8 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2024
    1. Dear general, I never gave you cause

      Iago gave him cause. (REASON)

    2. Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.From this time forth I never will speak word.

      His last rebellion, his final influence over the situation -- knowing nothing. And its ironic because he was the source of all knowledge and information that sparked all the events, and now that everything is done, he is still. There is no more movement, even if they would like there to be some. In this way he is really like Shakespeare, having the power to cause and inhibit action through knowledge -- the greed of which is Othello's fatal flaw.

    3. Set you down this,And say besides that in Aleppo once,Where a malignant and a turbaned TurkBeat a Venetian and traduced the state,I took by the throat the circumcisèd dog,And smote him, thus

      By killing himself, he is cleansing the world of his "inner darkness" being a Turk, the beastliness that ruined the superior and ordered Venetian society. It is this, himself, who he kills -- showing he is, at heart, still a Turk, and not the driving motivation that causes all these events to unfold (Iago) -- as Iago is stabbed but has not died. This signifies the curse of suspicion and reason cannot be eliminated -- reason preys on individual people and is not something one can rid. In the end, he chooses once again to rid the tumor of society (which he believes first is his wife, Desdemona, now it is him, the Turk), following honor rather than personal desire.

    4. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snowAnd smooth as monumental alabaster.Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.

      Othello doesn't want to ruin or taint her purity and innocence that she sees, but knows he has to take her light. And he acknowledges that even Prometheus cannot bring back that inner light she has. It shows that he sees through her objectification and beauty and sees her invaluable light.

      • He says, it is the cause, it is the cause, signifying he is holding on to reason (which is introduced by Iago), instead of following his heart. It shows yet again that reason betrays the true nature of humanity -- and yet we are blinded thinking rejecting passion is the way to retain civility, and thus, humanity.
    5. And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons.'Tis but a man gone

      Simply REASON and logic has gotten in the way and destroys all.

    6. I will hear further reason for this.RODERIGOI'll come and hear what reasons you have for doing this.IAGOAnd you shall be satisfied

      REASON!

    7. I will show you such anecessity in his death that you shall think yourselfbound to put it on him.

      Shows his role as reason, simply to show a coherency, a line of cause and effect.

    8. Why, by making him uncapable of Othello’s place:knocking out his brains.

      If Iago is reason, and Roderigo seeks reason, and Iago is the cause of all this destruction, then it should be said that the human need for reason (which crushes emotion) is what brings downfall. Logic is what has cut off Othello's motivation (heart). Iago is the personalization of human reason