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Othello

Quotes

The 26 passages that decide the work, each with who speaks, the linked themes and characters, and an explanation.

Act I: Venice, the Night Accusation and the Senate's Judgment

... I am not what I am.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Roderigo, Othello
Themes
Truth and LiesEnvy
Devices
Paradox

Explanation and analysis

In the street, at night, before Brabantio's house, Iago explains to Roderigo why he serves Othello: out of calculation, not loyalty. He was passed over for the post of lieutenant, which Othello gave to Cassio, and says that if his outward acts showed the heart he has within, he would soon hand it over to the crows to be pecked at. He closes the argument with the formula above. The sentence can be read as the truth about him in the form of a riddle: what Iago seems to be, an obedient ensign, is not what he is.

What gives weight to the sentence is who hears it. Iago says it to Roderigo, his instrument, before putting on any mask before Othello or Brabantio. The audience leaves the first scene knowing that his word is not worth what it says, and spends the whole play watching the others believe him. The next action is already the sentence put into practice: Iago has Roderigo wake Brabantio with shouts and withdraws before the father returns, so as not to be found there.

The formula touches the theme of truth and lie, and also the resentment that the play treats as envy, born of a post that Iago judges his own. In Act III, he tells Othello, as wisdom, that a man should be what he seems. One can read the rest of the work as the practice of a sentence that asserts the opposite: whoever declares that he is not what he is ends up appearing, to others, as honest.

An old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Brabantio, Othello, Desdemona, Roderigo
Themes
Prejudice
Symbols
The green-eyed monster
Devices
Metaphor, Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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She loved me for the dangers I had passed, / And I loved her that she did pity them.
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Desdemona, Brabantio
Themes
Love
Devices
Parallelism, Pun

Explanation and analysis

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My noble father, / I do perceive here a divided duty.
Speaker
Desdemona
Characters
Desdemona, Brabantio, Othello
Themes
Love

Explanation and analysis

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I have 't. It is engendered. Hell and night / Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Othello, Roderigo
Themes
Truth and Lies
Symbols
The green-eyed monster
Devices
Soliloquy, Metaphor, Rhyming couplet

Explanation and analysis

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Act II: Cyprus, the Storm and Cassio's Fall

If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit, / The one's for use, the other useth it.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Desdemona, Emilia
Themes
Truth and Lies
Devices
Rhyming couplet, Pun

Explanation and analysis

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If it were now to die, / 'Twere now to be most happy; for I fear
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Desdemona
Themes
Love
Devices
Foreshadowing, Hyperbole

Explanation and analysis

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O, you are well tuned now! / But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, / As honest as I am.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Othello, Desdemona
Themes
Truth and LiesLove
Devices
Aside, Metaphor, Irony

Explanation and analysis

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Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation!
Speaker
Cassio
Characters
Cassio, Iago, Othello
Themes
Honor and Reputation
Devices
Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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And out of her own goodness make the net / That shall enmesh them all.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Cassio, Desdemona, Othello
Themes
Truth and LiesHonor and Reputation
Devices
Soliloquy, Metaphor

Explanation and analysis

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Act III: The temptation and the handkerchief

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul / But I do love thee! And when I love thee not, / Chaos is come again.
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Desdemona, Iago
Themes
LoveJealousy
Devices
Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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Honest, my lord? [...] Honest. Ay, honest.
Speaker
Iago, and then Othello
Characters
Iago, Othello, Cassio
Themes
Truth and Lies
Devices
Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock / The meat it feeds on.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Othello
Themes
JealousyTruth and Lies
Symbols
The green-eyed monster
Devices
Metaphor, Dramatic irony, Personification

Explanation and analysis

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Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmations strong / As proofs of holy writ.
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Othello, Desdemona, Emilia
Themes
JealousyTruth and Lies
Symbols
The handkerchief
Devices
Soliloquy, Comparison

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Sweet Desdemona, / Let us be wary, let us hide our loves
Speaker
Iago, telling Cassio's supposed dream
Characters
Iago, Othello, Cassio, Desdemona
Themes
JealousyTruth and Lies
Devices
Story within a story, Dramatic irony

Explanation and analysis

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The handkerchief!
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Desdemona, Cassio
Themes
JealousyTruth and Lies
Symbols
The handkerchief
Devices
Dramatic irony, Leitmotiv

Explanation and analysis

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Act IV: The Humiliation and the Willow Song

A hornèd man's a monster and a beast.
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Cassio
Themes
Honor and ReputationJealousyPrejudice
Symbols
The green-eyed monster
Devices
Metaphor, Leitmotiv

Explanation and analysis

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Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed
Speaker
Iago
Characters
Iago, Othello, Desdemona
Themes
Truth and LiesJealousy
Devices
Foreshadowing

Explanation and analysis

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Your wife, my lord; your true / And loyal wife.
Speaker
Desdemona
Characters
Desdemona, Othello
Themes
Truth and LiesLove
Devices
Repetition, Dramatic irony

Explanation and analysis

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But I do think it is their husbands' faults / If wives do fall.
Speaker
Emilia
Characters
Emilia, Desdemona, Iago
Themes
LoveHonor and Reputation

Explanation and analysis

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Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!
Speaker
Desdemona
Characters
Desdemona, Emilia
Themes
LoveHonor and Reputation
Devices
Antithesis, Repetition

Explanation and analysis

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Act V: The Ambush, the Murder and the Revelation

I can again thy former light restore, / Should I repent me; but once put out thy light, [...] I know not where is that Promethean heat / That can thy light relume.
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Desdemona
Themes
LoveHonor and Reputation
Devices
Metaphor, Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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Nobody. I myself. Farewell.
Speaker
Desdemona
Characters
Desdemona, Emilia, Othello
Themes
LoveTruth and Lies

Explanation and analysis

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I found by fortune and did give my husband;
Speaker
Emilia
Characters
Emilia, Iago, Othello, Desdemona
Themes
Truth and LiesJealousy
Symbols
The handkerchief
Devices
Leitmotiv, Situational irony

Explanation and analysis

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Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, / Nor set down aught in malice.
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Iago, Desdemona
Themes
Honor and ReputationTruth and Lies

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I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this, / Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
Speaker
Othello
Characters
Othello, Desdemona
Themes
LoveHonor and Reputation
Devices
Apostrophe, Antithesis

Explanation and analysis

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