The way character speak and the imagery they use can help us to understand how their mind works. Imagery gives us clues about the kind of person they are. Iago, for example, uses a great deal of animal imagery. Desdemona’s language is full of references to her (Roman Catholic) faith: she often talks about heaven.



"Yet she wished / That heaven had made her such a man …" [as

Othello] (Othello, of Desdemona 1.3.162)

"Hell and night / Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's

light" (Iago soliloquy 1.3.398)

"Heaven truly knows that thou art false as Hell" (Othello to

Desdemona 4.2.38)

Desdemona often makes references to heaven - "Lord have mercy

on me" "By heaven you do me wrong" "O heaven forgive us" "this

sorrow's heavenly" "heaven forfend!" "Heaven have

mercy on me" (Desdemona to Othello all Act 5 scene 2)

"O, the more angel she, / And you the blacker devil (Emilia to

Othello 5.2.131)



"Her name … is now begrimed and black / As mine own

face" (Othello to Iago of Desdemona 3.3.383-5).

"When devils will the blackest sins put on …" (Iago 2.3.341)

In 1.1. Iago, associating black skin colour with hell, urges Brabantio

to hurry, lest "the devil make a grandsire of you" (1.1.91)



"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!" (Cassio to Iago 2.3.254-7)

"Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without

merit, and lost without deserving" (Iago to Cassio 2.3.261-2)



"My ancient [i.e. Iago] - / A man he is of honesty and

trust" (1.3.280-1)

"The Moor is of a free and open nature / That thinks men honest

that but seem to be so." (Iago to Roderigo 1.3.393-4)

"Iago is most honest" (Othello to Cassio 2.3.6)

Iago is repeatedly referred to as "honest Iago".

"I know thou'rt full of love and honesty" (Othello to Iago 3.3.117)

"Men should be what they seem" (Othello to Iago 3.3.127)

"I do not think but Desdemona's honest" (Othello to Iago 3.3.223)

"My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago" (Othello to Emilia 5.2.153)


Othello is teeming with images of animals and beasts.


Day Two: Text work, language, imagery
We talked a lot about Iago's constant use of sexual imagery. We also discussed his use of beasts and animal imagery to describe people and his consistent desire to reduce men and their actions to that of beasts.



"Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen,

I would change my humanity with a baboon." (1.3.312-3) - Iago uses the derisory "guinea-hen", a euphemism for a prostitute.

"drown cats and blind puppies" (Iago 1.3.332-3)

"[Othello] will be as tenderly led by the nose / As asses are." (Iago

1.3.395-6)

"with as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as

Cassio" (Iago 2.1.165-6)

"indeed my invention / Comes from my pate as birdlime does from

frize" (Iago 2.1.124-5). Lime was put on the branches of trees where

it would stick to birds' feet and so trap them.

Iago uses an image of hunting dogs weighed down to prevent them

moving too fast to describe the way he manipulates Roderigo "this

poor trash of Venice" (2.1.294)

"Or keep it in a cistern (septic tank) for foul toads / To know and

gender in!" - an image of toads all tumbled together, copulating

(Othello 4.2.60-1)

"as summer flies are in the shambles, / That quicken even with

blowing" (Othello 4.2.65-6) - an image of flies breeding rapidly

around butcher's shops

There are references to goats, monkeys - allegedly lascivious

creatures

There are references to dogs and worms and a snake:


Roderigo calls Iago "O inhuman dog!" (5.1.62)

Lodovico calls Iago "O, Spartan dog" (5.2.357) - Spartan dogs

were notoriously fierce.
Lodovico calls Iago a "viper" (5.2.282)

"The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk" (Othello 3.4.73)

Othello talks about Desdemona crying crocodile (ie false) tears
(4.1.245)

Cassio mentions a Hydra - a monstrous snake whose many heads grew again as fast as they were cut off. (2.3.295)


What images do these references to animals evoke? Do they suggest hot countries? Are they ugly images?


In the Venetian imagination, Othello's power resides in his sexual difference from white males. Iago uses powerful and shocking imagery to suggest that, because he is black, Othello is lascivious and sexually deviant. He describes Othello, as a "beast", a "black ram", a "Barbary horse". The early scenes of the play in particular are full of images and anxieties of a black man (Othello)'s libido strikingly contrasted with a Venetian woman's virginity but Othello is not a lecher - he loves and reveres Desdemona.

In Act 1 scene 2, Iago equates Othello's ethnicity with beastiality:

"an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe" (1.1.89-90)

"you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll

have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have coursers for cousins and jennets for germans" (1.1.111-4)

The Barbary coast was famous for horse-breeding. 'Coursers' refers either to powerful horses used in battle or to racehorses. A 'jennet' is a small Spanish horse. The word 'Germans' means close blood relatives.

"your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two

backs" (1.1.117-8)



Why does Iago deny Othello his humanity and use animal imagery to

describe the General?

What does Iago's choice of words tell us about him?

Iago introduces Othello in the play. What impression does the

audience form of Othello before his first entrance?

What mood is created at the start of play?



"He echoes me / As if there were some monster in his thought" (Othello 3.3.105-6)

"O, beware, my lord of jealousy! /It is the green eyed monster, which doth mock /The meat it feeds on." (Iago to Othello 3.3.164-6)

"a hornèd man's a monster and a beast" (Othello 4.1.62)

"Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind" (Desdemona 3.4.159)