Othello believes that he must kill Desdemona as a way of bringing justice to his situation. He believes that if she lives, she will only 'betray more men'. Therefore he is acting virtuously because he thinks that he is protecting other people from her infidelity.
2. What evidence is there to suggest that Shakespeare adhered to racial stereotypes in this scene?
Extreme emotions - 'it is the cause, it is the cause'
Noble savage - 'she must die, else she'll betray more men'
Lascivious - 'So sweet was ne'er so fatal'
Danger - 'thou art on thy deathbed'
'For they thinke that the chastity of their wives should be assaulted, and so consequently they should be capricorneified' - 'thou art to die'
Depraved (Edward Said) - 'Had all his hairs been lives, My great revenge had stomach for them all.'
Child-like (Edward Said) - 'Out, strumpet! weep’st thou for him to my face?' 'addicted unto rath'
'Mystical negro' stereotype - 'It is the very error of the moon, She comes more nearer earth than she was wont And makes men mad.'
Irrational behaviour - 'She’s like a liar gone to burning hell.'Twas I that killed her.'
3. Othello tells Desdemona that Cassio has confessed to sleeping with her (line 68). What was this 'confession'?
The confession is where Iago tricked Cassio into talking about Othello's handkerchief. This is shown when Othello tells Desdemona 'By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in his hand'.
4. Emilia says "Good gentleman, let me have leave to speak./ 'Tis proper I obey him - but not now!" [5.2.192-193] what does this indicate about Emilia and society? Consider the circumstances the characters are in.
Emilia is referring to how in the patriarchal society that she lives in, it is expected that she should obey Iago because he is her husband. Patriarchal ideologies expect women to suppress themselves to men which is why Emilia states 'Tis proper I obey him'. However, due to the difficult circumstances that Emilia is presented in, her mistress has been murdered due to her husband's duplicitous planning. This is why she makes the decision to speak out, within her restraints of the patriarchal society e.g. asking for permission to speak her behind instead of saying what she knows freely. Therefore, although she is defying her husband, meaning that she is rebelling against patriarchal ideologies, she is also sticking to the private sphere partly by asking permission to speak.
5. How is Emilia presented in lines 125-233. Consider the language she uses, how she behaves and what she says to Othello and Iago.
Within the harshly built up environment of Shakespearian Italy, a maid would not speak out against her employee, similar to the present day, for fear of losing your job. To add to this, Emilia would have been confined to the pressures of a patriarchal society when Shakespeare wrote it. Emilia really pushes the boundaries when she calls Othello 'the blacker devil', this would be insulting to Othello as it draws attention to his race however Othello may have been used to racism. Either way, Emilia behaves outwardly for the first time in the public sphere in Act 5, scene 2, compared to when she speaks freely about men with Desdemona in Act 4, scene 3.
Emilia is so angry and distraught by the death of Desdemona that she shows the opposite to her normal gender binaries by bad mouthing her husband 'If he say so, may his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day!'. This would show that she is not thinking normally because she is not behaving within the confinements of being a wife in a Shakespearian society.
6. List all of the names Emilia calls Othello when she realises what he has done. How does this contrast with how Othello was portrayed at the start of the play?
'Black devil', 'devil', 'rash as hell', 'thou wast worthy her', 'O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt!', 'the moor', 'murderous coxcomb' and 'cruel moor'.
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