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Othello character analysis, Critic quotes , Cassio, Desdemona, Emilia,…
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Critic quotes
Othello is both a fantasy of interracial love and social tolerance, and a nightmare of racial hatred and male violence" Loomba (race and society)
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Desdemona's social location as the heir of a senator provides a powerful catalyst for the kind of intense jealousy her husband develops" Rebecca Oslen
"[Othello is] victim of racial beliefs precisely because he becomes an agent of misogynistic ones" Loomba
"Othello's love of Desdemona is the love of possession. She is a prize, a spoil of war." Philips
"Cassio is a handsome, light-hearted, good-natured young fellow" Bradley
"he has to prove that he is more than a man, that he must compensate for his own ordinary humanity." Garber
" the play presents in emblematic form both false and true images of "whiteness"... and blackness" i.e the courtesan/ whore Bianca means white.
"[Desdemona] is an articulate and ardent woman who intervenes in the world of politics and policy conventionally reserved for men." Garber
"Othello is a play in which all protagonists suffer because of their marginalised and isolated positions" Smith
"Othello's idenitity depends upon a constant performance... of his "story", a loss of his own origins, an embrace [ of another rather than his]" Greenblatt
"[saving] Desdemona from herself, not in hate but in honour" Bradley
Cassio
Bianca a courtesan represents societies often all too ready impulse to moralize against women especially when it comes to their sexual identity. Perhaps Cassio's cavalier's scornful attitude towards Bianca creates a dislike of him to female audiences at the time. "I marry her! What? A custormer... bear some charity to my wit" Csssio dismisses Bianca "This is the monkey's own giving out..." referring Bianca as if she were the nuisance animals that suggests his rather lowly opinion of her status he seems to just only use her for his own pleasure to be hidden as this reflects Othello's virtue of discipline.
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"The great contention of the sea and skies Parted our fellowship - But, hark! A sail."Cassio to Desdemona foreshadowing a sign of something negative about to happen the noun contention means quarrel or dispute which does manifest as Othello comes to accept Iago's accusation of Cassio as Desdemona's paramore. The elemental imagery of sea and skies conveys a sense of cosmic inevitability about Othello and Cassio's soon to be fractured relationship as men that are in fundamental ways polar opposites to each other like sea and sky.
"Lets teach ourselves that honourable stop, Not to outsport discretion" Othello to Cassio Othello is cautioning his lieutenant to exercise restraint teach ourselves that honourable stop Othello knows Cassio's weakness when it comes to drinking. Connotations of discipline, restraint, and self-control in Othello's diction.
Othello's acute self-consciousness about not being associated with disorder and chaos reinforces his suspicion of Cassio
"the lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient" he becomes before Iago in receiving the grace of God. Cassio's naivete and lack of self-awareness about showing his goodness so openly is what sabotages him.
"she is indeed perfection" "most exquisite lady." "most fresh and delicate creature" describing Desdemona Cassio is respectable towards Desdemona uses connotations of a goddess she is a specimen. Cassio resists Iagos banter of Desdemona and a sexually promiscuous women who is for sports and games.
"reputation reputation O I have lost my reputation" "I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial"
"I am no strumpet, but of life as honest As you that thus abuse me"despite being a courtesan she is someone who deserves equal respect as everyone else. Cassio does not have enough depth to grant her this respect. Despite Cassio being a character who lives it highlights he is not any more moral or righteous than the others in the play there is still that sense of corruption he portrays with his lack of empathy towards people in the lower class society.
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Desdemona
the frequent allusion to the word "heaven" associates herself with all that is elevated- men around her reinforce this impression
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She embodies the ideal of a virtuous woman but dramatises the failure of any woman ever becoming perfectly virtuous.
"her name, that was as fresh/As Dian's visage"(act 3 scene three) Othello doubting Desdemona's chastity but uses an allusion to Diana, the Roman Virgin goddess of the moon
elements (e.g the heavens)- In Christian theology 'elements' also refer to the bread and wine of the Eucharist ( associating Desdemona with the heavenly Christ)
"Good love, call him back."(Act 3 Scene 3) She is stubborn as she insists that Othello gives her a prompt response to consider retracting his demotion of Cassio
"I wonder in my soul/ What you would ask me, that I should deny/ Or stand so mammering on" (act 3 scene 3) sexual connotations- guilt tripping tactic reflects a certain level of manipulation and power instigated by Desdemona in the marriage so this contrasts that view of her being this paragon of purity or divinity. revealing Desdemona's humanity
"That there be women do abuse their husbands/In such gross kind?" (Act 4 Scene 3) (use of hyperbole suggests her out of touchness with human nature and inability to sympathise and readiness to judge those other women in the world who do not see sexual and marital mores in the same light as her) Desdemona's incredulity comes across as naive or a bit phony (she is denying that women are like men with human weaknesses (no one can be virtuous all the time)
"No, by this heavenly light." (Desdemona, 4.3) and "Nor I neither by this heavenly light, I might do't as well in the dark." (Emilia, 4.3) Emilia gently mocks the heaven references with the light and dark antithesis reference to having sex in the dark and doing unquestionable things in secret (Emilia consider herself as not above the ordinary person)
Desdemona dies a victim of impossible standards. Shakespeare encourages the readers to reflect on what could happen when both men and women hold ourselves to impossible standards of behaviour... encourage others to see us by impossible standards and ultimately fail to realise these standards which no one can ever fulfill.
Emilia
End of the play: "I'll make thee know, Though I lost twenty lives" and I'll kill myself for grief!"sense of guilt for not doing more to avert the course of tragedy "Villainy, villainy, villainy! I think upon't, I think!... O villainy! I thought so then." the phrase "I think" reappears in the final scene the "villainy" alluded in here is obvious that Iago's deceit and Iago's cruelty and could also bring an idea of Emilia's own villainy of being complicit and always unknowingly in Desdemona's death there's a sense of shame that Emilia feels over her endless thinking about the plight and injustices faced by women because in thinking so much she has not been taking actions to change the situation.
"So speaking as I think alas, I die." the syntactical parallel of "I think" and "I die" draws an implied causality between thinking and dying i.e it is in her endless ruination and thus the avoidance of action that has finally led to her death.
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(Act 3 Scene 3) Her immediate impulse is actually to satisfy Iago's will she is deciding where her loyalty lies. Monologue: "My wayward husband hath a hundred times" the word "wayward" meaning capriciously deceitful carries strong value of judgment and suggests that Emilia knows what Iago wants is wrong but she is nonetheless relieved at the opportunity to be able to satisfy him. Her moral conflict deepens as she continues to speak signaled by the conjunction "But she so loves the token" referring to Desdemona, Emilia can only reconcile her warring war impulses. When she concludes "Heaven knows, Not I." for what Iago plans to do with the handkerchief she's expressing a sense of resignation and helplessness if not is a wish to relegate responsibility to this greater supernatural force of heaven. "I nothing but to please his fantasy" this reinforces her powerlessness specifically in the syntactical chiasmus of "not I. I nothing" the crossing of these words brings to mind a knotted bind and the image of someones hands being tied in hostage.
"Do not you chide; I have a thing for you." the blunt straight phrasing of these two sentences suggests that Emilia seeks to exchange a material object for personal safety and that the marriage operates based on the logic and trade and barter rather than love and feeling. This conveys her as a tragic character despite disagreeing with Iago's senseless demands in reasons and morality she must act against her values and accept that her role in the marriage is ultimately to execute her husband's orders and to comply with his whims.
"But I do think it is their husbands' faults if wives do fail:...." the use of repetition of "think" throughout Emilia's speeches suggests she insists about women having the power to act in potentially hurtful or vindictive ways towards their husbands most of the time they can only "think" about "doing such a thing like to imagine or fantasize themselves having the agency and wherewithal to carry out real actions that would affect the power dynamics in a marriage. The subversive shrewd wife who won't take her husband's abuse lying down is not really Emilia herself instead a projection of who she wishes that could but can never really be in fact husbands are portrayed as having much more agency and power in her speech they can do much more whereas women are cast in a more subdued position.
"let them use us well" the verb "use" conceding power and authority to men as those who determine the terms of treatment within a marriage. We see that Emilia's so called feminist track is perhaps less empowering than pessimistic and less practical than wishful.
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Othello
"even, now, now, very now an old black ram is tupping your white ewe!"
Iago compares both Othello and Desdemona as sheep suggesting he sees them in the same light, Iago's view of both is his belief of them degrading themselves to animals. Later on "an erring barbarian" (Othello) and " a supersubtle Venetian" (Desdemona) - Iago quotes more similar then different.
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Use of ambiguity of Iago's hatred for Othello when he speaks about his skin colour " the health of black Othello"
Othello begins in a position of advantage precisely because he is a political and social outsider, but he is ultimately undone by his self- consciousness of being a racial outsider.
Othello's foreigness makes him the perfect soldier for Venice. On the one hand, His military prowess helps Venice win against the turks in their fight over cyprus. As he isn't native venetian, Venice therefore does not have to loose any of their men to battle.
"Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay or going. Th' affair cries haste, And speed must answer it."- (Duke) "You must away tonight."-(Senator )This shows when the state's territorial interests are at stake they could not care less about Othello's skin colour as long as he can help them with the war. The Duke closes the case stating "If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black." the juxtaposition of "fair" and "black" could allude to complexion however the Duke is being expedient and pracitical he wants to provide Brabantio to recognise the need for political practices and to park aside his personal grievances for the state's interest.
Context: Most Elizabethan audiences were unlikely to have seen or interacted with these Moorish foreigners.
symbolic association of blackness with sin had long been rooted in the cultural consciousness which naturally led to negative perceptions of black people as lustful, dirty and immoral.
Othello's real threat is the possibility that an outsider could swoop in and take away all that the native Venetians have taken for granted as their god-given right.
Term "Moor" separates Othello through religion as it is used interchangeably to refer to Muslims, Arabs and Africans in Shakespeare's time Characters refer to Othello as collective type "The Moor" Shakespeare highlight the distance the Venetians feels towards a foreigner- Even Desdemona "That I did love the Moor to live with him"
(S3.3)When hearing Iagos provocations Othello's insecurities start acting up- he hates himself because of his race more than anyone else in the play "Haply, for I am black/ And have not those soft parts of conversaton/ That chamberers have" Othello equates being black with lacking social graces. Shakespeare has shown that Othello inspires respect and admiration from people around him. Othello jumps in the conclusion that "She is gone. I am abused" he doubts himself because of his fragile insecurity and allows it to quickly act up upon it.
"I think my wife be honest and think she is not;...As Dian visage, is now begrimed and black/ As mine own face." Othello's racial self- consciousness his confusion and insecurity impair Othello's ability to think rationally and see the reality for what it is. He makes an arbitrary association between being "begrimed and black"(use of plosive alteration) forcing the point not on the strength of actual logic but on the stilts of language ultimately perhaps becoming a victim of his own eloquence.
Iago
"have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief..." "but such a handkerchief... did I see today/ see Cassio wipe his bear with" Iago links to two different scenes one hypothetical and real and maps them into Othello'S mind as one truth. Othello projects the memory of seeing his wife with the handkerchief (dismisses it) onto the imaginative side of Desdemona's adulterous acts.
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"Change" referring to Desdemona when talking to Rodrigo however this is a use of a pun instead of associating with the idea of alter he playfully conveys it as a way to provoke the idea of relationship as an exchange he states "put money in thy purse" he does not see a difference as he views human relationships as a system of trade.
A04
Shakespeare's other related attempts at the story of male sexual jealousy - in Much Ado About Nothing and in The winters tale - all recast the narrative as comedy, bringing a woman apparently killed by the unwarranted suspicions of her husband back to life along with his renewed faith in her innocence. Othello teases us with a perverse version of this trope. As Emilia forces her way into the bedchamber, the smothered Desdemona revives momentarily to utter a few words of vindication.