OTHELLO - LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION

At the heart of all our studies we have language. Whatever question you answer – the quality of your essay will depend on your knowledge and appreciation of the language of the play and its effect on us, an audience. In assessing the language of the play we should consider such features as the following;

Metaphor, elemental images, strong contrasts, personification, action or movement, classical references, life and death, imperatives, extreme states, the spiritual, lists, Christian or biblical references, sensuous language, emotive language,

Read the following speech from Othello to Desdemona when they first meet in Cypress in Act 2 Scene 1

If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high and duck again as low
As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die,
'Twere now to be most happy; for, I fear,
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate.

What is impressive about the language is the huge variety and intensity of literary features Shakespeare uses. I just picked the above speech at random – but see how much of the above list of features are being used.

OTHELLO

Grand

Eloquent

Proud

Natural authority

IAGO

Rational

Practical

Crude

Vivid

THE LANGUAGE OF THE COURT

Rodregio is presented in the play as a traditional literary figure – the courtier. He loves an unobtainable woman, from a far, uses tokens as a way of gaining her favour and undergoes tasks – set by Iago – to win her. In this case his quest is fruitless and comic, for example

SYMBOLS AND IMAGES

Light and Dark

As the play develops we realise that the some of the key scenes of the play are set at night. The whole of Act One and from the end of Act 4 through to the end of the play are all set at night.

It is in the dark that Iago commits his most physical of crimes

Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,/That hold their honours in a wary distance,The very elements of this warlike isle,Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups,And they watch too.

                                                                        Iago Act 2 Scene 3

This is the night/That either makes me or fordoes me quite.               

Iago Act 5 Scene 1

I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light               Act 1 Scene 3

Sight and Blindness

Despite the fresh morning light – after the storm and after Desdemona and Othello’s first night together – Iago is able to direct people’s vision to what he chooses for them to see. Throughout the play and with increasing power and destructive effects Iago works

an old black ram
Is topping your white ewe.                                                   Iago Act 1 Scene 1

He takes her by the palm: ay, well said,/whisper: with as little a web as this will I/ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.

                                                                                                Iago Act 2 Scene 1

Didst thou/not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didst/not mark that?

                                                                                                Iago Act 2 Scene 1

Ha! I like not that

Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it,
That he would steal away so guilty-like,
Seeing you coming.                                                             Iago Act 3 Scene 3

I have no great devotion to the deed;
And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons:
'Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword: he dies.                      Rodregio Act 5 Scene 1

Plants

Gardens were a great source of literary imagery in Renaissance times. Recreating The Garden of Eden – a paradise on earth – was a pursuit of many wealthy landowners. And perhaps the relationship between Othello and Desdemona acts as a form of earthly paradise - 

Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,/But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.

                                                                        Othello Act 3 Scene 3

Iago is the serpent in this garden that destroys this apparently perfect state. Building on this Iago sees nature as something out of control. Something that left to its own devises will become wild, overgrown and corrupt. It is the human will – Iago’s gardener – the human will that can control it and keep it safe. 

Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus/or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which/our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant/nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up/thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs,/ or distract it with many, either to have it sterile/with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the/ power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.     Iago Act 1 Scene 3

Iago talks of medicine that in reality is poison. Perhaps drawing on the serpent imagery. Thus in Act 3 Scene 3 he says

Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday.                                 Iago Act  3 Scene 3

Work on,
My medicine, work!                                                                Iago Act 4 Scene 1

Animals

Like the natural world without human will and discipline the animal world will become wild and grow corrupt if untended. The many references to animals see them as lesser creatures than humans, they are instinctual, motivated by base instincts of lust. It is these instincts which Shakespeare wants us to see control the lives of the characters in the play.

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 gennets for germans.                 Iago Act 1 Scene 1

The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.                                                                          Iago Act 1 Scene 3

Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight,
I do entreat that we may sup together:
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.

--Goats and monkeys!                                                         Othello Act 4 Scene 1

Demons and Monsters

When the symbolism of animals fails to articulate the shocking description of human behaviour then demons and monsters take over.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on                                                               Iago Act 3 Scene 3

A horned man's a monster and a beast.                           Othello Act 4 Scene 1

jealousy - dangerously and uncannily self-generating, a “monster / Begot upon itself, born on itself

                                                                                                Emillia Act 3 Scene 4

Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?                      Othello Act 5 Scene 2

Hell and Heaven

When Othello accuses Desdemona of adultery in Act 4 Scene 2 ‘heaven’ is evoked many times to swear the truth of Desdemona’s innocence. For example

Heaven doth truly know it.                                                      Desdemona Act 4 Scene 2

Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.                       Othello Act 4 Scene 2

I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. Iago Act 1 Scene 3

Come, swear it, damn thyself
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double damn'd:
Swear thou art honest.                                                            Othello Act 4 Scene 2

The Classical World