Othello Love Through the Ages Quotes

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

Where?: Act 1 Scene 1
Type of love?: Sexual love
Significance?: Iago is portraying Othello as a lusty, lascivious, beast, and his daughter's marriage will result in the devastation of his family.

'Trifles light as air/Are to the jealous confirmations strong/As proofs of Holy writ.'

This is from Iago's soliloquy in act 3 scene 3. The 'trifles' are insignificant things, hence why they are 'light as air', yet Iago realises he is jealous because he has planted the seeds. Othello will take this so-called 'proof.' 'Holy writ' means the Bible.

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

This quotation magnifies Iago's manipulative nature, as he is acting as if he cares for Othello. Act 3 Scene 3, an example of love and jealousy.

'I hate the Moore/And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets he has done my office/ I know not if't be true/ But I, for mere suspicion in that, will for it for surety.'

Where?: Iago's soliliquiy in Act 1 Scene 3.
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: This is one of Iago's two main reasons for hating Othello. He is jealous of Othello for having sex with his wife, and so has decided to take his revenge out on him for it.

'Look to your wife, and observe her well with Cassio.'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: An example of Iago worsening Othello's jealous state.

'Thou hast set me on the wrack'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: Jealousy causes Othello to become embittered

· 'I had rather be a toad/ And live upon the vapour of a dungeon/ Than keep a corner for the thing I love/ For other's use.'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: Magnifies the extent to which his jealousy has caused him to hate Desdemona. Shows his dire state of mind. He would trade his life and all he has achieved in order to not feel the impacts of Desdemona's jealousy.

'strumpet'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 2, Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: Jealousy has caused Othello to become abusive

'cunning w.h.@.r.e of Venice,'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: Jealousy has caused Othello to become abusive, 'of Venice'=she has reputation around Venice for being promiscuous.

'public commoner'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and jealousy
Significance?: Jealousy has caused Othello to become abusive, he is degrading her class.

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

Where?: Act 2 Scene 1
Type of love?: Marital love (abusive side)
Significance?: Iago suggests she neglects her duties as a wife (context=Renaissance period=should be caring for her house), and implies she is promiscuous by saying she 'plays' in bed.

'Charm your tongue,' 'I charge you get you home,' 'Be wise and get thee home.'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Marital love (abusive side)
Significance?: Iago abuses his power as a male within the marriage in order to control Emilia, which we can infer usually works, hence why he becomes so angry at her. Iago doesn't take well to being disobeyed within marriage.

'foolish wife' and a 'good wench'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Marital love (abusive side)
Significance?: His tone is harsh and abusive, yet when he realises she has something for him ( the handkerchief). Shows he only cares for her when she does something for him, doesn't love her for her, loves what she can do.

'filth!' and a 'villainous w.h.@.r.e!'

Where? Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Marital love (abusive side)
Significance?: When Emilia betrays his secret, he does not take well to it, and his abuse intensifies to the extent where he murders her. He expects his wife to be obedient.

'plague [...]fated,' 'a destiny, unshunnable, like death,' and 'a curse of 'the great ones'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3 during Othello's soliloquy
Type of love?: Marital love (abusive side)
Significance?: Shows Othello and Desdemona's marriage was doomed from the beginning, as he believed her infidelity was inevitable, just like 'death,' and something which men are cursed by (the great ones=men). This is why Iago's manipulation works so effectively and quickly upon Othello, therefore marriage is weak.

'I hate the Moore/And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets he has done my office/ I know not if't be true/ But I, for mere suspicion in that, will for it for surety.'

When?: Act 1 Scene 3
Type of love?: Sexual jealousy
Significance?: Iago feels sexual jealousy towards Othello for sleeping with his wife.

'I do suspect the lusty more/ Hath lept into my seat,' 'Till I am evened with him, wife for wife.'

When?: Act 2 Scene 1
Type of love?: Sexual jealousy
Significance?: Iago feels jealousy towards Othello for sleeping with his wife.

'Your daughter and the Moore are making the beast with two backs.'

When?: Act 1 Scene 1
Type of love?: Sexual love
Significance?: Iago portrays Othello and Desdemona's relationship as being based on purely sexual attraction (context-black men=sexual)

'A old black ram is tupping your white ewe.'

Where?: Act 1 Scene 1
Type of love?: Sexual love
Significance?: See above

'I'll tear her all to pieces!'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and cruelty/violence
Significance?: 'all' shows he wants to completely ruin Desdemona for being unfaithful, quite a shocking contrast to the gentle, loving Othello that we saw during Act 1.

'"Even so my bloody thoughts with violent pace/ Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love"

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and cruelty/violence
Significance?: This comes from Othello's Pontic Sea monologue (the Black Sea), Othello is comparing the extent of his hatred to the collosal force of nature which is the Pontic Sea. Othello reveals he is done with love and shall never turn back to it. The only thing he wants is revenge.

'Oh blood, blood, blood!'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and cruelty/violence
Significance?: Othello reveals his desire to murder.

Iago's treatment of Emilia

Where else do we see cruelty and violence?

'Yet she must die, or else she'll betray more men'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and cruelty/violence
Significance?: Othello justifies his murder as she has been disobedient. by being unfaithful.

'Damn her, lewd minx! Damn her, damn her!'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Love and cruelty/violence
Significance?: Othello wants her damnation (pretty intense-religion was very important for the Jacobean audience), minx was a derogatory term.

'Devil! (he strikes her)'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 1
Type of love?: Love and cruelty/violence
Significance?: Othello's true, violent nature is revealed, and the honourable, respected war general who we saw in Act 1 Scene 2 has completely gone.

'But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 1
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: 'The pity of it'=it's dreadful, the repetition of 'the pity of it' highlights his growing regret for ever marrying her as the extent of the situation begins to settle in for Othello. Repetition of Iago shows Othello feels he can trust Iago in these types of situations.

'Good, good, the justice of it pleases, very good!'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 1
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: Othello's regret manifests itself in a thirst for blood, repetition of 'good' is simplistic and shows Othello's degeneration into a simpler, more primeval state due to his desire to murder her and Cassio.

'I will chop her into messes!'

Where?: Act 4 Scene 1
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: Violent imagery, messes=pieces

'Yet I'll not shed her blood/Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow/And smooth as monumental alabaster'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: Othello regrets having to kill her, and he still loves her.

'Yet she must die/Or else she'll betray more men'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: Othello's justification of why she must die, he doesn't want any more men to suffer.

'O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils/From the possession of this heavenly sight! Blow me about in winds, roast me in sulfur/Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire.'

When?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: Othello deeply regrets murdering Desdemona, he wants to be whipped by devils so he doesn't have to look at Desdemona's corpse. His remorse is so deep he wants to suffer horrifically in order to attempt to compensate for his actions.

'Oh, Desdemona! Desdemona! Dead! Oh! Oh!'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Love and regret
Significance?: 'Oh'=intense display of emotion, cannot form coherent sentence=overwhelmed

'Oh, my fair warrior!'

Where?: Act 2 Scene 1
Type of love?: Courtly love
Significance?: Othello elevates Desdemona to his status, implies she has equal achievements to him and equal worth, interesting as it suggests she is capable. Paganistic compliment.

'If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have wakened death,
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high, and duck again as low'

Where?: Act 2 Scene 1
Type of love?: Courtly love
Significance?: Othello would endure the worst, most violent storm if it meant he could see Desdemona.

"Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak. 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now. Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home."

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Role of women within the play
Significance?: Emilia remains obedient in the play by asking for the gentlemen's permission in order to speak, but she may have still announced the truth about Desdemona's death even if they hadn't given her permission (shortening of phrases=heightened emotional state)

"Dost thou in conscience think - tell me, Emilia - That there be women do abuse their husbands in such gross kind?"

Where?: Act 4 Scene 3
Type of love?: Role of women
Significance?: Highlights Desdemona's innocence as she believes women cheating on their husband's is a thing of the imagination, but also shows her foolish regarding love when Emilia replies 'the world is a big place.'

'The divine Desdemona'

Where?: Act 2 Scene 1
Type of love?: Role of women
Significance?: Encourages the idea that Desdemona is the personification of purity and innocence, gives her goddess-like qualities.

'I am bound to thee forever.'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Platonic love
Significance?: Othello says this, and it comes from the marriage scene.

'I am your own forever.'

Where?: Act 3 Scene 3
Type of love?: Platonic love
Significance?: Iago says this, mirroring the sentiment above. The repetition of 'forever' implies that their platonic love has triumphed over their own love for their wives, suggesting a higher level of intimacy, hence why Othello believes everything Iago says.

'Nay, lay thee down and roar,
For thou hast killed the sweetest innocent
That e'er did lift up eye.'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 3
Type of love? Platonic love/sororal love
Significance?: Emilia says this to Othello after he murders Desdemona. Her use of superlatives highlight her love and affection for Desdemona, and she has no sympathy for Othello for killing her. She had a deep-rooted love for her mistress.

'Help! Help, ho, help! O lady, speak again!
Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak!'

Where?: Act 5 Scene 2
Type of love?: Platonic love/sororal love
Significance?: Repetition of 'O' and the shortened sentences highlights her distress at the thought of her mistress' death.