This is a compact set of “Othello” quotes for Leaving Cert English that will get you through an “Othello” single text question.
You may also like: Complete Guide to Leaving Cert English 2022. It’s also possible to purchase our “Othello” pack on its own here.
IAGO: A fellow almost damned in a fair wife;/That never set a squadron in a field, /Nor the division of a battle knows/ More than a spinster…/Mere prattle, without practice Is all his soldiership. (1.1)
This indicates a certain innuendo already at this early stage, Iago referring to women (fair wife who almost damns Cassio, presumably because he cannot manage her), knowing no more than a spinster, i.e. being as inexperienced in battle as a spinster would be in marriage, all talk and no action on the battlefield, but with the parallel association of sexual impotence.
RODERIGO: To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor (1.1)
Pretty graphic and overtly racist.
IAGO: I will wear my heart upon my sleeve/ For daws to peck at. I am not what I am. (1.1)
It’s pure foolishness to show my emotions because the very birds of the air, not to mention any old Tom, Dick or Harry, will surely sink their beaks in, wound, and maim me. My cleverness lies in my deceitfulness.
IAGO: Even now, now, very now, an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe. (1.1)
An example of Iago’s wit and crude use of language.
BRABANTIO: For if such actions may have passage free,/Bondslaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.
Desdemona’s father sees his world being turned on its head as he thinks of the union between her and Othello.
BRABANTIO: with some mixtures powerful o’er the blood/Or with some dram, conjured to this effect,/He wrought upon her. (1.3)
Desdemona’s father thinks that Othello must have used magic to make her love him.
IAGO: I hate the Moor,/And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets/He’s done my office. I know not if ’t be true,/But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,/Will do as if for surety. (1.3)
Iago states he hates Othello because he thinks Othello slept with Iago’s wife. He’s not sure, but a suspicion is enough.
OTHELLO: She loved me for the dangers I had passed,/And I loved her that she did pity them./
Othello’s take on the reason why his relationship with Desdemona flourished.
IAGO: The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,/ Is of a constant, loving, noble nature (2.1)
Even though I can’t suffer him, the Black is loyal, loving and a natural leader.
BRABANTIO: a maid so tender, fair and happy,/ So opposite to marriage that she shunned The wealthy curled darlings of our nation (1.2)
She (Desdemona), beautiful, was quite happy in her innocence, and marriage (and sex) was the last thing on her mind, even to one of the primped and pampered rich lads of the nation.
OTHELLO: I fetch my life and being / From men of royal siege.
Othello comes from nobility.
OTHELLO: My parts, my title and my perfect soul/ Shall manifest me rightly. (1.2)
Strong, healthy body, excellent character, and awards for bravery in action show what kind of person I really am.
DUKE: To vouch this is no proof/ Without more wider and more overt test/ Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods/Of modern seeming do prefer against him.(1.3)
Hearsay and prejudice don’t make something true.
DUKE: To mourn a mischief that is past and gone/Is the next way to draw new mischief on. (1.3)
Foresight from the Duke.
IAGO: O, you are well tuned now!/But I’ll set down the pegs that make this music,/As honest as I am. (2.1)
Iago sees himself as being able to play on people’s heart strings.
IAGO: For that I do suspect the lusty Moor/Hath leaped into my seat. The thought whereof/Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards,/And nothing can or shall content my soul/Till I am evened with him, wife for wife./Or, failing so, yet that I put the Moor/At least into a jealousy so strong/That judgment cannot cure. (2.1)
Iago explains his motivation: Othello allegedly slept with his wife and this is eating Iago from within. He cannot rest until he evens the score by seducing Desdemona or at least drives him insane. (You don’t need the whole quote, just 1-2 lines, but it’s here in full for clarity.)
CASSIO: Oh that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! (2.3)
Probably something every addicted brain needs to recall in moments of sobriety, and not a bad epithet for our times, if we imagine our addiction to consumerism as a kind of drunkenness, from which we wake, periodically, with horror.
IAGO: she is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition,/ she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested (2.3)
She’ll (Desdemona) always go the extra mile: she thinks it’s the least she can do. She’s basically too good.
IAGO: Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!/ It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/ The meat it feeds on.
The origin of the phrase, “green-eyed monster” for jealousy, and the idea that it’s laughing at the one it’s devouring.
IAGO: I speak not yet of proof…/I would not have your free and noble nature/Out of self-bounty be abused.
Iago sows doubt and ingratiates himself to Othello.
OTHELLO: No, Iago, I’ll see before I doubt.
Othello’s initial reaction to Iago’s insinuations is appropriate.
OTHELLO: I saw’t not, thought it not, it harmed not me. (3.3)
Othello recalls a time when he wasn’t preoccupied with jealousy.
OTHELLO: Her name, that was as fresh/As Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black/As mine own face (3.3)
It seems as though Othello isn’t just resentful towards Desdemona, he is beginning to hate himself.
OTHELLO: I am bound to thee forever. (3.3)
I am forever in your debt, which is true, but not in the way Othello means: in fact Othello is in eternal bondage and suffering to the course of action taken under Iago’s direction.
OTHELLO: Haply, for I am black/And have not those soft parts of conversation/That chamberers have, or for I am declined/Into the vale of years. (3.3)
Othello expresses his self-doubt: perhaps it’s his skin colour, poor social skills or advancing age.
OTHELLO: She’s gone. I am abused; and my relief/ Must be to loathe her. (3.3)
The pure innocent woman I married is no more, because she’s having an affair. My sanity depends on hating this whore. (Note where these lines appear: before he’s had an iota of proof and despite the ‘if’, these lines are telling: he can already imagine his situation as a betrayed lover).
DESDEMONA: I have no judgment in an honest face (3.3)
If I can’t tell an honest face, no one can (ironic, since she can’t tell Iago’s a liar).
OTHELLO: Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore (3.3)
Make sure you give me proof (and of course, Iago doesn’t. He uses insinuation and the supposed proof of the handkerchief given by Othello to Desdemona and dropped by her handkerchief).
EMILIA: They are all but stomachs, and we all but food./To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,/They belch us. (4.3)
Emilia suggests that women are powerless and abused by men.
EMILIA: If any wretch have put this in your head/Let heaven requite it with the serpent’s curse.
Emilia tries to convince Othello to throw out his accusations against Desdemona.
DESDEMONA: His unkindness may defeat my life/But never taint my love.
Desdemona commits to loving Othello even if it cost her her life.
IAGO: Her honor is an essence that’s not seen,/They have it very oft that have it not. (4.1)
Iago adds fuel to the fire, conflating appearance and reality for Othello. He suggests that people’s reputations are hard to assess and often people don’t deserve their reputations.
OTHELLO: I took you for that cunning whore of Venice/ That married with Othello. (4.2)
Self explanatory but a trick question because Desdemona cannot answer yes or no without implicating herself.
EMILIA: But I do think it is their husbands’ faults If wives do fall (4.3)
Given the social constraints on women, it’s up to the husband to ensure their satisfaction, materially and sexually, and if they don’t, women can’t be blamed for having affairs (Emilia herself might have had an affair with Othello).
OTHELLO: Thy bed, lust-stain’d, shall with lust’s blood be spotted. (5.1)
Desdemona’s blood is lustful, and so it’s right to spill it.
IAGO: …whether he kill Cassio/Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,/Every way makes my gain.
Another illustration of Iago’s evil ways.
OTHELLO: Put out the light, and then put out the light. (5.2)
From probably the most famous soliloquy of the play.
OTHELLO: My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago. (5.2)
Ironic for the audience.
OTHELLO: I have done the state some service (5.2)
Charles Haughey said this at his resignation speech. It is an understatement in terms of Othello’s military (and Haughey’s political?) achievements but he follows it with ‘no more of that’, meaning both, I won’t be doing any more of that, and I’m not going to boast. This is from Othello’s most famous soliloquy.
OTHELLO: Then must you speak/ Of one that loved not wisely but too well (5.3)
Probably the most famous line of the play. He loved Desdemona too much, too desperately, to be able to be wise and judicious and balanced. He was unbalanced by love.
Care has been taken to reproduce these quotations accurately. Please always use your own version of “Othello”.
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