These quotes are directly taken from the play Othello and have been analysed. Prominent symbols have been highlighted. Examples have been included showing how to intersect direct quotes with analysis, this will help students with literature essay writing skills. Studying from quotes directly help g...
Act 4
Scene i Quotes:
“Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm? / It is hypocrisy against the devil.” (Othello) - Iago
‘defends’ Desdemona by suggesting that her actions were innocent and not harmful.
“My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;” (Iago) - Referring to the fact that Iago’s
poisoning of Othello’s mind has been successful.
“My lord is fallen into an epilepsy.” (Iago) - This is in reference to an epileptic fit, but the
audience already knows Othello suffers from headaches and not epilepsy.
“If not, he foams at mouth and by and by / Breaks out to savage madness.” (Iago) - He tells
Cassio that he must allow this “epilepsy” to run its course or Othello will become violent.
“Savage madness”, shows that Iago is utilising racist stereotypes to describe Othello.
“Would you would bear your fortune like a man!” (Iago) - He chides Othello and tells him to
accept his fate. “Civil monster” is Iago warning Othello against being deceived, which is ironic.
“To lip a wanton in a secure couch / And to suppose her chaste!” (Iago) - He states that to
believe Desdemona is innocent is worse than not knowing the truth. Thus Othello should not
speak of her so kindly.
“And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.” (Iago) - Iago reveals he is a deceitful person
and indicates he is evil.
“A passion most unsuiting such a man-” (Iago) - Othello should not be acting with so much grief
and because of his position it is unsuitable.
“That dotes on Cassio; as ‘tis the strumpet’s plague / To beguile many and be beguiled by one.”
(Iago) - Iago speaks to the audience and reveals that Cassio will be talking about Bianca while
allowing Othello to believe he is referring to Desdemona.
“Alas, poor rogue! I think, i’faith, she loves me.” (Cassio) - Cassio is referring to Bianca and
shows he thinks poorly of her.
“She gives it out that you shall marry her. / Do you intend it?” (Iago) “Ha, ha, ha!” (Cassio) -
Again showing that he does not respect or take Bianca seriously. “This is the monkey’s own
giving out. She is persuaded I will marry her out of her own love and flattery, not out of my
promise.” (Cassio) - He continuously shames Bianca and this makes Othello increasingly
infuriated.
“This is some minx’s token, and I must take out the work? / There, give it your hobby-horse.”
(Bianca) - Complaining that Cassio gifted her another woman’s handkerchief. “Hobby-horse” - is
in reference to an ‘overused’ woman.
, “Hang her, I do but say what she is: so delicate with her needle.” (Othello) - Othello recognises
the handkerchief as the one he gifted Desdemona and becomes enraged. He thus states that
because of her deceitful actions he has adopted bad qualities.
“Do it not with poison; strangle her in her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated.” (Iago) - He
knows that the act of strangulation will haunt Othello and thus suggests that poison is too kind of
a death for her. She must be killed in the bed she “contaminated” or betrayed Othello in.
“Cousin, there’s fallen between him and my lord.” (Desdemona) - She asks her cousin Lodovico
to help mend Cassio and Othello’s relationship and this foreshadows Cassio’s death.
“Devil!” (Othello) [He strikes her.] - This violence is the result of a misunderstanding. Othello
believes Desdemona is flaunting her relationship with Cassio. “I have not deserved this.”
(Desdemona)
“My lord, this would not be believed in Venice.” (Lodovico) - The people of Venice would not
think Othello could treat his wife this way because of his noble reputation.
“If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears, / Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.”
(Othello) - He believes Desdemona is faking her sadness, with ‘crocodile tears’.
“I will not stay to offend you.” (Desdemona) - This reveals Desdemona’s true character as being
“an obedient lady.”
“- O, well-painted passion! -” (Othello) - He suggested that Desdemona is used to deceiving
people and this is ironic because he fails to recognise Iago’s deceptiveness.
“Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate / Call all-in-all sufficient? Is this the nature / Whom
passion could not shake?” (Lodovico) - Here the term “noble Moor” almost becomes Othello’s
title, which is possibly a romanticisation of his ‘exoticness’. Lodovico states that Othello’s
“passion” would not shake him at war, but when it concerns Desdemona he becomes illogical.
“Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?” (Lodovico) - As he questions whether Othello is
sane, being “not light of brain” has two implications. Either war or witchcraft has made him
insane and unstable.
“That stroke would prove the worst.” (Iago) - This foreshadows that Othello will not just slap her.
“I am sorry that I am deceived in him.” (Lodovico) - He apologises for believing Othello was
better than he is.
Scene ii Quotes:
“She is honest, / Lay down my soul at stake.” (Emilia) - Her desperate tone reveals her lack of
deception. Emilia wages her soul on the fact that Desdemona is honest, this is significant
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