About Iago’s duplicity: he curses early in the play using the name of Janus, the two faced Roman god of doors. This links him to the theme of deception and implies his own two-faced nature
the animalistic imagery in the Black Ram...White ewe statement also brings Desdemona down to the same level as if tainted by being with him, probably because of the colour imagery and connotations related to the colour black as something dark; as you rightfully said would have had religious connections to the devil, also example of dramatic irony as Iago, the one who says it, has the closest demeanour to the devil.
🗡️🍓Hi guys, I just posted a video to teach you how to analyse quotes: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NQgqXizYGXo.htmlsi=U43blPG8KE8JYDtY Take a look if you need a hand
I just got done with my A level exam on Othello last Thursday and I'm just watching this because I thoroughly enjoyed studying it towards the end. You wrapped things up and explained a lot of things so concisely! Enjoyed this thoroughly. I wish I could write in the way you speak here.
The cross cultural adaptation of Othello in Indian cinema is way fascinating. Having read the play (its usually off the routine Theatrical list) and seen the adaptation, I had a very different idea but your overview brings many different angles to the fore. Thanks
Thank you, this was extremely helpful and has covered so much. Plus you are a pleasure to listen to - please keep making videos as they are great and you deserve more viewers!
someone decided to put Othello on the GCSE speck so im studying it and this is really helping me with my revision for my mocks and actual exams this year. thank youuuu
Kept it short, used examples and analysed some important symbols and events. Exactly what I needed for my english test tomorrow! Saved my grade, lady! *kisses her hand and Iago comments how sexual it was :P *
This is SO helpful. I have my A Level exam on this and Wuthering Heights in a couple of weeks and there were points that I'd never even considered before. Thank you!!!
Yep! It went pretty well. Loved the Iago and Emilia question! How did you find Sociology? I didn't think it was too bad considering it's Sociology. Which texts are you studying for the Friday English exam?
This was great! Your diction and pacing made it so easy to understand and was a perfect recap for my eam tomorrow, tysm!! Suggestion: maybe use images in future videos for more visual learners/to reinforce what you're saying? Looking forward to more content
Never seen a literary analyst as insightful or thorough as you are.. Keep up the good work! Can I maybe request Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller? It's the modern play for A level Literature this year, would love to hear your take on it. =D
+Daniel Hartridge thank you, just using teachers notes and York notes etc! I could well make one on Death of a Salesman as I have studied that one as well! :)
It's also important to remember about Emilia's and Iago's relationship - you can read a lot into how she speaks about men in Act 4 Scene 3! I feel she steals the napkin/handkerchief as to try and please a husband whom most likely beats and abuses her. Both Desdemona and Emilia fall victim to their husbands behaviour. Another social statement about the times.
thanks this was soo helpful! Got my final y13 exam in a couple of weeks on Othello and streetcar drama! more analysis videos please? maybe focusing a whole video on one aspect e.g the handkerchief ? :))
You look like you could actually play the role of Desdemona (not because you are naive) because of your tone of voice, beauty and angel like features. Othello is the best.
Hey this was really helpful. You talked about how Othello's and Desdemona's love is not fickle and is true in a sense. What language does Othello or Desdemona use that suggests this?
Thank you! For good quotes for Othello and Desdemona, look at the scene where Othello is accused of stealing Desdemona and where he explains how they fell in love, eg. When Othello talks about the dangers he has faced he says that 'This to hear/ Would Desdemona seriously incline' (ie. she was so interested she leant forward to listen more closely'. Desdemona listened to Othello's stories and their love grew over a period of time, it's not really an over night thing although clearly they get swept up in the intense feelings of the early relationship. Other examples: Desdemona: 'I saw Othello's visage in his mind/And to this honours and valiant parts/Did I soul and fortunes consecrate'. Act Two, Scene One - just look at how they address each other: 'O my fair warrior!', 'My dear Othello'. 'My soul hath her content so absolute/ That not another comfort like to this/Succeeds in unknown fate' Later Desdemona tells Emilia she couldn't ever even imagine cheating on her husband. Look at Desdemona on her deathbed too, she's still so loyal to him even though he's trying to kill her/accusing her of adultery, so she is certainly dedicated to him. Bit of a long answer, sorry haha :)
Hey emilia :), sorry about the response time, I'm from Australia so time zones are kinda off HAHA. Honestly I believe Desdemona was truely in love with Othello, however, I was thinking that from the language used by Othello, from my analysis is melodramatic, possessive and 'passionate' which in the play tends to parallel a character blind to reason in times of intense passion. I feel like Othello's love for Desdemona reflects superficial tendencies of Shakespearean society. For example him saying in Act 2 Scene 3, "The purchase is made, the fruits are to ensue; That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you" talking about them sealing their marriage with lovemaking. However, the undertones of 'commerce' in the 'paying' and 'purchasing' of marriage might represent Othello's reinforcement of the patriarchy in him viewing Desdemona as a possession. Cassio is a good example of this passion/reason dichotomy shown after his demotion, responding with 'passion' induced screaming "Reputation!/ Reputation!/ Reputation!." Hence I felt as if Othello may have appeared to have truely love Desdemona as it was his passion acting in response to a high status, young, 'white woman' falling for him. His natural response as an 'outsider' would have been to accept her affection and 'grip' on to her passionately, as apart of his greater challenge of becoming apart of Venetian society and overcoming it's racial prejudices. Maybe he felt like being close to Desdemona lessened his insecurities of being 'othered' and added to his identity as a honourable 'Venetian' military commander. So when he thought she was cheating on him he felt like he had 'lost his identity' like when he says in Act 3 scene 3, "Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!/ Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone." Anyways was just thinking. Sorry for the long reply too 😜Ahaha
Oh yeah definitely, certainly you could argue that Othello and Desdemona fell in love far too quickly and that Desdemona loved Othello 'for the dangers' and not for him, as in she's more in love with the idea of him, or the idea of being in love itself. You can see it so much in the intense way they address each other, and how Othello lowkey abandons his position as General as his mind is consumed with jealous thoughts. There also could be elements of hubris involved, a black man marrying a white woman in secret after becoming a general in the Venetian army could be a sort of fuck you to white, venetian society. Certainly how he turns so quickly from love to hate and murder could be an argument for so many aspects of their relationship, like he can't really love her if threatens to kill her (and does) after a day of marriage, but maybe that undervalues Iago and his skills at manipulation. Equally, only passionate feelings can turn so quickly, maybe. You could also argue Othello couldn't really have loved her at all because when he kills her and he realises she was innocent all along he just talks about himself and all that he has lost. In regard to the money thing, i think you make a good point, although i don't think you can ever disregard how intense the patriarchy was then. Othello may certainly be being superficial, but also women were considered property and so the language of the way women are spoken about, even accidentally or unconsciously reflects that, kind of like the Sapir -Whorf theory. I think, though, that something that has to be considered in their relationship is how they behaved before Iago's involvement and after, because Iago gets everyone and the only person who truly realises Iago's villainy by themselves is Emilia and so Iago's pretty much in the fabric of the play and of Othello and Desdemona's relationship. It's hard to see what to attribute to their relationship and what to attribute to Iago's interference. i love a good othello chat
Well it’s interesting to say the least but could the argument even be made that Othello didn’t truly love Desdemona, or could that argument simply be a misreading of the play. The dilemma of time in Othello is really controversial, and It is often argued that Othello simply didn’t know Desdemona well following one day of marriage like you said. The small time between Othello being completely in love with Desdemona and his somewhat instant change in character to “damning her” is often focused upon for making this argument but it could be said that this change gives credit to the complex, powerful nature of Iago manipulation and twisting of language. Furthermore, it’s important to take in to consideration everything in ACT 1 and 2 that reinforces Othello and Desdemona’s true love especially when contrasted to the strategic/hierarchical love often promoted by the traditional Venetian ruling establishment. Like you said the passion that initiated their love, the chosen love between two people regardless of class, race or age was that same passion that without trust would quickly turn to chaos. Again, talking about the money thing, i was trying to comment on the fact that Othello saw Desdemona as his possession (in Act 2 scene 3) and that that might’ve demonstrated his mirroring of Brabantio’s possession of Desdemona and subsequently reinforcing the Patriarchy that was so common in early 17th century Venice (England). Hence Othello’s possession of Desdemona shows her becoming his hubris and thus leading to his downfall. You did make a good point about the role of women, I didn’t consider that and now that I think about it, he could’ve still viewed her as both a possession and a true lover. Furthermore, you make a good point about considering their relationship after Iago’s involvement. Personally, I would attribute Othello’s fall from grace to Iago however it was his passion that was under his authority and which he overruled in killing Desdemona. I do think it is important to note the shame of being cuckolded in Venetian society, esp. to a man of high status. Of course, we cannot excuse Othello for murder (just like we cannot excuse Amir in his abandoning of Hassan of the Kite runner), however, we cannot forget that the thought of being cuckolded to men is shown in the play via Iago and Othello and could give reason for Iago’s controversial motives, in that he thought Emilia was having an affair with Cassio and Othello. Iago’s interference in Desdemona’s relationship with Othello is that of creating distrust between them. He highlights this in his soliloquies in Act 2 and 3, but like you said, the lines are blurred I wouldn’t go as far to say that he was the last nail in the coffin for Othello in killing his beloved wife.
Ah, but Desdemona cannot be his hubris because Desdemona is a person not his character trait. Othello could have a propensity for obsession which can be seen through his love/hate for Desdemona. He certainly could have seen her as both his property and his true lover, certainly. But he doesn't kill her for her 'crime', he says he kills her so that she doesn't hurt any more men, but thats just was he 'says'. Othello says the worst thing about all this is not he cuckcolding, its the fact he /knows/ he's been cuckolded. Personally, I don't think Iago's that bothered about his potential cuckcolding as a motive to hurt Othello. The way he says he thinks Othello and Cassio have slept w Emilia isn't particularly impassioned and he only mentions it a couple of times. Additionally, Emilia later says something which could be very revealing about Iago when she's speaking to Desdemona, 'But jealous souls will not be answered so. They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster Begot upon itself, born on itself,' which is strikingly similar to 'O beware my lord of jealously, tis the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on'. Thus, I think Iago invents those reasons for himself simply because he is jealous of what it is uncertain, could be Othello and his rank, of Cassio and his class, of Desdemona even for her love of Othello. There's that Coleridge quote about 'motiveless malignancy' so I think Iago's more down that road really. Also let us not forget that Iago is given the opportunity to say why he did it all and he choses to stay silent! Maybe he just can't be honest, he'd rather be false than reveal himself. But still, he might not even know and that might be why he stays silent. So yeah, I think Iago's mostly to blame lol.
HI Emilia I needed some help and I don't know if you can help me. Basically, I am writing an argumentative research paper but I am stuck and confused. The question that I need to answer is where does Shakespeare’s stance on race and its implications in society? I would really appreciate if you could help me, Thanks! :)
Not sure I can help too much, but definitely find out a lot about context, look for things about laws on race, social taboo, religion, imperialism, but also who has the ability to consume this media, ie is it only rich people, educated people, poor people? Hope that helps!
Ismelda, I would recommend looking into Othello, and also the Merchant of Venice where Shakespeare uses all forms of hatred. Personally, I believe Shakespeare was against racism, and included it in his plays to villainise racists / sexists. Iago is often both of those and is essentially representative of the Devil as Emilia was saying. Look into the culture / societal views of Shakespearean times to get a picture of regular people and compare it to him.
emilia yes I really need to reread it, in the first part of the English lit exam there is an extract from othello that you need to analyse, I never know how to approach the question or how to comment on language structure or form through out the extract? Do you know the best way on how to approach this?
+Sloth Icecream okay so, first you should say where the extract comes from in the play, if u know it. Then you need to pick the most significant bits like is there a symbol like the handkerchief or is Iago doing something suspicious, how are desdemona and othello interacting? Often they say look at the presentation of the characters, so e.g. Someone calls Iago 'honest Iago' when you know Iago is lying, Shakespeare is presenting Iago as dishonest and traitorous. If the question is the standard 'explore the ways in which this extract contributes to tragedy of the play. Comment on Shakespeare's method' question then it's not actually asking you a question, it's telling you to talk about the important bits of the extract. To comment on language, you have to pick out metaphors or use of certain types of words like adjectives and talk about their effect or what they suggest, but this must be in support of your point. Eg the adjective 'honest' suggests Iago is in fact honest when it has already been revealed that Iago is plotting against othello.
The extract was Act 3, Scene 4 I think. There was one about Othello in society and whether or not he fits in, but the one I did was about Iago and evilness though I'm not sure what specifically! x
Thank you!! Exam tomorrow for A2 and I want to make these videos as there aren’t enough teaching videos out there. Reading just doesn’t go in I have to listen :(
