Questions: Act 5 scene 2 lines 1-233
Answer in full sentences, with quotations. Type your responses and post to your blog.
- Othello believes that he must kill Desdemona as a way to stop her from causing the pain he has suffered to anyone else 'Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men'. By having this as his reason Othello believes that he is killing Desdemona for an honourable cause.
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Visit http://www.playshakespeare.com/license for details. - In his scene it is evident that Shakespeare is following the racial stereotypes of the time when Emilia describes Othello as the 'blacker devil'. This adheres to the racial stereotypes of Elizabethan times as ethic minorities were often associated with hell and the devil as they were seen as 'deformed' which often had connotations with hell and its abnormal surroundings.;
- During line 68 where Othello believes that Cassio has confessed to having an affair with Desdemona he has in fact confessed that he has slept with Bianca. Othello is left to believe that he is talking about Desdemona because Cassio shows Iago her handkerchief leading Othello to put the two scenarios together
- Emilia says "Good gentleman, let me have leave to speak./ 'Tis proper I obey him - but not now!" This quote indicates that Emilia is not the sort of women that is going to conform to the expectations of society but she does make it apparent that she knows she is breaking them. Women where expected to be 'mild, timorous, tractable and benign'. In this scene Emilia break all of these stereotypes and speaks about what she thinks is right. here it can also be suggested that Emilia is accepting that she is going to die for speaking the truth. this can be suggested when she say 'but not know' as she could be informing the audience that she has stayed quite for too long and now must speak out against her husband even if that means she will lose her life because of it. this revels that Emilia is one of the strongest female characters in this play even though she isn't of a high social status but she is still willing to speak out and ask questions, which is the opposite of Desdemona.
- Once Emilia realises what Othello has done to Desdemona she begins to verbally insult Othello, associating what she says around his race. he makes several references to him being a 'devil' as they unnaturalness of ethnic minorities was often associated with hell and the devil. she also describes Othello to be 'as ignorant as dirt'. she describes him in this way to emphasise how foolish he was to believe Iago's lies as she knows him better than anyone and knows that he manipulates people into getting what he wants. she also describes his as a 'cruel moor'. this contrast from the image of Othello which is portrayed at the beginning of the play as a 'valiant moor'. this contrast is a representation of how Othello's status and power has deteriorated. although he is always represented as a moor showing how he will always be inferior due to his ethnic background, no mater his social status.
