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Othello: Gender, Race, Revenge, Violence Quotes - Coggle Diagram
Othello: Gender, Race, Revenge, Violence Quotes
Brabantino - 'How got she out? O treason of the blood! Fathers, from hence trust not your daughter's minds by what you see them act' (Act 1, Scene 1)
Iago - 'I follow him to serve my turn upon him' (Act 1, Scene 1)
Desdemona - 'No, by this heavenly light' Emilia - 'I might do't as well i'th'dark' (Act 4, Scene 3)
Emilia - 'I nothing but to please his fantasy.' (Act 3, Scene 3)
- AO5 - Coleridge - 'Emilia, stealing the handkerchief, is the catalyst for the play's crisis'
- AO1 - Suggests women are reduced to instruments for male desire
- AO2 - Loss of identity and worth implying she sees herself as insignificant
- Submission and obligation - reduces marriage to service rather than mutual affection
- AO3 - Jacobean marriages were patriarchal and wives expected to obey and satisfy husbands
- AO4 - Challenged by later speech where she openly challenges patriarchal double standards
Othello - 'I have a pain upon my forehead here' (Act 3, Scene 3)
- AO1 - Jealousy consuming Othello - suggests cuckloding showing growing fear of emasculation and betrayal
- AO2 - Jacobean audiences would associate this with cuckold's horns implying Othello subconsciously fears humiliation
- Jealousy becomes a disease affecting both mind and body
- AO3 - In Renaissance society being cuckolded was seen as deeply shameful because male honour depends on female fidelity
- AO4 - Links to peripeteia as Iago's jealousy speech is now affecting Othello physically and foreshadows his 'trance' in Act 4
Emilia - 'I will play the swan and die in music' (Act V, Scene II)
- AO5 - Simpson - 'She dies in the service of truth'
- AO3 - Her death reflects the danger women faced when resisting patriarchal authority
- AO2 - Swan links to the myth of the 'swan song' where a swan sings beautifully before death presenting her as noble and tragic - Newfound voice
- Softens the violence of death giving her final moments grace and emotional power
- AO1 - Emilia accepts her death with dignity after exposing the truth
- AO4 - Development from submission to independence
- Parallels Desdemona's death as both women become victims of male violence
Brabantio - 'She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted by spells and medicines bought of mountebanks' (Act 1, Scene 3)
- AO1 - Brabantio refuses to accept Desdemona's marriage and claims she has been manipulated
- AO3 - Brabantio's reaction reflects patriarchal ownership of women and fear of interracial marriage
- AO4 - Links to Othello later believing Brabantio's words about female infidelity
- AO2 - Violent verb suggests violation - frames marriage as harm rather than choice - emotional panic and escalating accusation
- Desdemona is treated as property rather than an independent person
- Magical imagery reflects irrational explanation and black people linked to witchcraft
- Implies deceit and reinforces idea of unnatural interference
Emilia - 'They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; they eat us hungerly, and when they are full They belch us.' (Act 4, Scene 3)
- AO1 - Criticising the selfishness of men suggesting women are treated as objects to satisfy male desire before being discarded
- AO2 - Metaphor of men sexually consuming women - reduces relationships to appetite and objectification - greed and domination
- Women are disposable once men's desires are staisfied
- Universal from collective pronouns
- AO4 - Contrasts earlier submission but links to how women exist to satisfy male desire
- Foil to Desdemona who idealises love and marriage
- AO3 - In Jacobean society women expected to obey and serve men - Emilia challenges the system by criticising male behaviour and inequality
Iago - 'An old black ram is tupping your white ewe' (Act 1, Scene 1)
- AO3 - Interracial relationships were viewed with suspicion and blackness was associated with evil or lust so Iago exploits racial stereotypes to provoke fear
- AO5 - Loomba - 'casts blacks as other'
- AO2 - Animal imagery dehumanises Othello and Desdemona - brutal and instinctive
- Violent connotations emphasises violation rather than love
- Colour symbolism - Black reinforces racial oppression and white connotes purity
- Juxtaposition intensifies racial anxiety and judgement
- AO4 - Links to Iago's manipulation of Othello where he sexualises Desdemona to create jealousy
- AO1 - Iago deliberately uses racist and sexual imagery to provoke Brabantio and target the fear of miscengation
Iago - 'You'll have a daughter covered in a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you' (Act 1, Scene 1)
Iago - ''I hate the Moor, And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets He has done my office'' (Act 1, Scene 3)
- AO1 - Suspects Othello of sleeping with Emilia using this as justification for his vengeance
- AO2 - Blunt and forceful hatred and reduces Othello to his race reflecting his prejudice and dehumanisation
- Euphemism for adultery - anxiety around sexual humiliation and cuckoldry
- Vagueness and rumour suggests Iago's jealousy is based on suspicion rather than evidence
- AO3 - Cuckoldry threatened male honour and status - Iago's fear reflects anxieties surrounding masculinity and reputation while racial prejudice intensifies his resentment toward Othello
- AO4 - Links to Othello's later jealousy showing how Iago projects his own insecurities onto others - 'green-eyed monster'
- AO5 - Coleridge 'Motiveless malignity'
Iago - "It is engender'd. Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light." (Act 1, Scene 3)
Othello - 'haply, for I am black and have not those soft parts of conversation' (Act 3, Scene 3)
- AO1 - Othello begins to internalise racist stereotypes and doubts own worth
- AO2 - Self-depricating language shows internalised racism and loss of self-esteem - growing insecurity
- Suggests emotional eloquence and social refinement he believes he lacks - from confident military leader to doubtful fragmented thinker - result of racism
- AO3 - Blackness was associated with inferiority and moral suspicion
- AO4 - Links to earlier proud identity showing a psychological decline
Othello - "Devil" "[he strikes her]" (Act 4, Scene 1)
- AO1 - Public violence toward Desdemona reveals how jealousy has corrupted his love and judgement - tragic moral and psychological collapse
- AO2 - Religious imagery - demonises Desdemona reversing his earlier idealisation of her purity as 'gentle Desdemona'
- Loss of rational control and overwhelming emotion
- Makes internal jealousy become physical violence - shocks characters and audience
- AO4 - Links to 'Put out the light' as Othello justifies violence through distorted moral thinking
- AO5 - Loomba - '[the play is] a nightmare of male violence'
'[Othello is] highly emotional'
Othello - "He falls into a trance" (Act 4, Scene 1)
Othello - "How shall I murder him Iago?" "let her rot and perish" "I will chop her into messes" "Get me some poison" (Act 4, Scene 1)
- AO1 - Psychological collapse as he becomes consumed by revenge and misogynistic rage - Iago's manipulation corrupts Othello's language and morals
- AO2 - Casual demeanour - murder is not questioned morally
- Imperatives show Othello taking decisive violent control contrasting earlier rationality
- Violent imagery - grotesque dismemberment reflect uncontrollable rage and dehumanisation of Desdemona
Semantic field of violence and death dominates his speech showing jealousy consumes him
- AO3 - Othello is embodying the stereotypical savage moor intent on destruction
- AO4 - Contrasts earlier noble and poetic language 'Rude am I in my speech' and internalising the racial prejudice against him - tragic degeneration
- AO5 - Loomba - 'Othello is a victim of racial beliefs precisely as he becomes an agent of misogynistic ones'
Othello - 'Blow me about it winds! Roast me in sulphur! Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!' (Act 5, Scene 2)
Othello - 'He stabs himself' (Act 5, Scene 2)
- AO1 - Othello's suicide represents his final attempt to reclaim honour and punish himself for murdering Desdemona
- AO2 - Sudden , dramatic ending completing his self-destruction
- Verb reflects identity as a soldier suggesting he dies according to the violent code that shaped his life
- The violence turned inward symbolises his recognition that he himself has become the true threat
- Can appear a cowardice death as he refuses himself any responsibility - parallels with Desdemona's death linking him to a victim position together in tragedy
- AO3 - In renaissance tragedy suicide could be seen as sinful and honourable depending on motive - his death reflects the tragic hero's need for punishment and restored reputation
- AO4 - Links to final speech where he tries to shape how his legacy will be remembered
- AO5 - F.R. Leavis - 'The tragic protagonist was responsible for his own downfall'
Othello - 'He smothers her' (Act 5, Scene 2)
- AO1 - Completes Othello's transformation from noble hero to murderer
- AO2 - Violence is unavoidable and visually shocking for the audience
- Verb is intimate and prolonged - control ad suppression rather than quick - symbolically silences Desdemona completely
- AO4 - Links to Emilia's warnings about jealousy as a 'monster' that destroys reason
- AO5 - A.C. Bradley - 'Helplessly passive'
Emilia - 'If he say so, may his pernicious sould rot half a grain a day!...She was too fond of her most filthy bargain' (Act 5, Scene 2)
- AO1 - Emilia fiercely defends Desdemona after her death condemning Iago as morally corrupt and criticises Othello
- AO2 - Emilia condemns Iago spiritually presenting him as deeply corrupt and poisonous
- Adjective 'pernicious' suggests hidden and destructive evil fitting Iago's manipulative nature
- Wants the punishment to feel torturous and eternal
- Oxymoron - marriage reimagined as degrading rather than loving
- Desdemona loved Othello too deeply and blindly - tragic devotion
- AO3 - Jacobean women expected to remain obedient to husbands but Emilia openly condemns both Iago and the unequal marriage - gives Emilia authority at the end
- AO4 - Links to Act 3, Scene 4 when she criticises men 'they are all but stomachs' suggesting women are consumed and discarded by men
- Contrasts Desdemona's idealistic view of love
- AO5 - Simpson - 'She dies in the service of truth'
Lodovico - 'This heavy act with heavy heart release' (Act 5, Scene 2)