scene 3

“when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again” - Othello

• allusions to classical mythology that love was the first to came after chaos - infusion of classical divinity aligns Othello’s with conventional tragic protagonists

• subordinating conjunction “when” has temporal connotations that suggests the inevitability of Othello believing Desdemona betrayed him

• temporal adverb “again” foreshadows the restoration of chaos

• antithesis between “love” and “chaos” elevates Othello’s relationship with Desdemona into a source of existential stability

“For she had eyes and chose me” - Othello

• coordinating conjunction “and” links Desdemona’s ability to perceive “eyes” with her agency “chose”

• emphatic “me” foregrounds his sense of being personally chosen and valued

“O curse of marriage / That we can call these delicate creatures our, / And not their appetites!” - Othello

• noun “curse” carries religious and fatalistic connotations

• possessive pronoun “our” constructs marriage through the language of ownership

• euphemism of “appetites” adds to Iago’s motif of using gustatory imagery to describe women’s sexuality

• antithesis between “our” and “their” establishes a fundamental tension between marital possession and individual autonomy

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