Othello Notes
Othello Study Notes
Theme | Character | Dramatic Technique/s | Love | Othello * Love for Des combined with insecurity, resulting from his permanent outsider status “black/As mine own face”, makes him susceptible to Iago’s manipulation. * Pure, moral, loving at beginning, juxtaposing ferocity at end * Truly in love with Des that is his downfall * Overcome by grief when he is made aware of her innocence. Wants to die “’tis happiness to die”. * Kills himself for her, just as she died for himIago * Inability to comprehend love “it is merely a lust of the blood”. * Crude vulgarity, no respect for women “thou shalt enjoy her” (in prose to emphasise this lack of civility and high moral standard)Desdemona * Loves Othello , her only downfall being her naivety of the ‘monster’ consuming her love * Portrayed as an idealistic model of Elizabethan fidelity * Dies for him by denying he killed her | * Foreshadows Othello’s downfall “when I love thee not/ Chaos is come again”, whilst using the surrounding characters to establish his love for Desdemona. * Displayed in handkerchief, initially used by Shakespeare to represent Othello’s love for Desdemona, before becoming perverted by Iago into a symbol of marital fidelity; providing the “ocular proof”, in Othello’s mind, of Desdemona’s depravity. * “Is of a constant, loving, noble nature” * Shakespeare shows his deep emotion on being reunited with her at beginning “It gives me wonder great as my content/ To see you here before me” * Foreshadowing “If it were now to die,/ ‘Twere now to be most happy * “when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again”- syntax places ‘chaos’ on its own line to emphasise the foreshadowing * Abbreviation and repetition emphasise affection and finality “Oh Desdemon! dead Desdemon! dead!” * Third person emphasises his acute awareness of his changed morality at the hands of Iago’s manipulation “That’s he that was Othello.”, “perplexed in the extreme” *
Theme | Character | Dramatic Technique/s | Love | Othello * Love for Des combined with insecurity, resulting from his permanent outsider status “black/As mine own face”, makes him susceptible to Iago’s manipulation. * Pure, moral, loving at beginning, juxtaposing ferocity at end * Truly in love with Des that is his downfall * Overcome by grief when he is made aware of her innocence. Wants to die “’tis happiness to die”. * Kills himself for her, just as she died for himIago * Inability to comprehend love “it is merely a lust of the blood”. * Crude vulgarity, no respect for women “thou shalt enjoy her” (in prose to emphasise this lack of civility and high moral standard)Desdemona * Loves Othello , her only downfall being her naivety of the ‘monster’ consuming her love * Portrayed as an idealistic model of Elizabethan fidelity * Dies for him by denying he killed her | * Foreshadows Othello’s downfall “when I love thee not/ Chaos is come again”, whilst using the surrounding characters to establish his love for Desdemona. * Displayed in handkerchief, initially used by Shakespeare to represent Othello’s love for Desdemona, before becoming perverted by Iago into a symbol of marital fidelity; providing the “ocular proof”, in Othello’s mind, of Desdemona’s depravity. * “Is of a constant, loving, noble nature” * Shakespeare shows his deep emotion on being reunited with her at beginning “It gives me wonder great as my content/ To see you here before me” * Foreshadowing “If it were now to die,/ ‘Twere now to be most happy * “when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again”- syntax places ‘chaos’ on its own line to emphasise the foreshadowing * Abbreviation and repetition emphasise affection and finality “Oh Desdemon! dead Desdemon! dead!” * Third person emphasises his acute awareness of his changed morality at the hands of Iago’s manipulation “That’s he that was Othello.”, “perplexed in the extreme” *