Othello Quotes

'Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her'

Brabantio - accusing Othello of stealing his daughter + black magic, association of Othello with black magic and enchantment - typical connection made between people of colour and black magic - view society has of him

'If she in chains of magic were not bound'

Brabantio - accusing Othello of stealing his daughter + black magic, association of Othello with black magic and enchantment - typical connection made between people of colour and black magic - view society has of him

'Run her from her guardage to the sooty bosom

Of such a thing as thou - to fear, not delight'

Brabantio - accusing Othello of stealing his daughter + black magic, association of Othello with black magic and enchantment - typical connection made between people of colour and black magic - view society has of him

use of opposition - runs from family protection to Othello - dehumanising

'Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see.

She has deceived her father, and may thee.'

use of rhyming couplet foregrounds - Iago uses this quote against Desdemona as a person who cannot be trusted

'In following him, I follow but myself... I am not what I am'

Machiavelian character, deceives - Iago pretends to be loyal to Othello, Iago is not what he seems, appears to be - paradox as it is contradictory

'They kiss

And this, and this, the greatest discords be that e'er our hearts shall make.

Iago [aside] O you are well tuned now!

But I'll set down the pegs that make this music

As honest as I am.'

uses music metaphor, likens relationship to a well tuned instrument, he is going to untune it, ruin their relationship (instrument)

'Divinity of hell!

When devils will the blackest sins put on,

They do suggest at first with heavenly shows

As I do now.'

Iago saying cover up your wickedness with a presentation of goodness, hellish imagery, opposition between heavenly appearance and black sin, calling Hell as having wisdom - supportive of wickedness

'I'll pour this pestilence into his ear'

Iago saying he is going to corrupt Othello and his thoughts - metaphor, lies compared to poison, poison imagery, a calculated and precise move, dangerous and he understands that - wants to do damage

'My lord shall never rest,

I'll watch him tame and talk him out of patience,

His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift'

Desdemona on how she is going to try and get Cassio back into Othello' good books, hawking/falconry metaphor - idea that these birds would be watched all the time in order to tame them - suggest that Desdemona has the control, Desdemona is the hawker, Othello is bird that will be watched

'And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats

Th'immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit,

Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone.'

Othello about receiving news that Desdemona is cheating, saying his reputation is gone, he is no longer what he used to be, had to say goodbye to his old self, that soldier - use of 3rd person of himself, distancing himself from the old way he used to view himself - apostrophe to the (canons) engines - war being associated with Gods - everything he has asked to leave behind, an epic world, grand world he has had to leave behind

'Her name, that was as fresh

As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black

As mine own face.'

Othello: use of comparison to purity/virginity - Dian was goddess of virginity, metaphor - association with black being evil, dirty - Othello beginning to believe the binaries of evil with black people

'Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!

Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne

To tyrannous hate!

knealing and swearing aligence to vengence, taking vengence on Desdemona - saying vengence has to take over and love will be swapped for hate, crown changes to hate - antithesis, symbolic staging, metaphor, apostrophe - love has been ruler but now hate is the ruler

'Nose, ears and lips: is't possible? Confess? Handkerchief? O devil! (He falls into a trance)

use of stage movement/action - ends up falling into a fit contemplating Desdemona's infidelity - shows power of Iago as he is able to get Othello so worked up to the point of an epileptic fit

'Work on,

My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught'

Iago: says after quote above - deliberate, likening himself to a doctor, metaphor - doctor heals whereas what he tries to do is destroy - contrast

'O, ay; as sumer flies are in the shambles,

That quicken even with blowing'

Desdemona being compared to dirt, rotting, death, decay - maggots that turn into flies

'They eat us hungerly, and when they are full/ They belch us'

Emilia, metaphor of how men treat women - men presented as having agency and control, much more disgusted approach to men than Desdemona - more cynical

'Yet I'll not shed her blood,

Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow

And smooth as alabaster;

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

Justifying what he's done by saying he is saving other men from her, suggests he is doing this for the greater good, connotations to death , similie and sibilance

'Desdemona: A guiltless death I die.

Emilia: O, who hath done

This deed?

Desdemona: Nobody; I myself. Farewell

Commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell!'

Desdemona is blaming herself - obedient and subservient to Othello

'O cursed, cursed slave! Whip me, ye devils...

Blow me about in winds, roast me in sulphur'

Othello realises what he's done - anagorsis, hell metaphor/imagery - wants to be punished/tortuted - shows his guilt

'Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk

Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,

I took him by th'throat the curcumcised dog,

And smote him - thus!'

Moment before Othello stabs himself, turbaned Turk, he killed this man, Othello is likening himself to the man he killed for offending the state. Now he'll kill himself like the Turk - lack of self respect/ self esteem, realisation of what he has done and the gravity of it

'Myself will straight aboard, and to the state

This heavy act with heavy heart relate.'

End - rhyming couplet adds sense of closure and finality - order is restored and leave setting of murders and return to Venice