly to justify his actions:
 “For naught did I in hate, but all in
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honour”
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He says of Iago: “that demi-devil…hath
ensnared my soul and body”
Then returns to pained exclamations “O
villain!”, “O fool, fool, fool!”
 In his final speech he reminds people that
“I have done the state some service”
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Othello asks that when people tell the
story: “Speak of me as I am”
 Othello says that he is “one that loved not
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wisely, but too well”
 He “threw a pearl away”
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Othello’s final long speech is as eloquent
as those in Act 1 Scene 3. He regains
respect and seeks to influence how people
will think of him
He gives a reminder of his service for
Venice and then kills himself.
 His final lines are addressed to
Desdemona and he shows her one last act
of tenderness: “to die upon a kiss”
 At the end Lodovico and Gratiano take pity
on him and Cassio says “he was great of
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heart”