Othello - Love Through The Ages

AQA English Literature Paper 1 Othello Focus on Love/

I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors
My daughter is not for thee

Reinforces the idea of Desdemona as property
Suggests Roderigo has been hounding them

you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse

Racist again

More animalistic imagery

Presents Othello as a lustful predator

Suggests it is an unnatural match- interracial relationships frowned upon

gross revolt

The marriage of Desdemona and Othello

I won his daughter

Possessive- does he just value her for her social standing?

Patriarchal

I do beseech you
Send for the lady to the Sagittary

Some semblance of equality
Othello is confident in their love

she wished
That heaven had made her such a man

EITHER wants a man like Othello to fall in love with

OR wants to have such adventures

Roles of men and women

She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I lov'd her that she did pity them.

Reciprocated love
Desdemona fell in love with him for his stories- does he actually love her as a person or just because of this?

It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will

Iago's debased ideas about love again
Doesn't think it's a realy concept
It's just something you make up in your head

Put money in thy purse

Iago repeatedly tells Roderigo that this will win him Desdemona

it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets

He's done my office...

I...

Will do as if for surety

There is a rumour that Othello and Emilia had an affair

Sexual jealousy

He doesn't even know if it's true, but he will act on it as though it is, just in case

He hath a person...
fram'd to make women false

Iago hates women
He assumes that Desdemona will cheat on Othello because she is a woman and women are all unfaithful

our great captain's captain

Cassio's chivalry will later be twisted by Iago
Iago cannot stand this idea of Desdemona having any power over Othello and uses this to fuel his hatred for the couple

Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds

Misogyny
Sexualisation + objectification
Stereotype of Venetian women as promiscuous and prostitutes

go to bed to work

Women are prostitutes and sex-crazed
Iago can only view women in relation to the desire of men

If it were now to die,

T'were now to be most happy; for I fear

My soul hath her content so absolute

If he died now, Othello would be happy because he doesn't think he ever will be this happy again

Ironic- he won't be as Iago will start to poison his mind with doubts

His transcendent love for Desdemona- different to how Iago uses 'soul'

she first loved the Moor but for bragging and telling her fantastical lies. And will she

Love him still for prating?

Fell in love quickly, could fall out of it just as easily

Echoes what Othello says but twists it like he does everything- easier to convince people

There is truth in what he says though- more convincing

this poor trash of Venice

Stereotype of Venetian women

Come, my dear love,

The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue;

That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you.

Illusion of equality

Objectification of Desdemona

Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter

Othello's love and trust in Iago will be his downfall
Dramatic irony

All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.

Patronising

Imperative- more in line with gender stereotypes of the time

Turning point in relationship

I'll pour this pestilence into his ear:

That she repeals him for her body's lust

Audience would have had a profound fear of the Black Death- Iago's rumour will spread like a disease- uncontrollably

Going to tell Othello that Desdemona wants Cassio reinstated because she loves him

Love is easily influenced- fragile

His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift

She's going to hound him and withhold affection until he meets with Cassio
Only serves to reinforce his paranoia
Loyal friend

Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee; and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again

Foreshadows future events- as soon as he is given a reason not to love her, chaos ensues

O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites

Misogyny
Men controlling their wives' desires
Women sexual objects to satisfy their husbands only

Even then this forked plague is fated to us
When we do quicken

Every man will be betrayed by a woman

Your napkin is too little [He pushes the handkerchief away, and she drops it]

Desdemona trying to take care of Othello but he pushes her away
If the handkerchief was so important, why did he let it fall? Why didn't he acknowledge its significance then?

I nothing but to please his fantasy

Emilia lives to please Iago, and like women in the period, she is forced to serve him
Despite how he treats her, she remains devoted to him and desperately wants him to love her

I had been happy if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body
So that I had nothing known

Idea of Desdemona being used for sex and unfaithful
If he didn't know it wouldn't bother him
Doesn't question it for a second

prime as goats... hot as monkeys... salt as wolves in pride

Graphic, animalistic sexual images
Mirror Iago in Act 1
Poisoning of his mind

then laid his leg
Over my thigh... and then
Cried, 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor.'

Homoerotic imagery
Reinforces idea of their alleged affair being unnatural and a greater betrayal to Othello

Witness you ever-burning lights above...
Iago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart...
Let him command,
And to obey shall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever.

Othello is kneeling before Iago- power!!
Intimate setting mirrors a declaration of love
Pledging his loyalty using romantic diction
Perversion of a marriage- Iago has replaced Desdemona as closest to Othello
Homosexual desire?
Not genuine but reaffirmation of his loyalty to Othello

I am your own forever

Ironic
Does Iago want to be Othello's own?
Return to relationship prior to his marriage?
Like a witch's familiar- will do Othello's evil

my noble Moor
Is true of mind, and made of no such baseness
As jealous creatures are

Juxtaposition of transcendence and baseness
Possessive pronoun- equality
Juxtaposition of 'noble' vs lack of respect
Doesn't realise people are made of good and bad- innocent and naïve
She has (misplaced) faith in Othello's character

This hand is moist, my lady...
Hot, hot, and moist

Euphemism for sexual activity
Othello using sexual language in public shows increasing levels of debasement

an old black ram is tupping your white ewe

Racism

Animalistic metaphor is incredibly demeaning

Iago has no concept of love

For ''twas that hand that gave away my heart

Desdemona's innocence
She doesn't understand the euphemism
Says that the hand gave away her heart

That handkerchief...
while she kept it
'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love

The handkerchief has emotional significance aside from representing their marriage bond
Othello's downfall is that he places too much importance upon the symbol of their love rather than the object of his love

To lose't or give't away were such perdition
As nothing else could match

Echoes '...chaos is come again'
Nothing could be worse than losing the handkerchief
Huge difference in the meaning of his words

Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind

Jealousy

Above everything else, Desdemona loves Othello and wants to keep him safe from jealousy, rather than herself

This is some token from a newer friend.

To felt the absence now I feel a cause

Lover
Bianca immediately recognises the significance of the handkerchief- reinforces importance
Bianca and Cassio mirror Othello and Desdemona but Bianca believes Cassio's story- suggestion that a crumple conversation could save Othello and Desdemona

So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip;
But if I give my wife a handkerchief...
'tis hers, my lord, and being hers,
She may... bestow't on any man

Reinforces the handkerchief as a symbol of love

As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all- he had my handkerchief

Symbol of inevitable downfall and death
Birds usually symbolise transcendence- Iago is so debased that he has corrupted this symbol
Diseased marriage- disease was generally incurable and spread uncontrollably
Desdemona's body

Now if this suit lay in Bianca's power,
how quickly should you speed

If Bianca could reinstate him, he'd be promoted again immediately
She adores him but he is unkind about her

Alas, poor rogue...
Customer...
Monkey...
Fitchew

Contrast to how he describes Desdemona
Immorality in everyone- Desdemona's mistake

I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,

Lay down my soul at stake

Loyalty to Desdemona

Often used with dramatic irony but not here

Unlike how Iago means it, she is genuinely honest

Leave procreants alone and shut the door

Unsettling- he's just hit her and now wants to be alone with her
Dismissive of Emilia- debased view of women after Iago?

Upon my knees

Mirrors Iago in Act 3, Scene 4 but he doesn't respond positively to her
Reinforces idea of perversion of marriage

The fountain from the which my current runs

Or else dried up- to be discarded thence

Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads to

Knot and gender in

Motif of water- was used to describe magnitude of love in Act 1- suggests it's Desdemona's fault
His life source
Negative language of love- like Iago

Prithee tonight

Lay on my bed my wedding sheets

An effort to recapture passion with Othello
Symbol of love and Desdemona's faithfulness to her husband

Prithee, unpin me

Most intimate setting we see Desdemona in- presents the importance of friendship
Desdemona's closest relationship is with another woman- 2 women trying to survive despite the patriarchal society they live in

If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me
In one of those same sheets

Premonition
Symbol of love but also her trying to recapture happiness
Pity for her because she clearly still loves her husband

Nor I neither by this heavenly light;
I might do't as well i'th'dark

Cynical view of marriage
Desdemona is much purer than Emilia, who has experienced the world and is much wiser than her