William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – some key quotations from Act 1

1. The first exchange of the play centres on a series of extra-metrical profanities from Roderigo and Iago
—‘Tush’, ‘Sblood’—which only appear in the Quarto edition of the play. In the official Folio edition,
published in 1623 after Shakespeare was dead, these oaths were removed—in fact, more than fifty
other instances of profanity were deleted in the Folio or replaced with less offensive words. This is
perhaps because of the 1606 Act of Abuses which prohibited profanity and swearing on stage, forcing
the editor of the Folio edition to edit Shakespeare’s words. This also highlights how Shakespeare’s
original depiction of Iago would have been particularly shocking to contemporary audiences. As the
play goes on, the juxtaposition between Iago’s sacrilegious oaths in his soliloquys or private speeches
with Roderigo and his more formal verse when speaking with Othello or Desdemona, highlights the
duplicity of his nature.

2. Iago shows professional jealousy in the way that he speaks of Michael Cassio who has been promoted
the position of Othello’s lieutenant in preference to him. Evidence of this is seen when he describes
Cassio as:
‘A fellow […] that never set a squadron in a field
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster.’
The implication of Iago’s epithet ‘spinster’ here is that Cassio is as ill-suited to the battlefield as an
older and unmarried woman. He is equally dismissive of him when he describes him as a ‘counter-
caster’ and of his experience as being ‘mere prattle without practice’ but his words to Roderigo sound
like the jaundiced views of a man who is unhappy at the fact that he was overlooked by Othello. [Act 1
scene i]

3. Iago shows his duplicitous nature when he assures Roderigo that he has no reason to love the Moor by
saying:
‘I follow him to serve my turn upon him
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed.’
Some commentators on the play have seen in these lines evidence that Shakespeare presents Iago as a
ruthlessly Machiavellian character who is prepared cynically to exploit those around him to suit his
own ends. The irony here, however, is that Roderigo who might be thought of as Iago’s master in the
sense that he is paying money to Iago in the hope of winning Desdemona’s love, fails to appreciate the
fact that Iago is merely exploiting him too. [Act 1 scene i]

4. The theme of appearance and reality is presented early in the play when Iago states that he will not
allow his ‘outward action’ to ‘demonstrate / The native act and figure of [his] heart’ because at such
time he might as well:
‘…wear [his] heart upon his sleeve
For daws to peck at.’
In making this admission, Iago seems to be pointing to the Janus-like or two-faced nature of his
personality which will rely on skilful dissembling to achieve his own ends. [Act 1 scene i]

5. Iago shows his propensity for stirring up agitation when he urges Roderigo to call out to Senator
Brabantio with the news that his daughter has eloped with Othello:
‘Call up her father:

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 Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight […]
And though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies…’
The series of active verbs used in succession here lend urgency to his instructions as he spurs Roderigo
into action. Furthermore, the imagery of ‘poison’ and ‘plague’ that he uses in relation to Brabantio
shows how his plan plays on the idea that whilst Brabantio may accept Othello as a black man in the
public sphere to be a general for the Venetian state, he will never accept him in the private sphere as a
suitable husband for his daughter on account of his racial prejudice. [Act 1 scene i]

6. Iago can be seen as a character who cynically plays on the racial prejudices of Brabantio in the
zoomorphic metaphors he calls out whilst remaining in the shadows:
‘Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe.’
It can be seen here how Iago deliberately draws on animalistic imagery to suggest that there is
something sub-human and even bestial about Othello who is compared to a lusty ‘black ram’ engaged
in an act of copulation which robs Brabantio’s ‘white ewe’ of her innocence and purity which is
symbolised through the reference to whiteness. [Act 1 scene i]

7. Iago is seen to play on stereotypical associations between blackness and the devil when he says:
‘The devil will make a grandsire of you.’ [Act 1 scene i]

8. Iago shows that he is a shrewd psychological manipulator through the way in which he uses vividly
evocative language to play on Brabantio’s worst fears and reduce the sanctimony of Othello’s marriage
to Desdemona to the level of a basely physical act:
‘…your daughter and the Moor
Are now making the beast with two backs.’
Iago plays on a stereotype of a black man, which had some currency in the renaissance world of Venice
where the play is set, as a figure capable of lascivious desire. [Act 1 scene i]

9. Shakespeare depicts Iago’s duplicitous nature when he leaves Roderigo to face Brabantio;
‘Yet, for necessity of present life,
I must show out a flag and sign of love.’ [Act 1 scene i]
He claims that he must pretend to show loyalty to Othello but acts as a Judas-like figure when he
instructs Roderigo how to lead Brabantio to him:
‘Lead to the Sagittary the raised search,
And there I will be with him.’ [Act 1 scene i]

10. Iago shows his capacity for dissembling when he feigns anger at the way in which Roderigo has
spoken of Othello and stoked up trouble for him:
‘Nine or ten times
I thought to have yerked him, under the ribs.’ [Act 1 scene ii]
Othello, on the other hand, shows a calm dignity when he says:
‘’Tis better as it is.’ [Act 1 scene ii]

11. Iago suggests that he should go inside when he thinks that he sees a party led by Brabantio arriving
but Othello shows his openness when he says:
‘Not I; I must be found.

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 My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly.’ [Act 1 scene ii]

12. Othello shows his calm dignity when he is confronted by Roderigo and Brabantio:
‘Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.’ [Act 1 scene ii]
His words here might even be thought of as having echoes of the words of Jesus in the Garden of
Gethsemane after he has been betrayed by Judas and his disciple Peter cuts off the ear of a Roman
soldier. ‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, ‘for all who draw the
sword will die by the sword.’

13. Brabantio refuses to accept that his daughter Desdemona can willingly have married Othello. He
therefore wonders with what ‘foul charms’ [he has] ‘abused her delicate youth.’ His assumption here
is that Othello must have used black magic to win the love of his daughter. [Act 1 scene ii]

14. Othello show his openness to be questioned and the fact that he has nothing to hide when he says:
‘Where will you that I go
To answer this your charge?’ [Act 1 scene ii]

15. Shakespeare emphasises how Othello is seen to be valued by the Venetian state for his military
prowess as is evidenced when the Duke says:
‘Valiant Othello we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

16. Brabantio characterises Othello as a pagan and claims that he must have used drugs or black magic to
trick Desdemona into marrying him:
‘She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

17. Despite Othello’s claim to be ‘rude’ in his speech, it can be seen that he exhibits both considerable
lyricism and a calm dignity when he answers Brabantio’s charge by saying:
‘I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole course of love: what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic […]
I won his daughter.’ [Act 1 scene iii]
In reference to his language, the critic Wilson Knight has described this language as ‘Othello music’
and it can be seen that the way in which Shakespeare characterises Othello by presenting him speaking
with such eloquence subverts the negative stereotype that Brabantio has of him as an uncivilised
barbarian.

18. Othello shows his open and honest nature when he suggests that Desdemona should speak for herself
about how he won her love:
‘I do beseech you
Send for the lady to the Sagittary
And let her speak of me before her father.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

19. Othello suggests that it is Desdemona’s compassionate nature which caused her to fall in love with him
rather than the black magic which Brabantio suggests:

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 ‘She loved me for the dangers I had passed
And I loved her that she did pity them
This only is the witchcraft I have used.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

20. Forced to accept that Desdemona has married Othello of her own accord, Brabantio cautions him:
‘Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father and may thee.’
His words here may in some measure be thought of as foreshadowing future events in the play for
whilst Desdemona does not in fact deceive Othello, his tragedy stems from the fact that Iago plays on
his insecurities to convince him that he has been deceived.

21. Iago typically speaks of Othello in stereotypical terms when he tries to convince Roderigo that he can
win Desdemona’s love for him:
‘These Moors are changeable in their wills […]
The food that to him now is a luscious as locusts
Shall be to him shortly as acerb as the coloquintida.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

22. Iago characterises the marriage between Othello and Desdemona as:
‘A frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a super-subtle Venetian.’ [Act 1 scene iii]
Interestingly, the word ‘subtle’ that Iago uses here carried with it connotations of being sophisticated
but in the rather negative way of having the capacity to deceive.

23. Iago shows no scruples about exploiting Roderigo for his own financial gain when he says:
‘Thus do I ever make my fool my purse.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

24. Iago shows that he may have more than one motivation for wishing to harm Othello when he says in a
soliloquy:
‘I hate the Moor,
And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets
He’s done my office.’ [Act 1 scene iii]

25. Iago scheming nature is seen his soliloquy when he begins to improvise a plan to exact ‘revenge’ upon
Michael Cassio and Othello:
‘Let me see now;
To get his place and plume up my will
In double knavery. How? How?’ [Act 1 scene iii]
Famously, Samuel Taylor Coleridge has described his behaviour as ‘the motive-hunting of motiveless
malignity’ since Othello has no real reason to seek vengeance against either of these characters and
only seeks his own self-advancement.

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 William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – some key quotations from Act 2

26. Iago’s exchange with Desdemona in Act 2, Scene 1 shows him winning an ascendancy over others
through his improvising skills and his fearless wit. In Desdemona’s response to his jokes she switches
from verse to prose to point out that his ‘fond paradoxes’ will ‘make fools laugh i’th’ alehouse’—
highlighting her acknowledgment of his lower status. Indeed, she picks up on this when she remarks
to Emilia that he is a ‘profane and liberal counsellor’. The juxtaposition between the connotations of
him being irreverent and licentious contained in the pre-modifying adjectives ‘profane’ and ‘liberal’
and the idea of him as a ‘counsellor’ add to the clear sense of the Venetian class divide.

27. Shakespeare presents Iago as a character who seems to improvise his plans to cause harm to others as
is seen when he notes how Cassio takes Desdemona by the palm when he greets her as she arrives in
Cyprus and says:
‘With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.’ [Act 2 scene i]
The imagery here is of Iago as a predatory spider anticipating Cassio’s downfall. It is also significant
that in this soliloquy, Iago shifts into a prove that contrasts with the verse with which he conversed
with Desdemona. This shift seems to give an apparent intimacy in his exchange with the audience as
he moves out of the platea and into the locus.

28. Seeing how Othello greets Desdemona warmly when she arrives in Cyprus, Iago comments in an
aside:
‘O, you are well tuned now!
But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music,
As honest as I am.’ [Act 2 scene i]
The metaphorical of setting ‘down the pegs’ portrays them as a musical instrument who he will
detune, imagery which highlights Iago’s apparent relish at creating dissonance and disharmony in
their marriage.

29. It can be seen that there is some ambiguity to Iago motives in wanting to exact ‘revenge’ on Othello in
his soliloquy when he says:
‘…I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leapt into my seat, the thought whereof
Doth like a mineral gnaw my inwards.’ [Act 2 scene i]
There is, however, no evidence from the play to support this idea that Iago puts forward even though
he speaks of wanting to be evened with Othello:
‘Wife for wife.’ [Act 2 scene i]

30. Iago speaks of his desire to:

‘Put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgement cannot cure.’ [Act 2 scene i]

31. Iago’s duplicitous nature is pointed to when he says that he will:

‘Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me
For making him egregiously an ass,’ [Act 2 scene i]
thereby showing his intention to win Othello’s confidence whilst at the same time acting against
him.’
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32. Act 2 Scene 3 begins with Othello metaphorically comparing the consummation of his marriage with
Desdemona with a financial transaction:
‘The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue
That profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you.’

This rhyming couplet perhaps hints at the gender inequality so evident in the play with its figurative
reduction of Desdemona to a ripe fruit Othello has purchased, with its implication that she is defined
by her fertility, her ability to bear children and thereby provide ‘profit’ both in terms of Othello’s
sexual pleasure and in terms of her bringing ‘forth fruit’—having children.

33. Cassio shows that he has a weakness that Iago can use against him when he says:
‘I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking.’ [Act 2 scene iii]

34. Montano, the governor of Cyprus, is duped into believing that Cassio is a man who habitually
becomes drunk:
‘…tis great pity that the noble Moor
Should hazard such a place as his own second
With one on an ingraft infirmity.’ [ Act 2 scene iii]

35. Note the importance of reputation in the play in Othello’s metaphors when speaking with Cassio about
his disgrace:
‘What’s the matter
That you unlace your reputation thus
And spend your rich opinion for the name
Of a night-brawler?’
The figurative idea of Cassio having ‘unlace[d]’ his reputation compares what he has done to the
loosening of purse strings, with this suggestion then furthered when the metaphor is extended into the
idea of him spending his ‘rich opinion’. This clearly engages with the importance of reputation in
Renaissance Venice—something which becomes more significant as the play goes on and culminates in
Othello’s own final attempt to reclaim his reputation before committing suicide.

36. After Cassio has been duped into getting into a drunken quarrel with Roderigo, Iago shows his
disingenuous nature in pretending to be reluctant to speak ill of Cassio when he says:
‘I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio.’ [Act 2 scene iii]
Ironically, the way in which these lines are structured emphasises the name of Michael Cassio whose
guilt Iago is purportedly seeking to play down.

37. Othello takes a decision to demote Michael Cassio without realising that Iago is the man who has
engineered his downfall:
‘I know, Iago
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee,
But never more be an officer of mine.’ [Act 2 scene iii]

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38. Shakespeare appears to emphasise the separation of the domestic sphere from the masculine world of
the Venetian soldiers when Othello responds to Desdemona coming onstage and asking about Cassio
with: ‘All’s well now, sweeting, / Come away to bed’.

39. Iago suggests that the best way for Cassio to influence Othello to restore him to his position as his
lieutenant will be through the influence of Desdemona:
‘Our general’s wife is now the general.’ [Act 2 scene iii]
Underpinning this comment, however, is Iago’s intention to make Othello jealous by creating a
situation in which Desdemona and Cassio can be seen together.

40. Another important line emphasising the importance of masculine honour in Venetian society is when
Cassio, in response to his dismissal by Othello shifts from the formal verse in which he has previously
conversed into prose. He says:

‘Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation, I have lost the immortal part
of myself – and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation.’

The repetition of ‘reputation’ here is significant as it is transformed into some intrinsic part of himself.
Indeed, the figurative idea of his ‘reputation’ as the ‘immortal part’ of him, leaving only what is
‘bestial’ metaphorically aligns his reputation with his soul. This potentially transgressive suggestion,
making honour seem more important even than morality or religion, highlights the dysfunctional
nature of the masculine world in which the play is set. Moreover, given how, in Shakespeare’s
performances actors were only given their own lines and the two or three cue words from the
preceding speech, and given that plays were rehearsed only once or twice before performance, the
repetition of ‘reputation’ would, as Iago’s cue, cause the actor playing the latter character to interrupt
Cassio’s lament, adding to the disorder and confusion of the scene.

41. Iago advises Cassio that Desdemona will be sympathetic to his plight when he says:
‘Confess yourself freely to her, importune her help to put you in your place again. She is of so
free, so kind, so apt, so blest a disposition, that she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do
more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to
splinter – and my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow
stronger than it was before.’ [Act 2 scene iii]
The extended metaphor carries the suggestion of Desdemona healing Cassio, as if his dishonour were a
‘broken’ limb which could be splinted by her. The irony, of course, is that Iago’s calculating cynicism is
neatly encapsulated within these lines through the cataloguing of Desdemona’s positive qualities
which he plans to use against her. His calculation is that the more that she pleads for Cassio, the more
suspicious and jealous that Othello will become.

42. Iago’s malevolence towards Cassio, Desdemona and Othello is seen when he says:
‘Whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes,
And she pleads for him strongly to the Moor
I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear
That she repeals him for her body’s lust.’ [Act 2 scene iii]
The imagery which Iago draws on here of ‘pestilence’ or plague makes clear his intent to poison
Othello’s mind with corrupt thoughts centring on the false idea that Desdemona has lascivious desires
for Cassio and that it is these desires which drive forward her actions in pleading for him.

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43. Shakespeare presents Iago structuring his thoughts in an antithetical way to illustrate how, through his
machinations, he plans to create a contrast between appearance and reality in order to achieve his own
malevolent ends. This is seen when he speaks of how Desdemona will plead for Cassio and how:
‘…by how much she strives to do him good,
She shall undo her credit with the Moor.’ [Act 2 scene iii]

44. Iago uses colour imagery which reflects the discrepancy between appearance and reality when he
speaks of his intention to turn Desdemona’s:
‘…virtue into pitch,
And out of her goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all.’ [Act 2 scene iii]

Note the two metaphors here—what do they suggest?

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 William Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – some key quotations from Act 3

45. Having arranged for Michael Cassio to seek Desdemona’s help in regaining his position as Othello’s
lieutenant, Iago shows his skill at psychological manipulation when he says:
‘Ha! I like not that.’ [Act 3 scene ii]
as Cassio hurriedly leaves Desdemona. His calculation is that this remark will intrigue Othello so that
he presses him for more information about what it is that Iago does not like therefore turning Iago into
the apparently reluctant witness against Michael Cassio as is seen when he says:
‘That [Michael Cassio] would steal away so guilty-like
Seeing you coming.’ [Act 3 scene ii]
Iago’s mastery at the art of insinuation is seen in the way that he skilfully weaves the concept of guilt
into his conversation to suggest that Cassio’s behaviour is suspicious.

46. Desdemona unwittingly begins to become the author of her own misfortune as she pleads repeatedly
for the restoration of Michael Cassio to the position of Othello’s lieutenant asking when Othello plans
to make this possible:
‘Why, then, tomorrow night, or Tuesday morn,
Or Tuesday noon, or night; or Wednesday morn.
I prithee name the time, but let it not
Exceed three days.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

47. Iago insinuates that there is reason for Othello to be suspicious of Michael Cassio when he says:
‘Did Michael Cassio
When you wooed my lady, know of your love?’ [Act 3 scene iii]

48. Iago ironically seems to be sympathetic to Othello when he cautions him:

‘O beware, my lord, of jealousy:
It is a green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

49. Othello initially seems to be rational when Iago tries to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind:
‘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 jealousy!’ [Act 3 scene iii]

50. Shakespeare presents Iago trying to build a sense of insecurity in Othello when he says:
‘She did deceive her father, marrying you;
And when she seemed to shake and fear your looks
She loved them most.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

51. Iago plays the part of a person who is the reluctant bearer of bad news when he says:
‘I humbly do beseech you of your pardon
For too much loving you.’ [Act 3 scene iii]
and with dramatic irony Othello says:
‘I am bound to thee forever.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

52. An indication of Othello’s sense of growing jealousy towards Desdemona is seen when he says:
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 ‘If I do prove her haggard
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings
I’d whistle her off and let her down the wind
To prey to fortune.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

53. Othello’s language seems to change under the influence of Iago and it can be seen that he uses
animalistic imagery to refer to his feelings about Desdemona when he says:
‘I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

54. When, later in the scene, he admits he could have gone on being happy so long as he did not know that
Desdemona had betrayed him, he does not just say ‘I had been happy if I had nothing known’; instead
Shakespeare frames that thought in a darkly sexual fantasy:

I had been happy if the general camp,

Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So, I had not known.
(Act 3.3: 348-350)

The visceral imagining of the whole army raping Desdemona is revolting, of course. Othello’s idea of
Desdemona’s ‘sweet body’ as something—some thing—to be ‘tasted’ is also appalling, but shameful in
a different way. Yet perhaps the worst part of this image comes in the reference to it being ‘Pioneers
and all’ that could use her in this way. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, pioneers were the
lowest type of soldier and were responsible for heavy duty tasks like digging roads, trenches and
latrines—or digging mines and countermines. In this conceit, therefore, Othello is not only thinking of
Desdemona’s ‘sweet body’ as a thing to be ‘tasted’ or relished by some sexual gourmet, he is thinking
of it as something to be mined.

55. Iago enlists the help of his wife Emilia in his plot against Othello and evidence of her initial willingness
to be used as a pawn against Othello is seen when she retrieves Othello’s handkerchief after
Desdemona has dropped it and says:
‘I am glad I have found this napkin:
This was her first remembrance from the Moor.
My wayward husband hath a hundred times
Wooed me to steal it.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

56. Iago can be seen to begin to put his plan to incriminate Desdemona into action when he says:
‘I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.’ [Act 3 scene iii]
His intention is to furnish Othello of seemingly ‘ocular proof’ that his wife has entered into an
adulterous relationship with Michael Cassio.

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57. Shakespeare shows how Othello’s mind is infected by jealousy when he presents him vacillating
between feelings of trust and doubt about Desdemona:
‘I think my wife be honest, and think she is not.’ [Act 3 scene iii]

58. We see the extent to which Othello feels tortured by his feelings of jealousy about Desdemona when he
makes the pronouncement:
‘Her name, that was as fresh
As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black
As mine own face.’ [Act 3 scene iii]
The colour imagery that it used here associates blackness with corruption and implies that
Desdemona’s outward appearance of whiteness and purity does not truly denote her inner being.

59. The ensuing dialogue with Desdemona—she lying about the handkerchief and crazily resuming her
plea for Cassio, while he says almost nothing but ‘handkerchief’—is then brilliantly conceived:

OTH. Fetch me the handkerchief, my mind misgives.

DES. Come, come;
You’ll never meet a more sufficient man.
OTH. The handkerchief!
DES. I pray talk me of Cassio
OTH. The handkerchief!
DES. A man that all his time
Has founded his good fortunes on your love,
Shar’d dangers with you—
OTH. The handkerchief!
(Act 3.4:88-98)

There is something contrapuntal about this exchange, with Desdemona rhythmically completing the
iambic lines of Othello’s blank verse but talking on an entirely different topic—one which, ironically
enough, only enrages her husband further. This kind of writing, by quasi-musical, quasi magical means,
achieves a rawness of passion, a conflict between innocently suicidal enquiry and a rage almost beyond
words, that is practically irreconcilable with our image of Othello’s love set up in the opening Acts.

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 Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – some key quotations from Acts 4 & 5
60. Iago dishonestly claims that Desdemona passed the handkerchief that he gave her as a love token to
Michael Cassio and that Cassio in turn has passed the handkerchief to Bianca:
‘She gave it him and he hath given it to his whore.’ [Act 4 scene i]

61. The extent to which Othello is in Iago’s thrall is seen when Othello asks:
‘How shall I murder her, Iago?’ [Act 4 scene i]

62. Othello, who had once been a character who was notable for his calm dignity whilst in Venice, is seen
to become a character who is moved to violence when he slaps Desdemona:
Desdemona: ‘I have not deserved this’
Lodovico: ‘My lord, this would not be believed in Venice
Though I should swear I saw’t.’ [Act 4 scene i]

63. Emilia feels a sense of outrage at the way in which Desdemona finds her virtue questioned:
‘Hath she forsook so many noble matches,
Her father, and her country, and her friends,
To be called a whore?’ [Act 4 scene ii]

64. When asked by Emilia who hurt her, Desdemona shows her passivity when she says:
‘Nobody; I myself.’ [Act 5 scene ii]

65. Othello initially shows no remorse for killing Desdemona:

‘She’s like a liar gone to burning hell:
‘twas I that killed her.’ [Act 5 scene ii]

66. Emilia reveals her own part in helping to steal Othello’s handkerchief from Desdemona:
‘…that handkerchief thou speak’st of
I found by fortune and did give my husband.’ [Act 5 scene ii]
Her revelation that Iago begged her to steal it provides evidence of the way in which he has deceived
Othello.

67. Yet it is Othello’s final speech in Act Five Scene Two which really underlines the apparent
contradictions present within his character for there is a real resemblance here to his speech to the
Senate at the outset. However, while it repeats the point made in Act 1 Scene 2 about the respect he has
won by ‘My services which I have done the signiory,’ important differences arise from the fact that he
cannot now allow himself to speak of ‘My parts, my title, and my perfect soul’. Instead, he compares
himself to Judas (‘the base Indian’) who ‘threw a pearl away / Richer than all his tribe’. He claims not
to be jealous except when ‘wrought’. He cannot confess to weeping without explaining that it is not his
usual practice. And he ends with a recollection of one more notable service to the state. We see here a
man who is capricious and human, the victim of long habit and wanting, whose love for his wife drove
him to murder.
It is perhaps fitting then, that Othello ends his life with a plea for merciful interpretation,
desperately struggling to rescue and preserve a sense of himself as truly ‘noble’ in his relationship with
his wife, pronouncing himself: ‘one that loved not wisely, but too well’, ‘one not easily jealous’, an
‘honourable murderer, if you will’. Here Shakespeare brings the contradictions within Othello’s love to
the fore, emphasising how the ‘Chaos’ he imagined as the consequence of ceasing to love Desdemona
comes upon him precisely because of his submission to that love.
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