Shakespeare Othello Analysis tables PDF

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Shakespeare Othello Analysis tables ...

Description

LOVE Idea & Explanation

Quote

Strength of love

Fickleness of love

Techniques

Evaluative Analysis

Critical Perspective

OTHELLO - "But that I love the Metaphor gentle Desdemona, / I would not my unhoused free condition / Put into circumscription and confine / For the sea's worth. But look what lights come yond!" (1.2.25-29)

Illustrates the power of Othello’s love for Desdemona.

Elizabethan views on marriage and love. “A lover can never have enough of the embraces of his beloved”.

DESDEMONA - “The heavens forbid / But that our loves and comforts should increase, Even as our days do grow.” (2.1.193-195)

Emotive Language

Desdemona’s love for Othello is encapsulated through the use of emotive language

Elizabethan view on marriage and love “love is always growing or diminishing”.

DESDEMONA - “O, falsely, falsely murdered!” “A guiltless death I die.” “Nobody; I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord. O farewell!” (5.11 118, 123, 125-126)

Exclamation Truncated sentences

Exemplifies her loyalty and pure love for Othello until the end, pleading for Othello’s innocence.

Elizabethan view on marriage and love - “He who suffers an excess of passion is not suited to love”.

OTHELLO - This fellow’s of exceeding honesty … Haply for I am black … She’s gone, I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, that we can call these

Soliloquy Dramatic Irony Imagery Metaphoric Analogy

Othello transitions from talking of his love for Desdemona to now that he should loathe her.

Elizabethan societal views on marriage/love - “The man should fall in love with a woman of a higher social class” (unattainable).

Evoke that with each passing day, their love strenghens.

Talks highly of women (Desdemona) and then calls them ‘creatures’

delicate creatures ours and not their appetites! … When we do quicken. Look where she comes.

Love & Power

Nature of romantic Love

Othello describes the uncontrollable lust of women in “appetites”, despite being bound by marriage.

- Degradation of women

OTHELLO - “Fetch me the handkerchief. My mind misgives.” “The handkerchief!” “The handkerchief!” “The handkerchief!” “Zounds!”

Exclamation Truncated Sentences Repetition Profane language

The handkerchief acts as symbol of their love and the catalyst of the conflict between them. Initially Othello hides his anger, from addressing Desdemona with love to furiously shouting at her.

Elizabethan view “When love breaks down, it turns to passionate hatred”.

BRABANTIO - “Desdemona “is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted by spells…”

Exclamation

In this outburst of passion, Shakespeare uses diction to subtly comment on the sorcerous power of love.

Brabantio’s claim evokes negative connotations associated with witchcraft and black magic.

DESDEMONA - "That I did love the Moor to live with him, / My downright violence and storm of fortunes / May trumpet to the world" (1.3.248-250).

Metaphoric Symbolism

Metaphor "storm of fortunes" portrays her as fiercely independent.

Her elopement with Othello is "downright violence" in the sense that it has violated social norms; she has not let her father arrange her marriage or even asked his permission to marry.

OTHELLO -“It gives me wonder great as my content … If it were now to die, ‘twere now to be most happy; for I fear my soul hath her conte nt so absolute that not another

Metaphor

Shakespeare represents Othello’s undying devotion to Desdemona in his proclamation of love through the use of metaphors.

Elizabethan Era views “Love too good to be true”.

comfort like to this succeeds in unknown fate.” (2.1 175-184)

Nature of platonic love/loyalty

OTHELLO - “If after every tempest come such calms, may the wind blow until they have wakened death.” (2.1 177-8)

Metaphor

This metaphor conveys the nature of Othello and Desdemona’s romantic love, with Othello saying if after the storm, the calm would always come, he’d endure until “[the wind] have wakened death”.

OTHELLO - "She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, / And I loved her that she did pity them" (1.3.167-168).

Symbolism

Othello delivers a long speech clarifying that their relationship is respectful and mutual. It also represents love as healing, or as mutual sympathy in times of despair.

References the views of love

IAGO - “My lord, you know I love you. (3.3 118)

Biblical Allusion

Manipulation to gain Othello’s trust.

Expressing a contradictory societal view

Biblical reference to Peter denying Jesus three times.

Danger of love

IAGO - “My lord, I would I Irony, might entreat your honour to Contradiction scan this thing no farther. Leave it to time … as worthy cause I have to fear I am - and hold her free, I do beseech your honour.” (3.3 246-257)

Iago tells Othello not to think too hard about the infidelity nature of women, contradicting his previous statements.

Perception that women are disloyal

IAGO - "I would do much / To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio" (4.1.232-233).

Reconciliatory tone

Iago’s reconciliatory tone, aids in the manipulation of the characters around him.

Perception of jealousy being all encompassing.

OTHELLO - “I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this/ Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.” (5.2 420-421).

Biblical Allusion Symbolism

The kiss as a symbol of death

Shakespeare commonly portrays love as being destructive and remorseful.

Biblical reference to the Judas kiss

IAGO - “It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat that it feeds on.” (1. 3 167-169)

Imagery

Iago suggests the dangers of love, and its consequential emotion, jealousy, as a monster that “mock[s] the meat that it feeds on”, essentially saying that it feeds consumes the afflicted person.

OTHELLO - “Lie with her? Lie on her? We say lie on her when they believe her. Lie with her! Zounds, that’s foulsome! Handkerchief - confessions handkerchief! … Confess? Handkerchief? (4.1 35-41)

Truncated Sentences Rhetorical Questions Exclamations

Evokes Othello’s conflicting thoughts vividly

OTHELLO - “O fool, fool, fool! (5.2 319)

Truncated sentence Exclamation Repetition

Othello’s immense love for Desdemona is what turned itself into jealousy

The handkerchief which was a symbol of love is now the evidence of infidelity

His jealousy blinded him

Elizabethan views of the dangers of love

HATE Idea & Explanation

Quote

Techniques

Strength of Hate

IAGO - Though I do hate him as I do hell pains, Yet, for necessity of present life, I must show out a flag and sign of love— Which is indeed but sign. (1.1.171-174)

Symbolism Biblical Allusion Analogy

IAGO - I hate the Moor, And it Metaphoric is thought abroad, that 'twixt Imagery my sheets / 'Has done my office. I know not if 't be true, But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety. (1.3.429-433)

Hate & Manipulation

Evaluative Analysis

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Critical Perspective

Iago says his hatred of Othello is based on jealousy. Compares his hatred to hell

During this quote the audience is finally let in to Iago's true intentions with Othello. This is when we discover that Iago has no care in the world for Othello but he must act as though he respects him and loves him.

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Iago is paranoid. He is using this obvious racist fear (that a black man is a better lover than a white man and, therefore, able to seduce the white man's woman) as a means of rationalizing his revenge plot.

In this way, he is convincing the predominately white European audience to join him in his racial fear.

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“Stood Heir to the first. Now sir, be judge yourself whether I in any just term am affined to love the Moor” (1.1 38-40)

Emotive language Epithet

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Iago exemplifies his detest towards Othello through the extreme denial to have any true friendly relation with Othello, which encapsulates Iago’s manipulative nature.

Reflects the values of the Elizabethan Era, where other races were shunned.

IAGO - “Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe.”

Zoomorphic Imagery

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Metaphor

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Iago had warned Brabantio of Othello and Desdemona’s elopement, out of hatred for Othello. Iago tells Brabantio that Othello is the

Some of the images in his language are designed to provoke the racist response in the

Epithet

Nature of Hate

“black ram” is having sexual relations with his daughter “white ewe.

audience.

Prejudice, based on nothing more than his irrational hatred towards Moors.

Metaphor IAGO - “Now, I do love her Epithet too, Not out of absolute lust (though peradventure I stand Imagery accountant for as great a sin) But partly led to diet my revenge For that I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leaped into my seat—the thought whereof / Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards, And nothing can or shall content my soul” (2.1.313 onwards)

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But it is not Othello’s race that is causing this hatred. Iago does not himself know why he hates Othello. Confiding in the audience he at one point, early on in the play, tells us:

MONTANO - “And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor / Should hazard such a place as his own second / With one of an engraffed infirmity. It were an honest action to say so To the Moor.

Symbolism

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Iago speaks of loving Cassio in the same terms with which he often speaks of loving Othello. We suspect, then, that he hates Cassio, since he also hates Othello

Metaphor

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Brabantio expresses his distress after discovering Desdemona’s elopment

IAGO - Not I, for this fair island. I do love Cassio well and would do much / To cure him of this evil— "Help, Help!" within. But, hark! what noise? (2.3.144-152) Hate & Power

BRABANTIO - O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed

Racially charged comments, reflecting

my daughter? Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her! For I’ll refer me to all things of sense, If she in chains of magic were not bound, (2.1. 64) Danger of Hate

OTHELLO - “Ay, let her rot, and perish and be damned tonight, for she shall not live. No, my heart is turned to stone. I strike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a sweeter creature! She might lie by an emperor's side and command him tasks.” (4.1.200-204)

with the ‘moorish’ general Othello.

Metaphoric Imagery

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Iago transforms the passion of Othello's love into hatred.

OTHELLO - No, by my life Metaphor and soul: Send for the man, and ask him. Sweet soul, take heed, Take heed of perjury; thou art on thy deathbed. (5.3. 57)

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Othello has lost all hope, expressed by his despair

"Put out the light, and then put out the light" (V.2.7)

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At the beginning of this soliloquy, Othello is comparing Desdemona's life to the flame on a candle. He realizes he can snuff out her life just as he does the flame of a candle. Desdemona is personified as light ‘snuff out’ metaphoric euphemism for killing. - opposite to hell (juxtaposition) Light also acts as a symbol for the

Metaphor Personifcation Juxtaposition

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societal views of elizbethan era towards moors.

Elizbethan perception of the fragility of women

fragile life of Desdemona

FEAR Idea & Explanation

Quote

Techniques

Evaluative Analysis

Fear of the Other

OTHELLO - And of the cannibals that each other eat, the Anthropophagi\, and men whos heads do grow beneath their shoulders.” (I, iii, 142-4)

Imagery

IAGO - “I hate the Moor.” (I, iii, 368)

Derogatory exclamation

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Iago’s derogatory exclamation statement suggests his hate for Othello is simply a veil for his fear of Othello, and despite his lower status, there are rumours of Emilia and Othello’s affair

BRABANTIO - “thou hast enchanted her...if she in chains of magic were not bound.” (I, ii, 63-5)

Metaphor

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Brabantio accusations of magic through the metaphor highlights his fear of Othello, despite their good relationship and his knowledge of Othello’s fair nature

BRABANTIO - Fathers, from hence trust not your daughter’s minds by what you see them act. Is there not charms by which the property of youth and maidhook may be abused? (1.169-171)

Epithet Allusion

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‘Charms’ refers to black magic

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Critical Perspective

Othello talks of Desdemona’s “other” and how Desdemona was frightened by the stories. Grim imagery suggests fearful view of the “other” within Shakespeare’s time

Brabantio is saying that Desdemona has been bewitched and her mind is not her own.

Fear of rejection

BRABANTIO - Damned as thou Derogatory Tone art, thou hast enchanted her, for I’ll refer me to all things of sense, if she in chains of magic were not bound,” (1.2 63-65)

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Referring to black magic Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching his daughter to love him

Brabantio is either scared of losing his daughter, causing him to say Othello has bewitched her or he fears the Moor, as the stereotypes relate him with black magic and call him a devil.

THE DUKE OF VENICE - And, noble signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black. (1.3)

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black has a dual meaning - referring to Othello's race and also, according to usage of the time, meaning "ugly". The Duke says that if virtue can be beautiful, then Othello is indeed "fair", or beautiful, as he possesses goodness. However, because Othello is black, this can be interpreted as a backhanded compliment; Othello is more fair (just, gentlemanly) than those of his race.

Race is a pervasive theme in the play, as prejudice is pervasive in Venice. Othello is able to rise above the stereotypes, but he is never able to forget what others may feel about him.

Hydra (greek mythology) 9 heads Cassio does not think Othello will be able to look past this (Cassio’s behaviour while drunk)

Cassio says that even if he had as many heads as a hydra to plead his case, Othello’s one reply would silence each one of them. He does not think Othello will reinstate him.

I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. (2.3 276-278)

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Bestial Imagery

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JEALOUSY Idea & Explanation

Quote

Techniques

Strength Of Jealousy

OTHELLO - Think'st thou I'd Metaphor make a life of jealousy, To Personification follow still the changes of the moon With fresh suspicions? No. To be once in doubt / Is once to be resolved. Exchange me for a goat, When I shall turn the business of my soul / To such exsufflicate and blown surmises, Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous / To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well. Where virtue is, these are more virtuous. Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw / The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt, For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago; I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; And on the proof, there is no more but this: Away at once with love or

Evaluative Analysis

Critical Perspective

Here, Othello claims that he won't be destroyed by jealousy. He reasons that Desdemona "had eyes, and chose [him]" despite, presumably, the fact that he is black.

Commentary on his passionate and jealous outbursts, symbolic of the stereotypical attacks on his moorish background.

But, then, Othello lets slip that he may in fact be a bit more jealous and suspicious of his wife than he lets on – he says he wants some "proof" of Desdemona's infidelity.

jealousy. (3.3.207-223)

Fickleness Of Jealousy

Nature of Jealousy

Analogy OTHELLO Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely, but too well; Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme; (5.2.402-406)

Othello begs to be spoken of as a man so "perplex'd" that he didn't know what he was doing when he accused Desdemona of infidelity and murdered her. He doesn't want to be remembered as a man who was "easily jealous."

IAGO Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. This may do something. (3.3.370-372)

Simile

Iago realizes that real proof of Desdemona's supposed infidelity is not necessary because mere suspicion is enough to feed Othello's jealousy.

EMILIA - But jealous souls will not be answered so. They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster Begot upon itself, born on itself. (III.iv.)

Symbolism

Trifles light as air Are to the jealous

Biblical Symbolism Analogy

Even though the handkerchief is a mere "trifle, light as air," once Othello sees it in another man's possession, he'll think he has solid proof that Desdemona is unfaithful. Emilia says these words to Desdemona in an attempt to explain the irrational nature of jealousy. Emilia signals the circularity of this logic with the confounding image of jealousy as a monster that gives birth to itself. Emilia’s image recalls Iago’s “green-eyed monster.” Iago delivers these lines in a short soliloquy where he informs the

It also recalls the ancient symbol of the ouroboros, which depicts a snake swallowing its own tail and therefore stuck in a self-perpetuating loop.

Here, the handkerchief is the “trifle light as air.” In itself the

confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. (III.iii.)

audience of his plan to plant Desdemona’s handkerchief in Cassio’s room.

Symbolism EMILIA - Pray heaven it be state-matters, as you think, and no conception / nor no jealous toy concerning you.

Emilia understands the nature of jealousy, outlining that jealous husbands like Othello never really need any cause to be jealous – they just are jealous.

handkerchief signifies nothing. However, knowing that Othello’s jealousy has already ramped up, Iago predicts that he will overestimate the handkerchief’s significance, taking it as a “proof of holy writ”—that is, as evidence direct from the Bible.

DESDEMONA - Alas the day, I never gave him cause!

EMILIA - But jealous souls will not be answered so. They are not ...