iago

That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse, as if the strings were thine shouldst know of this.

Roderigo about Iago

Act 1 Scene 1

Images of puppetry

Presents Iago as a puppet master and manipulative person

Iago as a mercenary character

Occurs at night, which establishes a sense of chaos

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Iago about his plan

Act 1 Scene 1

He will present his heart on his sleeve, and will appear to be open and honest.

Shows a level of disrespect towards the idea of being so honest and presenting your heart by belittling the idea as birds can peck at his hear

Suggests that his heart is empty or hollow, and only serves a function

Paradox establishes his character as something that cannot be made sense of

Iago as a Machiavellian character, who manipulates perception to get what he wants without needing to understand what his motives are

Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!

Iago to Brabantio

Act 1 Scene 1

Delivered whilst he is hidden, meaning this is dramatic irony for the audience and sets the template for the rest of the play

Throws Desdemona in with other material possessions

Gender politics

you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse;you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll havecoursers for cousins and gennets for germans.

Iago to Brabantio

Act 1 Scene 1

-By sleeping with Othello, Desdemona becomes sub-human

-Language of courrption and posion

-Shift to prose

-Iago makes the differences between Othello and Desdemona very clear to Brabantio

-Whole family will be breed with animalistic qualties ebcause of Othello

-By using the idea that Othello will poison the family bloodline, an idea that would have been uncomfortable for a Jacobean audience

Even now, now, very now, an old black rams topping your white ewe.

... Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:

Iago to Brabantio

Act 1 Scene 1

-Use of the verb 'robbed'

-Imperative 'put', suggestive that he is already moving up the social ladder in terms of whom he can influence

-Repetition of 'now', increases the speed of dialogue and means other characters don't have time to think

-Ewe metaphor, the animal is associated with the devil and has a sex drive

-Scaremongering Brabantio by using the idea that Othello will poison the family bloodline, an idea that would have been uncomfortable for a Jacobean audience

-Switches from using animalistic imagery, to the optimal of evil, thus accelerating the tempo the dialogue.

'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack:If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

Iago about Othello

Act 1 Scene 2

Marriage can only be about sex or money

Tone changes once Othello has left

-Image of a pirate illegally taking control of a ship

-Presents Othello as foreign and exotic

-Desdemona as the treasure ship, suggesting she is a financial gain

-Presents his distain for love as he degrades their marriage

Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many..

Iago

Act 1 Scene 3

-Extended metaphor of our bodies as gardens and love as a weed that grows. We have the power to kill it by cutting it off

-Love should be taken out of the garden

-Expressing his distain that love is something out of control, and rather thinks that it is something completely under our control

Put money in thy purse.

-Iago to Roderigo

Act 1 Scene 3

-Repetition of the refrain 'put money in thy purse'

-Hypnotic effect on Roderigo

-Desdemona as a commodity

A frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits... thou shalt enjoy her..

-Iago to Roderigo

Act 1 Scene 3

-Sibilance creates an air that Desdemona is not to be trusted because of her slyness

-The suggestion that their relationship is doomed

-Debasing Roderigo as a courtly lover by sexualizing Desdemona

-Jarring comparison of the war-like Othello and Venetian Desdemona

But for my sport and profit. I hate the moor, and it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets, he's done my office. I know not if't be true yet I, for mere suspicion in that kind..

Iago

Act 1 Scene 3

-Use of the noun 'sport', suggestive that he enjoys manipulation as it gives him a sense of pleasure

-Using the rumours that Othello has slept with Emilia's wife as an excuse for his hatred

-Structure of the sentence, where I hate the moor is separated from the reasoning by 'and', creates a sense of an afterthought.

It is engendered. Hell and night must ring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

-Iago

Act 1 Scene 3

-Birth imagery surrounding his plan

You rise to play and go to bed to work..

To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.

Iago

2.1

-Suggestive that all women are prostitutes

-The cynical take on the relationship between women and sex

-All the most accomplished women can achieve is have children and be concerned with trivialities

"He takes her by the palm; ay, well said, whisper. / With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a / fly as Cassio."

Iago [Aside]

2.1

-Iago as a narrator presenting the events but offering other interpretations that explain what is going on

-Belittles Cassio's status by comparing him to a fly. Iago as a spider creating a web (his plan) that can catch the other characters out and eventually lead them to their end.

-Hellish imagery of decay

Now for want of these required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor. Very nature will instruct her in it..

Iago

2.1

-Once D has had enough of O's body she will throw him back up

-Making a comment about her sexual appetite

-Iago's inability to connect love and sex

"Now I do love her too, not out of absolute lust."

"For I do suspect that the lusty Moor hath leaped into my seat, the thought of whereof doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards"

-Iago's soliloquy ends the scene, suggesting that he controls the structure of the play, meaning the audience is a puppet of Iago

2.1

-Loves Desdemona as a tool for his manipulation

-Making excuses for his reasoning to mess with Othello, all 3 of which are nullified, perhaps asking whether he is purely evil and jealous for the sake of it?

With that which he hath drunk tonight already he'll be full of quarrel and offence as my young mistress' dog

Iago about Cassio

2.3

-Alcohol as a tool that can turn men into beasts

-It brings out the 'human beast', from the perspective of a Jacobean audience

-Cassio is a nobleman, brought down by Iago's manipulation, which foreshadows the downfall Othello

-Technically, the whole play is about the enticement of Othello's beast

Our general's wife is now the general.

Iago to Cassio

2.3

-Emasculating Othello as weak and under D's control, something that would have been unwanted by a Jacobean audience

-Enkeeping with the imagery describing Desdemona, suggesting that her marriage too is steeped about war