Othello Key Quotes

A1S1 - shows Iago’s duplicity

A1S1 - shows Iago’s duplicity

I am not what I am

A1S1 - vulgar descriptions used by Iago about D&O (2x quotes)

An old black ram is tupping your white ewe

Your daughter and the Moor (…) making the beast with two backs

A1S3 - how Brabantio thinks D has been ‘stolen’

She is abused, stolen from me and corrupted // by spells and medicines

A1S3 - 2x quotes about Desdemona, showing how unlikely it is that she would love O

A maiden never bold

To fall in love with what she feared to look on?

A1S3 - why Othello & Desdemona love each other

She loved me for the dangers I had passed // and I loved her that she did pity them

A1S3 - Desdemona talking to B

My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty

A1S3 - Brabantio’s warning to Othello (echoed by I later in the play)

Look to her Moor, if thou hast eyes to see // she has deceived her father, and may thee

A1S3 - Roderigo being melodramatic

I will incontinently drown myself

A1S3 - what Iago thinks D&O relationship is

A lust of the blood

A1S3 - why Desdemona will get bored of O

When she is sated with his body she will find the error of her choice: she must have change, she must

A1S3 - why Iago hates O

It is thought abroad that twixt my sheets // he’s done my office

A2S1 - how Cassio describes D

Our great captain’s captain

A2S1 - said by Desdemona in response to I making jokes about women

I do beguile // the thing I am by seeming otherwise

A2S1 - Iago’s metaphor for taking down Cassio

With as little web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio

A2S1 - said by Othello on reunion with D

I cannot speak enough of this content // it stops me here; it is too much of joy They kiss

A2S1 - Iago aside, musical metaphor

O, you are well tuned now! // But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music // as honest as I am

A2S1 - what Iago will do to O

Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me // for making him egregiously an ass

A2S3 - conversation between Iago & Cassio about D

C: she’s a most exquisite lady

I: and, I’ll warrant her, full of game

A2S3 - what Iago will do to D

So I will turn her virtue into pitch

A3S3 - metaphor about jealousy

O beware, my lord, of jealousy! // It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock // the meat it feeds on

A3S3 - what Othello needs to believe I

I’ll see before I doubt, and when I doubt, prove

A3S3 - quote about Venetian women

In Venice they do let God see the pranks // they dare not show their husbands

A3S3 - Iago mirroring B’s warning

She did deceive her father, marrying you

A3S3 - Iago quote about marriage

O curse of marriage // that we can call these delicate creatures ours // and not their appetites!

A3S3 - Othello toad quote

I had rather be a toad // and live upon the vapour of a dungeon // than keep a corner of the thing I love // for others’ uses

A3S3 - Emilia, about I, after stealing handkerchief

I nothing but to please his fantasy

A3S3 - Othello being melodramatic

Farewell: Othello’s occupation gone!

A3S3 - Othello demanding proof

Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore // be sure of it, give me the ocular proof

A3S3 - Othello threatening D

I’ll tear her all to pieces

A3S4 - Emilia being cynical of men

They are all but stomachs, and we are all but food: // they eat us hungrily, and when they are full // they belch us

A4S1 - Othello response to being told D & C were in bed together ‘as friends’

It is hypocrisy against the devil

A4S1 - Othello threatens Cassio

How shall I murder him, Iago?

A4S1 - How Iago suggests D should be killed

Do it not with poison; strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated!

A4S1 - stage direction of DV

He strikes her

A4S2 - Othello insulting D

I took you for that cunning whore of Venice // that married with Othello

A4S3 - Emilia saying why she would cheat on her husband for all the world

The world’s a huge thing: it is a great price // for a small vice

A4S3 - Emilia explaining why men are at fault for their wives’ wrongdoings

The ills we do, their ills instruct us so

A5S1 - Iago showing jealousy of C (& insecurity?)

If Cassio do remain // he hath a daily beauty in his life // that makes me ugly

A5S1 - Othello’s resolution to murder D

Thy bed, lust-stained, shall with lust’s blood be spotted

A5S2 - Othello justifying murdering D

Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men

A5S2 - euphemisms for murder

When I have plucked the rose // I cannot give it vital growth again // it needs must wither

A5S2 - Othello’s revenge for C

Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge // had stomach for them all

A5S2 - Desdemona defending O as she died

Nobody, I myself. Farewell. // Commend me to my kind lord - O, farewell

A5S2 - Othello admitting to murdering D, and E’s response

O: She’s like a liar gone to burning hell // ‘twas I that killed her

E: O, the more angel she // and you the blacker devil

A5S2 - Emilia standing up for herself

I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak

A5S2 - Stage directions of Emilia’s murder

Iago stabs Emilia from behind and exit

A5S2 - Iago’s final line

Demand me nothing; what you know, you know. // From this time forth I will never speak word

A5S2 - Othello’s self-eulogy

One that loved not wisely, but too well // of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, // perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand // like the base Indian, threw a pearl away // richer than all his tribe

A5S2 - Othello dying

I kissed thee ere I killed thee: no way but this // killing myself, to die upon a kiss

A5S2 - The bed

Look at the tragic loading of this bed